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diff --git a/7382-8.txt b/7382-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b9569b --- /dev/null +++ b/7382-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,21919 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. +Dilke V1, by Stephen Gwynn + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke V1 + +Author: Stephen Gwynn + +Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7382] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 22, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIR CHARLES W. DILKE V1 *** + + + + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +THE LIFE OF THE RT. HON. SIR CHARLES W. DILKE, BART., M.P. + + + + +[Illustration: RT. HON. SIR CHARLES W. DILKE, BART., M.P., IN THE +YEAR 1873. +From the painting by G. F. Watts in the National Portrait Gallery. +Frontispiece, Vol. I.] + + + + +THE LIFE OF THE RT. HON. SIR CHARLES W. DILKE +BART., M.P. + +BEGUN BY STEPHEN GWYNN, M.P. + +COMPLETED AND EDITED BY +GERTRUDE M. TUCKWELL. + +IN TWO VOLUMES +VOL. I. + + + + +PREFACE + + +The following Life of Sir Charles W. Dilke consists mainly of his own +Memoirs and of correspondence left by him or furnished by his friends. + +The Memoirs were compiled by Sir Charles Dilke from his private diaries +and letters between the years 1888 and his return to Parliament in 1892. +The private diaries consisted of entries made daily at the dates dealt +with. Of the Memoirs he says: "These notes are bald, but I thought it best +not to try, as the phrase goes, 'to write them up.'" In some cases the +Memoirs have been condensed into narrative, for Sir Charles says of the +periods his "notes" cover: "These chapters contain everything that can be +used, and more than is needed, and changes should be by way of 'boiling +down.'" The Memoirs were unfinished. He writes in May, 1893: "From this +time forward I shall not name my speeches and ordinary action in the +House, as I had now regained the position which I held up to 1878, though +not my position of 1878-1880, nor that of 1884-85;" and as from this point +onwards there are few entries, chapters treating of his varied activities +have been contributed by those competent to deal with them. + +Sir Charles Dilke's will, after giving full discretionary powers to his +literary executrix, contains these words: "I would suggest that, as +regards those parts relating to Ireland, Egypt, and South Africa, the same +shall be made use of (if at all) without editing, as they have been agreed +to by a Cabinet colleague chiefly concerned." A further note shows that, +so far as Ireland was concerned, the years 1884-85 cover the dates to +which Sir Charles Dilke alludes. The part of the Memoirs dealing with +these subjects has therefore been printed _in extenso_, except in the case +of some detailed portions of a discussion on Egyptian finance. + +The closing words of this part of Sir Charles Dilke's will point out to +his executrix that "it would be inconsistent with my lifelong views that +she should seek assistance in editing from anyone closely connected with +either the Liberal or Conservative party, so as to import into the +publications any of the conventional attitude of the old parties. The same +objection will not apply to members of the other parties." In consequence +of this direction, Mr. Stephen Gwynn, M.P., whose name was among those +suggested by Sir Charles Dilke, was asked to undertake the work of +arranging the Memoirs, and supplementing them where necessary. This work +was already far advanced when Mr. Gwynn joined the British forces on the +outbreak of the War. His able and sympathetic assistance was thus +withdrawn from the work entailed in the final editing of this book--a work +which has occupied the Editor until going to press. + +A deep debt of gratitude is due to Mr. Spenser Wilkinson, who has +contributed the chapters on "The British Army" and "Imperial Defence." Sir +George Askwith was good enough, amidst almost overwhelming pressure of +public duties, to read and revise the chapter entitled "The Turning- +Point." Sir George Barnes and Sir John Mellor have also freely given +expert advice and criticism. Mrs. H. J. Tennant, Miss Constance Smith, Mr. +E. S. Grew, Mr. H. K. Hudson and Mr. John Randall have given much valuable +assistance. The work of reading proofs and verifying references was made +easy by their help. + +While thanking all those who have placed letters at her disposal, the +Editor would specially acknowledge the kindness with which Mr. Austen +Chamberlain has met applications for leave to publish much correspondence. + +Mr. John Murray's great experience has made his constant counsel of the +utmost value; and from the beginning to the close of the Editor's task the +literary judgment of the Rev. W. Tuck well has been placed unsparingly at +her service. Sir H. H. Lee and Mr. Bodley, who were Sir Charles Dilke's +official secretaries when he was a Minister, have given her useful +information as to political events and dates. + +To the many other friends, too numerous to name, who have contributed +"recollections" and aid, grateful acknowledgments must be made. + +Finally, the Editor expresses her warmest thanks to Lord Fitzmaurice, who +has laid under contribution, for the benefit of Sir Charles Dilke's Life, +his great knowledge of contemporary history and of foreign affairs, +without which invaluable aid the work of editing could not have been +completed. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The papers from which the following Memoir is written were left to my +exclusive care because for twenty-five years I was intimately associated +with Sir Charles Dilke's home and work and life. Before the year 1885 I +had met him only once or twice, but I recall how his kindness and +consideration dissipated a young girl's awe of the great political figure. + +From the year 1885, when my aunt, Mrs. Mark Pattison, married Sir Charles, +I was constantly with them, acting from 1893 as secretary in their trade- +union work. Death came to her in 1904, and till January, 1911, he fought +alone. + +In the earlier days there was much young life about the house. Mrs. H. J. +Tennant, that most loyal of friends, stands out as one who, hardly less +than I, used to look on 76, Sloane Street, as a home. There is no need to +bear witness to the happiness of that home. _The Book of the Spiritual +Life_, in which are collected my aunt's last essays, contains also the +Memoir of her written by her husband, and the spirit which breathes +through those pages bears perfect testimony to an abiding love. + +The atmosphere of the house was one of work, and the impression left upon +the mind was that no life was truly lived unless it was largely dedicated +to public service. To the labours of his wife, a "Benedictine, working +always and everywhere," Sir Charles bears testimony. But what of his own +labours? "Nothing will ever come before my work," were his initial words +to me in the days when I first became their secretary. Through the years +realization of this fact became complete, so that, towards the last, +remonstrances at his ceaseless labour were made with hopeless hearts; we +knew he would not purchase length of life by the abatement of one jot of +his energy. He did not expect long life, and death was ever without terror +for him. For years he anticipated a heart seizure, so that in the complete +ordering of his days he lived each one as if it were his last. + +The house was a fine school, for in it no waste of force was permitted. He +had drilled himself to the suppression of emotion, and he would not +tolerate it in those who worked with him except as an inspiration to +action. "Keep your tears for your speeches, so that you make others act; +leave off crying and think what you can do," was the characteristic rebuke +bestowed upon one of us who had reported a case of acute industrial +suffering. He never indulged in rhetoric or talked of first principles, +and one divined from chance words of encouragement the deep feeling and +passion for justice which formed the inspiration of his work. + +He utilized every moment. The rapidity of his transition from one kind of +work to another, and his immediate concentration on a subject totally +different from that which he had previously handled, were only equalled by +the rapidity with which he turned from work to play. + +With the same unerring quickness he would gather up the contents of a book +or appreciate the drift of a question. This latter characteristic, I fear, +often disconcerted disputants, who objected to leave their nicely turned +periods incomplete because he had grasped the point involved before they +were halfway through a sentence; but his delight in finding this same +rapidity of thought in others was great, and I remember his instancing it +as a characteristic of Mr. Asquith. + +His wide grasp of every question with which he dealt was accompanied by so +complete a knowledge of its smallest details that vague or inaccurate +statements were intolerable to him; but I think the patience with which he +sifted such statements was amongst the finest features in the discipline +of working under him. One felt it a crime to have wasted that time of +which no moment was ever deliberately wasted by himself. + +The spirit in which he approached his work was one of detachment from all +personal considerations; the introduction of private feuds or dislikes +into public service was a thing impossible to him and to be severely +rebuked in those who helped him. He never belittled antagonists, +underrated his opponents' ability, or hesitated to admit a mistake. Others +will testify in the pages which follow to the warmth and generosity of his +friendship, but that which stands out in memory is his forbearance to his +foes. + +Just as his knowledge was complete in its general grasp as in its smallest +detail, so was his sympathy all-embracing. No suffering, says the +Secretary of the Anti-Sweating League, was too small for his help; the +early atrocities of Congo misrule did not meet with a readier response +than did the wrongs of some heavily fined factory girl or the sufferings +of the victim of a dangerous trade. + +For his own achievements he was curiously regardless of fame. He gave +ungrudgingly of his knowledge to all who claimed his help and direction, +and he trained many other men to great public service. In Mr. Alfred +Lyttelton's happy phrase, he possessed "rare self-effacement." There are +many instances in his early career of this habit of self-effacement, and +the habit increased with years. Remonstrance met with the reply: "What +does it matter who gets the credit so long as the work is done?" + +It is for this reason that we who love him shall ever bear in affectionate +memory those who brought his laurels home to him in their celebration of +the passing of the Trade Boards Act in 1910--that first instalment of the +principle of the minimum wage, on which he united all parties and of which +he had been the earliest advocate. + +It has been said of his public life that he knew too much and interested +himself in too many things; but those coming after who regard his life as +a whole will see the connecting link which ran through all. I can speak +only of that side of his activities in which I served him. He saw the +cause of labour in Great Britain as it is linked with the conditions of +labour throughout the globe; his fight against slavery in the Congo, his +constant pressure for enlightened government in India, his championship of +the native races everywhere, were all part and parcel of the objects to +which he had pledged himself from the first. For progress and development +it is necessary that a country should be at peace, and his study of +military and naval problems was dictated by the consideration of the best +means under existing conditions to obtain that end for England. + +Yet to imagine that his life was all work would be to wrong the balance of +his nature. He turned from letters and papers to his fencing bout, his +morning gallop, or his morning scull on the river, with equal enthusiasm, +and his great resonant boyish laugh sounded across the reach at Dockett or +echoed through the house after a successful "touch." His keenness for +athletic exercises, dating from his early Cambridge days, lasted, as his +work did, to the end. In spite of the warnings of an overtaxed heart, he +sculled each morning of the last summer at Dockett, and in Paris he handed +over his foils to his fencing-school only a month before his death, +leaving, like Mr. Valiant-for-Truth before he crossed the river, his arms +to those who could wield them. It was well for him; he could not have +borne long years of failing strength and ebbing mental energy. Anything +less than life at its full was death to him. + +Released from work, he was intensely gay, and his tastes were sufficiently +simple for him to find enjoyment everywhere. He loved all beautiful +things, and, though he had seen everything, the gleam of the sinking sun +through the pine aisles at his Pyrford cottage would hold him spellbound; +and in summer he would spend hours trying to distinguish the bird notes, +naming the river flora, or watching the creature life upon the river +banks. So in the Forest of Dean, that constituency which he loved well and +which well deserved his love, his greatest pleasure was to set himself as +guide to all its pleasant places, rehearsing the name of each blue hill on +the far horizon, tracing the windings and meeting of the rivers, loving +all best, I think, when the ground was like a sea of bluebells and +anemones in the early year. He watched eagerly each season for the first +signs of spring, and when he was very ill he told me that it must ever be +a joy untouched by advancing years. But indeed he had in him the heart of +the spring. I think it was largely this simple love of nature which kept +him always strong and sweet even after the deep blow of his wife's death +in 1904. + +Wherever he was, life took on warmth and colour. Travel with him was a +revelation, trodden and hackneyed though the road might be. In his vivid +narrative the past lived again. Once more troops fought and manoeuvred as +we passed through stretches of peaceful country which were the +battlefields of France; Provence broke on us out of a mist of legendary +lore, the enchantment deepening as we reached the little-traversed +highlands near the coast--those Mountains of the Moors where in past days, +_connu comme le loup blanc_ among the people, he had wandered on foot with +his old Provençal servant before motors and light railways were. + +His care for the _Athenaeum_, inspired by the more than filial love he +bore his grandfather, its earlier proprietor, led to continual reading and +reviewing, and he would note with interest those few Parliamentarians who, +keeping themselves fresh for their work of routine by some touch with the +world of Literature, thereby, as he phrased it, "saved their souls." + +Of the events which cut his public life asunder it is sufficient to say +here that those nearest him never believed in the truth of the charges +brought, finding it almost inconceivable that they should have been made; +while the letters and records in my hands bear testimony to that great +outer circle of friends, known and unknown, who have expressed by spoken +or by written word, in public and in private, their share in that absolute +belief in him which was a cardinal fact of our work and life. + +The fortitude which gave to his country, after the crash of 1886, twenty- +five years of tireless work, was inspired, for those who knew him best, by +that consciousness of rectitude which holds a man above the clamour of +tongues, and finds its reward in the fulfilment of his life's purpose. + +"To have an end, a purpose, an object pursued through all vicissitudes of +fortune, through heart's anguish and shame, through humiliation and +disaster and defeat--that is the great distinction, the supreme +justification of a life." So wrote his wife in her preface for _The Shrine +of Death_. + +The service of his country was the purpose of his life. Nor was that life +justified alone by his unswerving pursuit of its great aim; it was +justified also in its fulfilment, for his service was entirely fruitful-- +he wrested success from failure, gain from loss. + +It has been said that in 1886 the nation lost one who would have been +among its greatest administrators. Yet when we look back on all that was +inspired and done by him, on the thousand avenues of usefulness into which +his boundless energy was directed, there is no waste, only magnificent +achievement. + +An independent critic both by pen and speech inside and outside the House +of Commons, the consolidator of whatever Radical forces that chamber held, +the representative of labour before the Labour Party was, he stood for all +the forces of progress, and when his great figure passed into the silence +his place was left unfilled. + +One writing for an African journal the record of his funeral, dreamed that +as the strains of the anthem poured their blessings on "him that hath +endured," there rose behind the crowd which gathered round him dead a +greater band of mourners. "A vast unseen concourse of oppressed mankind +were there, coming to do homage to one who had ever found time, amidst his +manifold activities, to plead their cause with wisdom, unfailing +knowledge, and with keen sympathy of heart." + +I commit his memory to the people whom he loved and served. + +G. M. T. + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. 1 + + + I. EARLY LIFE + + II. EDUCATION + + III. CAMBRIDGE + + IV. CAMBRIDGE (_continued_) + + V. LAST TERMS AT THE UNIVERSITY + + VI. "GREATER BRITAIN" + + VII. ELECTION TO PARLIAMENT + + VIII. THE EDUCATION BILL OF 1870--THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR + + IX. THE BLACK SEA TREATY--THE COMMUNE + + X. THE CIVIL LIST + + XI. PERIOD OF FIRST MARRIAGE + + XII. RE-ELECTION TO PARLIAMENT--DEATH OF LADY DILKE + + XIII. RENEWAL OF ACTIVITY + + XIV. REVIVAL OF THE EASTERN QUESTION + + XV. HOME POLITICS AND PERSONAL SURROUNDINGS + + XVI. THE EASTERN QUESTION--TREATY OF SAN STEFANO AND CONGRESS OF BERLIN + + XVII. POLITICS AND PERSONS + + XVIII. THE ZULU WAR AND THE GREEK COMMITTEE + + XIX. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL INTERESTS + + XX. THE FORMATION OF A MINISTRY + + XXI. AT THE FOREIGN OFFICE + + XXII. HOME POLITICS--COMMERCIAL TREATY--PERSONAL MATTERS + + XXIII. COERCION--CLOSURE--MAJUBA + + XXIV. EUROPEAN POLITICS + + XXV. COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH FRANCE + + XXVI. GAMBETTA, DISRAELI, ROYAL PERSONAGES, MORIER + + XXVII. DIFFICULTIES OF THE LIBERAL GOVERNMENT + +XXVIII. THE PHOENIX PARK MURDERS + + XXIX. EGYPT (JANUARY TO SEPTEMBER, 1882) + + XXX. ENTRY INTO THE CABINET (SEPTEMBER TO DECEMBER, 1882) + + XXXI. AT THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD + + XXXII. FOREIGN AND COLONIAL AFFAIRS (OCTOBER, 1882, TO DECEMBER, 1883) + +XXXIII. EGYPT AFTER TEL-EL-KEBIR (SEPTEMBER, 1882, TO DECEMBER, 1883) + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. I + + +RT. HON. SIR CHARLES W. DILKE, M.P., IN THE YEAR 1873 +Photographed by F. Hollyer from the painting by G. F. Watts, R.A., in the +National Portrait Gallery. + +SIR CHARLES W. DILKE AS A CHILD +From the miniature by Fanny Corbaux. + +MR. CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE (SIR CHARLES W. DILKE'S GRANDFATHER) +Photographed by F. Hollyer from the painting by Arthur Hughes. + +SIR C. WENTWORTH DILKE (SIR CHARLES W. DILKE'S) FATHER +Photographed by F. Hollyer from the painting by Arthur Hughes. + +LADY DILKE (MISS KATHERINE SHEIL) +From a photograph by Hills and Saunders. + +JOHN STUART MILL +Photographed by F. Hollyer from the painting by G. F. Watts, R.A., +bequeathed by Sir Charles W. Dilke to the Westminster Town Hall. + +RT. HON, JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, M.P. +Photographed by F. Hollyer from the painting by Frank Holl, R.A., +bequeathed by Sir Charles W. Dilke to the National Portrait Gallery. + +LÉON GAMBETTA +Photographed by F. Hollyer from the painting by Legros, bequeathed by Sir +Charles W. Dilke to the Luxembourg and Louvre Museums. + + + + +THE LIFE OF SIR CHARLES DILKE + + +CHAPTER I + +EARLY LIFE + + +The man whose history is here recorded was for more than forty years a +commanding figure upon the theatre of English public life; a politician, +who in the councils of a powerful Ministry exercised an influence more +than proportioned to the offices he held; a statesman, who brought to +triumphant issue many wise projects, and whose authority, even when he was +a private member of Parliament, continued to be recognized not only among +all parties of his countrymen, but also throughout Europe: yet, when he +died, all thought and spoke not of what he had achieved, but of what he +had missed. + +To write the biography of one so marked by a special malignity of fate is +a difficult task. That bare justice may be done, it is necessary not only +to follow out his openly recorded successes, things done in his own name +and of his own right, but also to disentangle, as far as may be, the part +which his authority, his knowledge, and his ceaseless industry played in +framing and securing measures whose enactment redounded to the credit of +other men. But above all, since a man's personality signifies far more +than his achievements, and this man stands before the world overshadowed +by a dishonouring accusation, it is necessary to establish by facts and by +testimony not so much what he did as what he was. + +Yet it must not be supposed that he himself counted his career among +life's failures. The record will tell of close and affectionate family +ties; of a wonderfully vivid and varied experience acquired in many lands +and through many phases of activity; and, even in his blackest hour, of a +noble love retained and richly repaid. No trace will be found of a nature +soured or warped by balked ambition, nor any resentful withdrawal from the +public stage. + +In the story that has to be told, proof will emerge indisputably that, +without affected indifference to the prizes of a public career, his +passion was for work, not for its attendant honours; that he valued office +as an opportunity to advance, not himself, but the causes which he had at +heart; and that when further tenure of power was denied him, he abated no +jot of his lifelong labours. The main purpose of his life was 'to revive +true courage in the democracy of his country,' [Footnote: Throughout these +volumes single quotation marks without further indication signify an +excerpt from the Manuscript Memoir (compiled by Sir Charles, as explained +in the Preface, from original diaries and letters), or (as here) from +notes left with that document, but not embodied in it. Double quotation +marks signify Correspondence and Memoranda found in the despatch-cases and +letters sent by correspondents, etc.] and his immediate object always and +everywhere to defend the weak. For the protection of toilers from their +taskmasters at home and abroad, in the slums of industrial England and in +the dark places of Africa, he effected much directly; but indirectly, +through his help and guidance of others, he effected more; and in the +recognition of his services by those for whom he worked and those who +worked with him he received his reward. + +Charles Wentworth Dilke was born into a family of English gentlefolk, +which after a considerable period of comparative obscurity had won back +prosperous days. The baronetcy to which he succeeded was recent, the +reward of his father's public services; but a long line of ancestors +linked him to a notable landed stock, the Dilkes of Maxstoke. + +This family was divided against itself in the Civil Wars; and the brother +of the inheritor of Maxstoke, Fisher Dilke, from whom Sir Charles +descended, was a fanatical Puritan, and married into a great Puritan +house. His wife, Sybil Wentworth, was granddaughter to Peter Wentworth, +who led the Puritan party of Elizabeth's reign: she was sister to Sir +Peter Wentworth, a distinguished member of Cromwell's Council of State. +Property was inherited through her under condition that the Dilke heirs to +it should assume the Wentworth name; and in the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries Fisher Dilke's descendants were Wentworth Dilke or Dilke +Wentworth from time to time. + +In George II.'s reign one Wentworth Dilke was clerk to the Board of Green +Cloth at Kew Palace: his only son, Wentworth Dilke Wentworth, was +secretary to the Earl of Litchfield of the first creation, and left an +only son, Charles Wentworth Dilke, who was a clerk in the Admiralty. This +Dilke was the first of five who successively have borne this combination +of names. [Footnote: For convenience a partial table of descent is +inserted, showing the five Dilkes who bore the same combination of names. + + +CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE, b. 1742, d. 1826. + --------------------------------------------- + | | +Charles Wentworth Dilke = Maria Dover William Dilke, b. 1796, +b. 1789, d. 1864. | Walker. d. 1885. + | + | + ------------------------------------------------------- + | | +Charles Wentworth Dilke = M. Mary William Wentworth +first Baronet, b. 1810, Chatfield. Grant Dilke, killed in +d. 1869. Crimea, b. 1826, d. 1854 + | + | + ------------------------------------------------------------ + | | +Charles Wentworth Dilke = (1) Katherine Ashton Dilke, + second Baronet, | M. E. Sheil. b. 1850, d. 1883. +b. 1843, d. 1911. | (2) Emilia F. S. + | Pattison. + | + Charles Wentworth Dilke, + present Baronet, b. 1874.] + +The second of them, Charles Wentworth Dilke, his eldest son, and +grandfather to the subject of the memoir, was, like his father, a clerk in +the Admiralty; but early in life showed qualities which fitted him to +succeed in another sphere of work--qualities through which he exercised a +remarkable influence over the character and career of his grandson. So +potent was this influence in moulding the life which has to be chronicled, +that it is necessary to give some clear idea of the person who exercised +it. + +Mr. Dilke--who shall be so called to distinguish him from his son +Wentworth Dilke, and from his grandson Charles Dilke--at an early period +added the pursuit of literature to his duties as a civil servant. By 1815, +when he was only twenty-six, Gifford, the editor of the _Quarterly +Review_, already spoke highly of him; and between that date and 1830 he +was contributing largely to the monthly and quarterly reviews. In 1830 he +acquired a main share in the _Athenaeum_, a journal 'but just born yet +nevertheless dying,' and quickly raised it into the high position of +critical authority which it maintained, not only throughout his own life, +but throughout his grandson's. So careful was Mr. Dilke to preserve its +reputation for impartial judgment, that during the sixteen years in which +he had virtually entire control of the paper, he withdrew altogether from +general society "in order to avoid making literary acquaintances which +might either prove annoying to him, or be supposed to compromise the +independence of his journal." [Footnote: From _Papers of a Critic_, a +selection of Mr. Dilke's essays, edited, with a memoir, by Sir Charles +Dilke, See _infra_, p. 184.] + +After 1846 the editorship of the _Athenaeum_ was in other hands, but the +proprietor's vigilant interest in it never abated, and was transmitted to +his grandson, who continued to the end of his days not only to write for +it, but also to read the proofs every week, and repeatedly for brief +periods to act as editor. + +When in 1846 Mr. Dilke curtailed his work on the _Athenaeum_, it was to +take up other duties. For three years he was manager of the recently +established _Daily News_, working in close fellowship with his friends +John Forster and Charles Dickens. + +From the time when he gave up this task till his death in 1864 Mr. Dilke's +life had one all-engrossing preoccupation--the training of his grandson +Charles. But to the last, literary research employed him. In 1849 he +helped to establish _Notes and Queries_ 'to be a paper in which literary +men could answer each other's questions'; and his contributions to this +paper [Footnote: Its founder and first editor, Mr. W. J. Thorns +(afterwards Librarian of the House of Lords), had for three years been +contributing to the _Athenaeum_ columns headed "Folk-Lore"--a word coined +by him for the purpose. The correspondence which grew out of this +threatened to swamp other departments of the paper, and so the project was +formed of starting a journal entirely devoted to the subjects which he had +been treating. Mr. Dilke, being consulted, approved the plan, and lent it +his full support. In 1872, when Mr. Thorns retired from control of the +paper, Sir Charles Dilke bought it, putting in Dr. Doran as editor; and +thenceforward it was published from the same office as the _Athenaeum_.] +and to the _Athenaeum_ never ceased; though so unambitious of any personal +repute was he that in all his long career he never signed an article with +his own name, nor identified himself with a pseudonym. A man of letters, +he loved learning and literature for their own sake; yet stronger still +than this love was his desire to transmit to his heirs his own gathered +knowledge, experience, and convictions. + +He had become early 'an antiquary and a Radical,' and this combination +rightly indicated unusual breadth of sympathy. The period in which he was +born favoured it: for, keen student as he was of the eighteenth century-- +preserving in his own style, perhaps later than any other man who wrote in +England, that dignified but simple manner which Swift and Bolingbroke had +perfected--he yet was intimately in touch with the young genius of an age +in revolt against all the eighteenth-century tradition. Keats, only a few +years his junior, was his close friend; so was John Hamilton Reynolds, the +comrade of Keats, and author of poems known to every student of that +literary group. Thomas Hood and Charles Lamb had long and near association +with him. Lover of the old, he had always an open heart for the new; and, +bookish though he was, no one could be less a bookworm. The antiquary in +him never mastered the Radical: he had an unflagging interest in the large +facts of life, an undying faith in human progress. Slighting his own +lifework as he evidently did--for he never spoke of it to his son or his +son's son--he was yet prompted by instinct to kindle and tend a torch +which one after him should carry, and perhaps should carry high. It would +be difficult to name any man who had a stronger sense of the family bond. + +He had married very young--before he was nineteen--Maria Dover Walker, the +beautiful daughter of a Yorkshire yeoman, still younger than he. This +couple, who lived together "in a most complete happiness" for forty years, +had one child only, born in 1810, Charles Wentworth Dilke, commonly called +Wentworth. [Footnote: _Papers of a Critic_, vol. i., p. 13.] Mr. Dilke +sent his son to Westminster, and removed him at the age of sixteen, +arranging--because his theory of education laid great stress on the +advantage of travel--that the lad should live for a while with Baron +Kirkup, British Consul and miniature painter, in Florence, as a +preparatory discipline before going to Cambridge. What he hoped and +intended is notably expressed in a letter written by him at Genoa on his +return journey to his son in Florence in 1826: [Footnote: _Ibid_., p. 18.] + + "I ought to be in bed, but somehow you are always first in my thoughts + and last, and I prefer five minutes of gossiping with you.... How, + indeed, could it be otherwise than that you should be first and last + in my thoughts, who for so many years have _occupied all_ my thoughts. + For fifteen years at least it has been my pleasure to watch over you, + to direct and to advise. Now, direct and personal interference has + ceased.... It is natural, perhaps, that I should take a greater + interest than other fathers, for I have a greater interest at stake. I + have _but one _son. That son, too, I have brought up differently from + others, and if he be not better than others, it will be urged against + me, not as a misfortune, but as a shame. From the first hour I never + taught you to believe what I did not myself believe. I have been a + thousand times censured for it, but I had that confidence in truth + that I dared put my faith in it and in you. And you will not fail me. + I am sure you will return home to do me honour, and to make me respect + you, as I do, and ever shall, love you." + +It was a singular letter for a man of thirty-seven to write--singular in +its self-effacement before the rising generation, singular, too, in the +intensity of its forecast. Yet, after all, a measure of disappointment was +to be his return for that first venture. The son to whom so great a cargo +of hopes had been committed was a vigorous lad, backed when he was fifteen +'to swim or shoot or throw against any boy of his age in England,' and he +developed these and kindred energies, accepting culture only in so far as +it ministered to his fine natural faculty for enjoyment. He acquired a +knowledge of Italian and of operatic music at Florence; but when +afterwards at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, he was, to his father's despair, +very idle, and during his early years in London 'was principally known to +his friends for never missing a night at the Opera.' + +That interest in things of the mind which he could hardly have failed to +inherit had made of him a dilettante rather than a scholar; but later he +became very active in promoting those ideals which appealed to his taste. +He had a shrewd business eye, and showed it in founding the _Gardeners' +Chronicle_ and the _Agricultural Gazette_, both paying properties. He had, +moreover, a talent for organization, and a zeal in getting things done, +acknowledged in many letters from persons of authority in their +recognition of those services to the International Exhibitions of 1851 and +1862 which were rewarded by his baronetcy. An interesting National +Exhibition of 'Art Manufactures' had already been held by the Society of +Arts, on whose Council Wentworth Dilke was an active worker, at the time +when he, with two other members of the Council and the secretary, Mr. +Scott Russell, met the Prince Consort on June 30th, 1849, and decided to +renew the venture on a scale which should include foreign nations. When +the executive committee of four (to whom were added a secretary and a +representative of the contractors) was named in January, 1850, the work +practically fell on three persons--Sir William Reid communicating with the +public departments, Mr. Henry Cole settling questions of space and +arrangement, [Footnote: Mr. Cole, afterwards Sir Henry Cole, K.C.B., was, +says the Memoir, 'commonly known as King Cole,' and was afterwards +secretary to the South Kensington School of Design.] and Wentworth Dilke +'having charge of the correspondence and general superintendence,' and +attending 'every meeting of the executive except the first.' + +Wentworth Dilke worked hard for this and for other objects. But his public +activities had to be fitted in with a great deal of shooting and other +sport at Alice Holt, the small house in Hampshire, with adjacent +preserves, which he rented, and which became the family's country home. + +In 1840 he married, and, after the birth of Charles Wentworth Dilke, the +subject of this Memoir, on September 4th, 1843, all the grandfather's +thought centred on the child. His daughter-in-law became, from then till +her death, his chief correspondent, and the master of the house was +'completely overshadowed' in the family group. + +That group was so large as to be almost patriarchal. Wentworth Dilke, when +he married, and established himself at 76, Sloane Street, took under his +roof his wife's mother, Mrs. Chatfield, her grandmother, Mrs. Duncombe, +and also her unmarried cousin, Miss Folkard. All these ladies lived out +their lives there, Mrs. Chatfield and Miss Folkard surviving till Charles +Dilke had become a Minister of State. + +Up to 1850 old Mr. Dilke and his wife lived at their house in Lower +Grosvenor Place, which was a second home for their grandson Charles. But +in 1850 the wife died, and Mr. Dilke 'spent sixteen months in wandering +through the remoter parts of Scotland, and along the north and west coast +of Ireland, but corresponded ceaselessly with his daughter-in-law, to whom +he was much attached.' During a great part of this time he was accompanied +by his grandson. Mrs. Wentworth Dilke, after giving birth in 1850 to her +second child, Ashton Dilke, had 'fallen into a deep decline'; and Charles +Dilke, at the age of seven, was handed over to his grandfather's charge, +partly to solace the old widower's loneliness, partly to relieve the +strain on his mother. + +The peculiar relation between grandfather, mother, and son, stands out +clearly from the letter which that mother wrote shortly before her death +in September, 1853, to be delivered to the boy Charles. After some tender +exhortation, she added: + + "But moral discipline your grandfather will teach you. What I wish + particularly to impress on you is the _necessity_ of worshipping God." + +And at the end: + + "My own boy, there is another thing still to name, for none can say + whether this letter may be required soon, or whether I may have the + delight of seeing my children grow up, but this last and cherished + subject is my little Ashton. When he is old enough, dear, to + understand, let him read this letter, and by his mother's blessing + teach him to think and feel that all that I have said applies equally + to him. Set him a good example in your own conduct, and be always + affectionate brothers." + +Of the father, not a word--and for care of the younger boy, the dying +woman's hope is in his brother. It will be shown how studiously the ten- +year-old boy, on whom his mother so leant, fulfilled that charge. But he +himself felt, in later life, that scant justice had been done to the man +who was 'overshadowed' in his home, and wrote in 1890: + + 'My father loved my grandfather deeply, but my grandfather was greatly + disappointed in him, and always a little hard towards him: my father + suffered through life under a constant sense of his inferiority. He + suffered also later from the fact that while his elder son was the + grandfather's and not the father's boy, his younger son was as + completely under my influence in most matters, as I was under the + influence of my grandfather.' + +Yet in a sense the relation between old Mr. Dilke and the son whom he +unconsciously slighted was strangely intimate and confiding. For in 1853 +the elder man gave up his own house in Lower Grosvenor Place, made over +all his money to his son, and came to live under the son's roof in Sloane +Street for the remainder of his life. His confidence in the patriarchal +principle justified itself. 'My father,' writes Sir Charles, 'for eleven +years consulted his father--dependent on him for bread--in every act of +his life.' + +To the world at large, Wentworth Dilke was a vastly more important person +than the old antiquary and scholar. After his services in organizing the +Great Exhibition of 1851, he declined a knighthood and rewards in money; +but he accepted from the French Government a gift of Sèvres china; from +the King of Saxony, the Collar of the Order of Albertus Animosus; from the +King of Sweden and from the Prince Consort, medals; and from Queen +Victoria, a bracelet for his wife. These remained among the treasures of +76, Sloane Street. But he acquired something far more important in the +establishment of friendly relations with persons of mark and influence all +over the Continent; for these relations were destined to be developed by +Charles Dilke, then a pretty-mannered boy, who was taken everywhere, and +saw, for instance, in 1851, the Duke of Wellington walk through the +Exhibition buildings on a day when more than a hundred thousand people +were present. He could remember how the Duke's 'shrivelled little form' +and 'white ducks' 'disappeared in the throng which almost crushed him to +death' before the police could effect his rescue. + +Wentworth Dilke's association in the Prince Consort's most cherished +schemes had brought him on a footing of friendship with the Royal Family; +and on July 25th, 1851, his wife wrote that the Queen had come over and +talked to her in the Exhibition ground. Long afterwards, when the pretty- +mannered boy had grown into a Radical, who avowed his theoretical +preference for republican institutions, Queen Victoria said that "she +remembered having stroked his head, and supposed she had stroked it the +wrong way." + +[Illustration: Sir Charles as a child from the miniature by Fanny Corbin.] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +EDUCATION + + +The earliest memory that Sir Charles Dilke could date was 'of April 10th, +1848, when the Chartist meeting led to military preparations, during which +I' (a boy in his fifth year) 'saw the Duke of Wellington riding through +the street, attended by his staff, but all in plain clothes.' In 1850 'No +Popery chalked on the walls attracted my attention, but failed to excite +my interest'; he was not of an age to be troubled by the appointment of +Dr. Wiseman to be Archbishop of Westminster. In 1851 he was taken to a +meeting to hear Kossuth. + +From this year--1851--date the earliest letters preserved in the series of +thirty-four boxes which contain the sortings of his vast correspondence. +There is a childish scrap to his grandfather, and a long letter from the +grandfather to him written from Dublin, which lovingly conjures up a +picture of the interior at Sloane Street, with 'Cousin' (Miss Folkard) +stirring the fire, 'Charley-boy' settling down his head on his mother's +lap, and 'grandmamma' (his mother's mother, Mrs. Chatfield) sitting in the +chimney-corner. + +For the year 1852 there are no letters to the boy; it was the time of his +mother's failing health, and he was journeying with his grandfather all +over England, 'reading Shakespeare, and studying church architecture, +especially Norman.' It was a delightful way of learning history for a +quick child of nine: + +'We followed Charles II. in his flight, and visited every spot that has +ever been mentioned in connection with his escape--a pilgrimage which took +me among other places to my future constituency of the Forest of Dean. We +went to every English cathedral, and when my grandfather was at work upon +his Pope investigations, saw every place which was connected with the +history of the Carylls.' [Footnote: John Caryll suggested to Pope the idea +of the "Rape of the Look"; and many of the poet's letters were written to +his son, a younger John Caryll. They were an ancient and distinguished +Roman Catholic family, devoted partisans of, and centres of correspondence +with, the exiled Stuarts.] + +Mr. Dilke combined his desire to instruct the child with the frankest +interest in his play. Here, for instance, is a letter to Charles of +October 15th, 1853: + + "DEAR OLD ADMIRAL, + + "Hope you found all right and tight: a gallant vessel--tackle trim-- + noble crew of true blue waters--guns shining and serving for looking-- + glasses to shave by--powder dry--plenty in the locker. Wishing you + favourable gales, + + "I remain, + + "Your old friend and rough and tough + + "GRANDFATHER." + +It is worth while giving the reply--precocious for a boy of ten: + + "BEDHAMPTON, + "HAVANT, + "_October 16th, 1853._ + + "MY DEAR GRANDPAPA, + + "We arrived quite safely on Friday night, and were astonished to find + that my Aunt and Uncle and Cousin Letitia were gone to Brighton and + then to Hastings, and Godpapa had a letter this morning to say that + they found it so hot at Hastings that they went on to Folkestone, and + they are there now. The Admiral has to report for the information of + his Cockney readers that he hoisted his Flag yesterday at the main + peak. The weather was, however, so windy and wet that after hiding + himself with his honoured father under the cuddy for half an hour, the + Admiral thought that prudence was part of his duty, therefore struck + his Pocket-handkerchief and retired to luncheon. A Salute from a black + cloud hastened his departure. + + "Your affectionate grandson, + + "C. W. DILKE." + +The boy was his grandfather's to educate, and there has not often been +such an education. A man ripe in years, still vigorous--for Mr. Dilke was +only fifty-three when his elder grandson was born--yet retired from the +business of life, and full of leisure, full of charm, full of experience, +full of knowledge, devoted his remaining years to the education of his +grandson. It may be held that he created a forcing-house of feeling, no +less than of knowledge, under which the boy's nature was prematurely drawn +up; but there can be no doubt as to the efficacy of the method. It was not +coddling--Mr. Dilke was too shrewd for that--and if at a certain stage it +seemed as though excessive stimulus had been given, maturity went far to +contradict that impression. + + 'After my mother's death I began classics and mathematics with Mr. + Bickmore, at that time a Chelsea curate and afterwards Vicar of + Kenilworth. At the same time I took charge of teaching letters to my + brother. I had few child friends, and used to see more of grown-up + people, such as Chorley, [Footnote: Musical critic for the + _Athenaeum._] Thackeray, and Dickens, of whom the latter was known to + us as "young Charles Dickens," owing to my great-grandfather having + known "Micawber."' + +Old Mr. Dilke's father had been employed in the Admiralty along with the +father of Dickens. As for Thackeray, it was probably about this time that +he came on the boy stretched out upon grass in the garden of Gore House, +resting on elbows, deep in a book, and looked over his shoulder. "Is it +any good?" he asked. "Rather!" said the boy. "Lend it me," said Thackeray. +The book was _The Three Musketeers_, and we all know _The Roundabout +Papers_ which came out of that loan. + +Charles Dilke had his free run of novels as a boy, and not of novels only. +In 1854, when he was only eleven: + + 'I began my regular theatre-going, which became a passion with me for + many years, and burnt itself out, I may add, like most passions, for I + almost entirely ceased to go near a theatre when I went to Cambridge + at nineteen. Charles Kean, and Madame Vestris, and Charles Mathews, + were my delight, with Wright and Paul Bedford at the Adelphi, Webster + and Buckstone at the Haymarket, and Mrs. Keeley. Phelps came later, + but Charles Kean's Shakespearian revivals at the Princess's from the + first had no more regular attendant. My earliest theatrical + recollection is Rachel. + + 'I was a nervous, and, therefore, in some things a backward child, + because my nervousness led to my being forbidden for some years to + read and work, as I was given to read and work too much, and during + this long period of forced leisure I was set to music and drawing, + with the result that I took none of the ordinary boy's interest in + politics, and never formed an opinion upon a political question until + the breaking-out of the American Civil War when I was eighteen. I then + sided strongly with the Union, as I showed at the Cambridge Union when + I reached the University. Even in this question, however, I only + followed my grandfather's lead, although, for the first time, in this + case intelligently. So far indeed as character can be moulded in + childhood, mine was fashioned by my grandfather Dilke.' + +It was not only character that Mr. Dilke formed. He made the boy the +constant companion of his own intellectual pursuits, imbued him deeply +with his own tastes, his own store of knowledge. In the summer of 1854 he +had taken his pupil to 'Windsor, Canterbury, Rochester, Bury St. Edmunds, +St. Albans, and many other interesting towns.' That autumn the pair went +to France together--apparently the beginning of Charles Dilke's close +acquaintance with that country, which was extended in the following year, +1855, when Wentworth Dilke was named one of the English Commissioners for +the French International Exhibition, and took his family to live in Paris +from April to August. + + 'We were all with him at Paris for some time, and I acquired a + considerable knowledge of the antiquities of the town, before the + changes associated with the name of Haussmann, by rambling about it + with my grandfather, who, however, soon got sick of Paris and went + home to his books, while we remained there for four months. I was at + the party given at the Quai d'Orsay by Walewski, the son of Napoleon; + at that given at the "Legion of Honour" by Flahaut, the father of + Morny; at the Ball at the Hôtel de Ville to the Emperor and Empress + and Queen Victoria; at the review; and at the Queen's entry and + departure. The entry was the finest display of troops which I ever + witnessed, as the National Guard of the City and its outskirts turned + out in great form, and raised the numbers to 120,000, while the + costumes both of the Guard and of the National Guard were very showy. + There paraded also two hundred veterans of the wars of the First + Empire in all the uniforms of the period. I heard Lablache in his last + great part, and in this year I think I also saw Rachel for the last + time; but I had seen her in England, I believe, in 1853. I certainly + had seen her in a part in which many years later I remember Sarah + Bernhardt, and can recall Rachel well enough to be able to institute a + comparison entirely to Rachel's advantage. + + 'After our visit to Paris in 1855 my brother and I had taken to + speaking and to writing to one another in French, and this practice we + kept up until his death, even when he was Member of Parliament for + Newcastle-on-Tyne, and I a member of the Government.' + +One memory of that year never left Sir Charles Dilke. In the evenings he +used to go to the Place Vendôme to hear the Guards' combined tattoo. Every +regiment was represented, and the drummers were a wonderful show in their +different brilliant uniforms--Chasseurs of the Garde, Dragoons, Lancers, +Voltigeurs, and many more. In the midst was the gigantic sergeant-major +waiting, with baton uplifted, for the clock to strike. At the first stroke +he gave the signal with a twirl and a drop of his baton, and the long +thundering roll began, taken up all round the great square. Sir Charles, +as he told of this, would repeat the tambour-major's gesture; and the +boy's tense, eager look of waiting, and flash of satisfaction when the +roll broke out, revived on the countenance of the man. + + 'In 1856 I became half attached to a day-school, which had for its + masters, in mathematics a Mr. Acland, a Cambridge man, and in classics + a Mr. Holme, a fellow of Durham, and for several years I used to do + the work which they set in the school without regularly attending the + school, which, however, my brother attended. My health at that time + was not supposed to be sufficiently strong to enable me even to attend + a day-school, and still less to go to a public school; but there was + nothing the matter with me except a nervous turn of mind, + overexcitable and overstrained by the slightest circumstance. This + lasted until I was eighteen, when it suddenly disappeared, and left me + strong and well; but the form which this weakness took may be + illustrated by the fact that, although I did not believe in ghosts, I + have known myself at the age of sixteen walk many miles round to avoid + passing through a "haunted" meadow.' + +Also he made the experiments in literature common with clever lads: + + 'In 1856 I wrote a novel called _Friston Place_, and I have a sketch + which I made of Friston Place in Sussex in August of that year, but + the novel I have destroyed, as it was worthless.' + +Another aspect of his education is recalled by drawings preserved in the +boxes from 1854 onwards--conscientious delineations of buildings visited, +representing an excellent training for the eye and observation. + +In 1857 his grandfather took him to Oxford (where he rambled happily about +the meadows while Mr. Dilke read in the Bodleian) and to Cambridge, going +on thence to Ely, Peterborough, and Norwich. Later in the same year the +pair travelled all over South Wales, everywhere rehearsing the historical +memories of the place, everywhere mastering the details of whatever +architecture presented itself. + +Each return home brought experiences of a different kind. 'I have known,' +he says, 'everyone worth knowing from 1850 to my death.' At seven years +old he was seeing and hearing the famous persons of that time, either at +the home in Sloane Street, to which Wentworth Dilke's connection with the +Exhibition drew men eminent in the world of physical science and +industrial enterprise, as well as the artists with whom his +connoisseurship brought him into touch; or else at old Mr. Dilke's house +in Lower Grosvenor Place. He remembered visits with his grandfather to +Gore House, 'before Soyer turned it into the Symposium,' and to Lady +Morgan's. The brilliant little Irishwoman was a familiar friend, and her +pen, of bog-oak and gold, the gift to her of the Irish people, came at +last to lie among the treasures of 76, Sloane Street. Also there remained +with him + + "memories from about 1851 of the bright eyes of little Louis Blanc, of + Milner-Gibson's pleasant smile, of Bowring's silver locks, of + Thackeray's tall stooping figure, of Dickens's goatee, of Paxton's + white hat, of Barry Cornwall and his wife, of Robert Stephenson the + engineer, to whom I wanted to be bound apprentice, of Browning (then + known as 'Mrs. Browning's husband'), of Joseph Cooke (another + engineer), of Cubitt the builder (one of the promoters of the + Exhibition), of John Forster the historian, of the Redgraves, and of + that greater painter, John Martin. Also of the Rowland Hills, at + Hampstead. + + "1859 was the height of my rage for our South Kensington Trap-Bat + Club, which I think had invented the name South Kensington. It was at + it that I first met Emilia Francis Strong. We played in the garden of + Gore House where the Conservatory of the Horticultural Society, behind + the Albert Hall, was afterwards built." + +In the memoir of the second Lady Dilke, prefixed to _The Book of the +Spiritual Life_, Sir Charles writes of this time, 1859 to 1860, when he +"loved to be patronized by her, regarding her with the awe of a +hobbledehoy of sixteen or seventeen towards a beautiful girl of nineteen +or twenty." But at one point she bewildered him; for in those days Emilia +Strong was devout to the verge of fanaticism: + + "We were all puzzled by the apparent conflict between the vitality and + the impish pranks of the brilliant student, expounding to us the most + heterodox of social views, and the 'bigotry' which we seemed to + discern when we touched her spiritual side." [Footnote: _Book of the + Spiritual Life_, Memoir, p. 10.] + +No doubt the fastings and mortifications which Emilia Strong practised at +that period of her youth would seem 'bigotry' to a lad brought up under +influences which, in so far as theology entered into them, had an +Evangelical bent. Charles Dilke thus summed up his early prepossessions +and practices in this respect: + + 'My mother had been a strong Low Church woman, and those of her + letters which I have destroyed very clearly show that her chief fear + in meeting death was that she would leave me without that class of + religious training which she thought essential. My grandfather and my + father, although both of them in their way religious men (and my + grandfather, a man of the highest feeling of duty), were neither of + them churchgoers, nor of her school of thought; and ... as I was till + the age of twenty a regular church attendant and somewhat devout for a + boy of that age, it was a grief to me to find that my brother's turn + of mind as he grew up was different, and that he naturally thought his + judgment on the subject as good as that of the mother whom he had lost + at three years old, and could hardly be said to have known.' + +But the true spiritual influence on Charles Dilke's early life was derived +from his grandfather, whose nature had in it much of the serenity and wise +happiness which go to the making of a saint. This influence was no doubt +ethical in its character rather than religious; but it can be traced, for +example, in a humane scruple which links it with Dilke's affectionate cult +of St. Francis of Assisi: + + 'In 1856 I had begun to shoot, my father being passionately fond of + the sport, and I suppose that few people ever shot more before they + were nineteen than I did. But about the time I went to Cambridge I + found the interference with my work considerable, and I also began to + have doubts as to considerations of cruelty, and on points affecting + the Game Laws, which led me to give up shooting, and from 1862 I + hardly ever shot at all, except, in travelling, for food.' + +The taste for travel, always in search of knowledge, but followed with an +increasing delight in the quest, began for him in the rovings through +England with his grandfather. As early as his seventeenth year he was out +on the road by himself; and this letter written from Plymouth, April 5th, +1860 after a night spent at Exeter, indicates the results of his training: + + "This morning we got up early, and went to the Northerny [Footnote: + Northernhay, or Northfield, a pleasure-ground at Exeter.] and + Cathedral. Nothing much. Took the train at quarter before ten. Railway + runs along the shore under the cliffs and in the cliffs. We saw a + rather large vessel wrecked on the sands. Teignmouth pretty. Got to + Totnes before twelve. Hired a boat and two men, 10s. 6d. Down the + river to Dartmouth, twelve miles. The Dart is more like a series of + lakes than a river; in some of the reaches it is impossible to see + what way you are to get out. Very like the Wye until you get low down, + then it opens into a lake about two miles across, free from all mud, + nothing but hills and cliffs. Then it again contracts, and passes + through a gorge, which is said to be very like parts of the Rhine. + + "The scene here is splendid. Dartmouth now comes, but the river, + instead of spreading and becoming ugly, as most tidal rivers do, + remains narrow and between cliffs, until you have the great sea waves + thundering up against them. Dartmouth contains a church more curious + than half the cathedrals in the kingdom: Norman (Late), fine brasses, + barrel roof with the paint on, and stone pulpit painted, etc., etc. + There are some very fine old houses also. The place is the most lovely + by far of any that I ever saw--Paradise. + + "We have had a bad day--real Devonshire--where they say that they must + have one shower every day and two on Sundays. 'Shower' means about six + hours' quiet rain, _vide_ 'Murray' and our experience of to-day. The + boatmen say 'it rains most days.' I hope Mrs. Jackson is going on + well. Trusting you are all well, I send my love to all and remain + + "Your affectionate grandson, + + "CHARLES W. DILKE." + +A scrap from one of the grandfather's letters, April 25th, 1859, which +points to the terms of intellectual equality that existed in the +correspondence between the two, has also some historical interest: + + "Hope your news of the French troops landing in Genoa is premature. + War, however, seems inevitable; but I hope on, hope ever. I should be + sorry to see the Austrians triumph over the Sardinians, for then they + would fasten the chains on Italy tighter than ever. Yet I cannot hope + that the worst man in Europe, the Emperor of the French, should + triumph." + +At the close of 1860, the lad set out on a more adventurous excursion to +France, in a storm of snow so tremendous that trains were blocked in many +places. However, he reached Amiens safely, saw and described it dutifully, +then made for Paris. + +Charles Dilke's familiarity with France was destined to be extended year +by year till the end of his life. This visit of Christmas 1860 was the +first which he made alone to that country; but part of the summer of 1859 +had been spent by him with his family at Trouville, whence he wandered +over Normandy, adding detail to his knowledge of Norman architecture. + +But even stronger than the interest in historic architecture which his +grandfather had imparted to him was the interest in men and affairs; above +all, in those men who had assisted at great events. Throughout his life +his love of travel, his taste for society, and his pursuit of first-hand +information upon political matters helped to enlarge his list of +remarkable acquaintances; and during this stay in France a new name was +added to the collection of celebrities: + + 'At Havre I got to know King Jerome, father to "Plon-Plon" and father- + in-law to my friend Princess Clothilde, and was duly interested in + this last of the brothers of Napoleon. The ex-King of Westphalia was a + wicked old gentleman; but he did not let a boy find this out, and he + was courteous and talkative. We long had in both years, I think, the + next rooms to his at Frascati's; and he used to walk in the garden + with me, finding me a good listener. The old Queen of Sweden was still + alive, and he told me how Désirée Clary [Footnote: Eugénie Bernardine + Désirée Clary married, August 16th, 1798, Marshal Jean-Baptiste + Bernadotte, afterwards Charles XIV., King of Sweden. Her elder sister + Julie had become the wife of Joseph Bonaparte in 1794.] had thrown + Bonaparte over for him, and then had thrown him over for Bernadotte. + He also described riding through Paris with Bonaparte on the day of + Brumaire.' + +Having completely outgrown the nervous invalidishness of his earlier +boyhood, Dilke at eighteen years of age was extending his activities in +all directions. + + 'In 1861 I find by my diaries that I was at the very height of my + theatre-going, attending theatres in Paris and in London with equal + regularity; and in this year I wrote an elaborate criticism of + Fechter's Hamlet, which is the first thing I ever wrote in the least + worth reading, but it is not worth preservation, and has now been + destroyed by me. At Easter, 1861, I walked to Brighton in a single day + from London, and the next day attended the volunteer review. I was a + great walker, and frequently walked my fifty miles within the day. My + interest in military affairs continued, and I find among my letters of + 1861 passages which might have formed part of my writings on military + subjects of 1887 to 1889. I went down to see the new Tilbury forts, + criticized the system of the distribution of strength in the Thames + defences, advocated "a mile of vigorous peppering as against a slight + dusting of feathers every half-hour"; and went to Shoeburyness to see + the trial of the Whitworth guns.' + +His cousin, William Wentworth Grant Dilke, was Captain and Adjutant of the +77th Regiment, and Charles Dilke remembered the young officer's visit to +bid good-bye before he departed for the Crimea, where he met his death. + +Though old Mr. Dilke had sympathized with the wonderful manoeuvres of the +child's armies of leaden soldiers, and had added to them large +reinforcements, he became troubled by his grandson's keen and excited +following of all the reports from the Crimea. He had a terror of the boy's +becoming a soldier, and 'used to do his best to point out the foolish side +of war.' But this, as the passage already quoted shows, did not deter his +pupil from beginning, while still a growing youth, detailed study of +military matters. + +Under normal conditions, an undergraduate going up to an English +University without public school friendships is at a disadvantage: and +this was Charles Dilke's case. But he went to his father's college, +Trinity Hall; and his father was a very well known and powerfully +connected man. Offer of a baronetcy had been made to Wentworth Dilke in +very unusual and gratifying terms. General Grey, the Queen's secretary, +wrote: + + "ST. JAMES'S PALACE, + "_January 1st_, 1862. + + "MY DEAR DILKE, + + "The Queen cannot forget for how many years you have been associated + with her beloved husband in the promotion of objects which were dear + to his heart; and she would fain mark her sense of the valuable + assistance you have ever given him in his labours in some manner that + would be gratifying to your feelings. + + "I am therefore commanded by Her Majesty to express the hope that the + offer of a Baronetcy which she has informed Lord Palmerston of her + desire to confer upon you, coming direct from Her Majesty herself, and + as her own personal act, may be one which it will be agreeable to you + to accept." + +Proof of the Queen's strong feeling for the man who had been so closely +associated with the Prince Consort in his work of popularizing the arts +and crafts had already been given by the fact that Wentworth Dilke was, +except for those whom she was obliged to meet on business, the first +person from the outside world whom she saw after the Prince Consort's +death. And indeed, but for his sense of a personal graciousness in the +offer, Wentworth Dilke would scarcely have departed from his lifelong +habit of deference to his father's wish and judgment. Old Mr. Dilke, +though gratified by the compliment, wrote to a friend: + + "My son's fortune is not strong enough to enable his children to carry + such a burthen with ease; and as to the waifs and strays which it may + help them to, I would rather see them fight their good fight + unshackled." + +There came a time when the baronetcy was something of an encumbrance to +one of these children: + + 'When I was accused of attacking the Queen, which I never did, + somebody--I forget who--went further, and said I had "bitten the hand + which fed me," and I really believe that this metaphor expressed + publicly a private belief of some people that my father had made money + by his labours. All I can say is that he never made a farthing by them + in any form at any time, and that in '51 and in '62 he spent far more + than his income on entertainments.... He wished for no reward, and he + knew the conditions under which his life was given to public rather + than to private service: but he killed himself at it; he left me much + less rich than I should otherwise have been, and it is somewhat hard + to find myself told that if I call attention to notorious illegalities + I am "biting the hand that fed me." The Queen herself has, as I happen + to know, always spoken in a very different sense.' + +The newly made Baronet, in the course of his labours for the second +Great Exhibition, added to his already very numerous friendships. + + 'My father's chief foreign friends in '62 were Prince Napoleon, + Montésinos, Baron Schwartz (Austria), Baron von Brünen von Grootelind + (Holland), Prince Oscar (afterwards King of Sweden), and Senator + Fortamps (Belgium).' + +Finally, there is this entry, written in 1890: + + 'Just as I had made the acquaintance of the Duke of Wellington through + father in the Exhibition of 1851, so I made that of Palmerston in the + Exhibition of 1862. He was still bright and lively in walk and talk, + and was extremely kind in his manner to me, and asked me to one of + Lady Palmerston's Saturday nights at Cambridge House, to which I duly + went. I should think that there is no one living but myself who was at + the Ball to the Queen at the Hotel de Ville in 1855, at the famous + Guards' Ball in 1862, and also at one of Lady Palmerston's evenings.' + +Charles Dilke matriculated at Trinity Hall in October 1862. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +CAMBRIDGE + + +Charles Dilke was sent in 1862, as in later days he sent his own son, to +his father's college. Trinity Hall in the early sixties was a community +possessing in typical development the combination of qualities which +Cambridge has always fostered. Neither very large nor very small, it had +two distinguishing characteristics: it was a rowing college, and it was a +college of lawyers. Although not as a rule distinguished in the Tripos +Lists, it was then in a brilliant period. + +The Memoir will show that in Dilke's first year a Hall man was Senior +Wrangler, and that the boat started head of the river. Such things do not +happen without a cause; and the college at this moment numbered on its +staff some of the most notable figures in the University. The Vice-Master, +Ben Latham, for thirty-five years connected with the Hall, was of those +men whose reputation scarcely reaches the outside world; but he had found +the college weak, he had made it strong, and he was one of the +institutions of Cambridge. + +Among the junior Fellows were Fawcett and Leslie Stephen. Both were +profound believers in hard tonic discipline of mind and body, inculcating +their belief by doctrine and example; and both, with great diversity of +gifts, had the rough strong directness of intellectual attack which +Cambridge, then perhaps more than at any other time, set in contrast to +the subtleties of Oxford culture. + +Leslie Stephen in particular, who had been a tutor and who was still a +clerical Fellow, made it his business to meet undergraduates on their own +ground. Hard work and hard bodily exercise--but, above all, hard bodily +exercise--made up the gospel which he preached by example. No one ever did +more to develop the cult of athletics, and there is no doubt that he +thought these ideals the best antidote to drunkenness and other vices, +which were far more rife in the University of that day than of this. + +Both he and Fawcett were strenuous Radicals, and contact with them was +well fitted to infuse fresh vitality into the political beliefs which +Charles Dilke had assumed by inheritance from his grandfather. In these +ways of thought he met them on ground already familiar and attractive to +him. His introduction to Fawcett was at the Economics and Statistics +Section of the British Association, which he attended at Cambridge in the +first week of his first term. "I am one of the few people who really enjoy +statistics," he said, long years after this, in a presidential address to +the Statistical Society. But it was early at nineteen to develop this +exceptional taste. + +In another domain of modern thought these elder men affected his mind +considerably and with a new order of ideas. Old Mr. Dilke seems to have +left theology out of his purview altogether; and it was at Cambridge that +Charles Dilke first met the current of definitely sceptical thought on +religious matters. + +Fawcett was aggressively unorthodox. But far more potent was the influence +of Leslie Stephen, then with infinite pain struggling under the yoke that +he had taken on himself at ordination, and had not yet shaken off. The +effect of Stephen's talk--though he influenced young men as much by his +dry critical silence as by his utterances--was heightened by admiration +for his athletic prowess. He coached the college Eights: anyone who has +been at a rowing college will realize how commanding an ascendancy is +implied. But his athletics covered every phase of muscular activity; and +Fawcett joined him in encouraging the fashion of long walks. + +Another of the long-walkers whom the Memoir notes as among the chief +influences of those days was Leslie Stephen's pupil Romer, the Admirable +Crichton of that moment--oarsman, cricketer, and Trinity Hall's hope in +the Mathematical Tripos. The future Lord Justice of Appeal was then +reading for the Tripos, in which he was to be Senior Wrangler; and, +according to Cambridge custom, took a certain amount of coaching as part +of his work. Charles Dilke was one of those whom he instructed, and it was +the beginning of a friendship which lasted many years. + +Looking back, Sir Robert Romer says that most undergraduates are simply +grown-up boys, and that at Trinity Hall in his day there was no variation +from this type till Dilke came there--a lad who, to all appearance, had +never associated with other lads, whose companions had been grown-up +people, and who had mature ideas and information on everything. But, +thrown among other young men, the young man found himself with surprising +rapidity. Elements in his nature that had never been brought out developed +at once; and one of these was a great sense of fun. Much stronger than he +looked, he plunged into athletics with a perfectly simple delight. +"Nobody," says Sir Robert Romer, "could make more noise at a boating +supper." This frank natural glee remained with him to the end. Always +disputatious, always a lover of the encounter of wits, he had none the +less a lifelong gift for comradeship in which there was little clash of +controversy and much hearty laughter. + +One of the eight-and-twenty freshmen who matriculated at Trinity Hall +along with Charles Dilke in 1862 was David Fenwick Steavenson, a dalesman +from Northumberland, with whom he formed a lasting friendship. The two had +seemingly little in common. Dilke to all appearance was "very serious," +and in disposition of mind ten years older than his fellows, while the +young Northumbrian's whole preoccupation was to maintain and enlarge the +fame of his college on the river. If the friendship was to develop, +Steavenson must undoubtedly become interested in intellectual matters, but +not less certainly Dilke must learn to row. It was a very useful +discipleship for the future politician. Sloping shoulders, flat and narrow +chest, height too great for his build: these were things that Cambridge +helped to correct. Dilke, a willing pupil, was diligently coached by the +stronger man, until he became an accomplished and effective oar. In +general Judge Steavenson's recollection confirms Sir Robert Romer's, and +gives precision to one detail. In their second year, upon the occasion of +some triumph on the river, there was to be a bump supper, but the college +authorities forbade, whereupon an irregular feast was arranged--this one +bringing a ham, that a chicken, and so on. When the heroes had put from +them desire of eating and drinking, they sallied out, and after a vigorous +demonstration in the court, proceeded to make music from commanding +windows. It was Charles Dilke who had provided the whistles and toy drums +for this ceremony, and Judge Steavenson retains a vision of the future +statesman at his window [Footnote: Dilke's rooms were on Staircase A, on +the first floor, above the buttery. They have not for very many years been +let to an undergraduate, as they are too near the Fellows' Combination +Room.] blowing on a whistle with all his might. The authorities were +vindictive, and Dilke suffered deprivation of the scholarship which he had +won at the close of his freshman year. + +Such penalties carry no stigma with them. It should be noted, too, that at +a period of University history when casual excess in drink was no +reproach, but rather the contrary, Charles Dilke, living with boating men +in a college where people were not squeamish, drank no wine. Judge +Steavenson adds that the dislike of coarse talk which was marked with him +later was equally evident in undergraduate days. + +Charles Dilke's own ambition and industry were reinforced by the keen +anxiety of his people. Concealing nothing of their eagerness for him to +win distinction, those who watched his career with such passionate +interest set their heart, it would seem, on purely academic successes. Sir +Wentworth Dilke may well have feared, from his own experience, that old +Mr. Dilke's expectations might again be disappointed by a student who +found University life too full of pleasure. At all events it was to his +father that the freshman wrote, October 24th, 1862, a fortnight after he +had matriculated: + + "I am very sorry to see by your letter of this morning that you have + taken it into your head that I am not reading hard. I can assure you, + on the contrary, that I read harder than any freshman except Osborn, + who takes no exercise whatever; and that I have made the rowing-men + very dissatisfied by reading all day three days a week. On the other + three I never read less than six hours, besides four hours of lectures + and papers. I have not missed reading a single evening yet since I + have been here; that is, either from six, or seven, till eleven, + except Saturday at Latham's. This--except for a fourth-year man--is + more than even the tutors ask for.... I hope I have said enough to + convince you that you are entirely wrong; what has made you so has + been my account of breakfasts, which are universal, and neither + consume time nor attract attention. I was at one this morning--I left + my rooms at twenty-five minutes to nine, and returned to them at five + minutes to nine, everything being over." + +This scrupulous economy of time was to be characteristic of Charles +Dilke's whole life, and nothing impressed his contemporaries more at all +times than the "methodical bee-like industry" attributed to him by the +present Master of Trinity Hall. Mr. Beck, who came up to the college just +after Dilke left it, thus expands the impression: + + "There remained in Trinity Hall in 1867 a vivid tradition that he was + one of the few men who never lost a minute, would even get in ten + minutes of work between river and Hall (which was in those days at + five o'clock); and much resembled the Roman who learned Greek in the + time saved from shaving. On the doorpost inside his bedroom over the + Buttery there remained in pencil the details of many days of work thus + pieced together." [Footnote: _Cambridge Review_, February 2nd, 1911.] + +Judge Steavenson recalls how he used to be "bundled out" of his friend's +rooms the instant that the appointed hour for beginning to read had +arrived, and he did his best to mitigate the strenuousness of that +application. But there were stronger influences at work than his: Sir +Wentworth Dilke was fully satisfied with the assurance he had received, as +well he might be; but the grandfather never ceased to enforce the claims +of study. He wrote ceaselessly, but with constant exhortations that he +should be answered only when work and play allowed. + +When the letters from Cambridge told of success in athletics, he +responded, but with a temperate rejoicing. Here, for instance, is his +reference to the news that the freshman had rowed in the winning boat of +the scratch fours on March 14th, 1863: + + "I am glad that you have won your 'pewter'--as I was glad when you + took rank among the best of the boating freshmen--although I have not + set my heart on your plying at Blackfriars Bridge, nor winning the + hand of the daughters of Horse-ferry as the 'jolly young waterman,' or + old Doggett's Coat and Badge. But all things in degree; and therefore + I rejoice a hundred times more at your position in the college Euclid + examination." + +There was no mistaking old Mr. Dilke's distaste for all these athletics, +and it was to his father, on this one point more sympathetic, that the +freshman wrote this characteristic announcement of a great promotion: + + "Edwards" (captain of the Trinity Hall Boat Club) "has just called to + inform me that I am to row in the head-of-the-river boat to- + morrow, and to go into training for it. + + "The time wasted if I row in it will not be greater than in the 2nd, + but there is one difference--namely, that it may make me more sleepy + at nights. I must read hard before breakfast. Romer--who is my master + and pastor--tells me of all things to row in it,--this year at all + events." + +He did row in the May races of his first year, and with so little +detriment to his work that in the following month he secured the first +mathematical scholarship in the college examination. This triumph may well +have disposed old Mr. Dilke to accept a suggestion which is recorded in +the correspondence. On June 2nd it was decided that Trinity Hall should +send an eight to Henley, and the letter adds: "I should think my +grandfather would like to come and stay at or near Henley while I am +there." + +Before the date fixed, the oarsman had been inducted scholar, and so Mr. +Dilke could go with a free heart to see his grandson row in the Grand +Challenge against Brasenose and Kingston, where Trinity Hall defeated +Kingston, but were themselves defeated by Brasenose in a very fast race. + +It was not only in the examination halls and on the river that Charles +Dilke was winning reputation. He had joined the Volunteers, and proved +himself among the crack rifleshots of the University corps; he had won +walking races, but especially he had begun to seek distinction in a path +which led straight to his natural goal. + +The impression left on Sir Robert Romer's mind was that Dilke came up to +the University elaborately trained with a view to a political career. This +is to read into the facts a wrong construction; the purpose, if it existed +at all, was latent only in his mind. The training which he had received +from his grandfather lent itself admirably, it is true, to the making of a +statesman; but it was the pupil's temperament which determined the +application of that rich culture. + +The first debate which he had the chance to attend at the Union was on +October 28th, 1862, the motion being: "That the cause of the Northern +States is the cause of humanity and progress, and that the widespread +sympathy with the Confederates is the result of ignorance and +misrepresentation." + +The discussion gained in actuality from the fact that the President of the +Union was Mr. Everett, son of the distinguished literary man who had been +America's representative in London, and was at this time Secretary of +State in the Federal Government. But the South had a notable ally. Mr. +George Otto Trevelyan, author of some of the best light verse ever written +by an undergraduate, was still in residence, though he had before this +taken his degree; and he shared in those days the sentimental preference +for the South. Dilke reported to his grandfather: "Trevelyan's speech was +mere flash, but very witty." "Mere flash" the freshman was likely to think +it, for he shared his grandfather's opinions, and gave his first Union +vote for the North--in a minority of 34 against 117. "Very witty" it was +sure to be, and its most effective hit was a topical allusion. The Union +Society of those days had its quarters in what had originally been a +Wesleyan chapel--a large room in Green Street, the floor of which is now +used as a public billiard saloon, while the galleries from which applause +and interruption used to come freely now stand empty. There had long been +complaint of its inadequacy; Oxford had set the example of a special +edifice, and as far back as 1857 a Building Fund had been started, which, +however, dragged on an abortive existence from year to year, a constant +matter of gibes. 'Can the North restore the Union?' Mr. Trevelyan asked. +'Never, sir; they have no Building Fund'; and the punning jest brought +down a storm of applause. + +But when Mr. Trevelyan, after a year spent in India, came back to England +and to Cambridge gossip in the beginning of 1864, he learnt that this +despised Building Fund had been taken seriously in hand, that one +undergraduate in particular was corresponding with all manner of persons, +and that this Union also was going to be restored. That was how the +present Sir George Trevelyan first heard the name of Charles Dilke. + +Even in his earliest term Dilke soon passed out of the rôle of a mere +listener and critic. The Commissioners of the International Exhibition of +1862 were then being sharply criticized, and on November 25th "a man of +the name of Hyndman" (so the undergraduate's letter described this other +undergraduate, afterwards to be well known as the Socialist writer and +speaker) moved "a kind of vote of censure" upon them. It was natural +enough that Sir Wentworth Dilke's son should brief the defence, and among +the papers of 1862 is a bundle of "Notes by me for Everett's speech." Next +he was trying his own mettle; and opposed a motion "that Prince Alfred +should be permitted to accept the throne of Greece." His own note is: + + 'On the 8th December I made my first speech, advocating a Greek + Republic, and suggesting that if they must have a King, they had + better look to the northern nations to supply one. I was named by + Everett, the President, as one of the tellers in the Division.' + +Probably the speech had been no more of a success than most maiden +speeches, for Mr. Dilke's letter reads like a consolation: + + "The Greek debate I care little about. I would much rather have _read_ + a paper on the subject. _Till a man can write he cannot speak_-- + except, as Carlyle would say, 'in a confused babble of words and + ideas.'" + +The main part of the grandson's letters were concerned with the topics +handled and the speeches made at the Union. + + "_November 7th_, 1862. + + "How wavering and shortsighted the policy of England in Turco-Grecian + matters has been of late! Compare Navarino and Sebastopol. Palmerston + will, if he has his way, oblige the Greeks to continue in much the + same state of degradation as hitherto, and will go on holding up the + crumbling Turkish Empire till some rising of Christians occurs at a + time when we have our hands full and cannot afford to help our 'old + friend.' Then Turkey-in-Europe will vanish. I do not myself believe in + the Pan-Slavonic Empire. The Moldavians, Hungarians, and Greeks could + never be long united; but I think that Greece might hold the whole of + the coast and mountain provinces without containing in itself fatal + elements of disunion. + + "Brown--No. 3 of our four--broke from his training to-day, and spent + the whole day with the hounds. That will never do." + +Mr. Dilke in reply did not conceal the amusement which was awakened in him +by the rowing man's deadly seriousness: + + "_November 9th_, 1862. + + "I agree with you. No Browns, no hunting fellows, no divided love!! If + 'a man' goes in 'our boat' he goes in to win. "Broke from his + training!" Abominable! Had he 'broke from his training' when standing + out for Wrangler, why so be it, _his_ honour only would be concerned; + but here it is _our_ honour, T. H. for ever, and no fox-hunting! + + "After this, the Greek question falls flat on the ears, but I will + suggest..." + +and thereupon he goes into hints for research, very characteristic in +their thoroughness, ending with a practical admonition: + + "Now comes 'The Moral.' As you could not speak on the great Ionian + question, why not _write_ on it? Write down what you would or could + have said on the subject. Take two or three hours of leisure and + quiet; write with great deliberation, but _write on_ till the subject + is concluded. No deferring, no bit by bit piecework, but all offhand. + No _correction_, not a word to be altered; once written let it stand. + Put the Essay aside for a month. Then criticize it with your best + judgment--the order and sequence of facts, its verbal defects, its + want or superabundance of illustration, its want or superabundance of + detail, etc., etc." + +Another letter of Dilke's in his freshman year concerns the art of debate: + + "What is wanted is common-sense discussion in well-worded speeches + with connected argument, the whole to be spoken loud enough to be + heard, and with sufficient liveliness to convince the hearers of the + speaker's interest in what he is saying. So far as this is oratory, it + is cultivated (with very moderate success) at the Union." + +From the ideal here indicated--an accurate analysis of 'the House of +Commons manner'--Charles Dilke never departed, and his grandfather in +replying eagerly reinforced the estimate: + + "I agree to all you say about that same Union, and about the Orators + and Oratory. I should have said it myself, but thought it necessary to + _clear the way_. I rejoice that no such preliminary labour was + required. I agree that even Chatham was a 'Stump'--what he was in + addition is not our question. I hope and believe he was the last of + our Stumpers. Burke, so far as he was an Orator, was a Stump and + something more, and the more may be attributed to the fact that he was + a practised _writer,_ where Chatham was not, and that he reported his + own speeches. Latterly his _writings_ were all Stump. I had not + intended to have written for a week or more, for you have so many + correspondents and are so punctual in reply that I fear the waste of + precious time; but I am as pleased with your letter as an old dog- + fancier when a terrier-pup catches his first rat--it is something to + see my boy hunt out and hunt down that old humbug Oratory." + +Charles Dilke's own mature judgment on the matters concerned was expressed +in a letter to the _Cantab_ of October 27th, 1893: + + "The value of Union debates as a training for political life? Yes, if + they are debates. There is probably little debate in the Union. There + was little in my time. There is little real debating in the House of + Commons. But debating is mastery. The gift of debate means the gift of + making your opinion prevail. Set speaking is useless and worse than + useless in these days." + +Dilke was elected to the Library Committee of the Union in his second +term, and in his third to the Standing Committee. At this moment a +decision was taken to make a determined effort for new buildings, and it +was suggested that he should stand for the secretaryship. Declining this +as likely to engross more time than he could spare, he was put forward for +the Vice-Presidency, and elected at the beginning of October, 1863. His +prominence in the negotiations which followed may be inferred from the +fact that he was re-elected. This was in itself a rare honour; but in his +case was followed by election and re-election to the Presidency, a record +unique in the Society's annals. + +It was through this phase of his activity that Charles Dilke took part in +the general life of the University. At the Union he was closely associated +with men outside his own college, one of whom, Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, +was destined to be a lifelong friend and fellow-worker. But his College +meant more to him than the University. A conservative in this, he +resented, and resisted later on, all tendencies to make the teaching of +the place communal by an opening of college lectures to students from +other colleges; he valued the distinctiveness of type which went with the +older usage, under which he himself was nurtured. Trinity Hall was a +lawyers' college; it had a library specially stored with law books, and it +was early determined that he should conform to the _genius loci_ so far at +least as to be called to the Bar. In his first Christmas vacation he began +to eat his dinners at the Middle Temple, where his nomination paper was +signed by John Forster; and in June, 1863, after he had spent a year at +mathematics and won his college scholarship, he took stock of his +position, and felt clear as to his own powers. He might, he thought, +attain to about a tenth wranglership in the Mathematical Tripos, which +would insure him a fellowship at his college; but this, although he valued +academic distinctions very highly, did not seem an end worth two years of +work, and he determined to devote the remainder of his time at the +University to the study of law and history. + +He had not at any time limited himself to mathematics. Both before his +freshman year and during it he had read hard and deeply on general +subjects. His habit was to analyze on paper whatever he studied, and he +had dealt thus in 1861 (aged eighteen) with all Sir Thomas More, +Bolingbroke, and Hobbes. Among the papers for 1862 there is preserved such +an analysis of Coleridge's political system; a note on the views of the +Abbé Morellet, with essays on comparative psychology, the association of +ideas, and the originality of the anti-selfish affections. These are +deposits of that course of philosophic reading over which, says the +Memoir, 'I wasted a good deal of time in 1862, but managed also to give +myself much mental training.' + +The determination to abandon mathematics for a line of study more germane +to that career of which he already had some vision met with no resistance +from his people; but it did not altogether please the college authorities. +He wrote to old Mr. Dilke: + + "When I told Hopkins" (his tutor) "that I was not going out in + mathematics, he was taken aback, and seemed very sorry. He urged me to + _read law_, but still to go out as a high senior optime, which he says + I could be, without reading more than a very small quantity of + mathematics every day. My objection to this was that I knew myself + better than he did; that were I to go in for mathematics, I should be + as high in that tripos as my talents would let me, and that my law and + my life's purpose would suffer in consequence. + + "He said--'You will be very sorry if it happens that you are not first + legalist of your year--that is the only place in the Law Tripos that + you can be content with--and yet remember you have Shee in your year, + who is always a dangerous adversary, and who starts with some little + knowledge on the subject.' + + "I said I should read with Shee, and make him understand that I was + intended by Nature to beat him." + +The dangerous Shee had been thus announced in a letter of February, 1863: +"Shee--son of the well-known Serjeant, [Footnote: Mr. Serjeant Shee was +later a Judge--the first Roman Catholic since the time of the Stuarts to +sit on the English Bench.] has come up and taken the rooms over me. He +seems a nice kind of fellow; of course, a strong Romanist." + +Shee remained till the end Dilke's chief competitor, and he was also one +of the band of friends who met each other incessantly, and incessantly +talked over first principles till the small hours of morning. Perhaps it +is not without importance that Charles Dilke should have had the +experience, not very common for Englishmen, of living on terms of intimacy +with an Irish Roman Catholic: at all events, his relations in after-life, +both with Irishmen and with Roman Catholics, were more friendly than is +common. For the moment Shee made one factor in the discussions upon +theology which are inevitable among undergraduates, and which went on with +vigour in this little group, according to the recollection of Judge +Steavenson, who in those days, faithful to the orthodoxy of his Low Church +upbringing, found himself ranged by the side of the 'strong Romanist' +against a general onslaught upon Christianity. Charley Dilke himself had +come under the influences of the place and the time. There is an entry +headed May, 1863: "I find a fair argument against miracles in my notes for +this month." He had abandoned attendance at Communion, but, according to +Judge Steavenson, did not go further in opinions or in talk than a vague +agnosticism--which was also the attitude of another subtle and agile +intelligence in that circle. + +Turning over, in 1891, the boxes which held his letters and papers of +college days, Charles Dilke wrote: + + "1863. + + "In every page of the destroyed notebooks of this year I could see the + influence of two men--my grandfather and H. D. Warr." [Footnote: Mr. + H. D. Warr became a journalist. In 1880 Sir Charles secured him the + post of Secretary to the Royal Commission upon City Companies, of + which Lord Derby was Chairman.] + +Warr was a classical exhibitioner of Trinity Hall in Dilke's year, and was +not among the few who are named at first as likely friends, +though he figures early as a competitor in the Euclid and Algebra 'fights' +at his tutor's. In February, 1863, his name must have been on Dilke's +tongue or pen, since this is evidently a reply to inquiries: + + "Warr is a clergyman's son. He will probably be about fourth or fifth + for the Bell (Scholarship)." + +It is not till the October term of his second year that more explicit +notice of this friend occurs, when Dilke is giving an account of his first +speech as Vice-President of the Union. He opened a debate on the metric +system, concerning which he had solid and well-thought-out opinions: + + "My speech was logical but not fluent. Warr says it was the best + opening speech he ever listened to, but by no means the best speech. + Warr is a candid critic whom I dread, so that I am glad he was + satisfied." + +Of this candour Dilke has preserved some specimens which show that Warr's +influence was mainly used in laughing his friend out of his solemnity. +Thus Warr characterizes him as a dealer in logic," and, breaking off from +some fantastic speculation as to the future of all their college set, +January 9th, 1864, moralizes. + + "I am an ass, my friend, a great ass, to write in this silly strain to + you, but you must not be very angry, though I own now to a feeling of + _having half insulted your kind serious ways by talking nonsense to + them on paper_." + + + + +APPENDIX + + +Sir Charles Dilke's association with the river and with rowing men was so +constant that we ate justified in preserving this contemporary report of +his first race for the Grand Challenge, on which he always looked back +with pride: + + "It was," says the report, which Dilke preserved, "one of the finest + and fastest races ever seen at Henley, and the losers deserve as much + credit as the winners. The Oxford crew were on the Berks side, + Kingston on the Oxon, and Cambridge in the middle. It was a very fine + and even start, and they continued level for about 50 yards, when + Brasenose began to show the bow of their boat in front, the others + still remaining oar and oar, rowing in fine form and at a great pace. + So finely were the three crews matched, that, although Brasenose + continued to increase their lead, it was only inch by inch. At the end + of about 400 yards Brasenose were about a quarter of a length only + ahead. The race was continued with unabated vigour, Brasenose now + going more in front, and being a length ahead at the Poplars, where + they began to ease slightly. The contest between Cambridge and + Kingston was still admirable; Cambridge had made some fine bursts to + get away from them, but they were not to be shaken off, and the + gallant effort of the one crew was met by a no less gallant effort on + the part of the other. The Cambridge crew began to show in front as + they neared Remenham, and a most determined race was continued to the + end. Brasenose won by a length clear, and the Cambridge boat was not + clear of the Kingston, only having got her about three-quarters of + their length." + +The time--seven minutes, twenty-six seconds--was the fastest that had been +rowed over that course, and more than half a minute faster than that of +the final heat, in which Brasenose were beaten by University. But next day +in the Ladies' Plate University brought down the record by three seconds. +Trinity Hall had the worst station, and if they were beaten by only a +length, must have been as fast as Brasenose. Kingston was stroked by L. +Pugh Evans, Brasenose by D. Pocklington (W. B. Woodgate rowing 4). The +Trinity Hall eight were as follows: + + st. lb. + E. F. Dyke 9 12 + H. W. Edwardes 10 13 + W. H. Darton 11 2 + C. W. Dilke 11 5 + D. F. Steavenson 12 1 + R. E. Neane 11 0 + W. J. S. Cadman 10 6 + R. Richardson 9 10 + A. A. Berens (cox.) 9 8 + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +CAMBRIDGE (_Continued_) + + +In these years of all-round training Cambridge was doing for Charles Dilke +what it has done for hundreds of other young men. The exceptional in his +case sprang from the tie which linked this young athlete to the old +scholar who, in his library at Sloane Street, or among his flowers at +Alice Holt, was ceaselessly preoccupied with detail of the undergraduate's +life and work. From the first there was a pathos in his eagerness to +follow and understand all the minutiae of an unfamiliar scene. At the +close of Charles Dilke's first term he wrote (December 1st, 1862): + + "Your letter gave me great pleasure, as indeed for one reason or + another, or for no reason if you please, your letters always do; + though not being a Cambridge man, I am at times a little puzzled.... + What a bore I shall be after the 13th with my endless enquiries." + +Ten days later he is jubilant over the results of the college examination +which closed the first term: + + "Hurrah! hurrah! my dear grandson. Ninety-seven out of a hundred-- + eleven above the second 'man'--is a position that would satisfy a + whole family of loving friends, even if they were all grandfathers." + +After every college examination the grandson sent lists of results, +compiled with elaborate detail. The grandfather studied them, treasured +them, compared them, wanted to know why this man had fallen back, how the +other had advanced, and always with the same warm outflow of sympathy and +pride over his own pupil. There they lie to-day in the despatch-boxes, +preserved as a memorial of that love by the man on whom it was expended. +On one is noted: + + "Many scraps such as this, and his letters, show the loving care with + which my grandfather watched over my progress at the University." + +The beginning of his first Long Vacation he spent in travelling through +Germany, Holland, and Belgium with his father. Later, in August, he +visited Jersey and Guernsey, and went to France alone, making pilgrimage +from Cherbourg to Tocqueville's two houses, and filling notebooks with +observations on Norman architecture at St. Lô, Coutances, and elsewhere. +He was perfecting his mastery of the language, too, and notes long after: +"On this journey I was once taken for a Frenchman, but my French was not +so good as it was about 1870." But always and everywhere he observed; and +sent back the results of his observation to the man who had trained it. On +June 30th, 1863, he writes: + + "I have been all over Brussels to-day. My previous estimate of the + place is confirmed. It apes Paris without having any of the Parisian + charms, just as its people speak French without being able to + pronounce it. + + "The two modern pictures in the Palais de Justice are to me worth all + the so-called Rubenses in the place. They are by Gallait and de + Biefve, and the one is our old friend of last year in London, 'The + Abdication of Charles V.' + + "Rogier--the great Belgian Minister--has failed to secure his return + in the late elections, owing to his having given a vote unpopular to + his constituents on the fortification scheme. The Catholics lost three + votes (regained by the advanced party) in the Senate these elections. + + "The names of the sides of the chambers are significant: + + "Liberals. -- Catholics. + + "What a fine country Belgium would be if it could get rid of its + priests a little more. The people understand freedom. In Ghent the + priests are rich, but utterly powerless owing to the extent of the + manufacturing interest." + +When he returned to Cambridge for the October term of 1863, his hard +reading did not satisfy his prodigious power for work. He was Vice- +President of the Union, and he undertook the more arduous duties of +Secretary and Treasurer of the College Boat Club. When at the beginning of +1864 he was re-elected Vice-President of the Union, his grandfather wrote: +"Your University career has proved to me that you have a happiness of +manner that wins friends." Mr. Dilke's health began to decline notably in +the early part of 1864, and loss of sight menaced him. He took the +doctor's sentence, that he must refrain altogether from reading, with +characteristic philosophy, but added: "I have ordered that newspapers are +not to be sent here, so you must excuse it if, when we meet, I am a little +in arrear of the course of life." + +Early in February, 1864, Charles Dilke had entered without training for a +walking race, and had beaten the University champion, Patrick, covering +the mile ("in a gale of wind and over heavy slush") in eight minutes and +forty-two seconds. [Footnote: Mr. Patrick, afterwards member of +Parliament, and from 1886 Permanent Under-Secretary for Scotland.] To this +announcement his grandfather made pleasant reply, threatening to come up +and compete in person, but three days later wrote: + + "I wish you had sent me a Cambridge paper which contained an account + of your Olympic games. It is not too late now if you can get one; _I + reserve the right of reading everything that relates to you and your + concerns_." + +Meanwhile Charles Dilke's reading went on with feverish energy. The +dangerous rival was closely watched. "Shee has been sitting up till +ominously late hours for some nights past. His father came up last night +and left again to-night, but I fear he did not make his son waste much +time." The competitors were straining then for a college law prize, but +the letter goes on to observe very sagely: + + "The law is of little consequence, as neither of us can know anything + about it at present; but I should like to win the essay prize." + +The prize was the annual college prize for the best English essay, and +that year's subject was "Sir Robert Walpole." Compositions were presumably +sent in after the Christmas vacation, for on February 29th, 1864, a +fortnight after the announcement as to the walking race, comes this +laconic bulletin: + + "MY DEAR GRANDFATHER, + + "English Essay Prize: Dilke. + Honourably mentioned: Osborn, Shee. + Latin Essay Prize: Warr. + Honourably mentioned: Casswell. [Footnote: A scholar of Sir Charles's + year, and one of his most frequent associates in undergraduate days.] + + "They say that parts of my essay were vulgar. + + "Your affectionate grandson, + + "CHAS. W. DILKE." + +That last sentence roused the old critic: + + "I should like to read the _whole_ essay. My especial interest is + aroused by the charge of occasional _vulgarity_. If it be true, it is + not improbable that the writer caught the infection from his + grandfather. With one half the world, in its judgment of literature + and of life, vulgarity is the opposite of gentility, and gentility is + merely negative, and implies _the absence of all character_, and, in + language, of all idiom, all bone and muscle. I have a notion--only do + not whisper such heresy within college walls--that a college tutor + must be genteel in his _college judgments_, that 'The Polite Letter + Writer' was the work of an M.A. in the 'Augustan Age.' You may find in + Shakespeare household words and phrases from every condition and walk + in life--as much coarseness as you please to look for--anything and + everything except gentility and vulgarity. Occasional vulgarity is, + therefore, a question on which _I_ refuse to take the opinion of any + man not well known to me." + +On one matter the pupil was recalcitrant. Mr. Dilke begged him to give +"one hour or one half-hour a day" to mastering Greek, so as to be able to +read it with pleasure--a mastery which could only be acquired "before you +enter on the direct purpose and business of life." But "insuperable +difficulties" presented themselves. "It is of considerable importance that +I should be first in the college Law May examination." Hopes of compliance +in a later period were held out, to which Mr. Dilke replied shrewdly that +"insuperable difficulties" were often temperamental, and that during the +whole period of study equally strong reasons for postponement would +continue to present themselves; and then would come "the all-engrossing +business of life, and there is an end of half-hours." + +In May, 1864, Mr. Dilke was present on the bank at 'Grassy' when, on the +second night of the races, Trinity Hall, with his grandson rowing at No. +3, went head of the river. + + "_The ever-memorable May 12th_, 1864. + + "MY DEAR FATHER, + + "Last night we gained on 3rd Trinity all the way to Ditton Corner, + where we were overlapping. Our coxswain made a shot, missed them, and + we went into the mid-stream. After our misfortune we paddled slowly + over the long reach, and came in half a length behind 3rd Trinity and + 2 lengths ahead of 1st Trinity. To-night we did not gain much up to + the Plough, where we spurted and caught up 3rd directly; we rowed + round Ditton Corner overlapping, and so for 100 yds. more, and then + made our bump. The whole of the crew and Stephen were chaired and + carried round the quad. [Footnote: Leslie Stephen had coached the + boat, which stayed head throughout the races. Judge Steavenson rowed + in it at No. 5, where he had rowed earlier in the year for the + University. In 1868 it was settled that 'the outrigger which was rowed + head of the river in 1864 should be cut up, and the pieces distributed + amongst the members of the crew who rowed in her in that year.' + Dilke's piece always hung against the wall in his study in Sloane + Street.] Our 2nd has made its bump each night, and is 8th on the + river!!!" + +Hardly were the May races over before the college Law examination began. +On May 31st Charles Dilke wrote to his grandfather: + + "The results will be known to-morrow. I have worked as hard as it is + possible for me to do, for I have worked till I became almost deprived + of memory.... Shee has worked, too, as hard as he could, and was in a + dreadful state of nervous excitement this evening. I almost hope that + he is first, for I should like to see him get his scholarship. Warr + tried to get me to refuse to go in for the examination, or find some + pretext for being away, in order to let our common friend get his + scholarship; but I said that I thought he would beat me, and that he + should have the glory of beating my _best_ efforts if he beat me at + all." + +An underlying reason against his acceptance of Warr's advice may be found +in this letter from Mr. Dilke at Alice Holt to his son Wentworth: + + "_June 3rd_, 1864. + + "If you carried out your intention of going to and returning from + Cambridge this day, you know, and all in Sloane Street know, that our + noble fellow has again won the prize. But the weather may have + deterred you, and on the possible chance I copy the results: + + "1. Chas. Dilke, 570 marks. Prize. + Shee, 440 + + "What a blessing that boy has been to my old age! May God reward him! + I feel for Shee! for he has laboured long and zealously. I wish there + had been two prizes. + + "I will not mix the subject with baser matter, so shall write my + memoranda on another sheet. + + "Your affectionate father, + + "C. W. D." + +After the May term came Henley Regatta, and Trinity Hall was again entered +for the Grand Challenge. Many of the friends, Shee amongst them, had taken +up their quarters there, along with the oarsmen; and Warr, who was not at +Henley, wrote pressing a prompt return to Cambridge for the Long Vacation +term. As the Henley week progressed [Footnote: Dilke rowed again both for +the Grand Challenge and the Ladies' Plate. In each Trinity Hall met the +ultimate winner in the trial heat, and were defeated by Kingston and by +Eton, but beat London and Radley.] Mr. Dilke writes: + + "My movements may be absolutely regulated by your wishes or + convenience. If you desire to pay a visit to the Holt, I have there + the chance of a quicker recovery, if I am to go on well; whereas if + there be more inducements to visit London, why here I have the benefit + of the doctors should I not make progress. The pleasure and the + advantages being _equal_ to me, you have only to decide. Let me know + your decision by return of post." + +Charles Dilke decided for London, and there spent three or four days in +the company of his family, and, above all, of his grandfather. Then he +went back to Cambridge, and lived the life of strenuous, healthy young men +in the summer weather; getting up at five o'clock in the mornings, +bathing, reading long hours, walking long walks, talking the long talks of +youth. The correspondence with his grandfather centred chiefly now on the +subject for the next year's essay competition, which had been announced at +the close of the May term, and which, as Charles Dilke said, "seems to be +rather in my line." + +It was Pope's couplet: + + "For forms of government let fools contest, + Whatever is best administered is best." + +It was no less in old Mr. Dilke's line than in his grandson's. He wrote on +July 14th from Alice Holt a page of admirable criticism on the scheme as +outlined by his grandson, and concludes in his habitual tone of +affectionate self-depreciation: + + "This is another of my old prosings--another proof that love and good + will and good wishes remain when power to serve is gone...." + +With the precocious maturity of Charles Dilke's intellect had gone a +slowness of development in other directions. It is true that those +Cambridge men who remember him as an undergraduate remember him as +serious, but full of high animal spirits and sense of fun; while everyone +speaks of his charm and gaiety. "We were all in love with him," says one +vivacious old lady, who belonged to the circle of connections and +relatives that frequented 76, Sloane Street. But the letters of his early +days at Cambridge hardly show that 'happiness of manner' which his +grandfather attributed to him. Only now does the whole personality begin +to emerge, as in a letter of 1864, in which he begs his grandfather, +because "writing is irksome to you," to send two very short letters rather +than one longer one; "for the receipt of a letter gives me an excuse to +write again, while on the other hand I can by habit catch your meaning by +the first words of your shortest criticisms." + +The rest of the sheet was occupied by very able analysis of an article +which had been published in the _Athenaeum_--criticism mature and manly +both in thought and expression. The change did not escape the shrewd +observer. Mr. Dilke replied: + + "ALICE HOLT, + "BY FARNHAM, SURREY, + "_July 28th_, 1864. + + "MY VERY DEAR GRANDSON, + + "Your letters give me very great pleasure, not because they are kind + and considerate, of which I had evidence enough long since, not + because they flatter the vanity of the old man by asking his opinion, + which few now regard, but because I see in them a gradual development + of your own mind." + +He added a few words in praise of the analysis, but pointed out that the +reviewer, whom Charles Dilke censured, was treating a well-worn subject-- +Bentham's Philosophy--and therefore needed to aim at freshness of view +rather than thoroughness of exposition. He added: + + "I, however, am delighted with the Article, which is full of promise + of a coming man by which the old journal may benefit." + +Save for a final "God bless you!" from "as ever, your affectionate +Grand.," that was the last word written by Mr. Dilke to his grandson. +Within a week he was struck down by what proved to be his fatal illness. + +Early on August 8th Charles Dilke wrote to his father that he was deterred +from coming home only by the fear lest his sudden arrival might "frighten +grandfather about himself and make him worse." A few hours later he was +summoned. The rest may be given in his own words: + + '_August 8th, Monday_.--I received a telegram from my father at noon: + "You had better come here." I left by the 1.30 train, and reached + Alice Holt at half-past six. My Father met me on the lawn: he was + crying bitterly, and said, "He lives only to see you." I went upstairs + and sat down by the sofa, on which lay the Grand., looking haggard, + but still a noble wreck. I took his hand, and he began to talk of very + trivial matters--of Cambridge everyday life--his favourite theme of + old. He seemed to be testing his strength, for at last he said: "I + shall be able to talk to-morrow; I may last some weeks; but were it + not for the pang that all of you would feel, I should prefer that it + should end at once. I have had a good time of it." + + 'He had been saying all that morning: "Is that a carriage I hear?" or + "I shall live to see him." + + '_Tuesday_.--When I went in to him, he sent away the others, and told + me to look for an envelope and a key. I failed to find it, and fetched + Morris, who after a careful search found the key, but no envelope. We + had both passed over my last letter (August 6th), which lay on the + table. He made us both leave the room, but recalled me directly, and + when I entered had banknotes in his hand, which he must have taken + from the envelope of my letter. (This involved rising.) He said: "I + cannot live, I fear, to your birthday--I want to make you a present--I + think I have heard you say that you should like a stop-watch--I have + made careful inquiries as to the price--and have saved--as I believe-- + sufficient." He then gave me notes, and the key of a desk in London, + in the secret drawer of which I should find the remaining money. He + then gave me the disposition of his papers and manuscripts, directing + that what I did not want should go to the British Museum. He then + said: "I have nothing more to say but that you have fulfilled--my + every hope--beyond all measure--and--I am deeply--grateful." + + 'He died in my presence on Wednesday, 10th, at half-past one, in + perfect peace.' + +[Illustration: MR. C. W. DILKE. +From the painting by Arthur Hughes ] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +LAST TERMS AT THE UNIVERSITY + + +After his grandfather's death Charles Dilke went away alone on a walking +tour in Devon. The death of his grandfather was hardly realized at first; +'the sense of loss' deepened: 'it has been greater with me every year that +followed.' He corresponded with his college friends, and of this date is a +letter of remonstrance at his overstudious habits from the sententious H. +D. Warr: + + "My dear Dilke will forgive me if I say that, though I honour him much + for his many strong and good qualities, I think he is far too given to + laborious processes in work and social life.... My warm regard for you + rests to some extent on my very high appreciation of your strength and + consistency of character: you have always appeared to me to be a + supremely honest man, almost comically so, at least when I am in a + profane humour: I do not know that anything you could do would + possibly make me like you better. But I think if you gave yourself a + little wider fling and liberty, and did not walk always as it were on + the seam of the carpet, it would be better; there would be less to + lean on in you, perhaps, but if possible more to love." + +Charles Dilke used to say that Fawcett and Warr had between them cured him +of that priggishness which he often recalled with amusement. Almost +inevitably his grandfather's devotion, the absolute engrossment of so +considerable a personality in his least important concerns, would +emphasize the inclination to take himself over-seriously which is marked +in every clever and resolute young man. + +In the beginning of 1865 he won the college essay prize for the second +time. A pile of dockets from the British Museum shows that, as soon as +coming of age qualified him to be a reader there, he plunged deep into all +the works on ideal commonwealths to complete his survey of 'forms of +government'--the subject indicated by Pope's couplet, which had appealed +so strongly both to his grandfather and himself. This was a side issue. +Beading for his Tripos went on with unremitting energy, and he had in use +ninety-four notebooks crammed with analyses. In June, 1865, he was +announced Senior Legalist, easily at the head of the law students of his +year, thus crowning his college successes by the highest University +distinction open to a man who followed that course. + +A month before he entered for the Tripos, he had stroked the college boat, +which was head of the river. Trinity Hall, however, retained its pride of +place only for one day, and it was no small achievement to accomplish even +this, since Third Trinity, who bumped them on the second night, were a +wonderful crew, with five University oars, 'including some of the most +distinguished Eton oars that ever rowed.' [Footnote: The Memoir details +them: 'Chambers, the winner of the pairs, sculls, and "walk," President of +the University Boat Club, and afterwards Secretary of the Amateur Athletic +Club; Kinglake, afterwards President of the University Boat Club; W. E. +Griffith, afterwards President of the University Boat Club, and +formerly stroke of the finest Eton eight ever seen; Selwyn, afterwards +Bishop of Melanesia, stroke of the University eight; and C. B. Lawes, +afterwards the well-known sculptor, who had been captain of the Boats at +Eton, and who had won the Diamond Sculls and the amateur championship of +the Thames, and had rowed stroke of the University crew the year after +Selwyn.'] The Hall had only one 'blue,' Steavenson, but to Charles Dilke +himself had been offered in February, 1865, and was offered again in 1866, +the place of 'seven' in the University eight. He declined on grounds of +health, fearing the strain of the four-mile course on his heart. A note +added later says regretfully: 'I believe that I was unduly frightened by +my doctor, and that I might have rowed.' + +To be Senior Legalist and to stroke the first boat on the river in the +same term was an unusual combination: in the next Charles Dilke added to +it the Presidency of the Union. The new Union buildings were now in +process of construction, and he had done more than any other man to bring +them from a derisive by-word into solid realization of brick and mortar. +He took credit to himself for 'the selection of Waterhouse as architect +against Gilbert Scott and Digby Wyatt.' Care to see this business fully +through was one of the reasons which determined him to come up for a +fourth year, and to hold the Presidency a second time in the Lent term of +1866. On his retirement he proposed Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice for his +successor, and thus left the lead in hands he could trust. + +Of his own speeches he has preserved some detail, showing how early his +opinions displayed the character which was to be constant in them: + + 'In 1864-65 I spoke twice at the Union [Footnote: After Dilke's death, + when a resolution of regret was carried at the Union, the Vice- + President, Mr. J. H. Allen of Jesus, said in moving it: "Sir Charles + was in a double sense the architect of the fortunes of the Society, + because he was responsible for the superintendence of the change from + the old inadequate home in Queens' Street into the more glorious + building which they now enjoyed. It was for that reason that on two + occasions the Society elected him to the highest position which they + could confer."] in favour of the foreign policy of Lord Palmerston, + opposing several of my friends who were condemning it. Cobden at the + time was attacking supposed extravagance, based, as he thought, on + panic, and I sided with Palmerston in thinking that the enormous + increase of the French Navy could only be intended for an anti-English + policy, while in the event of even the temporary loss of the command + of the Channel, invasion by an immense French army would become + possible. To Poland I was friendly, but unwilling to contemplate, as + Lord Palmerston was unwilling to contemplate, interference by England + in alliance with the Emperor Napoleon. I was so far from strongly + taking the Danish side in the war that I chose the opportunity to put + up in my rooms at Cambridge a photograph of Bismarck, for whom I had a + considerable admiration. I had made Lord Palmerston's acquaintance + during the Exhibition in '62 (to the ceremonies of which I also owed + that of Auber, Meyerbeer, and many other distinguished people), but I + do not think that the chat of the jaunty old gentleman in his last + days had had any effect upon my views, and I was certainly more pro- + German than was Palmerston, who was not pro-anything except pro- + English.'[Footnote: For Sir Charles's opinion of Lord Palmerston, see + vol. ii., p. 493. ] + +The best speech, in Dilke's own opinion, that he made during 1866 was in +opposition to the proposal to congratulate Governor Eyre upon his +suppression of 'the supposed insurrection in Jamaica.' This was the first +of the many occasions on which Sir Charles Dilke criticized the severity +of white men towards natives in the name of civilized government. + +Fuller anticipation of the views he supported in Parliament is to be found +in his speeches on home politics. In the spring of 1866 the country was +violently agitated over the Reform Bill introduced by Lord Russell, who +had become Prime Minister on the death of Lord Palmerston in 1865. Of +course there was a debate at the Union, and it was prolonged to a second +night. Dilke writes: + + 'I took up for the first time broad democratic ground. Attacking the + famous speech of Mr. Lowe, [Footnote: Mr. Lowe had asked in the debate + on the "Representation of the People Bill," as reported in Hansard, on + March 13th, 1866: "If you want venality, ignorance, drunkenness; if + you want impulsive, unreflecting, violent people, where do you look + for them? Do you go to the top, or to the bottom?"] I declared that so + far was I from agreement with these calumnies, that I was of opinion + that those homely and truly English qualities which had to some slight + extent grown slack among the upper classes were to be met with in all + their strength as much in the more intelligent portion of the now + unrepresented classes, as among those familiarly styled "their + betters." With regard to the question of the fitness of the artisans + for the franchise, I argued that they had not to decide for themselves + between Austria and Prussia in the Holstein question, but had to + decide between candidates who would settle the more abstruse questions + for them. The middle classes, I contended, could as a body do no more, + and the artisan was just as competent to judge of honesty and ability + as the £10 householder; and less likely to be influenced by bribery + and intimidation, as being more independent and more fearless of + consequences. Moreover, any attempt to keep the great mass of the + people from all share of political power seemed to me idle: whether we + liked their advent to government or whether we feared it, it was + inevitable, and the longer we delayed to prepare for it the worse it + would be for so-called Conservative interests when it came. I + contended that the working man had proportionately a greater stake in + the country than the rich; that the taxes which he paid were a vastly + more serious matter to him than those which the rich paid were to + them, and that a hundred of the laws passed by Parliament vitally + affected the interests of the working people to one which injured + those of the upper class.' + +For a young man whose political views were so maturely thought out, debate +was no mere exercitation; his education was fast passing into +apprenticeship for public life; and in February, 1865, his father, Sir +Wentworth Dilke, coming forward at a by-election in the Liberal interest +for Wallingford, gave the Union debater his first chance on a public +platform. + +Long afterwards, when Sir Charles Dilke was travelling down to the Forest +of Dean with a party of guests and friends, one of them, looking out as +the train swept along the Thames Valley, caught sight of a little white +church nestling under a hill and asked, "Is that Cholsey?" Sir Charles +turned round in his eager way: "What, do you know this district? Yes, that +is Cholsey;" and went on to tell how intimate he had become with all the +villages round Wallingford when speaking and canvassing for his father, +and how the experience gained among the Berkshire peasants had supplied +valuable lessons for his own contests in later years. + +Sir Wentworth was elected, and Lord Granville, who had a real friendship +for him, wrote, in a spirit very typical of the traditional view: "I know +no one to whom Parliamentary life will afford more interest and +amusement." Charles Dilke's conception of Parliamentary life was very +different from that of his father, and from that which Lord Granville +indicated. On the other hand, the son seemed to the father deficient in +appreciation of the pleasures acceptable to himself: + + 'One of the difficulties between my father and myself about this + period arose from his vexation at my refusing to take part in the + shooting-parties at Alice Holt. He was passionately fond of + shooting; ... I had now but little sympathy with the amusement, and + had shown my dislike for it in many ways.' + +Yet despite differences, the father was immensely proud of his son, and +consulted him in regard to the younger brother's education. In his reply +Charles Dilke discussed the view of certain Dons who held that the +cultivated English gentleman ought not to go in for honours at all, and +admitted that "reading for a high place here involves loss of many +pleasures, of almost all society; it makes a man fretful, and often leaves +him behind the world; as an education for the mind it is not so good as +the self-education of a non-honours man ought to be, _but never is_." He +thought, nevertheless, that classics--of which he avowed himself "more +ignorant than an English gentleman ought to be"--offered the field in +which success was best worth having. He himself "would gladly be put back +to fourteen or fifteen, and 'grind my life out' till two-and-twenty, in +order to get a high place in the first-class classics." But it must be all +or nothing. A second-class he dismissed as not worth winning. Moreover, +"if the boy has not a high standard set up for him, he will do nothing +whatever, which is far worse than doing too much." + +Meanwhile, in the midst of all that full college life which was becoming +more and more definitely a preparation for the political career, he was +trying his strength in the field of journalism. + +His grandfather had never ceased to impress upon him that every public man +should have learned and practised thoroughly the craft of writing. This +precept allied itself with the inherited ownership of a great literary +journal; and very shortly after old Mr. Dilke's death the undergraduate, +as he then was, began to associate himself actively with the work of the +_Athenaeum_. His first published writing in it appeared on October 22nd, +1864, when he reviewed a well-known work on economics by the writer whom +the Memoir styles 'that dull Frenchman, Le Play.' [Footnote: French +Senator, son-in-law of the celebrated economist Michel Chevalier. He wrote +works on the principles of agriculture, the application of chemistry to +agriculture, and kindred subjects.] Le Play wrote from Paris to thank Sir +Wentworth Dilke for a copy of the article which had been sent him, and had +already attracted attention in France: + + "On y trouve un sentiment de vrai progrès et une intelligence de la + vie pratique qui se rencontrent rarement chez nos critiques." + +The British Museum tickets show the course of reading which Charles Dilke +was pursuing at this period: Bacon, Filmer, Mandeville, Hume, represent +the older English writers on Commonwealths, ideal and actual; Crousaz, +Condorcet, Diderot, Linguet, Fénelon, Helvétius, stood for the influences +of eighteenth-century France. With them were writers more recondite; the +_Mundus Alter et Idem_ of "Britannicus," _Barclay his Argenis_, Holberg's +_Journey in the Underworld_, Sadeur's _Terre Australe Connue_, Ned Lane's +_Excellencie of a Free State_, were all out-of-the-way books with an +antiquarian flavour. Of recent or contemporary authors, Montalembert was +included, with Proudhon, as were men whom Charles Dilke came to know +personally--Émile de Girardin, Michel Chevalier, and, a close friend +afterwards, Louis Blanc. Works of Mohl and Willick brought in the Germans, +and a volume of the _Federalist_ introduced him to that great American +commonwealth which he was soon to visit. A sheaf of dockets for works upon +the Swedenborgian Association and theories complete this very extensive +range of reading, which may be supplemented by the following note of his +own: + + "Favourite books, 1864 (in themselves--for no object): + "Shakespeare. + "The Bible. + "J. S. Mill: _Political Economy; On Liberty; Dissertations._ + "Longfellow: _Evangeline_ and _Miles Standish_. + "Homer: _Works_. + "Tennyson: nearly all. + "Plato: _Republic_. + "Sir P. Sidney: _Arcadia_. + "Claude Adrien Helvétius: _Works_. + "Victor Hugo: _Les Misérables_. + "William Godwin: _Political Justice_." + +He notes also in the Memoir that the reading of Mill at this period marked +the beginning of Mill's influence over him. This influence was a great +factor in Dilke's life, and, when it passed into a personal relation, +became almost one of discipleship. + +His taste for Victor Hugo led him to write in the _Athenaeum_ a long +notice of _Les Travailleurs de la Mer_ in 1866, when that romance +appeared; but another article about the same period on international law +indicates the main bent of his studies. + +As early as the Long Vacation of 1864, in the course of preparing his +essay on forms of government, he had found himself tracing 'the future of +the Anglo-Saxon race both in the United States and Australasia'; and he +thus, without knowing it, laid the foundation lines of _Greater Britain_. +Also, in 1865, 'I had already dreamt of visiting and writing upon Russia, +a country which always had a great hold on my imagination.' Another +project of these undergraduate years was less his own than his +grandfather's. Old Mr. Dilke contemplated a universal catalogue of books, +to be prepared by international action. This scheme was completely +abandoned, yet it is interesting that the grandson entertained it. The +scholar, not merely the lover, but the active servant, of learning, was +always present in Charles Dilke's many-sided personality, though never +dominant. We approach the central preoccupations of his mind with the +_History of Prevalent Opinions in Politics_, towards which 'a great deal +of work' was done by him in the winter of 1864-65. In 1866 the same +underlying group of ideas took form in the outline of a treatise on +_Radicalism_. + +In working for this he read 'most of the writers upon the theory of +politics--Hooker, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Linguet, Locke, Bentham, and many +more.' 'Many more' included some very unusual reading; for the plan of his +book was in three chapters, 'the first chapter being upon the Radicalism +of the days before the coming of Jesus; the second chapter upon the period +between the teaching of our Lord and 1789; and the third on Radicalism in +modern history.' In the second part he 'gave much space to Arius, Huss, +Wyclif, Savonarola, Vane, Roger Williams, Baxter, Fox, Zinzendorf, and +other religious reformers.' All this reading taught him the 'extent to +which forgotten doctrines come up again, and are known by the names of men +who have but revived them'; and, on the other hand, how doctrines change +and degenerate while keeping the original name. + + 'In the sketch of my book, so far as it was worked out, I gave much + space to the falling-off in the Church from the Radicalism of + primitive Christianity.... It began with a definition of Radicalism as + a going to the root of things, which naturally led to the doctrine of + the perfectibility of man, and, quoting the gospels freely, I + attempted to prove the essential Radicalism of Christ's teaching.' + +Here, then, is suggested another aspect of his mind's history. He notes: + + 'As I rejected at this period of my life the Divinity of Christ, I + sought, under Renan's guidance, more fully than I need have done, the + origin of Christ's teaching and of that of Paul, in the doctrines + previously taught by the Essenes and the Sadducees.' + +Elsewhere a manuscript note describes his varying attitude towards +Christianity: + + 'In the course of 1863 I ceased my attendance upon Holy Communion, and + fell into a sceptical frame of mind which lasted for several years, + was modified in 1874, and came to an end in 1875. I had been a very + strong believer, and in the loss of my belief in the supernatural, as + it is called--_i.e._, in the Divinity of our Blessed Lord--I kept an + unbounded admiration for His words, as recorded in the Sermon on the + Mount, and belief in duty towards others. From 1885 to 1888 the Holy + Sacrament was a profound blessing to me, but in 1905 I ceased again to + find any help in forms.' + +To what he called in 1865 the essential Radicalism of Christ's teaching-- +to-day it would be called Christian Socialism--he was always constant. It +was the guiding principle of that inner idealism which underlay his whole +life and which strengthened with his maturity. The world was for him 'a +Christian' world. But acceptance not so much of the dogma as of the +mystical faith of Christians would seem to have varied with him from time +to time, and to have varied also in its formal expression. His mind was +too positive, too much occupied in the detail of life, to have time either +for brooding meditation or for the metaphysics of religious inquiry; and, +at least in 1866, Christianity interested him mainly as one of the most +potent shaping forces of human society. The desire to follow out and +investigate at first hand certain of its modern manifestations helped to +direct the impulse for travel which was already prompting him. + +The Long Vacation of 1865 had found him tramping, first with Warr in +Guernsey, afterwards alone 'through Brittany and Normandy and partly into +the provinces south of the Loire,' eloquent on the charms of travelling +without luggage, sketching also, and increasing his carefully gathered +knowledge of French architecture. + +He had explored France very thoroughly before he found the part of it +which was to become almost a second homeland in his affections; and he had +the Frenchman's appreciation of what was most characteristically France. +"I think the better of the French," he wrote at this time, "for their +admiration of the scenery of the Loire, the Indre, and the Vienne. Few +English people are capable of appreciating the scenery of Anjou.... I +never saw anything more lovely than the scenery of the Vilaine south of +Guichen and Bourg des Comptes." + +But this was only an excursion. The whole bent of his desire lay towards +serious travel, in which he should pass from the training- +ground of the University to that wider school where knowledge was to be +gained, applied, and perfected. In the early part of 1866 he was talking +only of a journey in America, and it was a journey with a literary +purpose. In his _History of Radicalism_ he had given much space to the +Revivals in Prussia led by Ebel, and also to the rise in America of the +school of the Perfectionists in 1834. He proposed to take with him the +sketch of this book, and work into it the results of inquiry made on the +spot as regards the communistic experiments which had been tried in the +United States. + +But travel for its own sake tempted him, and even before he set out, 'I +fancy,' he writes, 'my intention was already to go round the world: but if +I had asked my father's leave to do so, I should have been refused.' + +At all events, when once fairly launched, the interest of travelling +absorbed his mind; and accordingly the book on Radicalism was finally put +aside, though not before some work had been done on it at Quebec and +Ottawa. Nor was it altogether abandoned; for, he says, in treating of +'Radicalism in modern history': + + 'I discussed it under various heads, of which the first was Great + Britain, the second the British Colonies, the third the United States, + showing, as this table was made before I left England, the + predominance which Colonial questions were already assuming in my + mind.' Also: 'In the last part of the sketch of the work I dealt with + the political Radicalism of the future. I wrote strongly in favour of + the removal of the disabilities of sex. I took the Irish Catholic view + of the Irish question, and I commenced the discussion of some of those + questions which made the freshness and the success of _Greater + Britain_--for example, "Effects upon Radicalism of Increased Facility + of Communication," and "Development of the Principle of Love of + Country into that of Love of Man."' + +'Such,' he writes, at the end of that passage which describes the purposes +and the labours of his last academic terms--'such were the dispositions in +which I commenced my journey round the world.' + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +"GREATER BRITAIN" + + +In June, 1866, Charles Dilke, not yet twenty-three, started on the travels +which are recorded in the first and most popular of his books, _Greater +Britain_. Its original draft was in reality the numbered series of long +descriptive letters which he sent home to Sloane Street. + +His first prolonged absence, coupled with the unspent shock of his +grandfather's death, had bred in him a homesickness, which under the +influence of a Virginian summer he tried to dissipate by an outburst of +verse; but the medium was unsuited to his pen, and he soon returned to the +'dispositions' with which he started on his journey. + + 'Leaving England as I did with my mind in this kind of ferment, my + visit to Boston became deeply interesting to me, as I met there a + group of men undoubtedly, on the whole, the most distinguished then + collected at any city in the world. At one party of nine people, at + Cambridge, I met Emerson, Agassiz, Longfellow, Wendell Holmes, Asa + Gray, Lowell ("Hosea Biglow"), Dr. Collyer the Radical Unitarian, and + Dr. Hedge the great preacher. It is hard to say by which of them I was + the most charmed. Emerson, Longfellow, Asa Gray, and Wendell Holmes + seemed to me equal in the perfection of their courtesy, the grace of + their manner, and the interest of their conversation, while Hedge and + Collyer were full of an intellectual energy which was new to me, and + which had a powerful effect upon my work of the time; to be traced + indeed through the whole of the American portion of _Greater + Britain_.' + +There is no need here to attempt any sketch of a journey which is +described in a book which is still read after half a century. Charles +Dilke began with the South, where the earth had scarcely closed over the +graves of the great war, where the rebel spirit still smouldered fiercely, +and where reorganization was only beginning to establish itself. He went +on to New York, to New England, and to Canada; then, crossing the line of +the Great Lakes, followed that other highway of the northern continent, +the Mississippi, to St. Louis. Here he met with Mr. Hepworth Dixon, then +editor of the _Athenaeum_, and the character of his journey changed: he +travelled in company, and he travelled for the first time under privations +and in real danger. Together they crossed the plains from the eastern head +of the Pacific Railway at a period of Indian war, and parted at Salt Lake +City. + +This is a marking-point in the experience. Before Charles Dilke set out to +cross a land still debatable, where travel still was what travel had been +for the pioneers, he wrote home two letters. Both are dated August 26th, +1866, from Leavenworth in Kansas, now a sober town of twenty thousand +inhabitants, then carrying recent memories of the days "when the Southern +'Border Ruffians' were in the habit of parading its streets, bearing the +scalps of Abolitionists stuck on poles," and even after the war basing its +repute for health on the story that, when it became necessary to +"inaugurate" the new graveyard, "they had to shoot a man on purpose." + +The first of these letters is to his father: + + "MY DEAR FATHER, + + "I have been for some days considering whether I would write to you + upon my present theme before or after my journey across the plains, + but I have come to the conclusion that it is in every way better that + I should do it now. Before leaving you, I had prepared, with the + knowledge only of Casswell" (one of his Trinity Hall set), "elaborate + plans for my long-thought-of visit to Australia. + + "After landing in the States, I came to think that, in spite of the + evident advantages to be gleaned by taking the two tours in one, you + might be seriously averse to my more lengthy absence. When, however, I + came to sketch out plans for the great work which I have long intended + some day to write, and of which I completed the first map during my + stay at Ottawa, I found that I must go to Australia before getting + very far through with the book, and that I could not be even so much + as certain of my basement and groundwork until after such a visit. + + "Were I to postpone my trip to Australia, I might find it impossible + ever to go there, remembering that it is not a tour which can be made + from England, at any time, much more quickly than I shall have made it + now; and whenever I did make it, you would have to expect an absence + more prolonged than that for which this letter will prepare you. Of + course that absence is fully as grievous to me as to you, and nothing + but necessity would drive me to it. Of course my going will depend + upon my health, and upon the letters I shall receive at San Francisco. + I have ample funds to take me as far as Sydney, and to enable me to + live there a long time, were anything to prevent your letters reaching + there as soon as I do. I enclose a letter to Knight for Tasmanian + introductions; you can no doubt get me Australian from Sir Daniel + Cooper and others. I propose to visit Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, + Geelong, Adelaide, Hobart Town, Wellington, and Auckland, but the + order in which I take them, of course, depends on local circumstances. + Will you send me some money to Sydney, with such introductions as you + can get? If they don't turn up, I shall start a Shaker colony, or a + newspaper, or row people ashore from the emigrant ships." + +When the travellers halted to rest for some time at Denver, after six +days' journey across the plains, Charles Dilke, with a brain excited by +the keen atmosphere of the prairie, "sketched out many projects of a +literary kind." + + 'In addition to my book on Radicalism, there was a plan for a book of + "Political Geography" based on the doctrine that geographical centres + ultimately become political centres--ideas which are also to be traced + in _Greater Britain_ under the name of Omphalism; and a scheme for a + book to be called "The Anglo-Saxon Race or The English World," which + is noted as dating from June, 1862, and being a head under which + should be treated the infusion of foreign elements into the Saxon + world--such as, for example, Chinese immigration. A fifth work was to + be on "International Law," in two parts--"As it is," and "As it might + be." Another was to be on the offer to an unembodied soul of the + alternatives of non-existence, or of birth accompanied by free-will, + followed by life in sin or life in Godliness.' + +But all the time literature figured in his mind only as an accompaniment +to political life. There was more than jest in the young man's answer to +Governor Gilpin of Colorado, when that dignitary suggested permanent stay +in Denver, with promise of all sorts of honours and rewards in his infant +state. Charles Dilke writes home: + + "I told him that unless he would carry a constitutional amendment + allowing a foreign-born subject to be President of the United States, + he would not receive my services. This he said he would 'see about.'" + +What underlay the jesting is set out in this letter to his brother Ashton, +sent by the same mail that carried to his father news of the projected +journey to Australia: + + "MY DEAR ASHTON, + + "I write in English [Footnote: The brothers usually corresponded with + each other in French; see Chap. II., p. 15.] because I write of + serious matters, best to be talked over in our serious mother-tongue. + I shall also write very simply, saying exactly what I want you to + hear, and that in the plainest manner. + + "I have been thinking of late that in talking to you I may have failed + to make you comprehend why 'I wanted to make you do things that would + pay,' and that if I failed to lead you to look at these things as I + do, I must have debased your mind and done you as much harm as any man + can do his dearest friend. I will, then, in this memorandum explain my + views about you and your future, leaving it to you, my dear brother, + to apply or reject them as your judgment prompts, without letting your + love for me bias you in favour of my argument. + + "I believe that the bent of your mind is not unlike that of mine. My + aim in life is to be of the greatest use I can to the world at large, + not because that is my duty, but because that is the course which will + make my life happiest--_i.e._, my motives are selfish in the wide and + unusual sense of that word. I believe that, on account of my + temperament and education, I can be most useful as a statesman and as + a writer. I have, therefore, educated myself with a view to getting + such power as to make me able at all events to teach men my views, + whether or not they follow them. I believe that you and I together + would be more than twice as strong as each of us alone; I, therefore, + if you are not disinclined, wish to see you acting with me and ever + standing by my side in all love and happiness. To do this you must + make a name, and you must begin by making a name at Cambridge. If you + can go up to college 'a certain future first-class man'--then you can + give up classics if you like, and read other and more immediately + useful things--be President of the Union, and so on; but you cannot do + that from a god-like height unless you are 'a certain first.' So with + music, if you play at all, you must play like a whole band of seraphs + (as, indeed, you seem in a fair way to do). Of course, it is very easy + to say--Music is an art which, if cultivated merely because it will + 'pay,' ceases to be either art or music. True! Quite true!! But only + true if you insert merely--merely because it will 'pay.' I think (I + may be wrong) that it is possible to cultivate it so as to 'pay,' and + yet love and reverence it (and yourself in it) as the highest form of + art. + + "Now I come to riding. I do most earnestly suggest that if you can + bring yourself to learn to ride so as to be able to ride an ordinary + horse along a road with perfect safety, you should do so. I am clear + that you cannot go into the diplomatic service without it. In travel + you must ride. If you can bring yourself to it at all, it must be at + once. + + "Now for my absence. Part of my plan is the writing of serious and + grave works, neither of which can be written until I have seen + Australia as well as America. I find it, then, a necessity to go + there; and I go there now, firstly because I have it within reach, and + secondly, because absence from all, and above all from you, dearest, + would be worse at any future time than now. + + "Keep, however, constantly before you the ultimate doing good or being + useful--which is (for I firmly hold the Jesuit doctrine, if it be + rightly understood) to justify the means. + + "I need hardly say that this talk is for you, and not even for father, + nor for Casswell. + + "Your devoted friend and brother, + + "CHARLES." + +"What a prig he was!" is scrawled across the page, as Charles Dilke's +judgment on himself, when later the letter fell into his hands. + +But, happily, in all the ordinary intercourse of life, ease and geniality +were native to him; he got on readily with all manner of men; and nothing +could have been better for him than the plunge into a society where all +was in the rough. He shed his priggishness once and for all somewhere on +the "Great Divide." What makes the permanent charm of _Greater Britain_ is +its sense of enjoyment, its delighted acceptance of new and unconventional +ways. In crossing the plains, he first made the experience of actual +physical privations, and for the first time saw and fell in love with "the +bright eyes of danger." + +Through all the seriousness and solid concentration of _Greater Britain_ +there runs a vein of high spirits. Facts are there, but with them is a +ferment of ideas and of feeling. Part of that feeling is just a contagious +delight in the joyous business of living. But the strong current which +lifted him so buoyantly was an emotion which no shyness or stiffness +hampered in the expression--in its essence an exultant patriotism of race. +Democracy meant to him in this stage of his development, not any abstract +theory of government, but the triumph of English ideas. + +California, then in the full rush of mining, was the touchstone of +Democracy; where, out of the chaos of blackguardism, through lynchings and +vigilance committees, judge and jury were at work evolving decent security +and settled government. + + "The wonder is" (he wrote) "not that, in such a State as California + was till lately, the machinery of government should work unevenly, but + that it should work at all. Democracy has never endured so rough a + test as that from which it has triumphantly emerged in the Golden + State and City.... + + "California is too British to be typically American: it would seem + that nowhere in the United States have we found the true America or + the real American. Except as abstractions, they do not exist; it is + only by looking carefully at each eccentric and irregular America--at + Irish New York, at Puritan New England, at the rowdy South, at the + rough and swaggering Far West, at the cosmopolitan Pacific States-- + that we come to reject the anomalous features, and to find America in + the points they possess in common. It is when the country is left that + there rises in the mind an image that soars above all local prejudice + --that of the America of the law-abiding, mighty people who are + imposing English institutions on the world." [Footnote: _Greater + Britain_ (popular edition), p. 193.] + +The same thought is summed up in the chapter where he sets down his +recollected impressions on board the ship that carried him southwards +along the shores of America from the Golden Gate towards Panama: + + "A man may see American countries, from the pine-wastes of Maine to + the slopes of the Sierra; may talk with American men and women, from + the sober citizens of Boston to Digger Indians in California; may eat + of American dishes, from jerked buffalo in Colorado to clambakes on + the shores near Salem; and yet, from the time he first 'smells the + molasses' at Nantucket light-ship to the moment when the pilot quits + him at the Golden Gate, may have no idea of an America. You may have + seen the East, the South, the West, the Pacific States, and yet have + failed to find America. It is not till you have left her shores that + her image grows up in the mind. + + "The first thing that strikes the Englishman just landed in New York + is the apparent Latinization of the English in America; but before he + leaves the country, he comes to see that this is at most a local fact, + and that the true moral of America is the vigour of the English race-- + the defeat of the cheaper by the dearer peoples, the victory of the + man whose food costs four shillings a day over the man whose food + costs four pence."[Footnote: _Ibid_., p. 216.] + +That is the governing idea of the book--an idea in which were merged those +other projects which passed before him when he halted at Denver; and it is +set forth with most fulness and vigour in the opening chapters, which deal +with a "Greater Britain" that is outside the British Empire--with the +Britain that no longer dwells under the British flag. + +He left the Pacific shores in tremendous spirits, and on the voyage to New +Zealand was a provider of entertainment for his fellow- +passengers, writing an _opéra bouffe_, _Oparo, or the Enchanting Isle_, in +which he himself spoke the prologue as Neptune, 'two hundred miles west- +sou'-west of Pitcairn Island.' His head might be full of politics and of +the ethics which touch on politics; but he was in the humour to turn his +mind to jesting and to find material for comedy as well as for grave +discourse in the advent of white men to cannibal islands. + +The rest of the book is a sequel or corollary. English institutions are +studied in New Zealand and in Australia, among autonomous communities of +Britons. Later on they are studied in Ceylon and India, where they have +their application to white men, living not as part of a democracy, but as +the arbiters of their fate to Orientals. + +Dilke's own exposition of this governing conception was set out in the +preface to the book: + + "In 1866 and 1867 I followed England round the world: everywhere I was + in English-speaking or in English-governed lands. If I remarked that + climate, soil, manners of life, that mixture with other peoples, had + modified the blood, I saw, too, that in essentials the race was + always, one. + + "The idea which in all the length of my travels has been at once my + fellow and my guide--a key wherewith to unlock the hidden things of + strange new lands--is a conception, however imperfect, of the grandeur + of our race, already girdling the earth, which it is destined perhaps + eventually to overspread. + + "In America the peoples of the world are being fused together, but + they are run into an English mould: Alfred's laws and Chaucer's tongue + are theirs whether they would or no. There are men who say that + Britain in her age will claim the glory of having planted greater + Englands across the seas. They fail to perceive that she has done more + than found plantations of her own--that she has imposed her + institutions upon the offshoots of Germany, of Ireland, of + Scandinavia, and of Spain. Through America, England is speaking to the + world. + + "Sketches of Saxondom may be of interest even upon humbler grounds: + the development of the England of Elizabeth is to be found, not in the + Britain of Victoria, but in half the habitable globe. If two small + islands are by courtesy styled 'Great,' America, Australia, India, + must form a 'Greater Britain.'" + +He wrote of this passage in his Memoir: + + 'The preface of _Greater Britain_, in which the title is justified and + explained, is the best piece of work of my life. It states the + doctrine on which our rule should be based--remembered in Canada-- + forgotten in South Africa--the true as against the bastard + Imperialism. As will be seen from it, I included in my "Greater + Britain" our Magna Graecia of the United States. As late as 1880, + twelve years after the publication of my book, not only was the title + "Greater Britain" often used for the English world--as I used it--but, + speaking at the Lotus Club of New York, Mr. Whitelaw Reid used it + specially of the United States. Tom Hughes, he declared, "led a + pioneer English colony to this Greater Britain, to seek here a fuller + expansion." It is contracting an idea which, as its author, I think + lofty and even noble, to use "Greater Britain" only of the British + Empire, as is now done.' + +The touch of enthusiasm in this book lifted his writing to its highest +plane. He himself was specially proud of the praise which P. G. Hamerton +bestowed on the landscape passages: [Footnote: See Appendix, pp. 72, 73.] +and they have the quality, which his grandfather schooled him in, of being +really descriptive. But his characteristic excellence is found far more in +such a passage as that which follows his sketch of the time when "the +thinking men of Boston and the Cambridge professors, Emerson, Russell +Lowell, Asa Gray, and a dozen more ... morally seceded from their +country's councils," because in those councils the slave-holders still had +the upper hand. Here are a few of its ringing sentences: + + "In 1863 and 1864 there came the reckoning. When America was first + brought to see the things that had been done in her name, and at her + cost, and, rising in her hitherto unknown strength, struck the noblest + blow for freedom that the world has seen, the men who had been urging + on the movement from without at once re-entered the national ranks, + and marched to victory. Of the men who sat beneath Longfellow, and + Agassiz, and Emerson, whole battalions went forth to war. From Oberlin + almost every male student and professor marched, and the University + teaching was left in the women's hands. Out of 8,000 school-teachers + in Pennsylvania, of whom 300 alone were drafted, 3,000 volunteered for + the war. Everywhere the students were foremost among the Volunteers, + and from that time forward America and her thinkers were at one." + [Footnote: _Greater Britain_ (popular edition), p. 41.] + +The book was written at high pressure--in twelve months of desk work, +beginning in June, 1867, when the traveller returned from his year's +wandering--and it was not written under favourable conditions. He had +contracted malaria in Ceylon, which gradually destroyed his appetite, and +so induced a state of weakness leading to delirium at night. The end was +an attack of typhoid fever, which came on while the book was still in the +press; and his father, thinking it important to hurry the publication, +took on himself to correct the proofs while his son was ill. The result +was a crop of blunders; but nothing interfered with the unforeseen success +of the book, which was published in the last months of 1868. Large +portions of the work were translated into Russian, its circulation in +America was enormous (under a pirate flag), and in England it rapidly ran +through three editions, and was praised in the newspapers almost without +exception. + +In the reviews which appeared there stood out a general acceptance of the +book as fair and friendly to all. In spite of its audacious patriotism, it +was no way limited in sympathy. This fairness of mind received the homage +of Thiers in a great defence of his Protectionist budget. "Un membre du +parlement d'Angleterre, qui est certainement un des hommes les plus +éclairés de son pays, M. Wentworth Dilke, vient d'écrire un livre des plus +remarquables," he said, and pressed the argument that Charles Dilke's +defence of Protection from the American and Australian point of view +gained authority by the very fact that its author was _libre-échangiste +d'Europe_. Dilke always called himself, more accurately, "a geographical +Free Trader." He accepted, that is to say, the doctrine for Great Britain +unreservedly, only because of Great Britain's geographical conditions. +This was very different from the orthodox English Liberal's view of Free +Trade as a universal maxim to be accepted under penalty of political +excommunication. + +On a matter of even wider import for Imperial statesmanship his sympathies +were at once and clearly declared. From this his first entry into the +arena of public debate he was the champion of the dark-skinned peoples-- +all the more, perhaps, because he recognized clearly that the Anglo-Saxons +were "the only extirpating race." In lands where white men could rear +their children it seemed to him inevitable that the Anglo-Saxon race +should replace the coloured peoples as, to take his own illustration, the +English fly was superseding all other flies in New Zealand. Yet at least +while the American-Indians or the Maoris remained, he was determined to +secure justice for them; and he incurred angry criticism for outspoken +condemnation of English dealing with the natives in Tasmania. But a great +part of his book is devoted to discussion of questions which must be of +constant recurrence, affecting the relations of Englishmen to natives in +lands where the English are only a governing handful. These matters +received special comment in a letter from John Stuart Mill at Avignon on +February 9th, 1869. Mill, although a stranger to Dilke, was moved to write +his commendation in the most ungrudging terms: + + "It is long" (he said) "since any book connected with practical + politics has been published on which I build such high hopes of the + future usefulness and distinction of the writer, showing, as it does, + that he not only possesses a most unusual amount of real knowledge on + many of the principal questions of the future, but a mind strongly + predisposed to what are (at least in my opinion) the most advanced and + enlightened views of them. + + "There are so few opinions expressed in any part of your book with + which I do not, so far as my knowledge extends, fully and heartily + coincide, that I feel impelled to take the liberty of noting the small + number of points of any consequence on which I differ from you. These + relate chiefly to India; though on that subject also I agree with you + to a much greater extent than I differ. Not only do I most cordially + sympathize with all you say about the insolence of the English even in + India to the native population, which has now become not only a + disgrace, but, as you have so usefully shown, a danger to our dominion + there; but I have been much struck by the sagacity which, in so short + a stay as yours must have been, has enabled you to detect facts which + are as yet obvious to very few: as, for instance, the immense increase + of all the evils and dangers you have pointed out by the substitution + of the Queen's army for a local force of which both men and officers + had at least a comparatively permanent tie to the country; and again, + that the superior authority in England, having the records of all the + presidencies before it, and corresponding regularly with them all, is + the only authority which really knows India; the local governments and + offices only knowing, at most, their own part of it, and having + generally strong prejudices in favour of the peculiarities of the + system of government there adopted, and against those of the other + party." [Footnote: James Mill, the father of John Stuart Mill, was the + historian of India, and for a long time one amongst its official + rulers at the India House.] + +Then followed an exhaustive and very friendly criticism, in which the most +interesting points are his challenge of Dilke's proposal to make the +Secretary of State for India a permanent office, not changing with party +upheavals, and, lastly, this: + + "If there is any criticism of a somewhat broader character that I + could make, I think it would be this--that (in speaking of the + physical and moral characteristics of the populations descended from + the English) you sometimes express yourself almost as if there were no + sources of national character but race and climate, as if whatever + does not come from race must come from climate, and whatever does not + come from climate must come from race. But as you show in many parts + of your book a strong sense of the good and bad influences of + education, legislation, and social circumstances, the only inference I + draw is that you do not, perhaps, go so far as I do myself in + believing these last causes to be of prodigiously greater efficacy + than either race or climate, or the two combined." + +The writing of this letter marked the beginning of a friendship which +lasted till Mill's death. If the book had done nothing but secure Dilke +this friend, it would have been well rewarded. But rewards were not +lacking. The fortunate author was crowned with a great popular success +invaluable for a young man about to enter political life. Yet more +important even than the prestige acquired was the sum of experience +gained. + + + + +APPENDIX + +EXTRACT FROM "LANDSCAPE," BY PHILIP GILBERT HAMERTON + + +A traveller who did not set out with the intention of word-painting, but +to see how men of English race fared wherever they had settled, said that +'travellers soon learn, when making estimates of a country's value, to +despise no feature of the landscape.' If Sir Charles Dilke wrote that +rather from the political than the artistic point of view, it is not the +less accurate in any case, for the landscape, however uninteresting it may +seem, or even ugly, is never without its great influence on human +happiness and destiny. The interest in human affairs which Sir Charles +Dilke has in common with most men of any conspicuous ability, does not +prevent him from seeing landscape-nature as well as if his travels had no +other object. His description of the Great Plains of Colorado is an +excellent example of that valuable kind of description which is not merely +an artful arrangement of sonorous words, but perfectly conveys the +character of the landscape, and makes you feel as if you had been there. + + "Now great roaring uplands of enormous sweep, now boundless grassy + plains; there is all the grandeur of monotony and yet continual + change. Sometimes the distances are broken by blue buttes, or rugged + bluffs. Over all there is a sparkling atmosphere and never-failing + breeze; the air is bracing even when most hot, the sky is cloudless, + and no rain falls. A solitude which no words can paint, the boundless + prairie swell conveys an idea of vastness which is the overpowering + feature of the Plains.... The impression is not merely one of size. + There is perfect beauty, wondrous fertility, in the lonely steppe; no + patriotism, no love of home, can prevent the traveller wishing here to + end his days. + + "To those who love the sea, there is here a double charm. Not only is + the roll of the prairie as grand as that of the Atlantic, but the + crispness of the wind, the absence of trees, the multitude of tiny + blooms upon the sod, all conspire to give a feeling of nearness to the + ocean, the effect of which is that we are always expecting to hail it + from the top of the next hillock.... + + "The colour of the landscape is, in summer, green and flowers; in + fall-time, yellow and flowers, but flowers ever." [Footnote: _Greater + Britain_, p. 80 (popular edition).] + +If the reader will take the trouble to analyze this description, he will +perceive that, although powerful, it is extremely simple and sober. The +traveller does not call in the aid of poetical comparisons (the only +comparison indulged in is the obvious one of the Atlantic), and the effect +of the description on the mind is due to the extreme care with which the +writer has put together in a short space the special and peculiar +characteristics of the scenery, not forgetting to tell us everything that +we of ourselves would naturally fail to imagine. He corrects, one after +another, all our erroneous notions, and substitutes a true idea for our +false ones. The describer has been thoroughly alive; he has travelled with +his eyes open; so that every epithet tells. The reader feels under a real +obligation; he has not been put off with mere phrases, but is enriched +with a novel and interesting landscape experience. + +In a good prose description, such as these by Kingsley and Sir Charles +Dilke, the author has nothing to do but to convey, as nearly as he can, a +true impression of what he has actually seen. The greatest difficulties +that he has to contend against are the ignorance and the previous +misconceptions of his readers. He must give information without appearing +didactic, and correct what he foresees as probable false conceptions, +without ostentatiously pretending to know better. His language must be as +concise as possible, or else important sentences will be skipped; and yet +at the same time it must flow easily enough to be pleasantly readable. It +is not easy to fulfil these conditions all at once, and therefore we meet +with many books of travel in which attempted descriptions frequently +occur, which fail, nevertheless, to convey a clear idea of the country. A +weak writer wastes precious space in sentimental phrases or in vain +adjectives that would be equally applicable to many other places, and +forgets to note what is peculiarly and especially characteristic of the +one place that he is attempting to describe. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +ELECTION TO PARLIAMENT + + +I. + +While engaged in the writing of Greater Britain, Charles Dilke entered +upon the main business of his life by coming forward as a candidate for +the House of Commons. Immediate action was necessary; for the position of +parties indicated the near approach of a General Election. + +The constituency to which he addressed his candidature in the autumn of +1867 was the borough of Chelsea, a new Parliamentary division created by +the Reform Act of that year. It was of vast extent, embracing Chelsea, +Fulham, Hammersmith, Kensal Town, and Kensington. In Chelsea Charles Dilke +had his home, and, as representing the Parliamentary borough, he would +speak "backed by the vote and voice of 30,000 electors." "I would +willingly wait any time," he said in his opening address on November 25th, +in the Vestry Hall at Chelsea, "rather than enter the House of Commons a +member for some small trumpery constituency." The electors should hear his +opinions, "not upon any one subject or upon any two subjects or any three, +but as nearly as might be upon all." + +His speech began with the electoral machinery of democracy--questions of +franchise and redistribution. + +Purity of election he laid down as a necessary condition of reform, and to +that end two points must be assured: the removal of election petitions +from the House of Commons to a legal tribunal, [Footnote: A Bill with that +object was at the time passing through Parliament.] and, secondly, the +security of the ballot. Upon the first matter he came perhaps to doubt the +new system after he had seen it tried; upon the second he was able to tell +his audience from first-hand knowledge that in Australia opposition to the +ballot was unknown, and that in Virginia a conquered minority looked to it +as their best defence against oppression. + +From the machinery of Government he passed to its application. Ireland was +then the burning question, and Dilke's attitude upon Ireland may be +indicated in a sentence. After the Church should have been disestablished, +the land system reformed, [Footnote: His views on the Irish Land Question +had been stated in _Greater Britain_ (popular edition), p. 209: "Customs +and principles of law, the natural growth of the Irish mind and the Irish +soil, can be recognized and made the basis of legislation without bringing +about the disruption of the Empire. The first Irish question that we shall +have to set ourselves to face is that of land. Permanent tenure is as +natural to the Irish as free-holding to the English people. All that is +needed of our statesmen is that they recognize in legislation that which +they cannot but admit in private talk--namely, that there may be essential +differences between race and race."] and a wide measure of Parliamentary +reform given to Ireland; after they should have passed Fawcett's Bill "for +throwing open Trinity College, Dublin, and destroying the last trace of +that sectarian spirit which has hitherto been allowed to rule in Ireland" +--they might hope "not perhaps for instant quiet in the country, but at +least for the gradual growth of a feeling that we have done our duty, and +that we may well call upon the Irish to do theirs." + +There went with that a moderate censure upon the lawlessness of Fenianism. +But the Irish question did not occupy so much space in his discourse as in +those of most speakers at that moment, and this for a reason which he gave +later in his life: 'About Ireland I was never given to saying much, +because, except for a short time in 1885, when moderate Home Rule could +have been carried, I never thoroughly saw my own way.' But as early as +1869 he deplored the lack of local deliberative bodies which elsewhere did +much of the State's work, and in 1871 he advocated their creation as a +means of relieving Parliament. This, rather than any special sympathy with +Nationalism as such, was always the governing consideration with him on +the Irish question. 'I showed in this way,' he notes, 'a working of the +opinion which in 1874 caused me to vote, alone of English members +unpledged by their constituents, in support of Mr. Butt when he brought +forward his Home Rule Bill.' [Footnote: Eight in all voted; all except +Dilke represented Northern constituencies, with a large Irish vote among +miners or operatives.] + +He foreshadowed also his attitude towards Labour questions. He proposed, +as early as 1867, that the Factory Acts should be extended to all +employment; the best way of compelling children to attend school was, he +thought, to prohibit their employment as premature wage-earners. Another +declaration set forth that Trade Unions must be recognized, and their +funds protected just as much as those "of any association formed for +purposes not illegal." By no means were all Liberals in 1867 ready to +distinguish between Trade Unions and criminal conspiracies. + +Taxation came next. His desire to "sweep away many millions of Customs and +Excise," and to establish a system so far as possible of direct taxation, +is notable because it was put forward at the very moment when he was +explaining in _Greater Britain_ to the precisians of Free Trade that young +countries, like America and the Colonies, had reasonable grounds for +maintaining a rigid Protective system. + +Questions put at this first meeting with the electors elicited a +declaration for triennial Parliaments; if these failed, then for annual; +for payment of members, with preference for the plan of payment by the +constituency, advocated by "Mr. Mill, the great leader of political +thinkers." As to manhood suffrage, the candidate held "that the burden of +proof lies on those who would exclude any man from the suffrage; but I +also hold that there is sufficient proof for the temporary exclusion of +certain classes at the present time." + +This, with some other points in the exposition of his political creed, +needs to be read in the light of a passage in the Memoir: + + 'I tried to be moderate in order to please my father, and not to lose + the general Liberal vote; my speeches are more timid than were my + opinions.' + +Yet for all his efforts after moderation he was too extreme for his +father, who probably was shocked to hear that the Game Laws "needed an +amendment, which should extend perhaps to their total abolition." Sir +Wentworth Dilke remonstrated. His son replied in December, 1867: + + "I am a Radical, I know; still I have for your sake done everything I + can to speak moderately. I have spoken against Fenianism in spite of + my immense sympathy for it. For my own part, though I should immensely + like to be in Parliament, still I should feel terribly hampered there + if I went in as anything except a Radical.... Radicalism is too much a + thing of nature with me to throw it off by any effort of mine. If you + think it a waste of money for me to contest Chelsea, I will cheerfully + throw the thing up and turn to any pursuit you please." + +Many other matters which were to occupy Charles Dilke later are mentioned +in this first and detailed exposition of his political faith. He dealt +with army reform: would abolish "purchase of commissions and flogging"; he +condemned "an army in which we systematically deny a man those advantages +that in entering an employment he naturally looked to receive," and the +double responsibility of the Horse Guards and the War Office as "a system +which is in its very essence costly and inefficient." On Foreign Affairs +he said: "I am very wishful indeed for peace, but a peace more dignified +than that which has of late prevailed." [Footnote: Speech in Chelsea, +November 25th, 1867.] + +He spoke at Chelsea, Kensington, Hammersmith, Fulham, Brompton, Notting +Hill, and Walham Green, earning from the electors the name of Mr. +Indefatigable Dilke. The borough deserved that a man who sought to +represent it should state his case thoroughly, and there was an uncommon +degree of truth in a not uncommon compliment when he called it "the most +intelligent constituency in England." South Kensington was the home of +many judges and other important lawyers, many great merchants and men of +business; Brompton was still a literary quarter; Holland Park and Notting +Hill the home of the artists who figured largely on Dilke's committee--the +names of Leighton, Maclise, Faed, and other Academicians are among the +list. The honorary committee was made up almost entirely of resident +Members of Parliament. + +In Kensal Town was a very strong artisan element, and at one time a +working-man candidate was before the electors, George Odger, who was 'the +best representative of the Trade Unions, and a man of whom the highest +opinion was entertained by Mr. Mill.' He not only withdrew, but became +also an active supporter. + +Of the Tory candidates, perhaps the more important was Mr. Freake, a big +contractor who had built Cromwell Road, in which he lived, and who was not +on the best of terms with his workmen. Some of this unpopularity reflected +itself on the allied candidature of Dr. W. H. Russell, whose expenses Mr. +Freake was said to be paying. But the contest led to a lasting friendship +between Charles Dilke and the famous war correspondent. The other Liberal +candidate was Sir Henry Hoare, a Radical baronet, twenty years older than +Dilke, who had for a short time sat as member for Windsor. So long as he +represented Chelsea he voted with the extreme Radicals, and his name may +be found in many division lists in the minority along with that of his +colleague. But later in life he changed his politics, joined the Carlton +Club, and was a member of it for many years. Charles Dilke always spoke of +him in terms of cordial friendship even after their political association +had long been ended. + +Their candidature was not a joint one, as Dilke put himself forward +independently; but when the election actually came the Liberal candidates +joined forces, and two picture-cards represent the contest as between +rival teams of cocks. In one the Odger cock is seen retreating; Freake is +on his back, gasping; Russell and Hoare still contend, while under the +banner "Dilke and Hoare for ever," Dilke crows victorious. In the second +card Odger has no place, and Russell is as dead as Freake. + +This graphic forecast was justified by the result. Polling took place on +Wednesday, November 18th, 1868, and, according to a local paper, "the +proceedings were of a most orderly character; indeed, the absence of +vehicles, favours, etc., made the election dull." The voting was open. The +results were published from hour to hour at the booths, and the unpopular +candidates were in one or two places driven away by hisses. Even in +Cromwell Road Dilke and Hoare led, and Dilke's advantage in his own +district of Chelsea proper was conspicuous. The final figures were: + + Dilke........ 7,374 + Hoare........ 7,183 + Russell...... 4,177 + Freake....... 3,929 + +The triumph was all the more gratifying because it had been achieved by a +volunteer canvass. No member has ever been bound to a constituency by +closer ties of personal feeling than those which linked Charles Dilke, +first to Chelsea and later to the Forest of Dean. He worked for his +constituents, and taught them to work for him. + +At this same General Election Sir Wentworth Dilke lost his seat, and Lord +Granville sent him a note "to condole with you and to congratulate you. I +suspect that the cause of the latter gives you more pleasure than the +cause of the former gives you regret. How very well your son seems to have +done!" + +After the election Charles Dilke sought a rest by one of his flying trips +abroad. He stopped a day in Paris to examine the details of the French +registration system. Thence he proceeded to Toulon, 'to which I took a +fancy, which ultimately led, many years after, to my buying a property +there'; the scenery of Provence captured him from the first moment. + +Parliament was summoned to meet on December 10th for the election of a +Speaker, and for the swearing-in of members. By the beginning of December +the member for Chelsea was on the eve of return, rejoicing in the news of +Mr. Gladstone's defeat in South-West Lancashire and election for +Greenwich. "He is much more likely to become a democratic leader now that +he sits for a big town." + +A note preserved in one of the boxes gives Charles Dilke's first +impressions of the party and Government to which he had vowed a somewhat +qualified allegiance. + + "_December 10th_, 1868.--House met for election of Speaker. The + Liberal party is more even in opinion than ever before. No + Adullamites, no Radicals but myself. The Cabinet is somewhat behind + the party, which is bad. Too many peers." + +The House of Commons of 1868 was superficially very much like any of its +predecessors. Dilke notes that it 'contained some survivals of the old +days, such as Mr. Edward Ellice, son of "Bear" Ellice [Footnote: This was +Mr. Edward Ellice, who had been in the House since 1836, and who continued +to represent St. Andrews till 1879. He was sometimes called "the young +Bear." See _Life of Lord Granville_, i. 80, 81, 141, 171, 175, as to the +"old Bear."] of the days of Lord Melbourne,' a consistent and typical +Liberal. The Liberal party consisted then mainly of men born into that +governing class which Lord Melbourne had in mind when he said "that every +English gentleman is qualified to hold any post which he has influence +enough to secure." This element was accompanied by a fair sprinkling of +manufacturers and other business men, for the most part Nonconformists. +But no separate Irish party existed to complicate the grouping; indeed, +the Irish were much less a corps apart than they had been in O'Connell's +time. Labour had not one direct representative, though the importance of +the artisan vote had made itself felt; and this was recognized by the +choice of Mundella, then returned as a new member for Sheffield, to second +the address at the opening of the session. + +The personal composition of the assembly had greatly altered. More than a +third of its members were new to Parliament. W. Vernon Harcourt, Henry +James, and Campbell-Bannerman, sat then for the first time, and sat, as +did Charles Dilke, below the gangway. In the same quarter was Fawcett, who +helped them in creating the new phenomenon of a House of Commons alive in +all its parts. + +Sir George Trevelyan, who almost alone of living men can compare from +experience the House of Commons before the Reform Bill of 1867 and after, +holds that it would be difficult to overstate the contrast. The House was +no longer an arena for set combat between a few distinguished +parliamentarians, whose displays were watched by followers on either side, +either diffident of their ability to compete, or held silent by the +unwritten rule which imposed strict reserve upon a new member. For the +greater number promotion had come through slow and steady service in the +lobbies. + +Charles Dilke from the first was always in his place--that corner seat +below the gangway which became gradually his traditional possession; and +from the first he assumed a responsible part in all Parliamentary +business. "He was the true forerunner, in his processes, his industry, his +constant attendance, and his frequent speaking, of Lord Randolph +Churchill." The revolt against 'the old gang' began on the Liberal side, +and Charles Dilke was the chief beginner of it. Although the new Reform +Act had led to far-reaching change in the quality of the House of Commons, +the choice by Mr. Gladstone of the members of the Ministry made it plain +that no break with the past was contemplated by the leaders. Lowe, whose +anti-democratic utterances on Reform had been denounced by Dilke at the +Cambridge Union, was Chancellor of the Exchequer; and only half the +Cabinet were commoners. Among these was indeed Bright; but the only other +Minister whose name carried a hint of Radicalism was Forster, Vice- +President of the Council of Education, and he was not in the Cabinet when +it was first formed. + +On the other hand, Bright and Forster were to an exceptional degree +responsible for the general trend of the Government policy. The +dissolution and election had turned with more than usual definiteness on a +clear issue--the proposal to conciliate Ireland by disestablishing the +privileged Church of the minority; and behind this immediate proposal lay +a less clearly defined scheme for giving security of tenure to Irish +tenants. Ireland was the first business of Charles Dilke's first +Parliament, and it was Bright more than any other man who had stirred +English feeling with the sense that England had failed in her duty to the +smaller country, and that an attempt to do justice must be made. Yet in +both Church reform and land reform the actual brunt of the Parliamentary +struggle fell upon Mr. Gladstone. Bright had a marvellous gift for rousing +political emotion, but he had not the application necessary to give +legislative effect to his aims; and Charles Dilke, though fully sensitive +to the beauty of cadence in Bright's language, and enthusiastic for the +music of "his unmatched voice," nevertheless inherited something of his +grandfather's suspicion of "that old humbug Oratory"--at all events, when +the oratorical gift was not allied with executive capacity. + +There was no lack of masterful grip and handling of detail in the other +great orator of the Liberal party, yet the young Radical's attitude to his +leader was one of admiration indeed, but always of limited sympathy. Not +only did a long generation lie between them, but Charles Dilke had been +bred a Radical, and Gladstone had been bred a Tory. The Government policy +after 1868 was dominated by the education controversy, and was dictated by +Forster. There was probably no man among his colleagues with whom Dilke +more often came into collision. Forster was a strong natural Conservative, +though he had been brought up in the traditions of Radicalism, and Mr. +Gladstone was suspected of not being willing to abolish Collegiate as well +as University tests. + +On the Opposition front bench Disraeli's primacy was not less marked than +Mr. Gladstone's, and his romantic figure always fascinated Dilke. But his +special admiration was for Gathorne Hardy (afterwards Lord Cranbrook), in +whom High Toryism found its most eloquent and sincerest spokesman. Later, +in 1876, Sir Charles was to complain ironically that the Conservatives +"never will be able to employ the services of the man best fitted by +nature to be their leader. Mr. Gathorne Hardy will never lead the +Conservative party because he is not a Liberal." + +In 1869 he saw little of either the Tories or the Whigs, 'but acted with +the Radicals.' He had modified his first estimate of the composition of +the House. This Radical group largely represented the industrial towns and +Nonconformist interests. It included Peter Rylands, member for Warrington; +Peter Taylor, member for Leicester; Henry Richard, member for Merthyr +Tydvil; George Anderson, member for Glasgow; and Llewellyn Dillwyn, member +for Swansea. Some, such as Peter Taylor, were theoretical Republicans, but +all were peace-at-any-price men, Bright's votaries, though when Bright +joined the Government they were ready to vote against Bright. + +The group contained also some men of Charles Dilke's own stamp, with whom +Cambridge associations created a bond. 'Harcourt, of whom I saw much, was +then a below-the-gangway Radical.' He, though sixteen years Dilke's +senior, was also a newcomer, but a newcomer well known already at +Westminster by his famous letters to the _Times_, signed "Historicus," and +by his career at the Parliamentary bar. Another was Lord Edmond +Fitzmaurice, who had been Charles Dilke's contemporary and coadjutor at +the Union. A great figure in the Radical group came from Trinity Hall-- +Fawcett, who had first won his seat for Brighton in 1865. + +Among Government Liberals, Lord Granville in the House of Lords was an +hereditary friend, through his attachment to Dilke's father, but belonged +to a much older generation. Grant Duff, a man to whom later on Dilke came +to be strongly attached, was Under-Secretary of State for India. From the +first, however, a close alliance formed itself between Charles Dilke and a +junior member of the Government, who had still been debating at the Union +when Dilke came to Trinity Hall. Entering Parliament in 1865, Mr. +Trevelyan had distinguished himself by a vigorous campaign against the +system of purchase in the Army, and, in 1868, he was put in office as +Junior Lord of the Admiralty. Senior to Charles Dilke by five years, he +had not known him at Cambridge; but they "speedily became very intimate." +So writes Sir George Trevelyan in a letter of 1911: + + "I was a very young Minister, worked hard all day by Mr. Childers, a + very strict but very friendly taskmaster, and never, according to the + Treasury Bench discipline of those heroic times, allowed to be absent + from the House of Commons for a single moment. I used to come to the + House unlunched, and desperately hungry; and I got my dinner at four + o'clock in an empty dining-room. Afternoon after afternoon, Charles + Dilke used to come and sit with me; and a greater delight than his + company, young to the young, I can hardly describe. But it does not + need description to you, for never did anyone's talk alter less as + time went on. The last time I saw him was at the swearing-in of Privy + Councillors last May (1910), when we talked for half an hour as if we + were respectively thirty and five-and-twenty years old." + +An enrichment of that talk, as his friend remembers it, lay in Charles +Dilke's multifarious knowledge. "This man seems to know all about +everything in the world," someone remarked in those days. "Yes," was the +answer, "and last week we were talking about the other world: Dilke seemed +to know all about that too." + +It was characteristic of Charles Dilke to choose for his maiden effort the +most highly technical of subjects, and one which lent itself as little as +possible to tricks of oratory. He would recall how Mr. George Melly, the +member for Stoke-on-Trent, had cautioned him: "Don't talk to them about +God Almighty; even Mr. Gladstone can't; they'll only stand it from John +Bright." On March 9th, 1869, Mr. William Vernon Harcourt (as he then was) +came forward with a motion for the appointment of a Select Committee to +inquire into registration in Parliamentary boroughs. Upon this Charles +Dilke made his first speech, filled with detailed knowledge, and with +suggestions drawn from French procedure. Later speakers recognized the +special competence shown, and when the Select Committee was appointed, he +was named to serve on it--thus taking his place at once in the normal +working life of the House. + + 'I acquired in the early months of this Session a knowledge of the + registration and rating systems which lasted for a good many years, + and the plan for the restoration of compounding, which was accepted by + Mr. Goschen and moved by him in the form of new clauses in his Bill in + April, 1869, was of my suggestion. By the joint operation of this + plan, and of the Registration Act of 1878, which was my own, an + immense increase of the electorate in boroughs was effected.' + +No subject could have appeared less attractive than all this dull lore of +compound householders and lodger's franchises. + +But the spirit of official Liberalism was constantly at war with Radical +views. + + 'My diary continually expressed my regret at what I thought the + timidity of Mr. Gladstone's Government.' Thus, when it was beaten by + the abstention of Liberals on Fawcett's Election Expenses Bill, which + proposed to throw the necessary expenses of returning officers on the + local rates, Charles Dilke 'was angry with the Government for not + having so much as named the Bill upon their Whip.' Again, when his + group had proposed to penalize a corrupt borough, the member for which + had been unseated on petition, the entry ran: 'We Radicals beaten by + Government and Tories on the Bewdley writ,' the issue of which the + Radicals had moved to postpone for twelve months. + +In the case of Fawcett's motion to abolish University Tests, of whose +injustice Dilke had personal experience: [Footnote: Having taken his +Master's degree at Cambridge in this year, Dilke was 'immediately +nominated to the Senate as an examiner for the Law Tripos by the Regius +Professor of Laws.' But on further inquiry it appeared that an examiner +for honours in Law must be a member of the Senate, and that a member of +the Senate must declare himself a member of the Church of England. Dilke, +strongly objecting to this exclusiveness, had refused to make the required +profession. The 'grace,' therefore, was withdrawn, and he was not allowed +to examine. Sir Roundell Palmer became Chancellor in 1872, on the +retirement of Lord Hatherley. He was again Chancellor from 1880 to 1885.] + + 'My diary records a division in connection with which Sir Roundell + Palmer did us some harm, the fact being that the great lawyer, who was + afterwards Lord Selborne, was one of those gentlemen calling + themselves Liberals in whom it was difficult to find any agreement + with Liberal principles at any time or upon any subject. He was, in + fact, a High Church Tory, as I found when I served with him in a + Liberal Cabinet.' + +On yet another motion of Fawcett's the Radicals found themselves in +collision with the head of the Liberal Government. This advocated open +competition for the Civil Service, and Dilke supported Fawcett by speech +as well as vote. Mr. Gladstone, following Dilke in the debate, suggested +that he had spoken without examining his facts, a charge specially +calculated to excite this conscientious worker's resentment. 'I recorded a +strong opinion as to the crushing of independent members by Mr. +Gladstone.' + +Charles Dilke was already displaying that blend of opinions which made him +always a trial to the party Whips. He notes that, 'taking as I did an +independent line, I supported on the Navy Estimates the Conservative ex- +chief First Lord of the Admiralty' (Mr. Corry) 'on a motion which +deprecated the building of further turret ships till those already built +had been tested.' + +[Illustration: SIR C. WENTWORTH DILKE, BART. +From the painting by Arthur Hughes.] + +These outbreaks of independence led to remonstrance from his father, and +remonstrance to this reply: + + "I don't mean to let either you or Glyn" (the Chief Whip, afterwards + Lord Wolverton) "frighten me into supporting the Government when I + think they are wrong, but I vote for them when I am at all doubtful." + +This letter was written to Sir Wentworth Dilke, then on a tour through the +north of Europe with his son Ashton, by this time a Cambridge +undergraduate, and inclined to regard his elder brother as a very timid +politician. 'My father and my brother went to Berlin, and saw the Crown +Prince, afterwards the Emperor Frederick, and Prince Bismarck, who many +years later described to me the impression which they--the Whig and the +Republican--had made on him.' From Germany they passed into Russia, where +Wentworth Dilke was commissioned to represent England at the Horticultural +Congress. In May a sudden telegram called Charles Dilke to St. Petersburg. +His father had been attacked with 'that deadly form of Russian influenza, +a local degeneration of the tissues, which kills a man in three days, +without his being able to tell you that he feels anything except +weakness.' Before Charles Dilke could reach the Russian capital, his +father had been already 'embalmed and temporarily buried,' with a view to +interment in England. + +His successor entered upon his position while still several months short +of the age of twenty-six. He took steps to give up at once Alice Holt--'a +mere shooting place'--and also sold Hawkley in Hampshire, keeping only the +London house, 76, Sloane Street, in which he had been born, and which was +to be his home till he died there. It was home also for his brother +Ashton, now reading classics and rowing in the Trinity Hall boat. The +house continued to be managed for the two young men by their grandmother, +Mrs. Chatfield, known to Sir Charles and to all his intimates as the +"Dragon," 'on account of the sportive old soul calling herself the Dragon +of Wantley whenever she attacked me in arms.' With her lived her niece, +Miss Folkard, a quiet little old lady. When Charles Dilke married, Mrs. +Chatfield and Miss Folkard made way for the bride, and Ashton Dilke's home +was then with his grandmother. When death cut short that marriage, the old +ladies returned, and lived out the end of their lives in Sloane Street. +Mrs. Chatfield was a very popular personage; and many letters from Sir +Charles's friends have affectionate or jesting messages to 'Dragon.' + + +II. + +John Stuart Mill returned to England from Avignon in the spring of 1869, +and followed up his earlier letter of friendly criticism on _Greater +Britain_ by a suggestion of meeting. On Easter Sunday the meeting took +place, and the acquaintance 'rapidly ripened into a close friendship.' + +Sir Charles was elected in May to the Political Economy Club, of which +Mill was a leading member, 'defeating George Shaw Lefevre, Sir Louis +Mallet, Lord Houghton, and John Morley, although, or perhaps because, I +was somewhat heterodox. Still,' a marginal note adds, 'Mallet and Houghton +were pretty heterodox too.' + +The heterodoxy challenged that economic orthodoxy of which the Political +Economy Club was the special guardian. Forty years later Sir Charles +wrote, against the date May, 1869: + + 'This was the moment of the domination of the Ricardo + religion.[Footnote: It will be remembered that the fundamental + principle of the "Ricardian theory"--distinguishing it from that o± + Adam Smith--is the determination of wages by the law of population. + According to Ricardo, it is the influence of high or low wages on the + numbers of the population which adjusts the "market rate" to the + "natural rate."] It is admirably pointed out in Professor Ashley's + address, as President of the Economic Section of the British + Association, 1907, that this doctrine had become a complete creed, + with a stronger hold over the educated classes of England (and I + should add France) by 1821 than any creed has had. The Political + Economy Club is shown by Ashley to have been the assembly of the + elders of the Church, of which the founder assumed that they possessed + a complete code, representing just principles necessary to "diffuse." + The Club was to watch for the propagation of any doctrine hostile to + sound views. The sect grew rapidly from the small body of Utilitarian + founders, and conquered all the statesmen who rejected the other + opinions of James Mill. As I tried to show, with the support of a + majority of the Club, in April, 1907, the heresy of which I was + elected in 1869 as a representative has now (1908) triumphed. The + facts announced as "certain" by Ricardo have crumbled, and the + doctrine crumbles with them. Professor Ashley declared from the + Ricardo chair in 1907 that "the Ricardian orthodoxy is, by general + consent, ... dead to-day among the English-speaking economists." + + 'The son of the Club's founder, John Stuart Mill, lived to lead the + way out of the doctrine of his father, James Mill, Malthus, and + Ricardo, against the opposition of his own disciple Fawcett, into the + new land which he just lived to see. + + 'In the debates, which I regularly attended, Mill, who had become + semi-socialist in his views, was usually at odds with his own disciple + Fawcett, who had remained individualist. The rows which they had at + this Club were carried to the Radical Club after its formation later, + and I gradually deserted Fawcett, and, more and more influenced by + Mill's later views, finally came to march even in front of Mill in our + advance.' + +Sir Charles was from the first actually _in_ political life, to which Mill +had come after more than half a lifetime spent in study; and experience +transformed the philosopher. + + "The whole tone of his writings before he entered Parliament," said + Sir Charles a quarter of a century afterwards, "had been marked by a + vein of practical Conservatism, which entirely disappeared when he + found himself in touch with the destructive realities of British + politics." [Footnote: "John Stuart Mill, 1869-1873," _Cosmopolis_, + March, 1897.] + +Dilke, rightly zealous for the repute of a teacher under whose influence +his own political faith developed, was always at pains to confute the +popular opinion as to Mill's hardness. Addressing the Economic Society in +1909, he said: + + "John Mill's nature was far more spiritual than that of his father. + His self-training was far more permeated by what may be loosely called + Comtist-Christianity than by the utilitarian philosophy." + +He cited as an example the conclusion expressed by Mill so far back as +1848 that "cheapness of goods was not desirable when the cause was that +labour is ill-remunerated." Here was one of the points where Fawcett +'fiercely differed' from Mill, denying the possibility of any 'exception +to the wage principle laid down by Malthus and Ricardo.' Sir Charles was +destined not merely to affirm the principle which Mill conceded, but to +show by infinitely patient investigation of the facts, first the need for +applying the principle, and later--far more difficult--the means by which +it could be brought into operation. + +The change foreshadowed by this division among leaders of democratic +thought was no ordinary one; the whole direction of forces and tendencies +was altered; and from 1870 onwards Sir Charles was at the centre of the +movement which has established the 'semi-socialism' of Mill's last years +as the normal political opinion accepted by both parties to-day. He, more +than any other man, translated it from abstract theory into terms of +political reality. + + +III. + +Since his undergraduate years Charles Dilke had entertained the project of +writing on Russia, and perhaps the journey to his father's death-bed +revived the plan. + +While on the way to St. Petersburg in May, 1869, he chanced to share a +railway carriage with a distinguished member of the Russian Diplomatic +Service, Baron Jomini, son of the famous writer on strategy, and 'almost,' +says Sir Charles, 'the cleverest man I ever met with, and to me always an +excellent friend.' Jomini was useful even on that journey, when +difficulties arose over an irregular passport; and in later years he +rendered Sir Charles various services with officialdom--as, for example, +when the Russian Customs officers, not unnaturally, objected to the +English traveller's bringing in for his personal use 'books prohibited in +Russia, the most extraordinary collection that was probably ever got +together in that country unless in the office of the censorship of +police.' + +From the first Baron Jomini was at hand to introduce Sir Charles to +society in Russia, but in other directions the traveller was not less well +equipped. He learnt Russian; and before setting out on his second visit to +St. Petersburg in the autumn of 1869 he had made a special journey to +Geneva, with an introduction from Louis Blanc to Herzen, leader of the +moderate Russian revolutionists. He knew Mazzini well, and through him had +visited Baden to make a lasting acquaintance with Tourgenief. Tourgenief +was then 'living with the Viardots, the sister and brother-in-law of +Malibran.' Long years after Dilke spoke of him as one of the finest of +talkers. + +At St. Petersburg he met many of the advanced revolutionaries to whom +Herzen had commended him, and he was also received by more orthodox +Liberalism. The Political Economy Club gave a dinner in his honour, at +which he made a speech in French on the Irish Land Question; and the +Geographical Society held a reception in recognition of the author of +_Greater Britain_, with Baron von der Osten Sacken in the chair, son of a +comrade and colleague of the elder Jomini in days of Napoleonic war. +[Footnote: Nicolas Dmitrivitch von der Osten Sacken, Chamberlain of the +Imperial Court, afterwards Russian Ambassador at Berlin; born 1834, died +1912.] Osten Sacken's father was the Governor of Paris in 1815 after the +entry of the Allies. + +After a visit to Taganrog, at the eastern end of the Sea of Azof, he came +back to St. Petersburg, and occupied by chance the next rooms to the great +singer Mario--"an embarrassing neighbour, as he used to come in about 2 +a.m., and give me far too much of the quality of his voice." Here also Sir +Charles made friends with Governor Curtin, the American Minister, +'formerly Lincoln's Governor of Pennsylvania during the war, and the best +story-teller in the world.' 'I went about a good deal with Baron Jomini +and Baron von der Osten Sacken, and saw much of the Emperor's aunt, the +Grande Duchesse Hélène. My chief friends were at this time Princess +Galitzin, Prince Orlof Davydof, leader of the high Tory party, and the old +Princess Kotchubey, afterwards Grand Mistress of the Robes.' + +Later in the year he pushed across into Siberia; and in the Christmas +vacation Ashton Dilke came out to join his brother. They met at Kazan, +whither Charles had returned from his Siberian wanderings, and went down +the Volga together to Astrakan, and thence travelled across the Don +Cossack Steppe. Sir Charles returned in the last days of 1869. He notes +that Ashton showed at this time the beginnings of consumption--symptoms +which led him to give up rowing, and became more grave in the years of his +travels in Central Asia. + +Russia exercised from the first for Charles Dilke a fascination which it +never lost. A picture by Vladimir Makofsky, which he bought about this +time, hung in the breakfast-room at Sloane Street; 'it represents a scene +from one of Tourgenief's early stories, a summer's night in the government +of Toula: boys telling ghost stories while they watch horses grazing on +the lammas land.' + +A chapter in _Greater Britain_ had set out the opinion which, after travel +in the East, he formed of Russia, from talk both with Englishmen and with +Orientals. The great power, which he then guessed at from the other side +of the Himalayan barrier, seemed to him essentially Asiatic, not European, +and not a civilizing power. He quoted with approval the saying of an +Egyptian under Ismail's rule: "Why, Russia is an organized barbarism,-- +why--the Russians are--why, they are--why, nearly as bad as _we_ are." + +This was his view of the Russian Government. The opinion which he formed +of the Russian people as a whole was in itself 'contradictory because they +are a contradictory people.' He found them 'avid of new ideas.' Yet, +'however fond half-educated Russians may be of professing a knowledge of +things they do not understand, I never doubted for one moment the +greatness of the future that lies before Russia, nor the essential +patriotism and strength of the Russian race; and it was these last +considerations that took me so often to their country.' + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE EDUCATION BILL OF 1870--THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR + + +I. + +From his Russian journeys Sir Charles returned to take part in an election +in which occurred his first opportunity for helping the cause of direct +Labour Representation. In 1869-- + + 'at the extreme end of the year, I returned to London, and worked hard + for Odger in the Southwark Election, in which, opposed by a + Conservative and a Liberal (Sir Sydney Waterlow), he beat the Liberal, + with the result, however, that the Conservative got in. Lord Edmond + Fitzmaurice subscribed towards Odger's expenses, and Fawcett also + worked for him. The incident contributed a good deal towards that + separate organization of the Radicals which was attempted early in the + following year.' + +Already another organization of far-reaching influence had been planned, +and it led to a great alliance. + + 'In the course of 1869 I became Chairman of the London Branch of the + newly formed Education League, and my friendship with Joseph + Chamberlain began, he being Chairman of the Committee of the League + and its real head.' + +Dilke was seven years the junior of Chamberlain, who in 1869 was thirty- +three. But he had seven years' Parliamentary seniority over his friend, +who did not become a member of the House of Commons till 1876. Chamberlain +was in 1869, and indeed for several years later, a politician and member +of the Birmingham Town Council, known throughout the Midland area for the +boldness of his Radicalism--which did not stop short of avowing Republican +principles--and also for extraordinary ability in developing the municipal +improvements in which Birmingham under his auspices led the way. He had +conceived, and in the Education League partly carried out, the idea of a +political association independent of official party control, which should +cover the whole country with its branches, and so become a power behind +and beyond the Parliamentary leadership. Sir Charles, on his side, brought +into the partnership the resources possessed by a young man of +considerable reputation both in literature and in public life, who at an +early age had established himself in a metropolitan seat. + +'The principle of the League was that of general education, and of +compulsion and freedom from fees as a consequence. The teaching of +religion was left to the Sunday-schools, and upon this head difficulties +soon arose.' The mass of English Liberals inherited the Protestant +conviction that "simple Bible teaching" could offend nobody, and must be +good for everybody, and consequently should be included in the term +"education," while the view of more sophisticated politicians was given by +Sir William Harcourt (then Mr. Vernon Harcourt). He wrote to Sir Charles +in 1870: + + "We are fighting with inferior forces, and everything must depend upon + husbanding our strength, using it to the best advantage, and not + exposing ourselves to needless defeats. We must always seem to win, + even though we do not get what we want. That is what up to this point + we have accomplished. But we must not allow ourselves to be + precipitated upon destruction by men who may be philosophers, but who + are no politicians.... We must now retire on the second line of + defence. What is that to be? I lay down first that the thing to be + resisted is denominationalism. If it can be got rid of altogether-- + best; but if not, then to the greatest degree--next best. Now, as a + politician (not as a philosopher) I am quite satisfied that neither in + the House of Commons nor in the country can we beat denominationalism + by secularism. If we attempt to meet the flood by this dyke it will + come over our heads. We must break the force of the wave by a slope, + and deal with its diminished weight afterwards as best we may." + + 'Harcourt then went on to defend that to which I was strongly opposed + --namely, Bible reading--on the ground that "we should give our + republic not the best possible laws, but the best which they will + bear. This is the essence of politics. All the rest is speculation.... + We must make up our minds before the meeting on Monday, for in the + multitude of counsellors there is folly."' + +A definite principle was at stake. Under this proposal the teaching, +though called undenominational, would not in fact be so. Bible reading, +subject, no doubt, to a conscience clause, would be enforced on Roman +Catholics, Jews, and secularists, and Bible reading, though +undenominational as regarded the different divisions of Protestant +Christianity, would still be denominational as regards these three: 'I +myself took the extreme and logical line of not only opposing Bible +reading, but of opposing Mr. Jacob Bright's and Mr. Cowper Temple's +amendments for excluding creeds, and for setting up a general +undenominational Protestantism of the majority.' + +He was in agreement with John Stuart Mill in resisting a proposal which in +his opinion did injustice to large classes of the community for the sake +of introducing what (in his own words) "could be only religion of the +driest and baldest kind, and such as would be hardly worthy of the name." + +At the beginning of 1870 Sir Charles was not openly in revolt, though +after working for Odger against the Government candidate, he had gone on +to condemn in a speech the Whig influences and fear of the House of Lords, +which in his opinion were destroying Mr. Gladstone's Irish Land Bill. Mr. +Gladstone showed a desire to conciliate this overactive critic by inviting +him to second the Address to the Crown. + +Accordingly at the opening of Parliament on February 8th, 1870, Sir +Charles had his part to play in the modest ceremonial which still +survives, rather shamefacedly, in the House of Commons, when a couple of +commoners, uniformed or in Court dress, are put forward as the spokesmen +of that sombre assembly. + +His speech, advocating the European concert, dwelt on the cloudless calm +which lay--in February, 1870--over the civilized world, and for another +six months wrapped it in delusive peace. + +For the moment domestic affairs held the field. In spite of Bright's +observation about driving six omnibuses abreast through Temple Bar, +Forster's Education Bill was pressed forward along with the Irish Land +proposals, and the Government were at once in trouble with their advanced +wing, in which Sir Charles Dilke was a leader of revolt. He acted as +teller along with Henry Richard when Richard took sixty dissentient +Liberals into the Lobby in support of a general motion demanding that +school attendance should be compulsory, and that all religious teaching +should be separately paid for out of voluntary funds. When compromise was +accepted: [Footnote: The Cowper Temple clause practically left religious +teaching to local option. Each school was to give or not give such +religious teaching as it thought well, so long as no _Board_ School was +used to attach a child to a particular denomination.] + + 'I was, I believe, the only Liberal member who resisted the Cowper + Temple amendment as accepted by the Government, and I resigned my post + as Chairman of the London Branch of the Education League. I published + a letter explaining the reasons for my resignation; the Committee + wrote in reply that they fully agreed with me in matters of principle, + and asked me to reconsider my resignation.' + +This, however, he refused to do, since the London Branch and the League +generally were abandoning the principle in the support they gave to +compromise. + +Throughout the Committee stage his name appears in all the numerous +division lists, voting against Government as often as with it. Thus it was +from a position of complete independence that he carried two amendments of +great importance. + + 'The Bill as brought in made the School Boards mere committees of + Boards of Vestries, and the amendment that School Boards should be + elected by the ratepayers, which was forced on and ultimately accepted + by the Government, was mine. I also was the author of the proposal + that the School Board elections should be by ballot, which was + carried.' [Footnote: He always regretted the substitution later of the + Educational Committees of County Councils for the School Boards.] + +The ballot was then the question of the hour, and it was a matter upon +which his study of foreign and Colonial institutions had made him an +authority. In 1869 he had given evidence before the Select Committee on +Parliamentary and Municipal Elections, 'explaining the working of the +ballot in France, in the United States, and, above all, in Tasmania and +Australia.' The evidence which he gave was of service in the preparation +of the Ballot Bill of 1870, which closely followed the example set by +Tasmania and South Australia. + +Sir John Gorst, who was already a well-known figure in English politics, +though not yet in Parliament, remembered attending a debate specially to +hear what this newcomer had to say upon the question of the hour. + +This first practical application of the ballot, 'forced on and ultimately +accepted by the Government,' did not pass unchallenged. When Sir Charles's +amendment was at last put to the vote, he was privileged to tell with +George Glyn, the Chief Whip, in a division which took place 'after the +fiercest conflict ever up to that known within the walls of Parliament, we +having sat up all night.' There was a long series of dilatory motions, a +fresh one being moved after a division had disposed of its predecessor +'This was the first birth of obstruction, and the lesson taught by Mr. G. +C. Bentinck on this occasion was afterwards applied by "the colonels" in +the proceedings on the Army Purchase Scheme in 1871, and then by Butt's +Irish after 1874.' + +In all the discussions on the Ballot Bill for Parliamentary elections Sir +Charles steadily opposed the introduction of a scrutiny which involved the +numbering of the ballot papers. This appeared to him 'a pernicious +interference with the principle of secrecy, chiefly important because it +would be impossible to convince ignorant voters that their votes would not +be traced.' His view 'prevailed,' he says, 'in the House of Commons, but +the provisions of which we secured the omission from the second Ballot +Bill were once more inserted by the House of Lords' at its passage in +1871. + +There was another matter connected with the franchise in which Sir Charles +had effected by an amendment an even more remarkable change, and that in +his first session. The proposal to give women ratepayers the franchise in +municipal elections, or rather 'to restore to them a right which was taken +away by the Municipal Reform Act of 1835,' was his. Two amendments were on +the paper, and though by a chance Mr. Jacob Bright's was taken first, the +suggestion, as Mr. Bright admitted, really came from Sir Charles, and it +was carried in the session of 1869. This proposal, as he explained to a +meeting of the London Society for Woman's Suffrage over which Mrs. Grote +presided, was in his opinion 'merely experimental, and only a first step +to adult suffrage.' In 1870 he seconded Jacob Bright's Woman's Suffrage +Bill, which was carried through the second reading--'the only occasion +when a majority of the House of Commons declared for the principle till +1897.' Divergencies of opinion had in the meantime arisen. The Bill of +1870 did not debar married women from obtaining the vote. When in later +years a proviso excluding them was introduced, Dilke, with Jacob Bright, +withdrew from the parent society. He held throughout his life that to +attempt compromise on this matter was to court failure, and that women +would never get the vote except as part of a scheme for universal +suffrage. This was no mere academic opinion; and he gave later on proof of +his earnestness for the principle involved in convincing fashion. + +To the argument still urged against that principle--the argument that most +women are against it--he gave his answer in 1870: + + "You will always find that in the case of any class which has been + despotically governed--and though I do not wish to use strong + language, it cannot be denied that women have been despotically + governed in England, although the despotism has been of a benevolent + character--the great majority of that class are content with the + system under which they live." + +He pointed out that to admit women to the franchise did not compel those +to vote who did not desire to do so. + +In this matter Jacob Bright was his leading associate in Parliament; but +outside Parliament he was working with Mill. + +To the two questions already dealt with--Education and Woman's Suffrage-- +was now added a third, which Sir Charles describes as 'chief of all the +questions I had to do with in 1870--the land question.' There is this +endorsement on one of Mill's letters written in 1870: + + "I acted as his secretary for above a year on (_a_) his land movement + = taxation of land values; (_b_) the women's suffrage proposal, which + followed the carrying of his municipal franchise for women by me in + 1869 and the School Boards, 1870." + +The Radical Club was founded, with Sir Charles as Secretary, in 1870, and +Mill was among the original members of the Club. [Footnote: The others +were Professor Cairnes, Mr. John Morley, Mr. Frank Hill (editor of the +_Daily News_), Leslie Stephen, Mr. Leonard Courtney, Mr. Henry Sidgwick, +Mr. W. C. Sidgwick, Mr. McCullagh Torrens, and Mr. Fawcett. Sir David +Wedderburn, Mr. Peter Taylor, and Mr. Walter Morrison were added at the +first meeting, as also was Mr. Hare. At the first meeting it was decided +that women should be eligible. Half the Club was to consist of members of +Parliament, half of non-members.] From this platform Mill propounded, in +1870, his views on land--views which forty years later became the adopted +principles of the Liberal party; and at the inaugural public meeting of +the Land Tenure Association in 1870 Sir Charles for the first time +promulgated the doctrine of taxing the "unearned increment." He insisted +that England's system of land tenure was "unique in the world," and +answerable for tragic consequences. + + "One who has seen our race abroad under fair conditions knows how + frank and handsome the Englishman is elsewhere, and might be here. But + when he looks around him in Sheffield or in East London, he sees none + but miserable and stunted forms. The life of the English labourer is a + steady march down a hill with a poorhouse at the bottom. At the same + time the observer finds, when he asks for the remedy, that in these + matters there is not a pin to choose between the two parties in the + State." [Footnote: A note sent to Lord Courtney in 1909 will show + exactly what Sir Charles's position had been on this fundamental + matter from the very outset of his political career: + + "Mill's object was-- + + "To claim for the benefit of the State the interception by + taxation of a great part of the unearned increase of the value of + land which is continually accruing, without effort or outlay by + the proprietors, through the growth of population and wealth. + + "To purchase land for the State, and let for co-operative + agriculture under conditions of efficiency and to smallholders on + durable cultivating interests." + + He adds a reference to his own Bill "for utilizing public and quasi- + public lands under public management, with repeal of the Statute of + Mortmain and forbidding of alienation." + + This Bill was introduced by him in the early seventies, but obtained + no support till 1875 (see Chapter XIII., p. 192).] + +Within the previous twenty-five years over six hundred thousand acres of +common land had been enclosed, under Orders sanctioned by Parliament. Of +this vast amount only four thousand had been set apart for public +purposes. In 1866 the commons near London were threatened, and a Society +for their preservation was formed, in which Mr. Shaw Lefevre was the +moving spirit. [Footnote: Now Lord Eversley.] Sir Charles became in 1870 +Chairman of the Society. Among the latest of his papers is a note from +Lord Eversley accompanying an early copy of the new edition of his +_Commons and Forests_ "which I hope will remind you of old times and of +your own great services to the cause." 'We saved Wisley Common and Epping +Forest,' says the Memoir. It was more important that on April 9th, 1869, +the annual Enclosure Bill was referred to a Select Committee, +notwithstanding the determined opposition of the Government. The date is +memorable in the history of the question, for the Committee recommended +that all further enclosures should be suspended until the general Act had +been amended, as it was in 1876. + +About the same time Sir Charles became publicly committed to another +cause, barren of political advantage, into which he put, first and last, +as much labour as might have filled the whole of a creditable career. He +began to take an active part in connection with the Aborigines Protection +Society and presided at its Annual Meeting in 1870. This, says the Memoir +laconically, 'threw on me lifelong duties.' + + +II. + +The Franco-German War broke upon Europe in July, 1870. Later, it became +one of the chief interests of Sir Charles's mind to track out the workings +of those few men who prepared what seemed a sudden outburst; here it is +important only to outline his attitude towards the combatants. In that +period of European history every politician was of necessity attracted or +repelled by the personality of the Emperor of the French. In Sir Charles's +case there was no wavering between like and dislike: he carried on his +grandfather's detestation of the lesser Napoleon. The chapter in _Greater +Britain_ which is devoted to Egypt shows this feeling; and when news of +Sadowa reached him during his American journey in the autumn of 1866, he +wrote home to say that he rejoiced in Prussia's triumph, and hoped "Louis +Napoleon would quarrel with the Germans over it, and get well thrashed, +with the result that German unity might be brought about." + + 'This' (he notes in the Memoir) 'is somewhat curious at a time when + everybody believed (except myself and Moltke and Bismarck, not + including, I think, the King of Prussia) that the French Army was + superior to the armies of all Germany.' + +In coming down the Mexican coast he touched at Acapulco, which was under +Mexican fire, as the French still held the bay and city; and he had then, +later in 1866, 'begun to hope for the fall of Louis Napoleon, who was +piling up debt for France at the average rate of ten millions sterling +every year, and whose prestige was vanishing fast in the glare of the +publicity given to the actions of Bazaine.' + +Before Sir Charles returned to Europe in 1867, Maximilian, the Austrian +Archduke sent by Napoleon III to be 'Emperor of Mexico,' had fallen, an +unlucky victim of French intrigue. But Paris was still the centre of +Europe; and the traveller on his way home from Egypt--where he had seen +French enterprise opening the Suez Canal, French language and influence +dominant--saw Louis Napoleon preside at a pageant, already darkened by the +rising storm-cloud: + + 'Reaching Paris' (in June, 1867), 'I attended the review held (during + the Exhibition of 1867) by the Emperors of Russia and of the French, + and the King of Prussia, at which I saw Gortschakof, Schouvalof, + Bismarck, and Moltke, on the day on which the Pole Berezowski shot at + Alexander II. Sixty thousand men marched past the three Sovereigns at + the very spot at which, three years later, one of them was, to review + a larger German force. The crash was near; Maximilian had been shot. + It is, however, not pleasant to contrast the horror with which the + news of the execution of the puppet Emperor was received in Europe, + with the indifference with which all but a handful of Radicals had + regarded the Paris executions of December, 1851.' + + 'In October, 1867, three months later, I again visited Paris, with my + father, and made the acquaintance of the Queen of Holland, the Queen + of Sheba to Louis Napoleon's Solomon in his glory. The Emperor of + Austria, the King of Bavaria, and Beust were also in Paris on business + which boded no good to Bismarck, and the populace were amusing + themselves in crying "Vive Garibaldi!" to the Austrian Emperor, as + three or four months earlier they had cried "Vive la Pologne!" to the + Tsar. At a banquet to the Foreign Commission to the Exhibition, at + which I dined, I heard Rouher make his famous speech, "L'Italie n'aura + jamais Rome," which he afterwards in December repeated in the Corps + Législatif--"L'Italie ne s'emparera pas de Rome--jamais" (shouts of + "Jamais!" from the Right): "Jamais la France ne supportera cette + violence faite à son honneur et à la catholicité." When I heard the + word "jamais," I believed I should live to see Italy at Rome, but + hardly so soon.' + +His governing dislike of France's rulers had reflected itself in that part +of his first address to the electors of Chelsea which laid down his views +on foreign affairs. "Our true alliance," he had told them, "is not with +the Latin peoples, but with men who speak our tongue, with our brothers in +America, and with our kinsmen in Germany and Scandinavia." This +prepossession, notable in one who came afterwards to be regarded as the +closest friend of France among English politicians, shaped his action when +the crash came. It tempted him to the German side, but contact with +Prussian militarism showed where his real sympathies lay. + +War was declared on Tuesday, July 19th. On the following Saturday morning +Sir Charles left London for Paris: left Paris for Strasbourg the same +evening: visited Metz on the Monday, and saw the Imperial Guard at Nancy. +Within four days from the time of leaving he was back in London, and busy +with preparations. He had decided to attach himself to the ambulances of +the Crown Prince of Prussia's army, and in this expedition two other +members of Parliament joined him: + + 'Auberon Herbert (physically brave, and politically the bravest, + though not politically the strongest, man of our times) and + Winterbotham, afterwards Under-Secretary of State for the Home + Department, and a man of eloquence, whose early death is still + deplored by those who knew him. We took letters from Count von + Bernstorff, the Prussian Ambassador, and following up the German + armies through the Bavarian Palatinate, a journey during which we were + arrested and marched to Kaiserslautern to the King's headquarters by + Bavarian gendarmes, as French spies, we were enrolled under the + Prussian Knights of St. John at Sulz by Count Goertz, and received + billets from that time, although we used to pay for all we had at + every place. At Wissembourg and at Sulz we were sent to the inn, and + at Lunéville I was planted on an ironmonger, but we were divided. At + Nancy only, being fixed on a legitimist Baron, I was not allowed to + pay for what I had, but I was put with him by his wish, by his friend + the Mayor, as he would not have real Prussians. He made things so + unpleasant for my companion, Count Böthmer--though, unlike his + brother, the Count was a non-combatant--that this Knight of St. John + had to go elsewhere. Auberon and Winterbotham were also put elsewhere + at Nancy. At Sarrebourg and Pont-à-Mousson I forget with whom we were, + but we were together and were nearly starved. + + 'We marched with the Poseners, or Fifth Army Corps, through + Froeschwilier and Reichshoffen; went off the road to Saverne to + witness the bombardment of Phalsbourg; joined again at Sarrebourg; + marched by Lunéville, and from Nancy were sent to Pont-à-Mousson + during the battles before Metz. + + 'The first thing that struck us much during this portion of the war + was that the grandest of the early victories in this so-called war of + races, the Battle of Worth, was won and lost in the centre of the + position by pure Poles and native Algerians. Poseners were arrayed + against Turcos, and both fought well, while hardly a German or a + Frenchman was in sight. On the field of Wörth I noted that the + Poseners had all many cartridges as well as their Polish hymn-books + with them, but the Turcos were as short of cartridges as of hymn- + books. Wanting a French cartridge, I was unable to find one in the + pouches of the dead, while of German cartridges I had at once as many + dozens as I pleased. I fancy, however, that it would not be safe to + conclude, from the fact that the French had fired away their + ammunition, that they fired carelessly because too fast; for the + Germans, vastly outnumbering the French (who ought not to have fought + a battle, but rather should have fallen back), had probably opposed at + different portions of the day different corps to the same French + regiments, who had not been relieved. After this battle all was lost + to the French cause. The scattered French spread terror where they + went, and while the railway might have been wholly destroyed by the + simple plan of blowing up some tunnels, only bridges were blown up, + which in the course of a few days were, of course, replaced even where + they were not in a few hours easily repaired.... + + 'I was glad to have seen the beginning of the invasion. At no other + time could I have gained a real knowledge of that which every + politician ought to know--the working of the transport system of a + modern army. We were the smaller of the two invading forces, yet we + needed a stream of carts the whole way to Nancy from Bingen upon the + Rhine, perpetually moving day and, night. The French compared the + swarming in of Germany to the invasions of the Huns.... + + 'My letters to my grandmother (by the military field post) were not + numerous. My first (written from Wissembourg) states that we are much + elated at the victory of Wissembourg; while the second is as follows: + + '"I write on paper left by the French in the Palace of Justice. They + seem to have fled in haste, for... the judges' pen-and-ink portraits + of one another still adorn the blotting-paper. This place + (Wissembourg) is in much confusion.... When, by straining, and a good + deal of pressure upon the members of the old French municipal council, + a regiment is housed, in comes another with a demand for food and + lodging for six hundred horses and four hundred men; then a Prussian + infantry regiment two thousand strong, and so on all night.... We are + leaving as members of the Prussian Order of St. John for the Bavarian + camp. The whole series of French telegrams up to July 30th are still + posted here on the Sous-Préfecture, inside which is confined Baron de + Rosen, Colonel of the 2nd Cuirassiers of the French Guard." I go on to + say that the "town commandant is an English volunteer and lives in + London when at home.... He is a most accomplished man." He was + accomplished enough, but he was a lunatic; and there is no more + singular episode in the war than the fact that an unauthorized lunatic + should have appointed himself to the command of an important depot, + and been recognized for at least a week as commandant by all the + authorities. The fact was that no regiment was stopping many hours in + the town, and that each Colonel, finding a particular person + established there, although he may have thought him a curious + commandant, never thought of questioning his authority. + + 'One of my letters appeared in the _Daily News_. It was dated August + 15th, and prophesied the complete destruction of the French armies, + and it contained a somewhat amusing paragraph: + + '"In our march last night we came into a part of the country + unoccupied by either army. We were twice driven from villages by the + Mayors, who seemed at their wits' end in the mazes of international + law. One said to us: 'This town is not Prussian. It is French, and + martial law is proclaimed in this part of France. Accordingly I must + tell you that you need a French military safe-conduct. If you stop + here without it I must arrest you, and send you'--he thought for a + while--'to the Prussian Commandant at Sarrebourg.'" At Nancy I saw the + Crown Prince, Dr. Russell of the _Times_, Mr. Hilary Skinner of the + _Daily News_, and Mr. Landells of the _Illustrated London News_, who + afterwards died of rheumatism caused by exposure in the war. Lord + Ronald Gower was there on the same day, but was sent away, as his + presence with Dr. Russell as a guest was unauthorized. + + 'Among our adventures, in addition to our arrest near Kreuznach and to + our obtaining passes from the maniac commandant, was the adventure of + our being lost in the Vosges, and nearly coming to be murdered by some + French peasants, who in the night tried to force their way into the + village school in which we had barricaded ourselves. Another adventure + was our being nearly starved at Pont-à-Mousson, where at last we + managed to buy a bit of the King of Prussia's lunch at the kitchen of + the inn on the market-place at which it was being cooked in order to + be placed in a four-in-hand break. While we were ravenously gorging + ourselves upon it, a man burst into the room, and suddenly exclaimed: + "Winterbotham!" It was Sir Henry Havelock, who was hiding in the + place, being absent without leave from the Horse Guards, where he was, + I think, an Assistant Quartermaster-General. He had made friends with + the Prussian Military Attaché, to whom Bismarck had lent his maps, and + we thus saw them and learnt much. It was on the same day that Bismarck + himself was nearly starved. The first part of the story had appeared + in print, and I asked him about it when I was staying with him in + September, 1889. He told me that he had with him at his lodging the + Grand Duke of Mecklenburg and General Sheridan, the American cavalry + officer. Bismarck had gone out to forage, and had succeeded in finding + five eggs, for which he had paid a dollar each. He then said to + himself: "If I take home five, I must give two to the Grand Duke and + two to Sheridan, and I shall have but one." "I ate," he said, "two + upon the spot and took home three, so that the Grand Duke had one, and + Sheridan had one, and there was one for me. Sheridan died: he never + knew--but I told the Grand Duke, and he forgave me."' + +No turn of fortune any longer seemed possible, and in Sir Charles's mind +hatred of the Emperor began to be replaced by sympathy for France. + + 'Writing on the day of Gravelotte to my grandmother, I said: "I have + no notion how I shall get back.... Perhaps I shall come from Paris + when we take it, as I suppose we shall do in a week or two." Such was + the impression made on me by the rapidity of the early successes of + the Germans. My feelings soon changed. Winterbotham continued to be + very German, but Herbert and I began to wish to desert when we saw how + overbearing success had made the Prussians, and how determined they + were to push their successes to a point at which France would have + been made impotent in Europe.... + + 'During the week which followed Gravelotte I saw much of Gustav + Freytag, the celebrated Prussian writer and politician, who was the + guest of the Crown Prince. This "Liberal," who had the bad taste to + wear the Legion of Honour in conquered France, was odious in his + patriotic exultation. + + 'Bringing back with me nothing but a couple of soldiers' books from + the field of Wörth, and the pen of the Procureur-Impérial of + Wissembourg, which still hangs outside my room, I got myself sent to + Heidelberg in charge of a train full of wounded French officers of + Canrobert's Division, wounded at the Battle of Mars la Tour on August + 16th, but not picked up until after Gravelotte on August 18th. It was + the first train back; and as there was no signal system, and we had to + keep a lookout ahead, it took me two days to reach the German + frontier. We halted for the night at Bischweiler, and, passing through + Hagenau, were received at the frontier of the Palatinate by a young + man who came and spoke to every French officer, and asked after his + wounds, introducing himself at each compartment by saluting and + saying: "Je suis le duc Othon de Bavière." This pleasant boy was + afterwards to show the hereditary madness of his unhappy race. One of + my prisoners was a Nancy man, and at this station I managed to find a + boy who ran to his house, and brought down his old nurse with wine and + food. It was a touching scene of a simple kind, and we were all the + gainers by the officer's hospitality. + + 'From Heidelberg and Karlsruhe, where I was examined as a spy, I made + my way by Switzerland and Paris to London. Almost the moment I reached + London I saw a telegram in an evening paper announcing Sedan. I + started that evening for Paris, accompanying Major Byng Hall, who + carried despatches to Lord Lyons. We were the first to bring the news + to Calais, where it was not believed, and we were mobbed in the + railway-station. Old Byng Hall put his hand on his heart, and assured + the crowd upon his honour that, though he was very sorry, it was true. + + 'On the morning of September 4th, my birthday and that of the French + Republic, I was standing in Paris with Labouchere, afterwards the + "Besieged Resident," in front of the Grand Hotel upon the Boulevard in + an attitude of expectation. We had not long to wait. A battalion of + fat National Guards from the centre of Paris, shopkeepers all, marched + firmly past, quietly grunting: "L'abdication! L'abdication!" They were + soon followed by a battalion from the outskirts marching faster, and + gaining on them to the cry of "Pas d'abdication! La déchéance! La + déchéance!" It was a sunny cloudless day. The bridge leading to the + Corps Législatif was guarded by a double line of mounted Gardes de + Paris, but there were few troops to be seen, and were indeed very few + in Paris. We stood just in front of the cavalry, who were perhaps + partly composed of mounted Gendarmerie of the Seine, only with their + undress _képis_ on, instead of the tall bearskins which under the + Empire that force wore.... Labouchere kept on making speeches to the + crowd in various characters--sometimes as a Marseillais, sometimes as + an Alsatian, sometimes as an American, sometimes as an English + sympathizer; I in terror all the while lest the same listeners should + catch him playing two different parts, and should take us for Prussian + spies. We kept watching the faces of the cavalry to see whether they + were likely to fire or charge, but at last the men began one by one to + sheathe their swords, and to cry "Vive la République!" and the Captain + in command at last cried "Vive la République!" too, and withdrew his + men, letting the crowd swarm across the bridge. So fell the Second + Empire, and I wished that my grandfather had lived to see the day of + the doom of the man he hated. + + 'The crowd marched across the bridge singing the "Marseillaise" in a + chorus such as had never been heard before, perhaps, for the throng + was enormous. After ten minutes' parley inside the Chamber the leaders + returned from it, and chalked up on one of the great columns the names + of the representatives of Paris declared to constitute the Provisional + Government, and I drew the moral--on a day of revolution always have a + bit of chalk. The crowd demanded the addition of Rochefort's name, and + it was added. We then parted, one section going off to look for Paul + de Cassagnac, [Footnote: M. Paul de Cassagnac was a conspicuous + Imperialist.] who was the only man that the crowd wanted to kill. + + 'I went with the others, first to the statue of Strasbourg, which was + decorated with flowers, and to which a sort of worship was paid on + account of the gallant defence of the city, Labouchere making another + speech, and then on to the Tuileries. A Turco detained us for some + time at the gates by dancing in face of the crowd. But at last they + insisted on the private gardens being thrown open, and then swept in, + and we passed through the whole of the apartments. Privates of the + National Guard stationed themselves as sentries in all the rooms, and + not a thing was touched, an inscription proclaiming "Death to thieves" + being chalked upon every wall. Precautions were necessary, for the + police, knowing themselves to be unpopular, had disappeared. Indeed + the first proof to me in the early morning of the certainty of a + revolution had been that on the boulevards the squads had passed me, + relieving themselves in the usual way, but no squads going to take + their places. The crowds were orderly, but the eagles, of course, were + broken down, and a bit of one from the principal guardroom hangs still + on the wall of my London study. The next day I wrote to my + grandmother: "I would not have missed yesterday for the world. Louis + Blanc and other exiles have come over, but I fear that the great + northern line will be cut by Wednesday, and then you will get no more + news from me." + + 'I had dined with Lord Lyons on the previous evening in such a costume + as had never till then been seen at dinner at the Embassy, and had + listened with him to the bands playing the "Marseillaise" and "Mourir + pour la Patrie," and on the morning of the 5th I had seen Louis Blanc. + On the 6th I wrote that I feared that my letters would be stopped. In + the course of the following days I visited all the forts with Alfred + Tresca, of the Arts et Métiers, who had been set by Government, + although a civil engineer, to organize the bastion powder-magazines, + so I saw the defences well. Alfred Tresca was afterwards arrested + while I was in Paris under the Commune, in the first week in April, + 1871, for refusing to point out where his powder was. + + 'I did not believe in food being got in fast enough to enable Paris to + hold out long. Knowing as I do that the German cavalry were within 100 + miles of Melun for a fortnight before they cut the Lyons line, I + consider that to have allowed the French its use was a great error on + the part of Germany, an error equal to that of letting Canrobert's + army join Bazaine by Frouard Junction without hindrance on August + 13th, when we were already in Nancy, only five miles off. Both errors + turned out well enough, as the luck of the Germans had it; but I do + not believe that anyone now realizes the narrowness of the escape that + the Prussians had of being crushed by Gambetta. They undertook too + much when, with 210,000 men (at first), they set themselves to besiege + Paris, which had in it 500,000 (though of bad material and no + discipline), with 300,000 more French upon the Loire. The Germans + succeeded, but I believe, with the French, that if Bazaine had held + out a fortnight longer they must have failed.... + + 'What was done in thirteen days at Paris was wonderful. It is to Jules + Favre and to Gambetta that France owed the exhaustion of the Germans + by a siege in 132 days, instead of a collapse in ten days, and it is + to them, therefore, that they nearly owed success--success which would + have crowned Gambetta a king of men, though he had done no more than + what, as it is, he did. I had an interview with Jules Favre [Footnote: + Jules Favre was at this time Vice-President of the Provisional + Government for National Defence with the Portfolio of Foreign + Affairs.] at the Foreign Office one morning at 6 a.m. I also met + Blanqui, [Footnote: Blanqui, well known as an agitator and + revolutionary writer, was elected to Parliament in 1871 for + Montmartre. He was disqualified from membership by various judicial + condemnations, but "the Chamber decided to invalidate his election by + solemn vote, instead of accepting as his disqualification the recital + of the sentences passed on him depriving him of political rights" + (_France_, by J. E. C. Bodley, vol. ii., p. 101). Theirs had him + arrested and imprisoned.] afterwards too famous, at breakfast at Louis + Blanc's restaurant (opposite the old Town Hall), the headquarters of + the Reds. Naquet, the hunchback, now known for his divorce law, was + also there. + + 'On one of the last sad days before the commencement of the siege + (Vinoy's or) Ducrot's army crossed Paris, and the 30,000 men which + formed it marched down the Rue Lafayette, across the Place de l'Opéra, + and down the Rue de la Paix towards the south-western heights, where + they afterwards ran away on September 19th. I never saw a more + depressing sight. I stood all day and through the evening in the rain, + comparing these wretched, draggled, weary, dejected men, on the one + hand, with the French troops I had seen at Nancy six weeks earlier, + and, on the other, with the Prussian Fifth Army Corps I now knew so + well. Troops, however, cannot be always judged by the eye alone, for + the Bavarians, who fought admirably throughout the war, when I saw + them on the march at the beginning of it looked so bad that I expected + daily to see the whole 60,000 of their two strong corps eaten up by + the single French corps which I knew was just in front of them. This + French corps was commanded by de Failly, who had commanded three years + earlier a mixed Papal and French force against Garibaldi at Mentone, + near Monte Rotondo, and reported: "Les chasse-pôts ont fait + merveille." + + 'The day before I left Paris I saw a sergeant of foot surrounded by a + crowd of roughs. He was explaining to them that he was an Alsatian. "I + come from down there. They have eaten my cow!" "Ah," cried the witty + Paris crowd, "if they had only eaten _Leboeuf!_" The Marshal was + looked upon in Paris as the cause of the war in virtue of his + influence with the Empress. + + The investment of Paris was completed on September 15th, and on the + 16th 'I parted from Louis Blanc, who was despondent, and to whom I was + able to give no reassuring words, for I had seen the wonderful + organization of the Germans. I left by the southern station for + Geneva. Thousands of packing-cases encumbered the courts, the luggage + abandoned by the women and children flying from Paris. At Villeneuve + St. Georges the French marines were drawn up in skirmishing order, and + the enemy's cavalry were in sight. Our train was the last but one + which passed, but we could, if stopped, have left Paris two days later + by the Rouen line, although on the 18th the trains by that last line + were fired at. I wrote home that I could not help thinking of one of + the plays of Aristophanes, in which a peasant wings his way to heaven + on the back of a gigantic dung-beetle in order to remonstrate with God + upon the evils which He has inflicted upon man by war, and finds that + God is out, and that His place has been taken by a devil, who is + pounding all the powers together in a mortar. + + 'I went to Lyons, where the red flag was flying from the Town Hall, + but where the feeling in favour of continuing the war was just as + strong as in the districts of the tricolour. I then crossed France to + Tours, where I saw M. Crémieux, a Jew, the representative of the + Government outside Paris, Gambetta not having yet descended from his + balloon.... + + 'I visited the camp of the Army of the Loire, of which the + organization was commencing, saw Lord Lyons and Sheffield, his + secretary, near Tours, and took despatches for them to Calais by Rouen + and Amiens. They included the correspondence of Mme. de Pourtalès and + Mme. de Metternich. The railways were in terrible confusion--National + Guards moving, people flying before the Prussians, no food. I was + three days and three nights on this little bit of road, and slept on + tables in waiting-rooms at Vierzon and elsewhere. Passports were + strictly demanded at this time on leaving as well as on entering + France. When I reached Calais I found that the boat (and even that + boat one with no passengers) would leave about 4 a.m., after the + arrival of mails by sea. The inspection of my passport could only take + place, I was told, when the boat was starting. It was midnight, the + gates of the town were shut and drawbridges up, and the hotel at the + station had been closed for lack of visitors. Watching my time, I + dropped on board the steamer from off the quay, when the + coastguardsman's head was turned, and, finding a deck-cabin unlocked, + I popped in and bolted the door, going fast asleep, and woke only when + we were outside the harbour in the grey light of early morning, which + shows that passport regulations can be evaded. All through the war + Prussian spies could get into France with ease, without any need of + false papers, by visiting the Savoy coast of Lake Leman as Swiss + peasants. I was not called upon to show my papers when I passed from + the Germans to the French by way of Basle, Ouchy, and Evian.' + +Sir Charles here concludes the story of his French adventures of this year +by giving his judgment of that moment upon the-- + + 'events which will never be forgotten by those of my time ... the + downfall of the most magnificent imposture of any age--the Second + Empire.... + + 'As I noted in my diary at the time, "it is possible that the + Bonapartists may raise their heads again, though if so, it is more + likely to be under Plon-Plon than under the Empress, an impossible + woman, whom even her son would have to exile should he come to the + throne. But the 'Sphinx' who dominated Europe for so long is fallen, + and it seems that my grandfather and dear old Kinglake were right, who + always said that he had long ears and was a sorry beast after all. Now + Europe thinks so, except the Rothschilds and the _Daily Telegraph_. + What will future ages say of the shameful story of the _coup d'état_ + of 1851, of the undermining of the honour of every officer in the + French Army by promises of promotion for treachery to the nation, of + France ruined by the denying of all advancement to those who had not + Court favour, of the Morny war in Mexico--of Maximilian, abandoned + after having been betrayed, of the splendour of the Guards and of the + Imperial stables, of the plundering, of the degradation of justice, of + the spying by everybody on everybody else? What a sad farce the whole + thing was, but how seriously Europe took it at the time!"' + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE BLACK SEA TREATY--THE COMMUNE + + +I. + +In September, 1870, shortly after the Siege of Paris had begun, the +Russian Chancellor, Gortschakof, intimated to the Powers that the Tsar +proposed to repudiate that article in the Treaty of Paris which declared +the Black Sea neutral, forbade Russia to build arsenals on it, and limited +her fleet there to six small vessels. [Footnote: Treaty of Paris, July +13th, 1856 (Hertslet's _Treaties_, vol. xiv., p. 1172).] This particular +article had been specially demanded by England; and when France, desirous +of closing the Crimean War, spoke of yielding to Russia's resistance, +Palmerston had declared that without this stipulation England and Turkey +must carry on the war alone. + +Sir Charles, on this matter as on many others, inclined to the +Palmerstonian tradition, which was certainly neither that of Mr. Gladstone +nor of Lord Granville. But Lord Granville gave him introductions for his +projected second journey to Russia, and charged the young Liberal member +with the task of representing the Cabinet's views: + + "In talking to Russians I hope that you will say that we are about the + most peaceable Ministry it is possible for England to have, but we are + determined not to put up with any indignity. On the other hand, we + greatly regret any stop to increasing good relations between the two + countries, and shall be glad to make them even more cordial than + before if we are properly treated." + +He added the request that Sir Charles would write him first-hand +impressions of the situation in Russia. + +From St. Petersburg Sir Charles, in November, 1870, went to Moscow, where +he lived with the Mayor, Prince Tcherkasky, 'who afterwards became +Governor of Bulgaria, and died at San Stefano, just after the signature of +the Treaty.' He was thus brought into touch with 'the political intrigues' +of the moment: + + 'The Imperial Prince, who was afterwards Alexander III., was no + stranger to them. Alexander II. was, like his grandfather Alexander + I., a German and a dreamer, as well as melancholy mad. His son, the + Imperial Prince, like his grandfather Nicholas and like Paul, was both + violent and sulky; but he was patriotic, and had at this time the + sense to put himself in the hands of the Moscow men.' + +"It is satisfactory to know that the antagonism of an heir-apparent to the +reigning Sovereign docs not depend on race or climate," was, says Sir +Charles, Lord Granville's comment on this description. + + 'It was an interesting moment, and no foreign residence of my life was + ever more full of the charm which attaches to the development of new + political situations. The Emperor Alexander II. had fallen back from a + most brilliant early part of his reign into its second period, which + saw the rise of his unpopularity and the birth of Nihilism. He had + become frightened, had not perhaps lost all his good intentions, but + become too terrified to escape political reaction. His son, afterwards + Alexander III., was, as often happens in despotisms, glorified by a + popularity which he afterwards did not retain. When I saw the heir- + apparent at his palace he seemed to me to be a hard-working, stupid + man, and I never afterwards was able during his reign to divest myself + of this first impression. + + 'Of all those that I met in Russia, the ablest were the two brothers + Miliutine. The General, I think, survived his brother by a long time, + and continued to be Minister of War for years after his brother's + death; but the brother, the Miliutine of the reorganization of Poland + after the last Polish insurrection, who was when I knew him half + paralyzed in body but most brilliant in mind, struck me as being more + full of ideas than any man I have ever met. His inferior brother was, + though inferior, nevertheless a good Minister of War. + + 'The Miliutines were Liberals. The leader of the high Tory party of my + time was an equally remarkable man, Count Tolstoi, the iron + representative of iron Toryism, of perfect honesty, in whom energy and + strength were not destroyed by prejudice. He was the most ideal + minister of despotism that autocracy has produced, representing the + principles of order and authority with more ability than is generally + found in leaders of his type. He was intensely hated by the + Universities and by most of those, chiefly Liberals, with whom he + lived. But although he is said by his terrorism to have created + Nihilism, I am far from being convinced that any other course was + possible to the Russian Empire, and if this course was to be taken, he + took it well. In modern times there never was so unpopular a Minister, + and when, in after years, Alexander III. recalled him to power as + Minister of the Interior, one could not but feel that the break + between the principles acted on by this Sovereign as Emperor, and + those which he had honestly professed when heir-apparent, was + complete. + + 'I not only well knew Jomini, but I had made the acquaintance in 1868 + in London (and renewed it at a later date) of his colleague Vlangali, + at that time as truly brilliant and as supple as Jomini himself, + though as silent as Jomini was talkative; ... and between them and + their marvellous subordinates, Hamburger the hunchback Jew, and his + head of the Asiatic Department, Westmann, I do not wonder that two + stupid men, the vain Gortschakof and the drill-sergeant de Giers, were + able successively to pretend to rule the Foreign Office without the + policy of the country suffering. + + 'In Katkof I was greatly disappointed. The man was very powerful under + two reigns, and with the exception of Count Tolstoi, he was the only + man who was so, since otherwise all the adherents of Alexander II. + were in disgrace during the reign of Alexander III.; but I could see + nothing in Katkof except strength of will and obstinacy. He was + entirely without judgment or measure or charm. The two Vassiltchikofs + were men of what is called in Russia a "European" type, or + "civilized." There was nothing specially Russian about them, but they + were far pleasanter than as a rule are able Russians, and this was + also the case with Madame Novikof's brothers, the two Kiriefs. In + general it may be said that in the Moscow chiefs of the Slav + Committees there was more European give and take, and less obstinacy + or pig-headed Toryism of Russian character, than among any other set. + One of the Vassiltchikofs had an art collection, and afterwards + became, I think, Art Director at St. Petersburg, while the other, who + was the greater Slav, and who was the son-in-law of Prince Orlof + Davydof of St. Petersburg, who sent me to him at Moscow, was chiefly + given to good works in Moscow. I think, if I remember right, that my + hostess, Princess Tcherkasky, with whom I lodged, was their sister. + + 'I saw a good deal of Peter Schouvalof, known as "all-powerful," of + whom I afterwards again saw a great deal when I was at the Foreign + Office and he was Ambassador in London. He was the bitter enemy of + Count Tolstoi all through life; but his complete fall, and it may even + be said utter destruction, during the reign of Alexander III., was, I + think, not owing to this fact, but because he was easygoing and had + made friends with the morganatic wife of Alexander II. in his last + years. Alexander III. never forgave anyone who had shown this + disrespect to the memory of his mother, although as soon as his son in + time succeeded to the throne, the members of the Imperial family + visiting France, who had never acknowledged the existence of the + Princess during all the years of Alexander III.'s reign, immediately + began to revisit her at Biarritz or in Paris. + + 'Peter Schouvalof represented the French Regency in our times, with + all its wit, with all its half-refined coarseness--the coarseness of + great gentlemen--with the drunkenness of the companions of the Regent, + and with their courage. At the time that I knew him in St. Petersburg + he was as much hated as his enemy Count Tolstoi, but that was because + he held the terrible office of head of the Third Section or Director + of the Secret Police, with the power of life and death over everyone + except the Emperor. It was a somewhat sinister contrast to find, in + one who used to the full the awful powers of his office, the greatest + gaiety that existed in mortal man, unless in Gambetta. + + 'K. Aksakof was in Moscow the superior in power even of Tcherkasky the + Mayor, even of the two Samarines, even of Miliutine of Moscow, the + brother of the General. He was not in reality so strong a man, but he + had the ear of the heir-apparent, and I cannot but think, from a good + deal which came to my knowledge at the time, that there was some + secret society organization among the Slavophiles, of which he was the + occult chief. Some think that had he liked he would have continued to + rule Alexander III. after the latter ascended the throne, but my own + impression is that he would have ended his days in Siberia. His + brother John, who survived and had influence, was a very different + man, and held other views. His influence for a time was enormous, + although I could more easily have understood the dominance in the + party of Miliutine or of Samarine. Katkof retained his influence + because he was above all of the despotic party. Aksakof would have + failed to retain his, because, although he held, as an article of + faith, that reforms must come from the Emperor to the people, yet he + desired that the Emperor should be a Russian Liberal--a very different + thing from a "European" Liberal, but still something different from + Alexander III. or from Count Tolstoi's ideal of a Russian autocrat.... + + 'Among those I knew' (says a later note) 'was the pretty little child + of Count Chotek of the Austrian Embassy, the bosom friend of Prince + Henry VII. of Reuss, the Prussian Ambassador. The child's mother, + Chotek's wife, was Countess Kinsky. She became the wife of the + Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and the birth of her son, in 1902, was + hailed by the Magyars as that of an heir to the throne of the dual + monarchy, and may lead to civil war in Austria some day.' [Footnote: + It was the assassination of this Archduke which preceded the Great War + of 1914.] + +Sir Charles continued to correspond with Lord Granville about the +international complication. The Foreign Secretary wrote in December of the +proposed Conference of London that-- + + "It would not be a bad result that each side should imagine it had had + a victory. There would remain the public opinion of Europe, and as we + are neither of us popular, that may be tolerably impartial." + +The Russian point of view had been put to Sir Charles before he left +England in a letter from Baron Jomini, who complained that attempts to +revise the Treaty of Paris by a European Congress had repeatedly failed, +because England had always made it a condition that at such "a Congress +the Eastern question should not be raised." What, then, was open to +Russia--since "all the world privately admitted that the position created +for her by the Treaty of 1856 was inequitable and an obstacle to good +understanding" but to show the signatory Powers the impossibility of her +remaining any longer in a false position? + +The view which Sir Charles formed at the time was in strong condemnation +of Lord Granville's action. In his opinion, Great Britain, by consenting +to a Conference (proposed by Russia's friend; Prussia), consented to +negotiate upon an act of repudiation by which her own rights were +infringed; and this surrender seemed to him wholly unnecessary. Later +knowledge only confirmed him in his opinion. + + 'We knew' (he writes in the Memoir) 'that Austria, the original + proposer of the neutralization, had on November 22nd stated that she + would join us in a war with Russia if we declared war upon the + question, and Italy had already declared that she would act with + Austria and ourselves. On the other hand, we now know (1906) that the + British Cabinet of 1856 did not contain a member who thought the + neutralization worth anything, or that it could be maintained beyond + "the first opportunity." Gladstone, in 1879, returned to the question, + and said that even Turkey had been willing to agree in 1870 to what + had been done; but from a despatch to Lord Granville, dated November + 24th, 1870, which has been published, it is clear that Austria, Italy, + and Turkey would have gone along with us. Under these circumstances no + fighting would have been wanted. All that we need have done would have + been to have declared that we should take no notice of the Russian + denunciation, and to have sent our fleet into the Black Sea, and the + Russians could have done nothing but give in, as a platonic + declaration that they were free would not have enabled them to launch + a ship. Then we might gracefully have yielded; but as it was, we gave + in to a mere threat of force.' + +Acceptance of the Conference, moreover, seemed to Sir Charles a betrayal +of France. France, who had been England's ally in the Crimea, one of the +signatory Powers to the Black Sea Treaty, saw her capital beleaguered by +the Prussian friends of the Power which repudiated the Treaty, and could +not even send a representative to the Conference to protest. + +It was natural, then, that at the opening of Parliament in 1871 the member +for Chelsea should raise this question. But to do so involved the bringing +forward of a motion tantamount to a vote of censure on the Government, +which Sir Charles Dilke himself supported; and Mr. Gladstone contrived to +put his too critical supporter in a difficulty. + +The Queen's Speech inevitably contained reference to Prince Gortschakof's +action, and in both Houses there was considerable comment upon this in the +debate on the Address. The Prime Minister referred to the opportunity for +fuller discussion which would be afforded by Sir Charles's motion, but, +when pressed to name a day for the motion, deprecated discussion while the +Conference was sitting. Frequent questioning led finally to the +intervention of Mr. Disraeli, who raised the whole question of Conference +and Treaty in a speech, and was answered by Mr. Gladstone. When after all +this Sir Charles still persisted in his motion, the purpose of which was +not to discuss either the methods or the results of the Conference, but to +deplore the Government's action in having entered on it at all, Mr. +Gladstone declared that Government could spare no time, and would give a +day only if it were taken as a direct vote of censure, which they must in +honour meet; adding that the day could only be found by the postponement +of a Licensing Bill which had much support in the Liberal party. Sir +Charles persevered, and made a very able speech, to which no serious +answer was given. He entirely destroyed the pretence that the Conference +had met without a "foregone conclusion," and stigmatized the indecent +haste which could not wait to secure the presence of France even as an +assenting party to this acceptance of an act of repudiation. But the House +was dominated by dislike for anything which seemed to hint at opening up a +new European war at the moment when a settlement of the existing conflict +was expected. The Tories, 'would only speak, and would not vote'; while +Sir Charles's Radical associates, such as Mr. Peter Rylands, welcomed +anything done under pretext of avoiding war. + + 'An attempt was made by Sir Henry Bulwer, the cynical and brilliant + brother of Lord Lytton, by Mr. Horsman and Mr. Otway, to use my motion + for their own purposes. Otway had resigned his Under-Secretaryship of + Foreign Affairs on account of his strong opinion upon the question, + and was distressed to find that his resignation had fallen flat. + Horsman was always discontented, and Bulwer wanted to be a peer. + [Footnote: Sir Henry Bulwer was afterwards created Lord Calling; Mr. + Horsman had been a conspicuous Adullamite in the previous Parliament.] + I used to tell Bulwer up to his death that I gave him his peerage, for + he received Gladstone's offer of the peerage just in time to prevent + him from speaking for my motion. Bulwer, whom I had known as + Ambassador at Constantinople, Sir Andrew Buchanan, whom I had known as + Ambassador at St. Petersburg, Horsman, and Otway came and dined with + me, and we made a great plot, and thought we were going to upset the + arrangement with the Russians. But Gladstone succeeded in taking away + Goldsmid, who was one of our very few Liberal supporters, made Bulwer + a peer, and left me only with Otway, Gregory, afterwards Governor of + Ceylon, and Horsman.... + + 'I ought to have divided, even if I had been in a minority of one, for + the proposal to withdraw my motion brought a hornet's nest about my + ears, and was a parliamentary mistake.' + +Michel Chevalier, the celebrated French Economist and Free Trader, wrote +thanking Sir Charles. He had spent, he said, thirty years of his life in +advocating an Anglo-French understanding, and now he would not know how to +look his countrymen in the face were it not for the courageous utterances +of a few friendly Englishmen to which he could point as evidences of a +good-will that had not forsaken France in her evil day. + + +II. + + 'Immediately after my return to England in the middle of the winter of + 1870-1871, which had already been the severest ever known in Russia, I + again started for the scene of war. I first visited the army of + General Faidherbe, which was gallantly fighting in the north, and I + was present at one of the engagements near Bapaume, in which the + French took prisoners sixty sharpshooters of the Prussian Landwehr-- + splendid soldiers, towering above our little Frenchmen, to whom it + seemed incredible, whatever the odds, they should have surrendered. I + never saw so wretched an army to look at as Faidherbe's. His cavalry + were but a squadron. He had one good regiment of foot Chasseurs and + two good regiments of marines; and the gunners of his artillery + (escaped men from Sedan) were excellent, and the guns were new; but he + had for his main body some 20,000 second-skim of the National Guard, + the cream from the north having been sent south to the Army of the + East under Bourbaki, with whom they were driven into Switzerland. + + 'Ours were what schoolboys would call second choice. Oh, such men! and + without boots, without overcoats, facing arctic weather in wooden + shoes and old sacks--facing the Prussians, too, with old muzzle- + loading guns; but they fought well, and their leader, a man of genius, + made the most of them. I returned two or three times to England--that + is, to Dover--to eat and buy things I could carry, for I could hardly + get anything at Lille, where, by the way, I heard Gambetta make his + great speech. It was the finest oratorical display to which I ever + listened, though I have heard Castelar, Bright, Gladstone, the Prime + Minister Lord Derby, Gathorne Hardy, and Father Félix (the great + Jesuit preacher) often, at their very best. + + 'Picking up Auberon Herbert, who was on his way to Versailles to wait + for the surrender of Paris in order to take in food to his brother + Alan, who was serving as a doctor on the ambulance inside, I went to + the siege of Longwy. Like all the fortresses of France bombarded in + this war, with two exceptions, it surrendered far too easily. + + 'From Longwy we passed on to Montmédy, at which latter place we + witnessed the immediate effects of a fearful railway accident, a + collision in a tunnel between a trainful of French prisoners and one + of recruits for the Prussian Guards. The scene in the darkness and + smoke, with the stalwart, long-bearded Landwehr men, who formed the + garrison of the town, holding blazing torches of pine and pitch, and + the glare from the fires of the upset engines, was one which would + have delighted Rembrandt. When a rush of water, a cataract from the + roof of the lately blown-up tunnel, suddenly occurred, adding to the + horror of the night, the place was pandemonium. Almost the only men + unhurt in the front carriages, which were smashed to pieces, were the + Mayors of the villages on the line, travelling compulsorily as + hostages for the safety of the trains. I made military reflections on + the advantage of blowing up tunnels, as against the practice of + destroying bridges and so forth.' + +Sir Charles was one of the first in Paris after the siege (which was +raised by an armistice on January 29th, 1871), taking in with him a large +quantity of condensed milk, of which he made presents to his Paris +friends. The purpose of the armistice was to enable regular conditions to +be signed between the conqueror and the conquered. The Imperial Government +had declared war on Prussia; but the Empire had fallen and the existing +Government was only provisional. It had a branch in Paris, another branch +in Bordeaux, and between these the investing army barred all +intercommunication. The purpose of the armistice was to allow the holding +of elections throughout France to return a National Assembly, which in its +turn should appoint Ministers fully authorized to treat for peace. The +elections did but emphasize the division between Paris and the provinces, +for in Paris an Ultra-Radical representative was returned, while in the +country a considerable majority of monarchical deputies were elected. +Republican France feared, and not without cause, some attempt to re- +establish a dynasty. + +When, on February 20th, the new Government, with Thiers at its head, +signed preliminaries of peace, a condition was included which stipulated +that the Prussian troops should formally enter Paris and remain for three +days in possession of all the forts before evacuating the place. The +National Guard, refusing to obey orders, entrenched itself in Montmartre; +the seat of government was transferred to Versailles, lately the Prussian +headquarters; fighting broke out in the streets, and the control of the +city was seized in the name of the Commune. + +So began the second siege, in which revolutionary Paris stood at bay +against those whom they called 'the Prussians of Versailles,' while the +real Prussians, still occupying part of the exterior line of forts, looked +on, impartial spectators. Sir Charles writes: + + 'At this time my attention was exclusively turned to foreign affairs, + and immediately after my Black Sea speech I started for Paris. I took + with me an appointment as a Daily News correspondent--not that I + intended to correspond, but only because it would explain my presence. + Having been unable to leave London during the first days of the rising + of March 18th, which developed into the Commune of Paris, I left it + with my brother on April 2nd, and reached Creil at night, and St. + Denis in the morning. From Creil I wrote to my grandmother: "We shall + reach Paris in the morning. It is no use writing, and we shall not be + able to write to you." We drove into Paris, and at once went to the + Hotel de Ville, where we found the famous Central Committee sitting. + We obtained from some Garibaldian officers of the Staff a special pass + to leave Paris in order to see Gustave Flourens, for whom I was + carrying a private letter from a friend of his in London.... The drums + were beating through the streets all day, and great numbers of + National Guards were under arms attempting to march upon Versailles, + and there was heavy fighting, which we witnessed from a distance. + + 'We counted 160 battalions of National Guards all carrying the red + flag, and saw altogether, as near as we could compute, almost 110,000 + men. That all Paris was in the movement at this time was clear, not + only from this fact, but also from the following: that on March 26th + between 226,000 and 227,000 electors voted, a full vote for Paris + considering the great number of persons who, having left Paris before + the siege, had not returned. In the municipal elections after the + Commune, when the Conservatives had come back and made a great attempt + to win, the total number of voters was only 186,000. I noticed at the + Hôtel de Ville that the Parisians had a great many sailors in uniform + with them. These were sailors who had remained in Paris after serving + there during the siege, and my pass was handed to me by a splendid + specimen of a French tar wearing the name of the _Richelieu_ on his + hat. I was one of the few persons not in the insurrection (and these + were mostly killed) who saw the pictures in the Hôtel de Ville so + late--that is, so soon before the fire which destroyed them all--and I + recognized old friends which I had known from 1855, when I was there + at the great ball. Those who showed us from room to room were chiefly + Garibaldian Poles, among them the Dombrowskis, one of whom was killed, + and two of whom I afterwards befriended in London in their exile. + + 'The next morning we left Paris early by the Vaugirard gate, for no + one could tell us where Flourens was engaged. We had followed the main + line of fighting; his death occurred upon the other line; but so great + was the confusion of these days that we knew nothing of it until the + 5th. We thought that to make for Clamart would be the surest course to + bring us to the forefront of battle, and at 8 a.m. we were in Issy. We + then heard heavy firing, and came over the hill between Forts Issy and + Vanves, but there was a dense fog which deadened sound, and it was not + till we were well down the hillside that we heard the crunch of the + machine-guns, when we suddenly found ourselves under a heavy fire from + the other side. Seeing the railway embankment in front of us at the + bottom of the hill, we ran down and got under shelter near an arch at + the corner of a park wall, which may, perhaps, have been the cemetery. + Here we sat in safety while the bullets sang in swarms through the + trees over our heads, while the forts cannonaded the heights, and the + heights bombarded the forts, and while the federal regiments of the + National Guard tried in vain to carry once more the line of hills + which they had carried on the previous day, but had of their own + accord at night abandoned, having no commissariat. They used, in fact, + to go home to dinner. Indeed, many would in the morning take an + omnibus to the battlefield, and fight, and take the omnibus back home + again to dine and sleep--a system of warfare which played into the + hands of the experienced old soldiers--the police of Paris--all ex- + non-commissioned officers, and the equally well-trained Customs guards + and forest guards, by whom they were opposed. General Vinoy, who was + commanding, had, however, heavy work on this day, in which Duval, the + General of the Commune, met his death within a quarter of a mile of + the spot where we were hiding. With this day ended, indeed, the + offensive operations of the Federalists against Versailles, and began + the offensive operations of the regulars against Paris. After sitting + a long time in our corner we found ourselves starved, and ran up the + hill by the park wall, under a heavy fire, to Issy and then walked + into Paris. I have a bullet in my room which struck the wall between + us just as we reached shelter at the top. One of my curiosities of the + time is the official newspaper of April 4th, which was conducted, of + course, for the insurrection, but which played so well at being + official that it announced as good news the telegrams from Algeria + showing that the Arab insurrection was being put down, although the + Government which was putting down this insurrection was the very same + Government which was engaged in putting down the more formidable + insurrection in Paris, to which the journal temporarily belonged. + + 'On Wednesday, the 5th, my brother went to the fighting at Neuilly + bridge, where the troops from Versailles were beginning to develop a + serious attack, destined, however, to continue for six weeks without + result, for Paris was not entered at this point. I, with a letter from + Franqueville [Footnote: Le Comte de Franqueville, well known to a + large circle of English friends by his book, _Le Gouvernement et le + Parlement Britanniques_ (Paris, 1887).] to the Duc de Broglie, + afterwards Prime Minister, in one pocket, and a pass from the + Insurrection in the other, left Paris at 5 a.m. by the Porte + Montrouge, and walked by Bourg la Reine to La Croix de Berny, and + thence by Châtenay to La Cour Roland, where I met a cavalry patrol of + the regular forces, and then came to an infantry camp. Having shown my + letter, my English passport, and my appointment as a newspaper + correspondent, I was allowed to go on to Versailles. There I slept on + a table, there being a terrible crowd of Paris fugitives in the town. + In the morning I had my interview with the Duke. He was kind to me, + and I saw much of him in London and in Paris in later years. Thiers + was right in alluding to his dull father as "The Duc de Broglie; the + other, _the_ duke." But both were narrow doctrinaires. + + 'After looking at M. Thiers' reserves, which at this time consisted of + 250 guns parked on the Place d'Armes, with no artillerymen to work + them, and a Paris regiment, the 118th, raised during the siege, locked + up in the park to prevent their joining the insurrection, I started + for St. Germain, where I met Major Anson, M.P., afterwards the leader + of "the Colonels" (who resisted abolition of army purchase) in the + House of Commons, and lunched, watching the firing of Mont Valérien on + Paris. I then drove to St. Denis, the Prussian headquarters. Thence I + drove again (the La Chapelle gate of Paris being shut) to Pantin. + After a long parley the Belleville-Villette drawbridge was lowered for + me, and I was admitted to Paris, having been almost all round it in + the two days. + + 'Major Anson gave me a bag of gold to pay to his brother's (Lord + Lichfield's) cook. This man was in Paris, and on the 7th I called on + him at a house close to the Ministry of the Interior, and to the + Palace of the Elysée. The cook's rooms were at the top of the house, + over the Librairie, still there in 1907. He received the visit of + myself and my brother in bed. "Excuse me," he said, "but I have been + fighting these three days, and I am tired out." I asked his wife what + he was fighting for, and she did not in the least know. No more did + he, for the matter of that. He was fighting because his battalion was + fighting. "The Prussians of Versailles" had taken the place of the + other Prussians; that was all. At this moment 215 battalions of the + National Guard supported the insurrection, having joined in pursuance + of the resolution that, in the event of the seat of Government being + transferred from Paris to any other place, Paris was to constitute + itself a separate Republic. This more than anything else was at the + bottom of the insurrection, and, as M. Jules Simon has said, "many + Republicans who were neither Socialists nor Revolutionists hesitated. + One asked oneself if in fighting on the side of order one was not at + the same time fighting for a dynasty." Then, again, serving in the + National Guard meant pay and food, especially for the working man, for + there was no work to be got in Paris, as business had not been + reopened. Moreover, Paris was writhing with rage at the Prussian + entry, and Parisian vanity was engaged on the side of the + insurrection. + + 'The insurrection was certainly at this time very far from being a + communistic movement, as from a natural confusion of names it was + thought to be by foreigners. There was a burning jealousy in Paris of + the "Rurals," and a real fear, not ill-founded, that a Royalist + conspiracy was on foot. The irritations of the siege, however, played + the largest part. The National Guard, who had fought very well at + Buzenval on January 19th, profoundly moved by the capitulation, had + carried off their guns to their own part of Paris in February, and it + may be said that the insurrection dated from that time, and was + historically a protest against the peace, for M. Thiers temporized + with the insurrection until the old seasoned soldiers were beginning + to return to him from their captivity in Germany. The fighting began + with the sudden attempt of the Government to remove by force the guns + which had been taken to Montmartre, followed as it was by the murder + of two Generals by the mob. [Footnote: General Lecomte and Clément + Thomas, the Commandant of the National Guard, were shot on March 18th, + 1871, under conditions of peculiar brutality.] A number of men threw + themselves into the movement from love of fighting for fighting's + sake, like the Garibaldian Poles. Some joined it from ambition, but + the majority of the men who later on died on the walls or in the + streets in the Federalist ranks died, as they believed, for the + Republic, and had no idea of the plunder of the rich. Ricciotti + Garibaldi was near Dijon "in observation," as he afterwards told me. + He said that he wanted to march upon Versailles with his excellent + little army, which would have followed him, and fought well, and would + certainly have taken the new capital, although it would have been + crushed later on. He telegraphed to Garibaldi, and "Papa" telegraphed + to him not to move, Garibaldi being wiser, perhaps, in his son's case + than he would have been had it been his own, for he was not remarkable + for wisdom. It was a strange moment: the Prussians watching the + fighting from those of the forts which were still in their hands, and + a careless, idle Paris crowd of boys and women watching it from the + walls. + + 'On the 7th my brother and I were all but killed by a shell from Mont + Valérien which suddenly burst, we not having heard it, close to us in + a garden at the corner of the Place de l'Étoile and Avenue d'Uhrich, + as the Avenue de l'Impératrice had at this time been named, from the + General who defended Strasbourg. During the 7th and 8th a senseless + bombardment of a peaceable part of Paris waxed warm, and continued for + some days uselessly to destroy the houses of the best supporters of + the Conservative Assembly without harming the Federalists, who did not + even cross the quarter. M. Simon has said that Thiers did not bombard + Paris; that he only bombarded the walls of Paris at the two points at + which he intended to make a breach.... All I can say is that if this + was the intention there must have been someone in command at Mont + Valérien who failed to carry it into effect, and who amused himself by + knocking the best part of Paris to pieces out of mischief, for no + artilleryman could have been so incapable as to fire from hill to hill + when intending to fire down into that which, viewed from Mont + Valérien, looks like a hole. In 1841, curiously enough, Thiers had + been accused, at the time of the erection of the forts of which Mont + Valérien was one, of making it possible that Paris should be bombarded + in this way, and had indignantly replied, asking the Assembly if they + believed that after having _inondé de ses feux la demeure de vos + familles_ a Government could expect to be continued in power. But in + 1871 he did it, and was continued in power for a time, and that with + the triumphant support at the moment of the very persons whose houses + he had destroyed. The Commune had a broad back, and that back was made + to bear the responsibility of the destruction.' + +Sir Charles returned to his duties in London after the Easter recess, but +he was back in Paris to see the last moments of the second siege. On May +21st the army had forced its way into the city, though several days of +bitter street fighting remained, in which the town was fired, and the +Hôtel de Ville and Ministry of Finance were destroyed. [Footnote: Sir +Charles writes of the celebrated order, "Flambez Finances": 'the order to +burn the Ministry of Finance was an undoubted forgery, as a distinguished +Frenchman, signing himself "A Communalist," showed in the _Pall Mall +Gazette_. The evidence before the court-martial of the porter of the +Ministry of Finance, that the fire was caused by shells, confirms my view, +and shows how the events of the moment have been distorted by the passions +of writers.'] Sir Charles had foreseen the destruction of these uildings, +"because they were behind great barricades in the direct line of the +necessary attack," and was also proud of the verification which a minor +military forecast received. Alan Herbert, Auberon's elder brother, who for +many years practised as a doctor in Paris, was awakened on May 21st by a +disturbance in the street, and + + '"saw several National Guards and dirty-looking fellows taking counsel + together whether they should raise a barricade opposite my windows, + and they were actually beginning it. However," he wrote to his mother, + Lady Carnarvon, "Sir Charles Dilke, when he was in Paris with Auberon, + came to see me here, and the question being raised as to a barricade + being placed opposite my windows he decided it could not be, as the + only proper place for one would be some doors lower down at the + meeting of the three streets. This recollection was some consolation + to me, and his opinion was quite correct, for an officer arrived, + supposed to have been the General Dombrowski, who made them begin + lower down."' + +It was on May 25th that Sir Charles left London to reach Paris, which was +known by the 24th to be in flames. + + 'Crossing by Calais, I reached St. Denis at night, drove to Le + Bourget, got a pass into Paris from the Germans at dawn, with a + warning, however, that it would not bring me out again. By the + drizzling rain I passed unhindered into Paris, all the gates being + open and the drawbridges down, as the Federalists were both within and + without the walls. I reached the great barricade in front of the gates + of the Docks de la Villette at seven in the morning. My road had been + lighted till the daylight grew strong by the flames of the + conflagration of the warehouses. This day, Friday the 26th, was that + of the third or last massacre of hostages--the thirty-seven gendarmes, + the fifteen policemen, the eleven priests, and four other people, I + believe. It was a very useless crime. When I reached the great + barricade at a meeting of roads, one of which I think was called Route + d'Allemagne, fighting had just recommenced after a pause during the + night. At this point the field artillery were bombarding the barricade + from the Rue Lafayette. I stood all day in comparative safety at the + door of a baker's shop in the Rue de Flandre, for the baker was + interested in what was going on sufficiently to keep his door open and + look out and talk with me, though his shutters were up at all the + windows. When evening came the Federalists still at this point + maintained their strong position, and I, of course, knew nothing of + the movements on the south by which the troops had all but hemmed them + in. The baker with whom I had made friends offered me hospitality for + the night, which I accepted, and I might have stayed longer with him + had I pleased; but not knowing how long the fighting might continue, I + determined to make my way into the Versailles lines at dawn. + + 'Fighting in our quarter had been again suspended at night, and in the + grey light of early morning (it was fine after a long rain) I left my + baker and made my way to the left, the left again, and then down a + long street towards the Eastern Railway. A sentry about two hundred + yards off presented his piece. I stood still in the middle of the + street. He seemed then not to know what to do. I had on the red-cross + armlet which I wore throughout the war, and held a white handkerchief + in my hand. I suppose I looked respectable enough to be allowed to + come nearer, for he let me advance. When near enough I called to him + that I wished to speak with the officer of the post. He called out a + corporal, to whom I made the same statement. They kept me there for a + time which seemed an age, and then brought an officer. I shouted to + him that I was an English newspaper correspondent, that I had an + authorization as such, an English passport, and a Prussian pass into + Paris, and that I was known to the Due de Broglie and to Lord Lyons; + also that I could name friends in the centre of Paris to whom I might + be sent under guard. He let me pass, and said: "Allez! Vous avez eu de + la chance." I went straight to the Arts et Métiers. The dead were + lying thick in the streets, especially at the Porte St. Martin + barricade, where they were being placed in tumbrils. The fighting had + been very heavy; the troops alone had lost 12,000 killed and wounded + after entering Paris. At least as many Federalists were killed + fighting, or wounded and finished, besides the great number shot after + their surrender. I found Tresca, the father, picking up the pieces of + the shells which were bursting in the courtyard, and putting them all + together with wires, to the greater glory of his own particular make. + It was the Federal artillery on the heights which was bombarding Paris + with Tresca's shells. When one burst perfectly into some twenty equal + pieces he would say:" Beautiful; that is one of mine." Any that burst + into one large piece and two or three little ones he set down to the + "génie militaire" of Vincennes. + + 'After several days I left Paris with Dr. W. H. Russell of the + _Times_, my former opponent at Chelsea at the '68 election, whom I had + last previously seen at Nancy on the day of Mars la Tour, and returned + to London, having for the purpose of leaving Paris a pass from Marshal + MacMahon's Chief of the Staff, which I still preserve.' [Footnote: + This Diary Extract of the War of 1870 was published in the _Nineteenth + Century_ of January, 1914.] + +So ends the story. Later in life, during his championship of army reform +in the House of Commons, a Tory Colonel interrupted the civilian critic +with some bluntness. "I have been on more battlefields," Sir Charles +retorted, "than the honourable and gallant member has ever seen." The +white ambulance cap, with its black and green peak, which he preserved as +a memento, bore on its lining: + + + "WÖRTH. ORLÉANS. + PHALSBOURG. LONGWY. + MARS LA TOUR. BAPAUME. + GRAVELOTTE. PARIS." + +Preserved among Sir Charles's papers, and dated September 30th, 1870, +there is this letter from John Stuart Mill: + + "If Gladstone had been a great man, this war would never have broken + out, for he would have nobly taken upon himself the responsibility of + declaring that the English Navy should actively aid whichever of the + two Powers was attacked by the other. This would have been the + beginning of the international justice we are calling for. I do not + blame Gladstone for not daring to do it, for it requires a morally, + braver man than any of our statesmen to run this kind of risk." + +At the outset of hostilities France, and not Germany, appeared to Sir +Charles not only ostensibly, but really the attacking Power, and therefore +the true menace to the liberties of Europe. The policy of Louis Napoleon +was apparently responsible for the Franco-German War, and as he said in +_Greater Britain_: "If the English race has a mission in the world, it is +surely this, to prevent peace on earth from depending upon the verdict of +a single man." With the fall of Napoleon and observation of the Germans as +conquerors, Sir Charles became wholly French in his sympathies, and before +long his close study of events preceding the war showed him that it had +really been of Bismarck's making. This did not lead him to advocate +"alliance," for when alliances between various Powers were constantly +advocated, he declared his belief that "the time for permanent alliances +is past"; [Footnote: Speech at Chelsea to his constituents, January 24th, +1876.] but his observations in these years made him through life the +steady friend of France, the constant upholder of her value to Europe, the +advocate of fellowship between her free greatness and that of his own free +country. "France," said he, "has in England no stronger friend than I." He +lectured and spoke more than once upon the great war and its results, and +the passage which ends a Recess speech of 1875 was delivered after one of +the critical moments when Germany had shown a disposition to renew attack +on France. Someone had spoken of Germany "as the most 'moral' among the +nations." Sir Charles replied: + + 'Not only do I think the conduct of Prussia towards Denmark the + reverse of "moral," but I confess I have the same opinions of her + later conduct towards France.... No doubt the military law presses + hardly on the German people, and no doubt the Prussian Court tells + them that it is the fault of France; but is it true? Do not believe in + the French lamb troubling the waters to the hurt of the Prussian wolf. + Taxes and emigration increase in Germany because, as Count Moltke said + in his place in Parliament, "Germany must stand armed to the teeth for + fifty years to defend the provinces which it took her but six months + to win." But why have taken them? Did not England and Austria at the + time warn Prussia what would be the wretched consequences of the act? + German fears of to-day are the direct outcome of the frightful terms + which victorious Germany imposed on France. She might have had money, + reduction of forces, dismantlement of fortresses, but she would have + the dismemberment of France and her money too. She insisted, in + defiance of all modern political ideas, in tearing provinces from a + great country against their will. France has since that time set an + example of moderation of tone, yet Germany cries out that she will + fight again, and crush her enemy to the dust. Poor German Liberals, + who abandoned all their principles when they consented to tear Alsace + and Lorraine from France, and who now find themselves powerless + against the war party, who say: "What the sword has won the sword + shall keep!"' + +He then quoted 'the words of an Alsatian Deputy who spoke before the +German Parliament on February 16th, 1874, words which were received with +howls and jeers, but which were none the less eloquent and true.' The +words dealt with the dismemberment of France, and ended with this passage: +"Had you spared us you would have won the admiration of the world, and war +had become impossible between us and you. As it is, you go on arming, and +you force all Europe to arm also. Instead of opening an age of peace, you +have inaugurated an era of war; and now you await fresh campaigns, fresh +lists of killed and wounded, containing the names of your brothers and +your sons." "The view of this Alsatian Deputy is my view," said Sir +Charles: "I do not believe that might makes right.... For our own sakes as +well as hers, T pray that France may not be crushed. France is not merely +_one_ of the nations. The place of France is not greater than the place of +England, but it is different. The place of France is one which no other +nation can quite hold." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE CIVIL LIST + + +The disregard of party allegiance which Sir Charles showed in regard to +the Education Bill and the Black Sea Conference did not grow less as time +went on. When the Ballot Bill of 1870 was in Committee, he moved an +amendment to extend the hours of polling from four o'clock to eight, as +many working men would be unable to reach the poll by the earlier hour. +There was much talk in debate of the danger which would ensue from +carrying on so dangerous an operation as voting after dark, and the +Government Whips were actually put on to tell against this proposal; nor +was any extension of the hours effected till 1878, and then by Sir Charles +Dilke himself, in a Bill applying to London only, which he introduced as a +private member of the Opposition under a Tory Government. + +The first of the many Bills introduced by him was that to amend the +procedure of registration, which in the session of 1871 he got +successfully through Committee stage; but it perished in the annual +"slaughter of the innocents." + +One of the measures which contributed to a decline of the Government's +popularity was the unlucky proposal in Mr. Lowe's Budget of 1871 to levy a +tax on matches; and Sir Charles was the first to raise this matter +specifically in Committee, condemning the impost as one which would be +specially felt by the poor, and would deprive the humblest class of +workers of much employment. On the day when Lowe was forced to withdraw +the obnoxious proposal, Sir Charles had opened the attack by a question +challenging Government interference with a procession of the matchmakers +organized to protest against the tax. He was, therefore, personally +identified with the rebuff administered to the Chancellor of the +Exchequer. + +The tremendous spectacle of events in France had inevitably bred a panic +in England. It was proposed to increase the active army by 70,000 men. Sir +Charles was no friend to panics, and he was one of the seven who voted +against the motion. + +But his was not merely a blank negative directed against any proposal for +increasing the standing army. He writes: + + "About this time" (March, 1871) "I promoted a movement in favour of a + system of universal instruction in arms, and between fifty and sixty + members of Parliament attended the meeting which I called, the most + prominent among them being Sir M. Hicks Beach, Mr. Mundella, and Henry + James. We all lived to know better." + +Those who joined him in this momentary propaganda dropped the proposal of +universal instruction in arms, and turned their attention elsewhere. He +substituted for it another ideal of military efficiency, and laboured all +his life to give it effect. Speaking to his constituents at Kensington in +the autumn of 1871, he advocated "the separation of the Indian from the +home army, and the adoption of the Swiss rather than of the Prussian +military system." As a Radical, he faced the question whether Radicals +ought to interest themselves at all in army reform, and he answered: + + "As a mere matter of insurance, it is worth taking some trouble to + defend ourselves. There are, however, higher reasons for such + interest, and among them are treaty obligations and the duty which we + owe to the rest of the world of not suppressing our influence--on the + whole a just and moral one." + +'In these words,' Sir Charles notes, 'there lies in a nutshell all that I +afterwards wrote at much greater length upon army reform in my book, _The +British Army_.' + +In this year he made a visit to the autumn manoeuvres, then held for the +first time, and 'looked upon by the army reformers as the dawn of a new +day.' Sir Charles, however, with his knowledge of war, 'thought them +singularly bad.' He was to repeat that experience several times, attending +manoeuvres both in France and England. He held that annual manoeuvres were +"essential to efficiency," and with other army reformers brought later +much pressure to bear on the Government to secure this end. + +As early as February, 1871, Mr. Trevelyan (then out of office) had written +to propose "a little meeting of Radical army reformers, say ten or twelve +or fifteen, to arrange parts for practical work in the House, and to found +a nucleus for an Army Reform Association in case of dire need (to stump +the country)." The stumping of the country Mr. Trevelyan did himself, and +his speeches led to the abolition in this year of the purchase system. +What he wanted of Sir Charles is indicated by another sentence: "There +never was a time when your turn for organization would be of more +immediate value." But even more immediate use was made of Sir Charles's +willingness to confront unpopularity. The "practical" part assigned to him +in House of Commons' work was to undertake a motion (on going into +Committee of Supply) for the suppression of two regiments of Household +Cavalry and the substitution of two regiments of cavalry of the line. The +change was justified by Sir Charles not only on the score of economy, but +upon the ground that heavy cavalry had proved unserviceable in the Franco- +Prussian War. Whatever his arguments, this attack on the maintenance of +privileged troops brought social displeasure on the assailant. + +In 1870 the Queen had consented to abandon the tradition which made the +appointment of the Commander-in-Chief a matter within the Sovereign's +personal control; and the subordination of the military head of the forces +to the Secretary for War was formally recognized. But the Duke of +Cambridge continued to be Commander-in-Chief, and army reformers were +extremely desirous to remove him. On this subject the Press was reticent +no less than public speakers, and finally it was left for Sir Charles to +advocate in the speech at Kensington already referred to the substitution +of some other officer "more amenable to parliamentary control." + +In 1870 the Civil Service had been (with the exception of one preserve, +the Foreign Office) thrown open to competitive examination. In 1871 the +institution of purchase in the army perished after a fierce conflict. + +In the autumn of 1871 Sir Charles arranged to deliver at great centres +throughout the country a series of speeches advocating a redistribution of +seats which should make representation more real because more equitable. +The first of the series, delivered in Manchester, merely propounded the +view that a minority in Parliament very often represented a large majority +of voters, because one member might have 13,000 electors and another only +130. But when he came to speak at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on November 6th, he +gave this general principle definite application to a particular instance, +in which very small minorities had nevertheless represented very large +bodies of the electorate, and, as Sir Charles held, very widespread +opinions. + +This instance was the vote for an allowance of £15,000 a year to Prince +Arthur, proposed on his coming of age. Radical opinion had been already +stirred in the earlier part of the Session by the Queen's request for a +dowry of £30,000 for the Princess Louise on her marriage with the Marquis +of Lorne; and Mr. Peter Taylor, in opposing the dowry, had spoken of the +probability that such a grant would strengthen the tendency towards +republican views among the artisan class. [Footnote: Taylor's opposition +had led to a division, in which Fawcett had a lobby to himself, Dilke, +with Taylor, being tellers for the "Noes." But on the question of the +allowance to Prince Arthur fifty-three voted for a reduction of the +allowance, and eleven against any grant at all.] + + 'I visited Newcastle, and there spoke chiefly upon the Dowry question, + which had led to a division in the House of Commons, in which the + minority had consisted of but three persons, with two tellers.... But + in the course of the recess I had gone into the question of the Civil + List expenditure upon the Court, and at Newcastle I made references to + this subject which were accurate, though possibly unwise.' + +The Queen's long retirement (now of ten years' duration) from all +ceremonial functions had occasioned considerable discontent. A pamphlet, +under the title _What does She do with it?_ written, as Sir Charles +believed, by one who had been a member of the Government, had received +wide publicity. Sir Charles alluded to this, and, taking up the +pamphleteer's argument, drew a picture of royal power as increasing, of +quaint survivals of ancient offices kept up at high cost, and of the +army's efficiency impaired by the appointment of Royal personages to +command. He concluded by a peroration on the model State, inspired, one +fancies, not only by his early training, but by Vacation reading of that +long series of Utopias and "Commonwealths ideal and actual," the +recollection of which fascinated him to the end: [Footnote: Chapter V., p. +55.] + + "It is said that some day a commonwealth will be our government. Now, + history and experience show that you cannot have a republic unless you + possess at the same time the republican virtues. But you answer: Have + we not public spirit? Have we not the practice of self-government? Are + not we gaining general education? Well, if you can show me a fair + chance that a republic here will be free from the political corruption + that hangs about the monarchy, I say, for my part--and I believe that + the middle classes in general will say--let it come." + +This was the abstract avowal of a theoretical preference, which Sir +Charles expressed with greater clearness and decision than others who +professed it--than Fawcett, who preached Republicanism at Cambridge, or +than Chamberlain; whose attitude is sufficiently indicated by the letter +which he wrote to Dilke on seeing the very violent leader with which the +_Times_ greeted the Newcastle speech: + + "I am glad to see that you have raised the Philistine indignation of + the _Times_ by your speech at Newcastle, which, as well as that at + Manchester, I have read with interest and agreement." + + + 'Going on beyond my utterances, or indeed my belief, Chamberlain + added: + + '"The Republic must come, and at the rate at which we are moving it + will come in our generation. The greater is the necessity for + discussing its conditions beforehand, and for a clear recognition of + what we may lose as well as what we shall gain."' + +The essence of Republicanism to Sir Charles was equality of opportunity +for all citizens in a well-ordered State. + +His theoretical avowal of Republicanism was seized upon by all who were +offended by his lack of deference in dealing with a matter so nearly +connected with Royalty. Charges of treason were made against the member of +Parliament who, in defiance of his oath of allegiance, proposed to +overthrow the monarchy. + +This general outcry did not begin till the _Times_ leader had circulated +for a few days. But within a week the whole Press had broken out in fury. +The London correspondent of the _New York Tribune_ reported that "Sir +Charles Dilke's speech competes with the Tichborne trial" as a subject of +public comment. There was a second article in the _Times_ The _Spectator_ +imputed to Dilke a want both of sense and decency, and declared that he +"talked sheer vulgar nonsense and discourteous rubbish in order to mislead +his audience." But as the correspondent of the _New York Tribune_ said: +"No one proved or attempted to prove that Sir Charles Dilke had misstated +facts." + +'On one point, and on one point only, had I any reason to think that I was +wrong--namely, upon the Queen's Income Tax.' No documents existed, and +information was promised to Sir Charles by Mr. W. E. Baxter, Secretary to +the Treasury, 'but when he applied for it he was told that it could not be +given unless Mr. Gladstone agreed, and on this Mr. Gladstone wrote one of +his most mysterious letters, and I never really believed that the matter +was cleared up.' + +In December, when the Prince of Wales was brought to the extremity of +danger by grave illness, an outburst of loyalty was aroused which shaped +itself into a protest against the "republican" demonstrations. But in the +hearts of thousands of working men who had expected some great change from +the Reform Act of 1868 and found no real alteration, there was a deep +resentment against the power and the attitude of the upper classes; and +against this power Sir Charles had struck a blow. The Press campaign +against him had the result which always follows when popular clamour seeks +to brand a strong man for an act of moral courage--it made him notable. He +was at a crisis in his political career, and the risks were great. +Opposition to him in Chelsea was threatened from orthodox Liberalism. A +letter from Labouchere warned him of this, and of the support which such +opposition would assuredly receive from Government organizers. Dilke went +straight ahead. It happened that the projected campaign on Representation +had pledged him to a series of speeches, and he did not therefore need to +seek occasions. + +His next appearance on a public platform after the Newcastle meeting was +fixed for November 20th at Bristol, and opposition was promptly +threatened, somewhat to the surprise of Professor F. W. Newman, who had +been asked to take the chair. + + "I do not read the papers daily" (the Professor wrote), "and was quite + unaware that any animosity against Sir Charles Dilke existed among the + Bristol Liberals. But I think it is high time that the Liberal party + everywhere be pulled out of the grooves of routine, and that _new men_ + take the lead of it. I hope there will not be a mere noisy + disturbance, but I will try to do my duty in any case." + +There was a noisy disturbance, but at Leeds on November 23rd the chairman +of the meeting was Alderman Carter, a Radical member of Parliament, of +considerable local influence, and an immense hall was packed by 5,000 +supporters who secured the speaker from any interruption. Under these +conditions, Sir Charles delivered a speech much better, in his own +opinion, than the Newcastle discourse. As he put it many years later, the +former was on the cost of the Crown, the second a defence of the right of +free speech in the discussion of the cost of the Crown. [Footnote: Private +letter to the Editor of _Reynolds's Newspaper_, June 23rd, 1894.] + +A main part of his defence was devoted to one point on which throughout +all this controversy he showed himself sensitive. "I care nothing," he +said at Leeds, "for the ridiculous cry of 'treason,' but I do care a great +deal for a charge of having used discourteous words towards the Queen;" +and he went on to explain by citation of his speech that 'the +malversation, if there was one,' had been charged, not against the Queen, +but against the neglect of her Ministers. He added now that the "breach of +the spirit of the Civil List Act," in allowing the savings to accumulate, +was one for which neither the present Government nor the Opposition were +responsible so much as their predecessors; and he made it doubly clear +that, although he desired to see savings made for the public, his true +objection to the office of Hereditary Grand Falconer and other sinecures +was 'not on account of the money that they cost, but on account of the +miserable political and moral tone which was set by their retention.' +Asserting that the Duke of Edinburgh had been appointed to an independent +naval command without the training which other officers would have +undergone, he reverted to the ideal of the model State: + + "To say these things is not to condemn the monarchy, because they are + no necessary part of the monarchy, although the opposite idea--that of + promotion by merit alone and of the non-recognition of any claims + founded upon birth--is commonly accepted as republican. I care not + whether you call it republican or whether you do not, but I say that + it is the only principle upon which, if we are to keep our place among + the nations, we can for the future act." + + 'Not only was the Leeds meeting a success, but so also was one at + Middlesboro' a few days later than that at Leeds. But on November + 30th, when I attempted to address a meeting at Bolton under the + auspices of the local leaders of the Liberal party, such as Mr. Cross + [Footnote: Eventually the chairman named withdrew his support in view + of the agitation; and the Liberal Association (on the casting vote of + their Chairman, Mr. J. K. Cross) decided to refuse sanction to the + meeting.] (afterwards Under Secretary of State for India), Mr. Mellor, + and Mr. Haslam, there was a fearful riot, at which a man was killed + and a great number of persons injured by iron nuts and bars being + thrown in through the windows by the Tory roughs outside the hall.' + [Footnote: Eight of the party who broke up the meeting were put on + their trial, and Serjeant Ballantine, who defended, made such play + with "Citizen" Dilke's unpopular opinions that "most of the jury felt + that, as loyal men, they were bound to acquit the prisoners." Mr. + George Harwood, the late member for Bolton, related in a letter of + 1911 what he saw as "an indifferent young fellow" who had "strolled + down to look on." "The crowd" he writes, "was very thick and very + fierce, having declared that Sir Charles should not get away alive; + but when the excitement was hottest, Sir Charles came out of the main + door and stood quietly in sight of all, then struck a match and lit + his cigar, and walked unguarded and unaccompanied through the thickest + part of the crowd. His cool courage quite took everyone's breath away, + so not a sound was uttered."] + +One passage in the speech is notable in view of later events: "I think +working men should not make themselves too much the slaves of any +political party, but should take care of the means of seeking +representation in Parliament, and when they have got the means in their +hands, they will then be able to use them so as to be favourable to their +interests as a whole." + + 'My speech at Newcastle had been not only as true as Gospel, but a + speech which, as Americans would say, "wanted making." But I was + nearly subjected to physical martyrdom for it at Bolton, and was + actually and really subjected to moral martyrdom for a time. The thing + was not, however, wholly painful. It had its ludicrous side. The then + Lord Chelsea, for example, afterwards my friend Lord Cadogan, + regretted, in a discourse at Bath with regard to my speech, "that the + days of duelling were over."' + +The Memoir goes on to note that Lord Chelsea and Sir Alfred Slade, the +Receiver-General of Inland Revenue-- + + 'who had both accused me of inventing "lies," afterwards asked to be + introduced to me and were very civil, and I, for political and local + reasons, had to forget their speeches and to be civil to them. + + 'On December 6th I spoke at Birmingham Town Hall, and Chamberlain, who + was Mayor, and who was my host, had the whole borough police force + present or in reserve, and had every interrupter (and there were + several hundred) carried out singly by two policemen, with a + Conservative Chief of Police to direct them, after which I delivered + an extremely humdrum speech to a very dull assembly. [Footnote: He + spoke on the House of Lords.] Chamberlain was more lively, and made a + speech in ridicule of Second Chambers, in which I still (1895) agree. + On the other hand, in Chelsea we carried the war into the enemy's + camp. The "loyal inhabitants" tried to hold a meeting at the Vestry + Hall to censure me, on which occasion no article or piece of furniture + larger than a match was left in existence in the room, and the meeting + concluded with a vote of confidence in me, carried in the dark after + the gas had been put out. The second attempt was made outside the + borough, at the Duke of Wellington's Riding School at Knightsbridge, + but the result was the same. Although the meeting was a ticket + meeting, the hall was stormed, and the loyal address to the Queen + captured and carried off in triumph by my friends. It is still (May, + 1905) at the Eleusis Club--the centre for the Radical working men in + Chelsea.' + +Hostility concentrated on Sir Charles because the courage and cogency with +which he expounded views shared by many men of standing, and men far +senior to himself at this time, marked him out for the public as the +leader: + + 'Fawcett had taken a far more active republican line, as had + Chamberlain, and both of them had joined republican clubs in towns, + while Fawcett had himself founded one in the University of Cambridge, + which had but a short existence. I had refused to join these clubs, + and to work in any way in connection with republican propaganda, but + it was difficult to get people to understand my position, and the + perfect legality of holding republican opinions was even denied by + many, while the wisdom of expressing them was denied by almost all. + Some thought that I was of opinion that an immense amount of + revolutionary feeling existed in the country, and that I wished to + lead a storm to my own profit. Some thought that I was sorry I had + said what I did. + + 'It never seemed to occur to anyone that there were many persons who + had been trained up in families republican in sentiment, and that it + was possible that I should have never been anything but a republican + without the trace of a "reason," and thought it honest to say so when + I was charged with Republicanism as with some fearful crime. But to + think and even to say that monarchy in Western Europe is a somewhat + cumbersome fiction is not to declare oneself ready to fight against it + on a barricade. It is only to protest against the silence of many + being read into agreement with the fulsome nonsense that the majority + talk about the personal loyalty of the country to the reigning House. + My Republicanism was, however, with me a matter of education. My + grandfather was a conservative republican in old age, a radical + republican in youth, but a republican through life, and, as I have + said before, my young ideas were my grandfather's ideas. It is a + mistake to think that republican opinions in England died with + Algernon Sidney, that Tom Paine was about the only English sympathizer + with the French Revolution, and Shelley, Landor, and Swinburne only + three mad poets. It is forgotten now that Burns subscribed to the + funds of the French Republic, that Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Moore + all wrote republican odes to it, and that at the beginning of the + century Southey and Brougham were republican, not to speak of Bentham + and Godwin and other writers on whose books I had been brought up.' + +Sir Charles was not only denounced, but boycotted. [Footnote: Shirley +Brooks of _Punch_ wrote in his diary, under date December 5th, 1871: +"Macmillan asked me to dine, but as Sir C. Dilke, who has been spouting +Republicanism, was to be one, I would not go, hating to dine with a man +and abuse him in print, as I must do." (_Life, Letters, and Diaries of +Shirley Brooks_, by G. S. Layard).] He seems for the moment to have had +only two close friends available in London, Mr. Trevelyan and Lord Edmond +Fitzmaurice. The former-- + + 'who had been deeply engaged in the anti-dowry agitation, although + keeping himself in the background ... used to come every Sunday to go + for walks with me; generally the two of us only, though on one of + these occasions he brought Wilfrid Lawson, the wit of the public + platforms, but a dismal man enough in private, [Footnote: Sir + Charles's friendship with the great Temperance Reformer was cemented + five years later by his adhesion to the Temperance ranks. + + 'February 4th, 1877, in Paris on my road I received a letter from + Wilfrid Lawson, who had learnt that I had turned teetotaller. I was as + a fact teetotaller for some eleven years, from 1874-1885. Lawson's + letter was in verse with a chorus: + + "Coffee and tea, + Coffee and tea, + Those are the liquors for Lawson and me." + + There was a good deal of chaff of the Bishop of Peterborough in the + letter, as this Bishop, whose name unfortunately rhymed to "tea," had + been speaking against Lawson's views in the House of Lords: + + "Some day, perhaps, we both bishops may be, + And both much more sober than Doctor Magee, + Who finds that he cannot be sober _and_ free; + But it's only last week that I heard from you, Dilke, + That you'd rashly and recklessly taken to milk. + Abandon the habit, I beg and I pray, + Only think what the scoffers and mockers will say. + They'll say, with a cynical grin and a laugh, + 'He has taken to milk--just the thing for a calf.' + Oh, abandon that milk--stick to coffee and tea, + For those are the liquors for you and for me. + + _Chorus:_ + + "Coffee and tea, + Coffee and tea, + Finest of Mocha and best of Bohea; + "Coffee and tea, + Coffee and tea, + Those are the liquors for Dilke and for me."'] while George + Trevelyan was in private most agreeable.' + +This social isolation, if it severed Sir Charles from some acquaintances, +restored to him a friend, Miss Katherine Sheil, who was living in Sloane +Street with Miss Louisa Courtenay, a near neighbour and old friend of +Charles Dilke. Both Miss Sheil's parents were dead. Her father, who died +when she was a baby, had been a Captain in the 89th Foot; her mother came +of an old Devonshire family, the Wises. Although she and Sir Charles had +been close friends for about three years, their friendship had broken +down. + + For a long time we avoided one another, and I was only forgiven when + the attacks on me in November, 1871, and the Bolton riot led to an + expression of sympathy on her part. Miss Courtenay, who knew us both + extremely well, ... said: "A very suitable marriage. You are neither + of you in love with one another, but you will get on admirably + together." Miss Courtenay was, perhaps, at this time not far wrong. I + had a profound respect for Miss Sheil's talent and a high admiration + of her charm and beauty, and I think she had more liking than love for + me. We both of us had a horror of the ordinary forms of wedding + ceremonies, and we told only five persons in all-my great-uncle, who + came up to town for the wedding, and was present at it; my brother, + who was in Russia; my grandmother, who kept house for me, and who was + present at it; George Trevelyan, [Footnote: 'On January 14th I + announced to him my intended marriage with Miss Sheil, which was a + profound secret... but our walks did not come to an end with my + wedding a fortnight later.' Sir Charles's marriage to Miss Sheil took + place January 30th, 1872.] and Kitty's maid.' + +[Illustration: LADY DILKE (MISS KATHERINE SHEIL) +From a photograph by Hills and Saunders] + + 'We did not go far away till Easter. Castelar [Footnote: 'Easter, + 1870, I spent in Spain. I made the acquaintance of Castelar, then + Professor of Political Economy in the University of Madrid, and + probably the first orator in the world--a little man, though not so + small as Thiers, or my other orator friend, Louis Blanc.'] sent over a + friend to ask me to go to stay with him in Spain, but when I had been + in Paris at the end of '71, I had found myself watched by the French + police, doubtless under the impression that I was helping the English + Comtists under Harrison in supplying English passports to the + Communards in hiding to help them to leave France; and I objected to + return to the Continent till this spy system was at an end.' + [Footnote: "Kinglake, dining with Thiers at the close of the Franco- + German War--the sole Englishman at a dinner to Deputies of the Extreme + Left--tells how 'among the servants there was a sort of reasoning + process as to my identity, ending in the conclusion, "il doit être Sir + Dilke."' Soon the inference was treated as a fact, and in due sequence + came newspaper paragraphs declaring that the British Ambassador had + gravely remonstrated with the President for inviting Sir Charles Dilke + to his table. Then followed articles defending the course taken by the + President, and so for some time the ball was kept up. The remonstrance + of the Ambassador was a myth; Lord Lyons was a friend of Sir Charles, + but the latter was suspect at the time, both in England and France--in + England for his speeches and motion on the Civil List; in France + because, with Frederic Harrison, he had helped to get some of the + French Communards away from France, and the French Government was + watching him with spies" (A. W. Kinglake: _a Biographical and Literary + Study_, by the Rev. W. Tuckwell, p. 114).] + +This assurance was procured for him by his friend Louis Blanc from +Casimir-Périer, then Minister of the Interior, who wrote by the hand of +his son, afterwards President of the Republic. + + 'Before I could leave London, I had to meet my constituents, which I + did with complete success, and to stand the fire of my enemies by + bringing forward in the House of Commons, on the earliest day that I + could obtain, a motion on which I should be able to repeat the + statements of my Newcastle speech, that they might be answered if any + answer could be given. + + 'I had a rival in this project, a member who had given notice in the + previous session for a Committee to inquire into the Civil List, + George Dixon, known at that time in connection with the Education + League.' + +But as the day, March 19th, approached, Mr. Dixon wrote to Sir Charles-- + + 'saying that his mind had been greatly exercised with regard to the + motion of which he had given notice, and which had originally been + suggested to him by Trevelyan, that he had come to the conclusion to + leave the matter in my hands, but that he thought it one which ought + to be brought before the House. "Of course," he added, "I shall go + into the lobby with you if you divide the House." This, however, he + did not do.' + +No ordinary moral courage was needed to face the demonstration which had +been carefully prepared. The House of Commons has seldom witnessed a +stormier scene. + +When Sir Charles stood up in a crowded House, charged with that atmosphere +which the expectation of a personal incident always engenders there, Lord +Bury intervened with an appeal to privilege, and, backed by tempestuous +cheers, asked the Speaker to refuse the member for Chelsea a hearing on +the ground that by declaration of republican principles he had violated +the oath of allegiance. When this appeal had been dismissed, Sir Charles, +on rising again to address the House, was, in the discreet words of +Hansard, "received with much confusion." There was a "chorus of groans and +Oh's and ironical cheers." But the House, after a brief demonstration, +settled down to hear the speaker, who proceeded to set out the grounds on +which he asked for full information concerning the Civil List under a +number of tabulated heads, "his object," said the London correspondent of +the New York Tribune, "clearly being to crowd as many facts as possible +into a certain amount of time." It was, he says himself, 'solid and full +of matter, but studiously wooden, 'unutterably dull,' and 'towards the +latter part of the speech members went trooping out of the House, and +conversation was general.' At last Sir Charles sat down, and men crowded +in, all agog to hear Mr. Gladstone, who had sat uneasily on his bench, +"longing to be at him," says one reporter; and at him he went, with +tremendous artillery of argument, sarcasm, and declamation, while the +Opposition cheered every point to the echo, though the Liberals sat in +glum silence. Probably many of them shared the feeling which Sir Wilfrid +Lawson reflects in his _Reminiscences_, that Mr. Gladstone was "often most +unfair in debate," and on this occasion (not for the first time) "simply +tried to trample upon Dilke, having the whole House at his back." + +The Prime Minister ended with an appeal for the division to be taken at +once, but Sir Charles's seconder, one of the most picturesque figures in +the politics of that time, insisted upon claiming his part in the +condemnation. Not so much Radical as Anarchist, converted from the +traditional Toryism of his surroundings by the influence of J. S. Mill and +Ruskin, Auberon Herbert was at this moment vehemently republican, and +nothing would serve him but to rise and, in supporting this motion purely +on the Civil List, to make an avowal of republican principles: + + 'He stood up before a howling House, which had listened quietly to me, + but was determined to have no more, with remarkable pluck, equal to + that with which he had faced bullets in the Danish lines; but it was + partly useless and partly mischievous.' + +When clamour failed to silence the speaker, members trooped out, and +attempts were made to count out the House, but unsuccessfully. Thereupon +Lord George Hamilton "spied strangers," and the Press having been +excluded, Tories trooped back and went resolutely to work to howl Herbert +down. Imitations of the crowing of cocks were said to have been given by +Mr. George Bentinck, though Sir Wilfrid Lawson declared that he did not +hear them, and added: + + "If there was such a manifestation it was, however, for the last time + in the House of Commons; therefore I mention it. The division was 276 + against 2--the two consisting of Anderson, one of the Glasgow members, + and myself. [Footnote: Dilke and Herbert acted as tellers.] I think my + vote was quite right, for the returns asked for by Dilke were due to + the country, and Mr. Gladstone did not at all benefit the monarchy by + withholding them." + +That was the impression which Sir Charles desired to leave on the mind of +Radicals. But he had produced also the effect that he intended on the mind +of the general public. The Press complained + + 'that my speech was voted prosy, and that my want of vivacity tended + to prevent the interruptions which had been organized, and that it + would have been impossible to make an oration more mild and + inoffensive. This was exactly what I had wished and intended.... + + 'My speech was left unanswered, and I afterwards had the satisfaction + of arranging while in office for acting on the principles which I laid + down, and that action has since been taken. My main point was the + right of the House of Commons to inquire into the Civil List even + during the continuance of the reign, a right important because inquiry + at the beginning of a reign is held under circumstances which prevent + the possibility of its being satisfactory. This has since been + admitted by Mr. Gladstone himself, and my view has been acted on. Mr. + Gladstone professed to answer me at the time, and to do so with much + vigour, but as a fact he carefully avoided coming to close quarters. + He stated indignantly that he had not been able to find who were the + members of the Committee of 1837 who had complained of insufficient + investigation, to whose complaints I had referred, and he said this as + though none did complain, although it is notorious that Grote and his + friends, especially Hawes, did so complain. He maintained that I was + wrong in saying that the Civil List in the present reign was greater + than in the last, although I was quoting a Chancellor of the + Exchequer, and although Mr. Gladstone made his figures support his + view by including the allowance to Queen Adelaide, while I properly + excluded both that allowance and the allowance of Prince Albert, as + these personages were supposed to spend these allowances themselves, + and not to hand them over to the King or to the Queen Regnant, as the + case might be. Mr. Gladstone denied the pretended statement by me that + the annuities to Princes and Princesses in the present reign were + unprecedented in amount, but I had never named Princes, and I had + never named amount. What I had said was that the provisions made for + the Royal children during the reign were unprecedented in character, + and so they were, as I showed clearly in my speech, and especially the + allowances to the Princesses. Mr. Gladstone, with regard to the Royal + savings, declined to go into the Exchequer accounts on the ground that + I had not given him enough notice. I had given him eight days' notice, + and he had not asked for any further information than that which I had + afforded him. He argued that the savings were not great, for £590,000 + had been spent on private allowances and personal pensions, a fact + which was wholly new to us and not intended by Parliament. He argued + that there was little to say about sinecures, because none had been + created during the present reign, a reply which gave the go-by to the + fact that the old ones continue. Long afterwards, when I was Mr. + Gladstone's colleague, he recanted a good deal of his doctrine of + 1872, as I shall show. Indeed, in 1889 all the information was given + to the House which I had asked for and been refused in 1872, and the + principle was laid down by the Committee on grants to the Royal + Family, which I had privately suggested in 1880.' [Footnote: See also + Chapter LIX., which deals with the Committee on the Civil List (Volume + II., pp. 526, 527).] + +During the whole of 1872 it was not easy to find a platform on which local +Liberals would be at ease in company with the member for Chelsea. Even +Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice hinted that at a meeting held in Wiltshire to +promote the cause of the agricultural labourer, Dilke and Auberon Herbert +would be better away. But towards the close of the year, when a meeting +devoted to the same cause was fixed for Exeter Hall, Joseph Arch, its +chief promoter, insisted that Sir Charles should speak, and though the +appointed chairman, Sir Sydney Waterlow, resigned his office, Archbishop +Manning and Dr. Jackson, Bishop of London, made no scruple of attending +while Dilke's speech was delivered. + + 'It was a dreary speech, and, given the fact that my speaking was + always monotonous, and that at this time I was trying specially to + make speeches which no one could call empty noise, and was therefore + specially and peculiarly heavy, there was something amusing to lovers + of contrast in that between the stormy heartiness of my reception at + most of these meetings, and the ineffably dry orations which I + delivered to them--between cheers of joy when I rose and cheers of + relief when I sat down.' + +But courage and resource and knowledge had got their chance. His opponents +had gone about to make a marked man of Sir Charles Dilke; within six +months they had established his position beyond challenge as a man of +mark. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +PERIOD OF FIRST MARRIAGE + + +I. + +Having successfully faced his opponents in Parliament, and having also got +assurances from the authorities in France that he would not be shadowed, +Sir Charles was able to spend the Easter recess with Lady Dilke in Paris: + + 'At Easter we went to Paris and went about a good deal, seeing much of + Gambetta, of Milner Gibson (who had completely left the world of + English politics, and lived at Paris except when he was cruising in + his yacht), Michel Chevalier, and the Franquevilles. We attended + sittings of the Assembly at Versailles, drove over the battlefields, + dined with the Louis Blancs to meet Louis's brother, Charles Blanc, + the critic and great master of style, ... breakfasted with Evarts the + American lawyer, to meet Caleb Gushing, his colleague on the American + case on the Alabama claims; met at the Franquevilles' Henri de Pène + and Robert Mitchell, the Conservative journalists; and saw "Mignon," + Katie's favourite opera, and "Rabagas." This last famous piece, which + was being played at the Vaudeville, where it was wonderfully acted, + had been written during the premiership of Émile Ollivier, but being + brought out when Ollivier was half forgotten, and when the name of + Gambetta was in all men's mouths, was supposed by many to have been + intended as a satire of the tribune, though it is far more applicable + in every point to Ollivier's career.' + +Many years later Sir Charles was to form a friendship of lifelong duration +with Louis Napoleon's Minister Ollivier. But from this visit to Paris +dates the beginning of an intimacy between the young English member of +Parliament and the leader of French democracy. + +He had already met Gambetta once in the end of 1871, and to renew this +acquaintance was a special purpose in going to Paris. He had conceived the +plan of writing a history of the nineteenth century. On the origin of the +Franco-German War Gambetta was a high authority, and it was to discuss +these questions that during this visit he for the first time came to see +Sir Charles, who records: 'Had Gambetta to breakfast with us, when he +stayed the whole day talking with me.' + +In five minutes the two men must have been in touch. Those who knew Sir +Charles knew how his intense geniality of nature, masked sometimes for +outsiders by a slight austerity, his _air boutonné_--as it was described +by those who did not pass the barrier--showed immediately with those to +whom he was drawn. That _rire enfantin_, described by Challemel-Lacour, +would burst out at the first quick turn of talk, and he would give his +whole self, with an almost boyish delight, to the encounter with a nature +whose superabundant vitality and delight in life, as in Gambetta's case, +equalled his own. + +For these two the common points of interest were strongly marked. Not only +was there the kindred geniality of disposition, and the kindred interest +in the history and fortune of France: there was in each an overwhelming +love of country; strong, indeed, in Gambetta, and in Dilke so strong that +it can best be described in the words of a French friend who, watching +him, said to Sir Charles's second wife: "That man is a great patriot, for +with his whole self he serves his country, never staying to consider how +she has served him." + +In the spring of 1872 both men were young: Dilke not yet twenty-nine, +Gambetta just thirty-four. But the past of one was crowded with +experience, and the other had already made history. + +Sir Charles here inserts-- + + 'a word of the personality of Gambetta, who for a long time was my + most intimate friend, and for whose memory I have still the deepest + regard. + + 'It was on All Saints' Day of 1868 that a few republicans had paid a + fête-of-the-dead visit to the tomb of a Deputy killed on the side of + the Constitution at the time of the _coup d'état_, and had found it in + a miserable state. Delescluze (who was two and a half years later to + meet Baudin's fate, being killed, like him, in a black coat, unarmed, + on a Paris barricade) communicated with Challemel-Lacour, and a + subscription for a fitting tomb was started, which soon became an + imposing manifestation of anti-Bonapartist opinion. [Footnote: The + need for a fitting tomb is shown by the circumstance of Baudin's death + and burial. He had gone early in the morning of December 3rd, 1851, to + help in the construction of a barricade at the point where the Rue + Ste. Marguerite and the Rue de Cotte meet. Two companies of the line + arrived from the Bastille and formed an attacking party, and were + joined by some men in blouses, who cried, on seeing the deputies: "À + bas les vingt-cinq francs!" Baudin, unarmed, standing on the top of + the barricade, replied: "Vous allez voir comment on meurt pour vingt- + cinq francs." An attempt to address the soldiers by the + Constitutionalists failed, and a shot from the barricade was replied + to by a general volley, and Baudin fell, pierced by three shots. His + body was taken to the Hôpital Ste. Marguerite, and when claimed by his + brothers was given up only on condition that it should not be shown to + the people, but immediately and quietly buried. He was buried on + December 5th secretly in the cemetery of Montmartre (See _Dictionnaire + des Parlementaires_, by Robert and Cougny).] + + 'The Government having prosecuted the papers which published the + subscription lists, Challemel-Lacour caused the selection of Gambetta + as counsel. He was a young barrister speaking with a strong Southern + accent, which, however, disappeared when he spoke in public, vulgar in + language and appearance, one-eyed, of Genoese (possibly Jewish) race, + full of power. Gambetta made a magnificent speech, which brought him + at one bound into the front rank among the republican leaders. His + description of December 2nd was such as had never been excelled even + by Cicero or by Berryer: "At that time there grouped themselves around + a pretender a number of men without talent, without honour, sunk in + debt and in crime, such as in all ages have been the accomplices of + arbitrary violence, men of whom one could repeat what Sallust had said + of the foul mob that surrounded Catiline, what Caesar said himself of + those who conspired along with him: 'Inevitable dregs of organized + society.'" The word Pretender, without adjectives, may seem somewhat + weak as applied to the Prince President, the head of the band, but + those who have heard Gambetta alone know the contempt which he could + throw into his voice in the pronunciation of such a word. Finest of + all the passages that remain to us of Gambetta's eloquence was one + near the close of this memorable speech, which began: "During + seventeen years you who are the masters of France have never dared to + keep December 2nd as the national anniversary. That anniversary we + take as that on which to commemorate the virtues of our dead who died + that day--" Here the Advocate Imperial tried to interrupt him so as to + spoil his peroration, and the written version now printed in his + speeches differs altogether in language from that which was taken down + by the shorthand writers at the time, although the idea is exactly the + same. The two counsel spoke together for some minutes, each trying to + shout down the other, until Gambetta's tremendous roar had crushed his + adversary, whereupon, in the middle of his peroration, with a really + Provençal forgetfulness of his art and subject, Gambetta interposed-- + "He tried to close my mouth, but I have drowned him"--and then went + on.' + +This picture is made more vivid by the pencillings on Sir Charles's copy +of Daudet's _Numa Roumestan_, where the word "Gambetta" is scribbled again +and again opposite passages which describe Numa's wonderful ringing voice, +his quick supple nature, all things to all men, catching as if by magic +the very tone and gestures of those with whom he spoke, prodigal as the +sun in greetings and in promises, poured out in a torrent of words, which +seemed "not to proceed from ideas, but to waken them in his mind by the +mechanical stimulus of their sound, and by certain intonations even +brought tears into his eyes." + + 'My friendship with Gambetta perhaps meant to me something more than + the friendship of the man. Round him gathered all that was best and + most hopeful in the state of the young republic. He, more than any + other individual, had both destroyed the Empire and made new France, + and to some extent the measure of my liking for the man was my hatred + of those that he had replaced. Louis Napoleon ... had dynastic ends in + view.... The Napoleonic legend did not survive Sedan, and that it was + unable to be revived in the distress which followed the Commune was + largely owing to the policy and courage of Gambetta. + + 'There is some permanent importance in the discussions as to the + origin of the war of 1870 which I had with Gambetta at this time; for + it so happens that I have been able at various periods to discuss with + the most absolute freedom the history of this period with the five men + who knew most of it--Bismarck, Émile Ollivier, Gambetta, Nigra, and + Casa Laigleisia (at that time Rancez), the Spanish diplomatist, + afterwards three times Spanish Minister in London. + + 'The question which I often discussed with Gambetta, with Ollivier, + with Nigra, with Rancez, until, in September, 1889, Bismarck's frank + admissions settled the matter in my mind for good, has been one of the + most disputed points in modern history. My opinion that Bismarck had + prepared the war, and had brought about the Hohenzollern candidature + in order to provoke it, was only strengthened by an article entitled + "Who is responsible for the War?" by "Scrutator"--probably from the + pen of Congreve, the Comtist, who I know was in correspondence with + the Duc de Gramont. At Easter, 1872, I discussed the matter fully with + Gambetta, with Rancez, with Klaszco (author of _The Two Chancellors_, + and secret agent of the Austrian Government), and with Hansen, a Dane, + and spy of the French Government. Rancez long represented Spain at + Berlin, and it was he who, under Prim's orders, prepared the + Hohenzollern candidature. He was then sent to Vienna, as it was wise + for him to be out of the way when war, brought about by his agency, + was impending; but he was fetched suddenly to Berlin from Vienna in + 1869, and this was when the thing was settled. The facts are all known + now." [Footnote: Bismarck, _Gedanken und Erinnerungen_, ii., chap, + xxii., p. 90 (German edition); Benedetti, _Ma Mission en Prusse_, + chap, vi., pp. 409, 410.] The King of Prussia, on July 13th (1870), + refused to give assurances for the future, in simple and dignified + language which meant peace. His telegram to Berlin was one of 200 + words. Bismarck told me, when I was staying with him in September, + 1889, that he was with Moltke and von Roon when it was received by + them at Berlin, and that he deliberately altered the telegram by + cutting it down "from a telegram of 200 words which meant peace into a + telegram of 20 words which meant war;" and in this form it was + placarded throughout North Germany in every village. + + 'I discussed repeatedly with Gambetta the incidents of the Cabinet at + St. Cloud on the 14th (July, 1870). Gambetta proved to me that on the + 14th the mobilization order was given by the Minister of War, and that + on the same day the order was itself ordered by the Cabinet to be + countermanded. The Duc de Gramont has said, with singular confusion, + that it was decided on the 15th that the orders of the Minister of War + should not be countermanded, and that the reserves should be called + out. Ollivier assured me that after a six hours' sitting of the + Cabinet he had finally left St. Cloud long before that hour at which + Delord states in his history that the Cabinet again met in the + presence of the Empress. There was no such sitting of the Cabinet, but + there may have been a meeting of the Empress, the Duc de Gramont, and + the Minister of War, and they may have dared to take it upon + themselves to reverse the decision at which the Cabinet had arrived. + + 'The Duc de Gramont and the Minister of War had been in the minority + at the Cabinet on the 14th when the Cabinet withdrew the order for the + mobilization of the reserves, and this minority took it upon itself in + the night to maintain the order for the calling out of the reserves. + On the other hand, if there was ground for the impeachment of the Duc + de Gramont, I am afraid that there was also ground for that of + Ollivier in his own admissions. The declaration made to the Chambers + on July 15th states that the reserves were called out on the 14th, and + Ollivier allowed the decision of his Cabinet, which was his own, to be + reversed in his own name, apparently with his approval. [Footnote: See + note on p. 486, and the authorities cited there.] + + 'Bismarck's action in forcing on a war might be justified by his + probable acquaintance with the engagement of Austria to France that + she would join her in attacking Prussia in the early spring of 1871; + but it is a curious fact that he has never, either to me or to anybody + else, made use of this justification. + + 'Upon all these subjects the papers found in the palaces and published + by the Government of National Defence had an essential bearing, and + these I discussed, while they were fresh, with Gambetta and Ollivier. + The same matters were again before me in the following year (1873), + when I had the opportunity of attending the Bazaine Court-Martial, + presided over by the Duc d'Aumale, and of again reading the papers + found in the Tuileries (including the volume afterwards suppressed) on + the spot, and while the events related were fresh in men's minds, as + well as of talking over all doubtful points with my two friends. + + 'Bazaine at the Court-Martial looked only stupid, like a fat old seal, + utterly unmilitary, and, as the French would say, "become cow-like." + It was difficult to see in him the man who, however great his crimes + in Mexico, had at least been a man of the most daring courage and of + the most overweening ambition. In the suppressed volume of the papers + of the Imperial family seized at the Tuileries there is a letter from + General Félix Douay to his brother in which he describes Bazaine's + attempt to become the Bernadotte of Mexico, and shows how, in order to + obtain the Mexican throne, he kept up treasonable relations with the + chiefs of the republican bands which it was his duty to combat. It is + curious to find the French second-in-command writing to his brother, + also a General, a letter which, somehow or other, came into the + possession of the Emperor himself, in which he says: "It is terrible + to see a great dignity prostrated in such fashion.... We have to go + back to Cardinal Dubois to find such an accomplished scoundrel having + made use of a situation of the highest confidence to sell his country + and his master.... He will not long escape the infamy to which he is + consigned by the wishes of all honest men in the army, who are daily + more and more shocked by the scandal of his personal fortune." Colonel + Boyer was chief of the staff to Bazaine in Mexico, and is mentioned in + the correspondence between the two Generals Douay as being mixed up in + these discreditable transactions; and he was afterwards, as General + Boyer, concerned, it may be remembered, in the Régnier affair at Metz, + when General Bourbaki was sent out under a pass from the Prussians on + a fool's errand to the Empress Eugénie, there being some treasonable + plot behind. This is now (1908) confirmed by the letter of the King of + Prussia to the Empress Eugénie in the Bernstorff Memoirs.' + +From 1872 onwards Sir Charles, in his many passages through Paris, +invariably met Gambetta, 'and spent as much time with him as possible.' He +was in this way kept fully informed on French politics by the most +powerful politician in France. As Gambetta's power grew, Dilke's influence +grew also, until there came a time when the friendship between the two was +of international interest. + + +II. + +On returning to London after the Easter recess of 1872, Sir Charles +resumed his political duties in and out of Parliament. The Radical Club, +of which he remained Secretary till he took office in 1880, exercised some +little influence in the House of Commons, and was of some value in +bringing men together for the exchange of ideas, but began to present +difficulties in its working, and soon 'dropped very much into the hands of +Fawcett. Fitzmaurice, and myself.' + +Apart from weekly attendance at its meetings, Sir Charles did not go out +much. 'We were so wrapped up in ourselves,' he says, 'that I have no doubt +we were spoken of as selfish.' The marriage had resulted in a tie much +closer than the simple union of two people who would "get on very well +together." Lady Dilke was a creature of glowing life. Those who remember +her say that when she entered a room the whole atmosphere seemed to +change: she was so brilliant, so handsome, so charged with vitality, so +eager always in everything. + +From this period there were dinners at 76, Sloane Street, twice a week, +and among those who gathered about the Dilkes 'were Harcourt; Kinglake, +the historian; Stopford Brooke (who had not then left the Church of +England), Brookfield, the Queen's chaplain, commonly known as the "naughty +parson," and husband of Thackeray's Amelia, Fitzmaurice; Charles Villiers; +Mrs. Procter (widow of Barry Cornwall); Miss Tizy Smith, daughter of +Horace Smith, of _Rejected Addresses_; James (afterwards Sir Henry +James).' Browning also 'was constantly at the house,' and read there his +"Red Cotton Nightcap Country"--'at his own request.' Lord Houghton began +in these days an intimacy which lasted till his death. Of Americans, there +were Leland ("Hans Breitmann") and Mark Twain, and with these are named a +number of foreign guests: Émile de Laveleye, the economist; Ricciotti +Garibaldi; Moret, the Spanish Minister. + + 'We used to judge the position of affairs in Spain by whether Moret + wore or did not wear the Golden Fleece when he came to dinner. When + Castelar was dictator and the Republic proceeding upon conservative + lines, the sheep hung prominently at his side. When the Republic was + federalist and democratic, as was the case from time to time, the + sheep was left at home in a box.' + +Others in the list of guests were Taglioni, 'in her youth the famous +dancer, and in her old age Comtesse Gilbert de Voisins, the stupidest and +most respectable of old dames,' and Ristori, the tragedian, who stayed at +Sloane Street 'with her husband, the Marquis Capranica del Grillo, and +their lovely daughter Bianca.' + +A novel feature at some of Lady Dilke's evenings was the production of +French comedies by M. Brasseur, the celebrated comedian, and father of the +well-known actor of the present day. At all times in Sir Charles Dilke's +life his house was a great meeting-place for those who loved and knew +France and the French tongue. + +Many painters were among the Chelsea constituents, and in 1868 Rossetti, +having been pressed to vote, replied: + + "I think if Shakespeare and Michael Angelo were going to the poll, and + if the one were not opposing the other, and if there were no danger of + being expected to take an active part in the chairing of either, I + might prove for once to have enough political electricity to brush a + vote out of me, like a spark out of a cat's back. But I fear no other + kind of earthly hero could do it." + +Another constituent was Carlyle, who in 1871 came to Dilke with a memorial +in favour of a Civil List pension for Miss Geraldine Jewsbury. Out of him +also no vote had been "brushed": he had exercised the franchise only once +in his life. Passing through his native village, he had seen a notice that +persons who would pay half a crown could be registered, and he had paid +his fee and had been registered. He had thought at the time, so he told +Sir Charles, that "heaven and hell hung on that vote," but he "had found +out afterwards that they did not." + +It was in the course of 1872 that Sir Charles carried out one of his +grandfather's instructions by distributing old Mr. Dilke's books-- + + 'in those quarters where I thought they would be useful in the cause + of historic research, or where they would be best preserved. The + British Museum had the first choice, and took those of the books + relating to the Commonwealth, to the Stuarts, to Pope, and to Junius, + which they had not already on their shelves. [Footnote: 'The Stuart + papers consisted of the Caryll papers and the Seaforth Mackenzie + papers, which last were first used by the Marchesa Campana da Cavelli + in the preparation of a great work on the Stuart documents, in which + they were fully quoted.'] I then offered the remainder of the Junius + collection to Chichester Fortescue, at that time President of the + Board of Trade (afterwards Lord Carlingford), husband of the famous + Lady Waldegrave, and tenant in consequence of Strawberry Hill, where + he was reforming Horace Walpole's library.' + +It was a house at which Sir Charles became very intimate but not till some +years later. About this time Lady Strachie remembers the interest with +which, as a young girl at her aunt's table, she glanced down the row of +guests to catch the profile of 'Citizen Dilke,' who, with his wife, was +dining there for the first time. + +Lord Carlingford believed that Francis wrote Junius, a view which old Mr. +Dilke opposed. + + 'But Abraham Hayward, who was constantly with him, held anti- + Franciscan opinions, and he would, I knew, have the full run of the + books, which I was certain in Fortescue's hands would be carefully + preserved. My arrangements were not concluded until the end of the + following year, 1873, when I presented the last of the Pope books and + all my grandfather's Pope manuscripts to John Murray, the publisher, + in consequence of his great interest in the new edition.' [Footnote: + Elwin and Courthope's edition of Pope's works.] + +In the same year Sir Charles Dilke made another arrangement which +testified to the strength of his brotherly affection. Wentworth Dilke had +left his personal property in the proportion of two-thirds to the elder +son and one-third to the younger; and had also exercised a power of +appointment which he held by dividing his wife's property in the same way. +Charles Dilke now decided that the shares should be equalized, and secured +this by handing over one-sixth of his property to Ashton, who was at this +time in Russia, on a journey of exploration extending over the greater +part of that Empire. + +About this time also Sir Charles purchased _Notes and Queries_ for £2,500 +from its founder, Mr. Thoms, the Librarian of the House of Lords, 'one of +the dearest old men that ever was worshipped by his friends,' and a +devoted admirer of old Mr. Dilke. He appointed Dr. Doran to be editor, +"partly as consolation for having refused him the editorship of the +_Athenaeum_, for which he had asked as an old contributor and as the +yearly acting editor in the 'editor's holiday.'" But Sir Charles's choice +had fallen on Mr. Norman MacColl, 'that Scotch Solomon,' as he sometimes +called this admirable critic, who conducted the paper for thirty years. + + 'In the autumn we went abroad again, and took a letter of introduction + to George Sand, for whose talent Katie had a great admiration. We + missed her at Trouville, but found her afterwards in Paris--an + interesting person, hideously ugly, but more pleasant than her English + rival novelist, the other pseudonymous George. They had few points in + common except that both wrote well and were full of talent of a + different kind and were equally monstrous, looking like two old + horses.' + +Of George Eliot's "talent" he wrote to Hepworth Dixon in 1866: + + "The only fact of which I am at this present very certain ... is that + Miss Evans is not far from being the best _indirect describer_ of + character and the wittiest observer of human nature that has lived in + England since Shakespeare, and I think that there are touches in _Amos + Barton, Scenes from Clerical Life_, and in the first few chapters of + _The Mill on the Floss_ quite worthy of Shakespeare himself." + +Also there is reference to a letter quoted in George Eliot's Life which +tells that the year 1873 "began sweetly" for her, because "a beautiful +bouquet with a pretty legend was left at my door by a person who went away +after ringing." 'It was I,' says Sir Charles, 'who left that bouquet and I +who wrote that legend. It was Katie who prepared the bouquet and asked me +to take it.' + + +III. + +After the tempestuous scene of March 19th, Sir Charles had remained on the +whole a silent member of Parliament. + + 'I am going to keep quiet till the general election' (he says in a + letter of May 1st, 1873) 'as the best means of retaining my present + seat. If I should be turned out, look out for squalls, as I should + then stand on an extreme platform for every vacancy in the North.' + +The main objects of the Radical group were, first, extension and +redistribution of the voting power, and, secondly, a universal system of +compulsory education, controlled by elective school boards. In October of +this year (1872) Sir Charles and Lady Dilke went down as Mr. Chamberlain's +guests to Birmingham, where Sir Charles spoke on free schools (basing +himself, as usual, on his observation of other countries) with Mr. +Chamberlain in the chair. In November there was a return visit, and Mr. +Chamberlain spoke under Dilke's chairmanship at St. James's Hall on +electoral reform. 'Chamberlain's was the first important speech that he +had delivered to a London public meeting,' and probably these reciprocal +visits and chairmanships gave the first general intimation of an alliance +which for a dozen years was destined to influence Liberal policy. + +In the autumn of 1872, Sir Charles 'started a small Electoral Reform +Committee.' Its purpose was to assist, first, the Bill of Mr. Trevelyan +making the qualification for a vote in counties the same as in boroughs, +and, secondly, his own resolution which demanded that seats should be +redistributed in proportion to the number of electors. The outcome was an +arrangement under which Mr. Trevelyan substituted for his Bill a +resolution dealing with both matters; and this resolution, moved by him +and seconded by Sir Charles, afforded annually a gauge of the progress +made, as indicated by the division list. + +'Chamberlain co-operated with me, but was more keen about his own +education subjects.' + +At this time the attitude of Sir Charles and his associates towards the +Liberal party was one of detachment bordering on hostility. Chamberlain, +writing from Birmingham on March 2nd, 1873, noted that the Irish +University Bill was "going badly in the country, and the Noncons. and +Leaguers in the House ought to have the game in their hands." He wished +"they would have the pluck to tell Mr. Gladstone that they will do nothing +to bolster up a Ministry which will not give satisfactory assurances upon +English education;" and he wanted Mr. George Dixon to go on with his +resolution in favour of universal free schools and carry it to a division. + + "If members do not vote with him, and there is a general election + soon, they will have a nice little crow to pick with their + constituents; whereas if there is no division on this issue, all our + labour during the recess is lost, and our friends are disheartened.... + Viewed _ab extra_, there is no doubt the boldest policy is the best. + It is probable from what I have seen that the weakest course is best + suited to the atmosphere of what some people are pleased to call a + '_reformed_ House of Commons.'" + +In the following week the Irish University Bill which was "going badly in +the country" received a new and unexpected stab: Cardinal Cullen denounced +it in a pastoral on March 9th. The debate on the second reading terminated +during the small hours of March 12th. Government was defeated by three on +a division of 284-287. On the 13th Mr. Gladstone's Ministry tendered their +resignations, and the Queen sent for Mr. Disraeli, who declined either to +accept office or to recommend a dissolution. By March 20th it was formally +announced that the Government would go on, but it went on with power and +prestige greatly diminished. + +On July 6th Chamberlain wrote to Dilke advocating an "irreconcilable +policy," and asking for news of any "fanatics willing to join the Forlorn +Hope and help in smashing up that whited sepulchre called the Liberal +party." This letter concluded with an attack on Mr. Bright, who had just +joined the reconstructed Ministry, but whose influence Mr. Chamberlain +thought was "quite too small to save the Government." [Footnote: One cause +of the Government's unpopularity was the attempt of Mr. Ayrton (First +Commissioner of Public Works) to limit the right of public meeting in Hyde +Park, to which there is this allusion: 'In July I was greatly occupied in +the House of Commons in fighting against Ayrton's Parks Bill. It was at +dinner at my house one night that, in his dry, quiet way, old Kinglake +chirped out, "For so insignificant a personage Mr. Ayrton is quite the +most pompous individual that I know." Mr. Ayrton's unpopularity was a +powerful cause of Mr. Gladstone's downfall in 1874.'] Sir William +Harcourt, though hardly less discontented, was openly more conformable, +and towards the close of 1873 took office as Solicitor- +General. He wrote: + + "I do not know if I have done a very wise or a very foolish thing. + Probably the latter. But it is done, and my friends must help me to + make the best of it. It was a great inducement to me the having Henry + James [Footnote: Sir Henry James became Attorney-General in September, + 1873.] as a colleague.... I feel like an old bachelor going to leave + his lodgings and marry a woman he is not in love with, in grave doubt + whether he and she will suit. However, fortunately, _she_ is going to + die soon, and we shall soon again be in opposition below the gangway. + The Duke of Argyll says that now I am in harness I must be driven in + blinkers; but, then, dukes are insolent by nature. Whatever comes, I + shall never leave the House of Commons. I do not see why I am not to + be a politician because I am a law officer. Law officers used to be + politicians some years ago." + +The Civil List question was raised again in Parliament in this year, when +the Crown Private Estates Bill was introduced; and an amendment moved by +Mr. George Anderson, member for Glasgow, complaining of the secrecy which +attached to Royal wills, was supported, not only by Sir Charles, but by +"the leader of the old Whigs in the House of Commons," Mr. E. P. Bouverie, +a Privy Councillor, who to his horror found himself named to tell against +the Bill, and thus identified with the "republican" opposition. 'Speaker +Brand no doubt owed him some grudge.' [Footnote: The Right Hon. E. P. +Bouverie had been a very successful Chairman of Committees of the whole +House, and was indicated by public option as a probable Speaker. He was +recognized as a leading authority on the Law of Parliament.] Dilke's own +speech had demanded the annual publication of the receipts and +disbursements of the Crown Private Estates, and though he waited long to +carry his point, he saw this amongst other proposals adopted on the +recommendation of the Civil List Committee of 1910, on which he served. + +Proof was not wanting that his determined attitude on these matters had +won him the support of great masses of the democracy. Miners' Unions and +Labourers' Unions wrote, begging, some for his portrait, others for an +address; also, in places where opposition had been offered to his +speaking, reprisals were exacted. + + 'Early in January, 1873, we went to Derby, at the request of the + chairman of my meeting at Derby which had failed in the winter of + '71-72, when, though a majority were upon our side, a gang of hired + poachers had entrenched themselves in a corner of the room, had burned + cayenne pepper, and defied all attempts to drive them out. The + chairman was a man of determination who did not mean to be beaten. He + organized his meeting on this occasion with almost too much care, for + I fancy he brought fighting friends from Nottingham and other bruising + places to it. The Tory roughs appeared, as on the former occasion. + Before we were allowed to enter the room they were charged by means of + battering rams with such effect that their entrenchments were + destroyed, and they themselves were mostly stunned and carried out one + by one. No one was dangerously hurt, but there were many broken heads. + Lady Dilke was present in the thick of it, and, according to the + newspaper reports, anxiously begged the stewards to deal gently with + those whom they threw out. After this the meeting was held in peace. + But the result was a formal Government inquiry, and the removal of the + chairman of the meeting from the County Bench by the Lord Chancellor. + He turned clergyman, to the benefit of _Notes and Queries_ and of the + societies for antiquarian research, for, being a man of active mind, + and finding the care of small parishes of ritualistic tendencies + insufficient to occupy his whole time, he became the author of the + famous book, _Churches of Derbyshire_, and of much other antiquarian + work.' + +Sir Charles notes that this address at Derby was in fact his first +pronouncement on "Free Land." In the following week, at Chelsea, he spoke +upon Free Trade, and in both these speeches used the phrase, "Free land, +free church, free schools, free trade, free law," laying down, early in +1873, 'the principles on which Chamberlain and John Morley afterwards went +in the construction of the pamphlet known as _The Radical Programme_.' + +Sir G. Trevelyan writes: + + "In the first months of 1872 he was supposed to have injured himself + greatly by his proceedings with regard to the Civil List; and yet, _to + my knowledge, within a very few years Mr. Disraeli stated it as his + opinion that Sir Charles Dilke was the most useful and influential + member, among quite young men, that he had ever known." + +In pursuit of his plan of "keeping quiet" till the impending dissolution, +he took no prominent action in these months; but he backed independent +Liberalism whenever he saw a chance, as, for instance, by subscribing to +forward the candidature of Mr. Burt, who had then been selected by the +Morpeth miners to represent them. There was, however, a further reason for +this quiescence. Lady Dilke at the close of the season was seriously ill, +and it was late in autumn before she could be taken abroad to Monaco. +Here, under the associations of the place, Dilke wrote his very successful +political fantasy, _Prince Florestan_. + +Another event which clouded 1873 was Mill's death--'a great loss to us. +Ours was the last house at which he dined, and we, with the Hills' (the +editor of the _Daily News_ and his wife), 'were the last friends who dined +with him. The Watts portrait for which he had consented to sit was +finished for me just when he died.' + +'I loved him greatly,' Sir Charles writes. The relation between the two +had been that of master and disciple, and Mill may be said to have carried +on and completed the work of old Mr. Dilke. + +[Illustration: JOHN STUART MILL. +From the painting by G. F. Watts, R.A., in the Westminster Town Hall.] + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +RE-ELECTION TO PARLIAMENT--DEATH OF LADY DILKE + + +Having remained abroad until after Christmas, 1873, the Dilkes stayed at +Brighton for the sake of Lady Dilke's health, Sir Charles coming to town +as occasion needed. + +His address to his constituents in 1874 assumed a special character in +view of the approaching dissolution. He reviewed the whole work done by +the 'Householder Parliament,' and more particularly the part taken in it +by the members for Chelsea. It was an independent speech, making it quite +clear that from the introduction of the Education Bill in 1870 the speaker +had "ceased to be a steady supporter of the Government," and showing that +"during the past three years the present Government had been declining in +public esteem." Sir Charles recalled the various matters on which he had +criticized their action, laying emphasis on two points. One was the Act of +1871 for amending the Criminal Law in regard to combinations of workmen, +which had been passed in response to a long and vehement demand that the +position of Trade Unions should be regularized. The amending Act had +really left the Unions worse off than before: "the weapon of the men is +picketing, and the weapon of the master is the black list. The picketing +is practically prohibited by this Bill, and the black list is left +untouched." [Footnote: See "Labour," Chapter LII. (Volume II., pp. 342- +367).] + +The other matter of interest was the Irish Peace Preservation Bill of +1873, a Bill which, as he said, would have raised great outcry if applied +to an English district; yet, 'because it applied only to Ireland, and the +Irish were unpopular and were supposed to be an unaccountable people +different from all others,' it had passed with small opposition. He could +not understand 'how those who shuddered at arbitrary arrests in Poland, +and who ridiculed the gagging of the Press in France, could permit the +passing of a law for Ireland which gave absolute powers of arrest and of +suppression of newspapers to the Lord-Lieutenant.' + +Ireland has frequently afforded a test of the thoroughness of Liberal +principles, and Sir Charles was distinguished from most of his countrymen +by a refusal to impose geographical limitations on his notions of logic or +of conduct. He was the least insular of Englishmen. + +In this speech of January, 1874, printed for circulation to the electors, +he went very fully into the matter of the Civil List controversy, but did +not touch his avowal of republican principles, because that declaration +had been made outside Parliament, and he had never spoken of it in +Parliament. He dealt with the matter, however, in a letter written to one +of his supporters for general publication: + + "You ask me whether you are not justified in saying that I have always + declined to take part in a republican agitation. That is so. I have + repeatedly declined to do so; I have declined to attend republican + meetings and I have abstained from subscribing to republican funds. I + also refused to join the Republican Club formed at Cambridge + University, though I am far from wishing to cast a slur on those + Liberal politicians--Professor Fawcett and others--who did join it. + The view I took was that I had no right to make use of my position as + a member of the House of Commons, gained largely by the votes of those + who are not even theoretical republicans, to push on an English + republican movement. On the other hand, when denounced in a + Conservative paper as a 'republican,' as though that were a term of + abuse, I felt bound as an honest man to say I was one. But I am not a + 'republican member' or a 'republican candidate,' any more than Mr. + Gordon" (his opponent) "is a monarchical candidate, because there is + neither Republican party nor Monarchical party in the English + Parliament. I said at Glasgow two years ago: 'The majority of the + people of Great Britain believe that the reforms they desire are + compatible with the monarchic form of government,' and this I believe + now as then." + + 'At the time when the letter was written,' notes the Memoir, 'an + immediate dissolution of Parliament was not expected, but it was only + just in time (being dated January 20th) to be of the most use, for the + sudden dissolution occurred four days after its publication. The word + "sudden" hardly perhaps, at this distance of time, conveys an + impression of the extraordinary nature of the event.' + +The Cabinet's decision to dissolve, arising out of difficulties on the +Budget, was announced on January 24th. By February 16th the elections were +over, and Mr. Gladstone's Government had resigned, the Tories having come +back with a solid majority. It was an overthrow for the Liberal party, but +Sir Charles survived triumphantly, though ten seats in London were lost to +Mr. Gladstone's following. Mr. Ayrton, the First Commissioner of Works, +against whom Sir Charles and his fellow-Radicals had fought fiercely, was +ejected from the Tower Hamlets, and never returned to public life. Another +victim was Sir Charles's former colleague. + + 'To the astonishment of many people, I was returned at the head of the + poll, the Conservative standing next, and then Sir Henry Hoare, while + the independent Moderate Liberal who had stood against me and obtained + the temperance vote, obtained nothing else, and was, at a great + distance from us, at the bottom of the poll.' + +When all the political journalists in England were reviewing, after his +death in 1911, the remarkable career that they had watched, some for half +a lifetime, one of the veterans among them wrote: [Footnote: The +_Newcastle Daily Chronicle_.] + + "_We do not think that Sir Charles Dilke owed a great deal to the + Liberal party, but we certainly think that the Liberal party owed a + very great deal to Sir Charles Dilke_. In the dark days of 1874, when + the party was deeper in the slough of despond than it has ever been + before or since in our time, it was from the initiative and courage of + Sir Charles Dilke that salvation came. His work in organizing the + Liberal forces, especially in the Metropolis, has never received due + acknowledgment.' + +The centre of his influence was among those who knew him best--his own +constituents. 'I had indeed invented a caucus in Chelsea before the first +Birmingham Election Association was started,' he says of his own electoral +machinery. [Footnote: See Chapter XVII., p. 268.] The Eleusis Club was +known all over England as a propagandist centre. Here he had no occasion +to explain his speeches at Newcastle or elsewhere. "We were all +republicans down Chelsea way when young Charlie Dilke came among us +first," said an old supporter. Yet the propaganda emanating from the +Eleusis Club was not republican. + +Here and all over the constituency he made innumerable and unreported +speeches to instruct industrial opinion. He laid under contribution his +whole store of extraordinary knowledge, suggesting and answering questions +till no Parliamentary representative in the country was followed by his +supporters with an attention so informed and discriminating. + + "Nothing of the sort had been known since David Urquhart, in the first + half of the Victorian age, opened his lecture-halls and classrooms + throughout the world for counter-working Palmerston, and for teaching + artisans the true inwardness of the Eastern Question." [Footnote: Mr. + T. H. S. Escott, the _New Age_, February 9th, 1911.] + +Sir Charles himself gives in the Memoir some sketch of the feelings with +which Liberals confronted that rout of Liberalism, and of the steps taken +to repair the disaster. + + 'Harcourt wrote (upon paper which bore the words "Solicitor-General" + with a large "No longer" in his handwriting at the top): + + '"_Rari nantes in gurgite vasto._ Here we are again.... To tell you + the truth, I am not sorry. It had to come, and it is as well over. We + shall get rid of these canting duffers of the party and begin afresh. + We must all meet again _below_ the gangway. We shall have a nice + little party, though diminished. I am very sorry about Fawcett, but we + shall soon get him back again." + + 'My first work was to bring back Fawcett, and by negotiations with + Homer, the Hackney publican (Secretary of the Licensed Victuallers' + Protection Association), into which I entered because Fawcett's defeat + had been partly owing to the determined opposition of Sir Wilfrid + Lawson's friends, who could not forgive his attacks on the direct + veto, I succeeded in securing him an invitation to contest Hackney, + where there was an early vacancy. Fitzmaurice and I became + respectively Chairman and Treasurer of a fund, and we raised more + money than was needed for paying the whole of Fawcett's expenses, and + were able to bank a fund in the name of trustees, of whom I was one, + for his next election. + + 'Fitzmaurice, in accepting my invitation to co-operate with me in this + matter, said that he had succeeded in discovering a place to which + posts took two days, "wherein I can moralize at leisure on the folly + of the leaders of the Liberal party." + + 'When Fawcett returned to the House, he would not let himself be + introduced by the party Whips; but was introduced by me, in + conjunction, however, with Playfair, who, besides being one of his + most intimate political friends, had been for a short time before the + dissolution a member of the Government. On this occasion Fitzmaurice + wrote: "Gladstone, I imagine, is the person least pleased at the + return of Fawcett, and I should think has been dreaming ever since + that Bouverie's turn will come next." Cowen said in the _Newcastle + Chronicle_, Fawcett "contributed as much as any man in the late House + of Commons to damage the late Government. During the last session he + voted in favour of the proposals made by Mr. Gladstone's Government + about 160 times, and he voted against them about 180 times. It always + struck me that Professor Fawcett's boasted independence partook + greatly of crotchety awkwardness." Fawcett's personal popularity was, + however, great, not only with the public, but with men who did not + share his views and saw much of him in private life, such as the + ordinary Cambridge Dons among whom he lived, and whose prejudices upon + many points he was continually attacking. Nevertheless he was a + popular guest.' + +Elsewhere, relating how Fawcett disturbed the peace of Mr. Glyn, the +ministerial Chief Whip from 1868 onwards. Sir Charles explained that-- + + 'when he had some mischief brewing late at night, he used to get one + of the Junior Whips to give him an arm through the lobby, and as he + passed the Senior Whip at the door leading to the members' entrance + would say "Good-night, Glyn," as though he were going home to bed.' + +Mr. Glyn thought "the blind man" had gone to bed, but in reality he had +simply passed down to the terrace, and would sit there smoking till the +other conspirators saw the moment to go down and fetch him. 'I fear it was +by this stratagem that he had helped me to defeat Ayrton's Bill for +throwing a piece of the Park into the Kensington Road opposite the Albert +Hall.' + +It is possible that Dilke was a name of even greater horror to the +orthodox Whiggish opinion of this date than to the regular adherents of +Toryism. The general attitude at this moment towards "the Republican"-- +"Citizen Dilke"--is illustrated by an anecdote in the _Reminiscences of +Charles Gavard_, who was for many years First Secretary at the French +Embassy. He says that when Sir Charles Dilke stood for Chelsea in 1874, he +attended several of his meetings-- + + "partly, I must admit, in the spirit of the Englishman who never + missed a performance of van Amburg, the lion-tamer, hoping some day to + see him devoured by his lions. On one occasion, at Chelsea Town Hall, + I had the honour of leading Lady Dilke on to the platform, and was + greeted, with such a round of applause as I am not likely to enjoy + again in my life. But, to my horror, I heard the reporters inquiring + as to my identity. Fortunately, Sir Charles perceived the peril I was + in, and gave them some misleading information. Otherwise, my name + might have appeared in the Press, and my diplomatic career have been + abruptly ended for figuring in public among the supporters of so + hostile an opponent of the form of government prevailing, in the + country to which I was accredited." + +Sir Charles's personal triumph at the polls amid the general rout of his +party inevitably enhanced his position in the House. And upon it there +followed a wholly different success which established his prestige +precisely on the point where it was the fashion to assail it. He had been +decried as 'dreary'; yet London suddenly found itself applauding him as a +wit. + +_The Fall of Prince Florestan of Monaco_ was published anonymously in +March, 1874. To-day the little book is perhaps almost forgotten, although +one can still be amused by the story of the Cambridge undergraduate, +trained in the fullest faith of free-thinking Radicalism, who finds +himself suddenly promoted to the principality of Monaco, and who arrives +in his microscopic kingdom only to realize that his monarchical state +rests on the support of two pillars--a Jesuit who controls the Church and +education, and M. Blanc, who manages the gaming tables. The consequence of +Prince Florestan's attempt to put in practice democratic principles where +nobody wanted them was wittily and ingeniously thought out, and the tone +of subdued irony admirably kept up. The work was characteristically +thorough. The 126 functionaries, the 60 soldiers and carbineers, the 150 +unpaid diplomatic representatives of Monaco abroad, the Vicar-General, the +Treasurer-General, the Honorary Almoner, and all the other "appliances and +excrescences of civilized government," which went to make up that +"perfection of bureaucracy and red tape in a territory one mile broad and +five miles long," were all statistically accurate. Throughout the whole a +reference to other monarchies and other swarms of functionaries was +delicately implied. + +The quality of the book is rather that of talk than of writing. It has the +dash, the quick turn, and the vivacity of a good improvisation at the +dinner-table; and a quotation will illustrate not so much Sir Charles's +literary gift as the manner of his talk: + + "On the 5th of February I reached Nice by the express, and, after + reading the telegram which announced the return of Mr. Gladstone by a + discerning people as junior colleague to a gin distiller, was + presented with an address by the Gambettist mayor at the desire of the + legitimist préfêt. The mayor, being a red-hot republican in politics, + but a carriage-builder by trade, lectured me on the drawbacks of + despotism in his address, but informed me in conversation afterwards + that he had had the honour of building a Victoria for Prince Charles + Honoré--which was next door to giving me his business card. The + address, however, also assumed that the Princes of Monaco were + suffered only by Providence to exist in order that the trade of Nice, + the nearest large French town, might thrive. + + "In the evening at four we reached the station at Monaco, which was + decked with the white flags of my ancestors. What a pity, was my + thought, that M. de Chambord should not be aware that if he would come + to stay with me at the castle he would live under the white flag to + which he is so much attached all the days of his life. My reception + was enthusiastic. The guards, in blue uniforms not unlike the + Bavarian, but with tall shakos instead of helmets, and similar to that + which during the stoppage of the train at Nice I had rapidly put on, + were drawn up in line to the number of thirty-nine--one being in + hospital with a wart on his thumb, as M. de Payan told me. What an + admirable centralization that such a detail should be known to every + member of the administration! Two drummers rolled their drums French + fashion. In front of the line were four officers, of whom--one fat; + Baron Imberty; the Vicar-General; and Père Pellico of the Jesuits of + the Visitation, brother, as I already knew, to the celebrated Italian + patriot, Silvio Pellico, of dungeon and spider fame. + + "'Where is M. Blanc?' I cried to M. de Payan, as we stopped, seeing no + one not in uniform or robes. "'M. Blanc,' said M. de Payan severely, + 'though a useful subject to Your Highness, is neither a member of the + household of Your Highness, a soldier of His army, nor a functionary + of His Government. M. Blanc is in the crowd outside'" [Footnote: + _Prince Florestan_, p. 23.] + +Sir Charles sent the manuscript anonymously to Macmillans, with a +statement that the work would certainly be a success, and that the author +would announce himself on the appearance of the second edition. But the +Macmillans, who had published _Greater Britain_, noted that the proposed +little book contained several contumelious references to the "lugubrious +speeches" of Sir Charles Dilke and his brother, and refused to have +anything to do with it. To pacify them, Sir Charles, from behind his mask, +had to excise some of the disagreeable things which he had said about +himself. Enough was left to convince one egregious London daily paper not +only that Matthew Arnold was the author, but that the special object of +his new satire was Sir Charles Dilke, "a clever young man who fancies that +his prejudices are ideas, and who, if he had the misfortune to be made +King, would stir up a revolution in a week." + +This was the very thing that Sir Charles wanted. Fundamentally the book +was chaff--chaff of other people for their estimate of him. Finding +himself perpetually under the necessity of explaining that his theoretic +preference for Republicanism would not constrain him to upset a monarchy +which happened to suit the nation where it existed, he wrote _Prince +Florestan_, as though to say: 'This is what you take me for'; and even +while it satirized the absurdity of Florestan's court and constitution, +the book showed that it would be still more absurd to upset even the most +ridiculous Government so long as it suited the people governed. + +The ascription to Matthew Arnold was frequent. The book came out on March +16th, and within forty-eight hours had been reviewed in five leading +papers, and, in all the guessing, no one in print guessed right. + +The disclosure was made by Lady Dilke, who, entering a friend's drawing- +room, caused herself to be announced as "Princess Florestan." Newspapers +proclaimed the authorship; a popular edition of the book appeared, with +malicious extracts from the various reviews that had been written when the +authorship was unknown; and the result was to make Sir Charles, already +universally known, now universally the fashion. + +Though he had faced social ostracism with a courage all the greater in one +who enjoyed society, he was unaffectedly glad to take his place again. One +shrewd critic wrote that "Florestan's" success "had led some people to +discover that they always liked Sir Charles Dilke." + + "Society" (the writer went on) "still bears Sir Charles a grudge, and + would have voted anything known to be his to be dull--like his + speeches, as he good-naturedly said of himself. Amused, without + knowing who amused them, the few fine people who supply views to the + many fine people in need of them prove not ungrateful." + +The return of a Conservative Government was accompanied by a period of +comparative inaction on the part of Sir Charles and his friends; and the +activities of the whole Liberal party were in a measure paralyzed by the +withdrawal of Mr. Gladstone, not merely from leadership, but almost from +the Parliamentary arena. Mr. Chamberlain, who had stood for Parliament and +been defeated at Sheffield, wrote that he was engaged in purchasing the +Birmingham Gasworks for the Corporation, and did not want to stand again +till he had finished his mayoralty.' + + "It may be well to let the crude attempts at democratic organizations, + Radical unions, etc., etc., be disposed of before we talk over our + propositions. I do not think the League will do. We must be a new + organization, although our experience and acquired information may be + useful." + + 'This was the death-warrant of the Education League, and the birth- + certificate of the National Liberal Federation, always privately + called by Chamberlain after the name given to it by his enemies, The + Caucus.' + +Sir Charles himself was mainly occupied in Parliament with pioneer work +for the extension of the franchise; and by a series of small steps towards +electoral reform he obtained ultimately, as a private member in +opposition, very considerable results. It was not merely with the right to +vote, but with the opportunity that he concerned himself, and his Bill to +extend the polling hours till 8 p.m., introduced in the session of 1874, +although it was opposed by the Government and rejected on a division, +nevertheless became law in a few years, as a measure applying to London +first, and then to the whole of the United Kingdom. + +In the same session he served on a Committee to inquire into the +adulteration of food, and obtained through a careful watching of the +evidence "a considerable knowledge of the processes of manufacture, which +was afterwards useful when I came to be charged with the negotiation of +commercial treaties." + + 'I continued to interest myself in the question of local government, + until I had shaped my views into the form of proposals which I was + able to place in a Bill when afterwards at the Local Government Board, + and to make public in a speech at Halifax in 1885.' + +He adds: 'In 1874 I voted for Home Rule.' This was always for him a form +of local government in its highest sense. + +He was strong enough to take up a position of detachment, and from that +vantage-ground he made at Hammersmith, on September 8th, 1874, an +interesting speech, in which he gave free rein to the ironical mood of +Prince Florestan. The Tories, he said, came into office with at all events +a strong list of names: Mr. Disraeli, Lord Cairns and Mr. Gathorne Hardy +could not easily be matched. + +"On the other hand, our chiefs were nowhere. Mr. Gladstone was in the +sulks, and Mr. Forster had been returned by Tory votes at Bradford, than +which nothing is more weakening to a Liberal politician. Mr. Cardwell and +Mr. Chichester Fortescue had gone to the Whig heaven; and Sir William +Harcourt, whose great abilities were beginning to be recognized, was +draping himself in the mantle of Lord Palmerston, and looked rather to a +distant than to an immediate future. + + "As though to strengthen the Conservative position, we were at the + same time on our side called upon to surrender our parliamentary + liberties as independent members to a triumvirate, composed of Mr. + Goschen, Lord Hartington, and Mr. Forster--the title of the first + being founded upon the fact that he was the intimate friend of Mr. + Gladstone, whom the country had just condemned; that of the second, + that he was a serious Marquis, the son of a highly respectable Duke; + and that of the third, that he had the confidence of gentlemen who sat + upon the other side of the House. Believing, as we did, that Mr. + Disraeli never made mistakes, it was not easy to foresee the end of + his administration. + + "When people talked about the extinction of the Whigs, it certainly + then seemed, on the contrary, that that party, instead of being + extinct, had become all-embracing, for one knew nobody who was not a + Whig. With a Whig Government in office under Mr. Disraeli, and a + disorganized Whig opposition on the other side, there seemed to be in + question only persons, and not principles. At the Same time, many + Liberals thought that it would be better, as far as principles went, + to keep the Conservatives in office, inasmuch as they possessed a + majority in the House of Lords, and, being forced by the House of + Commons and the country into passing Whig measures, would have to + carry them through both Houses and into law, instead of dropping them + halfway, as our people had often been compelled to do." + +In this speech he assailed Mr. Disraeli's Government for legislation which +laid restrictions only on "the poor and the lower middle classes, and +which put down a servants' betting club, though it had precisely the same +rules as prevail at Tattersall's." The Friendly Societies Bill, again, +seemed to him "harassing," and drawn on the assumption that working men +have not sense enough to investigate for themselves the position of the +society which they wish to join. + + "There cannot be too little interference with the great self-governed + popular Societies. I think that this Bill is the thin end of the + wedge, that espionage is the first step to control, and that control + is a long step on the road which leads to the destruction of the + Societies, and to the creation of a single Government provident + organization, which I should regard as a great evil." + +The speech attracted much attention, and Sir Charles was now quoted as one +whom men would wish to see in any Liberal Ministry. In the public field, +during the spring and summer of 1874, all went well with him. But his +personal life during these months was overshadowed by approaching +calamity. + +Lady Dilke was again in ill-health, and was under the presentiment of +approaching death. 'Our last happy time was at Paris at Christmas, 1873, +on our way home from Monaco, when Gambetta's brightness was answered by +our own.' Sir Charles occupied himself with buying land at Broadstairs, +where the climate was specially favourable to his wife's health, but as +the plans for building on it progressed, he could note that the keenness +of her interest 'drooped and died.' After the beginning of August there +were no more dinner-parties, and although those who came to the house--of +whom Sir William Harcourt was the last to be admitted--found its mistress +wearing a gay face, the gloom deepened over her, and she suffered acutely +from insomnia. A child was born in September; she lived to see her son, +the present Sir Wentworth Dilke, but she never rallied. Death came to her +with difficulty, early in the night of September 20th. Sir Charles, +overstrained already by long watching, was completely unstrung by the +unlooked-for end of the final and terrible vigil. Having summoned his +grandmother, Mrs. Chatfield, and asked her to take charge of his house and +son--a charge which she fulfilled till her death--he fled from the scene +of his suffering, and hid himself in Paris, seeing no one, and holding +communication with no one. + + 'For about a month I think I did not see a letter. I worked steadily + at historical work; but I have very little recollection of the time + (except by looking at the notebooks which contain the work I did), and + even within a few months afterwards was unable to recall it.' + +All the letters which poured in speak again and again of Lady Dilke's +radiant charm. Moret, the Spanish Minister, who had been one of the guests +at the last of all her dinner-parties, recalled her as he saw her then, +"si belle, si bonne, si souriante, que j'éprouvai moi-même le bonheur +qu'elle respirait." + + 'The beginning of my friendship with Cardinal Manning was his letter + to me at this time, in which he said, "We have met only once, and that + in public, but it was that meeting which enables me to understand what + your affliction is now."' + +Gambetta wrote to him 'a really beautiful letter ': + + _"La République Française,_ + "16, RUE DU CROISSANT, + "PARIS, + "_le 2 novembre_, 1874. + + "MON BIEN CHER AMI, + + "Plus que jamais permettez-moi de vous donner ce nom, qui, au milieu + des terribles épreuves qui vous accablent, n'exprime que bien + imparfaitement les sentiments de profond attachement, de volontaire + solidarité que je vous ai voués. + + "Je sais, je mesure l'insuffisance amère de toute parole de + consolation pour d'aussi grandes douleurs, d'aussi irréparables + pertes. Car même l'impuissance de semblables remèdes qui m'ont empêché + de vous écrire plutôt, m'ont arrêté dans le désir de venir près de + vous à un moment aussi lugubre pour votre grand coeur. J'ai cru plus + digne, plus respectueux de vos angoisses, d'attendre; et je m'en suis + remis à votre pénétration naturelle pour comprendre et accepter mon + silence. + + "Aujourd'hui je viens vous dire que le plus haut prix que je puisse + obtenir de notre commune affection serait de pouvoir penser que dans + la fuite de la vie, je pourrais être assez heureux pour être de + quelque utilité dans les actes de votre existence. + + "Je viendrai vous voir demain mardi à 2 heures et vous répéter de + vive-voix ce que je dis ici. Je suis tout entier à vous et de coeur, + + "Votre ami, + + "LÉON GAMBETTA." + +From that day forward Sir Charles met him constantly. + + 'It would have been difficult to find a better companion at such a + moment than one who was so full of interest in life, about things + which were absolutely outside my own life, who was surrounded by + people who could recall to me no circumstances of pain.' + +After seeing Gambetta, Sir Charles roused himself to write a reply in the +last days of October to Sir William Harcourt, whose sympathy had been +expressed with a rare warmth of kindness, and who caused his son--then a +boy of eleven, [Footnote: Afterwards the Right Hon. Lewis Harcourt, +created Viscount at the end of 1916.]--'to write to me about Katie, who +had been kind to him, which was a pretty thought, and proposed that I +should go and live with him, which I ultimately did.' + +'Some scraps of polities' were added to they letter, in the hope of +reviving his interest in life; but Sir Charles at this moment was fully +determined to resign his seat, feeling himself unable to face old +associates and associations again. His brother Ashton, now busily and +successfully at work in directing his newspaper, the _Weekly Dispatch_, +begged him at least to consider his constituents. An election caused by +the Radical member's retirement would certainly let in a second Tory. +Also: + + "For yourself, I really think, my dear boy, that work is the best + remedy, and though you may not think it now, you could not give it + up.... It seems selfish to speak of myself, but I should have to give + up the _Dispatch_, as the thing is too serious for me to go into + without your advice. Do think it over again, Charlie; there is no + hurry. I will come next week. We must not make dear Dragon's + [Footnote: Mrs. Chatfield, their grandmother.] last days unhappy by + wandering over the world year after year. Remember your child, and + that you must regard the living as well as the dead. I am sure she + would never have let you sacrifice your career. Do think it over + again." + +Sir Charles adds: 'It was, however, Gambetta, I think, that saved me.' + +In the course of the month (November, 1874) he wrote to his constituents +in reply to a resolution sent by them, but could not promise to take his +seat during the following session, and said that in any event he should +have for a long time to transact business only by letter. 'From this time +forward I got rapidly better as far as nervousness at meeting people went, +although for many months I was completely changed and out of my proper +self.' [Footnote: He, however, began to attend Parliament in the early +part of the session of 1875.] + +He sought escape in travel, starting suddenly in December for Algeria by +way of Oran, and pushing through the desert as far as Laghouat and the +Mzab. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +RENEWAL OF ACTIVITY + + +I. + +On his return from Algeria Sir Charles reached Paris and crossed to +England in the last week of January, 1875. + + 'On reaching London, instead of going to Harcourt's, I had to go + first to my own house, for I was sickening with disease, and had, + indeed, a curious very slight attack of smallpox, which passed off, + however, in about two days, but I had to be isolated for another week. + When I became what the doctors called well I moved to Harcourt's; but + my hand still shook, and I had contracted a bad habit of counting the + beating of my heart, and I was so weak of mind that the slightest act + of kindness made me cry. To my grandmother and brother I wrote to ask + them to let me go on living with Harcourt for the present, not because + I preferred him to them, but because I could not live in my own house, + and should have a better chance of sleep if I returned elsewhere at + night from the House of Commons.' + +From this prostration he slowly recovered, occupying himself partly in +arranging for the publication by Murray of _Papers of a Critic_, which he +describes as 'a reprint of some of my grandfather's articles, with a +memoir of him by myself which I had written while in Paris.' + +The book was well received, and a copy sent to Mr. Disraeli brought this +acknowledgment: + + "2, WHITEHALL GARDENS, + "_June 28th_, '75. + + "DEAR SIR CHARLES, + + "I am obliged to you for sending me your book; I find it agreeable and + amusing. _Belles Lettres_ are now extremely rare, but, I must confess, + very refreshing. Your grandfather had a true literary vein, and you + have done wisely in collecting his papers. + + "Very much yours, + + "B. DISRAELI." + +This pleasant note was the beginning of an acquaintance, though by a +series of chances Sir Charles never met the Tory leader outside Parliament +till Lord Beaconsfield was in the last year of his life. + +When coming through Paris he had, 'of course at once' gone to see +Gambetta, whom he found 'privately ridiculing the various suggestions made +as to a constitution for his country.' Gambetta suggested as an +alternative that they should allow the National Assembly elected after the +war-- + + 'to continue to govern the country without filling up death vacancies, + and with the provision that when at last it became reduced to one + member, he should take any title or give to any person that he pleased + any title, or adopt any form of government that he should think fit!' + +Shortly after Mr. John Morley went with an introduction from Sir Charles +to Gambetta, which nearly miscarried. + + "I went for two nights" (he wrote) "to Gambetta's office (the office + of the _République Française_), and found him 'not come.' As I would + not sit up late three nights ... I desisted. Then he wrote me the most + courteous letter, making a more sensible appointment at his private + quarters. This I kept. He gave a most gracious and even caressing + reception, and I was intensely interested in him." + +On this Sir Charles comments: 'Morley was no doubt told by Gambetta's +faithful secretary to call at "2 a.m.," which was a playful way this old +gentleman had of choking off callers.' + +As his health became re-established Sir Charles took an increasing part in +political life. The independent man is on much better terms with his party +when that party is in opposition; his critical faculty is directed against +other men's measures, and if he has force, he easily passes into the +position of being consulted. The process was the easier in Sir Charles's +case, because the governing group of the Liberal party in Parliament was +much disorganized. A great effort was being made to escape from the +unsatisfactory relations between Liberals and their Front Bench, which a +witty member had defined by saying that the party sat "like Scotch +communicants trying aspirants for the ministry of their church by their +sermons." + + 'Fierce fighting was taking place over the choice of a leader of the + Liberal party. Up to the day on which there went out the notices for + the meeting there was the greatest doubt as to the result.... Sir H. + James reported 'Forster very loyal and quite willing to give way. + Hartington careless. Mundella, Fawcett, and Trevelyan working hard for + Forster, but Adam" (the Chief Whip) "says the great bulk of our men + all for Hartington. Richard very strong against Forster, and he + represents a great many Nonconformists. Adam says Fawcett is going to + Birmingham to-morrow in order to support Forster there, but this I do + not believe.' James added that he had ventured to say to Adam that as + far as he knew Harcourt was not disposed to take any part, one way or + the other, in reference to the matter, which was the case also with + himself.' + +Sir Charles had declined to attend the meeting, but before it took place +the matter was arranged. + + 'At one moment, after a fiasco by Mr. Bright at Birmingham, it had + looked as though Forster might win, in spite of Chamberlain and the + Nonconformists. Although James professed Harcourt's indifference in + the matter, Harcourt and James were both, as a fact, for Hartington. + Harcourt had conceived a strong feeling against Fawcett immediately + before this, in January, for trying to keep Mr. Gladstone as the + leader, a course to which Harcourt was bitterly opposed....' + +In these years Sir William Harcourt, then a widower devoted to his one +boy, stood nearer to Sir Charles than any other of his English friends. +Dilke wrote to him: "How little credit you get for your heart! How few +people know you have one!" + + 'In this month of February, 1875,' he goes on to say, 'I revived an + acquaintance which had slumbered for thirteen years, but was destined + not again to drop.' + +Account has already been given of Sir Charles's boyish friendship with +Emilia Strong, a brilliant girl three years his elder. In 1861 she had +married Mark Pattison, the Rector of Lincoln College, and from that time +onward Dilke, although he had seen something of the famous scholar, her +husband, had scarcely met Mrs. Pattison, as she seldom came to London, and +he at that time never went to Oxford. Now, in 1875, she was staying with +her husband in Gower Street, under the roof of Sir Charles Newton, Keeper +of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum, and was gradually +becoming convalescent after a terrible attack of gout, which had left both +her arms useless for many months. During this time they were strapped to +her sides, and she had to invent a machine to turn over the pages of her +book. But the bracing influence of her mind on those around her was +unimpaired. In the years which followed, the habit of correspondence grew +up between them, strengthening, until at any important crisis in his +political life it became natural to him to consult her or take her into +his confidence. + +We have also at this moment reference to the beginnings of an acquaintance +with a remarkable opponent. + +Sir Charles notes that at Easter, 1875, when crossing to France, he met +Lord Randolph Churchill, already known to him in the House, who expressed +a wish to be presented to Gambetta. The meeting was a success, and +Gambetta, delighted with his talk, asked him to breakfast along with +Dilke, fixing the hour at noon; but later there came this note: + + "MON CHER AMI, + + "Je vous prie en grâce de vouloir bien avancer notre déjeuner au Café + Anglais et de prévenir votre ami de ce petit dérangement. + L'enterrement d'Edgar Quinet doit avoir lieu à une heure à + Montparnasse et je ne peux manquer à cette cérémonie. Donc à demain + lundi 11h au Caf. Anglais. + + "Votre toujours dévoué, + + "LEON GAMBETTA." + +At the breakfast talk turned naturally on Quinet, the professor and critic +who was exiled after the _coup d'état_, and whom the Third Republic +welcomed back to his place on the Extreme Left. This led to mention of the +recent occasion when Gambetta had "assisted" at the funeral of another +famous Republican exile, Ledru-Rollin, who had died on the last day of +1874. Hereupon-- + + 'Randolph turned to Gambetta, and in his most apologetic style, which + is extremely taking, said: "_Would_ you mind telling me who Ledru- + Rollin was?" Gambetta looked him all up and down, as though to say, + "What sort of a politician are you, never to have heard of Ledru- + Rollin?" and then broke into a laugh, and replied: "Ledru-Rollin was a + republican in the days when there were none, so we were bound to give + him a first-class funeral."' + +Sir Charles adds: + + 'When I was a boy, Hepworth Dixon used to tell a story of how an + omnibus driver had nudged him one day when he was sitting on the box- + seat, and pointing out Ledru-Rollin in Oxford Street, had said, "See + that gentleman? I have heard say how he once was King of France"-- + which had been pretty true at the beginning of 1848.' + +After the Easter recess 'was the moment of the German war scare' of 1875 +in France-- + + 'Bourke' (the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs) 'kept me quiet in + the Commons by keeping me informed. He told me of the Queen's letter + to the Emperor William the day it went. Gavard, the French Charge + d'Affaires, told me that England and Russia received official thanks + from France for preventing war by pressure at Berlin. Peace was not in + danger.' + +There is a note referring to conversations held earlier in 1875 with +Gambetta, and to other conversations with Bismarck in 1889: + + 'I had heard a rumour that Thiers had signed secret articles of peace + in addition to the public treaty, and further that in these articles + there was something about the number of men to be kept under arms by + France. In the Arnim trial it came out that one of the despatches + concerned Prussian spies in France in 1872, while two of the + despatches were "so secret that they could not be even named or + catalogued." It was thought that these despatches concerned the secret + articles, and it was sought in this way to explain the efforts made by + Germany to prevent the fall of Thiers on the ground that he must be + kept on his legs for fear a different Government would disregard his + secret articles. Bismarck himself, it should be remembered, spoke of + the two uncatalogued despatches as "perhaps decisive of the question + of peace or war." [Footnote: Secret articles of the Versailles and + Frankfort.] + + When at Friedrichsruh in September, 1889, [Footnote: This was during + Sir Charles's visit to Prince Bismarck, described in Chapter L. + (Volume II.).] as Bismarck was talking very freely about everything + that was past and gone, I asked him about this, and he said that I + should agree with him that it was plain that the suggestions as to the + limit of the number of men had been wrong, inasmuch as France had + repeatedly increased her forces; but the sudden risk of war between + France and Germany which arose in 1875, when war was only prevented by + the interference of the Russian Emperor, has never been adequately + explained. + +On this point Sir Charles afterwards pencilled in the margin: 'The +Prussian Staff wanted war; I doubt whether the old German Emperor intended +to permit it.' + +There follow other references of this year to foreign politics and +politicians: + + 'Don Alfonso at this moment (January, 1875) had become King of Spain. + Two years previously Moret told me to a day when Amedeo, whose + Ambassador in England he then was, would fall; and on Boxing Day of + 1874 in Paris, before I left for Algeria, he recalled to me this + prophecy, and told me that Serrano would "bring back" Alfonso that + week, and so he did. [Footnote: Marshal Serrano was Minister of War to + Queen Isabella II., with whom he had great influence. His opposition + to the illegal prorogation of the Cortes led to his imprisonment, but + after the revolution of 1868, when Isabella was dethroned and her + dynasty proscribed, he became Regent of Spain from 1868 to 1871. He + resigned this power when Amedeo I. entered Madrid, but remained + President of the Council and Minister of War. On the abdiction of + Amedeo and proclamation of a Republic he was again at the head of + affairs until Alfonso II., son of Isabella, was "brought back."] + + 'Sigismund Moret is not only the handsomest and pleasantest of men, + but about the cleverest; but at this moment his country offered him no + place, and his friends could only regret that he could find nothing + better to do than play whist. He afterwards became Prime Minister. + + 'Alfonso was said to be greatly under the influence at this time of + the Duchesse de Sesto--my old friend of 1860, the Duchesse de Morny, + lovely of the lovely at that time at Trouville, but afterwards when I + saw her at La Bourboule, I think in 1881, become much like other + people, and somewhat weighed down by the responsibility of being the + mother of that terrible young man "Le petit Duc." + + 'It was about this time that Rochefort, who had escaped from New + Caledonia with Pascal Grousset (died 1909), came to London, and I saw + them. I afterwards quarrelled with Rochefort, or rather ceased to see + him, for I had seen him only this once, because of his behaviour + towards Gambetta, who had been very good to him.' + +Of Grousset Sir Charles writes: + + 'This handsome youth had in 1868 just become notorious for his grossly + impertinent and indecent reply to the President of the Tribunal at the + trial of Prince Peter Bonaparte for shooting Victor Noir. Grousset was + the principal witness, and when asked the usual first question of + French law, "Witness, are you the husband, wife, father, mother, son, + daughter, brother, sister, ascendant or descendant, or any relation of + the prisoner?" replied: "It is impossible to say; Madame Letitia was + not particular"--alluding to the mother of Napoleon the Great. + + 'Grousset had conducted the "Foreign Affairs" of the Commune of Paris, + and had been so polite to the representatives of the Embassies that + George Sheffield, the private secretary to Lord Lyons, who conducted + British affairs at Paris, used to declare that of all the many French + Governments he had known the Commune was the only one that knew how to + behave itself in society....' + +But this feeling was not universal. + + 'Mrs. Wodehouse (formerly Minnie King, an American beauty, and + afterwards Lady Anglesey) asked me to breakfast with her to meet + Grousset.' (She was receiving the refugee at the request of Madame + Novikoff.) + + 'When her butler, who was an old French gendarme, found who was coming + to breakfast, he refused to serve, and a hired waiter had to be called + in, the old man saying that he had had charge of Grousset to convey + him from Versailles to the hulks before the Communalists had been sent + to New Caledonia, and that Grousset had been so impertinent to him + that nothing would induce him to wait upon him as a servant. + + 'This clever boy of all the persons deeply compromised in the Commune + was, with one exception, the one who made his peace most rapidly with + French society, and in 1890 he was received by the President of the + Republic officially as elected Director of the federation of all the + Gymnastic Societies of France.' [Footnote: It was perhaps on account + of his youthful appearance that Pascal Grousset was described as a + boy. He was only two years younger than Sir Charles, and was twenty- + six at the time of the Commune. He was later, for twenty years, one of + the Deputies for Paris.] + + +II. + +Sir Charles in this Session contributed to the gaiety of Parliament by his +motion upon unreformed Borough Corporations, and, said the newspapers, +"kept the House of Commons in a roar." + + 'But the fact was that the subject was so funny that it was impossible + to make a speech about it which would not have been amusing, and + Randolph Churchill, who replied to me, was funnier than I was, though + he was not equally regardful of the truth.' + + 'One of the Corporations which I had attacked was that of Woodstock, + and Randolph Churchill brought the Prince of Wales down to the House + to hear his defence of his constituency. I had said in my speech that + the Mayor of Woodstock had been lately fined by his own Bench, he + being a publican, for breaking the law in a house the property of the + Corporation, and that he had said on that occasion in public court, + after hearing the evidence of the police: "I have always had a high + respect for the police, but in future I shall have none." Randolph + Churchill, answering me, said that I had slightly mistaken the Mayor's + words, and that what he had really said was: "I have always had a high + respect for the police, but in future I shall have _more_." After this + debate was over, Randolph came up to me outside, and said: "I was + terrified lest you should have heard anything to-day, but I see you + have not." I said: "What?" He said: "He was fined again yesterday."' + +In the same speech the case of New Romney was described--"the worst of +all" the Cinque Ports, where the number of freemen, twenty-one at the +passing of the Reform Act (of 1832), had fallen to eight-- + + "the only town in England in which six gentlemen elected themselves to + every office, appointed themselves magistrates, let the whole of the + valuable town properties exclusively to themselves, audited their own + accounts, and never showed a balance sheet." + +A cartoon in one of the comic papers displayed one selfsame and highly +complacent person, first as "Our Grocer," then as "Our Mayor," then as +"The Gentleman who elects our Mayor," "The Gentleman who disposes of our +Public Trusts," "The Gentleman who benefits by our Public Trusts, "and +"The Committee appointed annually to look into the Accounts of the +Gentleman who disposes of our Public Trusts." + +Another of Sir Charles's topics in 1875 was the working of the Ballot Act. +'A dull speech on a dull subject,' it secured, however, the appointment of +a Committee to inquire whether secrecy of voting was not menaced by the +form in which ballot papers were issued. But the main object of his +activity in the field of electoral reform was redistribution, and this +object was the hardest to attain, because more than 400 members of the +House sat for constituencies not numerically entitled to representation. +The over-represented had a majority of two-thirds in Parliament, and this +was a tremendous vested interest to assail. Still, the whole Liberal party +was now committed to the support of his principle. + +The same general support was given to his Bill 'known as the Allotments +Extension Bill, to provide for the letting to cottagers of lands held for +the benefit of the poor'--a scheme originally proposed by Mill. + + 'My Parliamentary Session of 1875 was my most successful. + + 'My motion on Ballot Act, + " " " Unreformed Boroughs, + " " " Redistribution, + " Bill " Allotments, + were all four great successes, and so spoken of in all the papers. On + the first I got my way. On the second I prepared it for next year, and + on the third and fourth I got the support of the whole Liberal party + and most of the Press.' + +There are a good many pleasant stories of what seems to have been a very +easy-going Session of Parliament: + + 'At this time Plimsoll's name was in every mouth, and the only + formidable opposition in the House was that which he offered to the + Government in the sailors' name. Old Adderley, afterwards Lord Norton, + who was at the Board of Trade, assured me, in his solid hatred of the + man, that when Plimsoll told the House of Commons that he had stopped + a fearful shipwreck by taking a telegram to the Board of Trade at 3 + a.m., and ringing for the porter and sending it then and there to the + President's house, Plimsoll had neglected to state that this telegram + had reached him at five o'clock in the afternoon, and had been kept + back by him till the middle of the night for the production of a + sensation.... + + 'The other hero of the Session was Major O'Gorman, a hero of four-and- + twenty stone, who on two occasions at least made the House laugh as + they never laughed before, nor have laughed since. We used at first to + lose him at a quarter to twelve each night, as he had to get to the + Charing Cross Hotel, where he lived on the fourth storey, before the + lift had gone up for the last time. But later in the Session we + managed to keep him till 1.15, for he made the brilliant discovery + that the luggage lift, which just suited him, was available till 1.30. + + 'Some of his finest things are lost in the reports. For example, + "Swill the whisky through the streets till the very curs lie + prostrate," and this, which, however, in a weakened form, survives in + Mr. Lucy's Diary: "Some men who call themselves my constituents tell + me that if I oppose this Bill I shall never sit again. Well, _what + then?_" (This in a stentorian voice that nearly blew the windows out.) + "Athens ostracized Aristides." + + 'After midnight a postponed Bill is fixed for the next sitting by the + words "This day." O'Gorman was opposing and watching such a Bill, and + shouted out: "_What_ day?" "This day" was solemnly repeated. Then the + puzzled Major, looking at the clock, and bowing to the chair, said: + "Mr. Speaker, is it yesterday or is it to-morrow?" I never heard a + question more difficult of reply under the circumstances of the case. + +The best Irish bull uttered within his own hearing was, says Dilke, Sir +Patrick O'Brien's defence of Mr. Gladstone addressed to the Irish +Nationalists: "The right honourable gentleman has done much for our common +country. He has broken down the bridges that divided us." + + +III. + +When the Session was ended, Sir Charles, according to his custom, set out +on travel, following a scheme mapped out far ahead. In December, 1874, he +had written to Miss Kate Field, correspondent of the _New York Tribune_ +and a friend of Sir Charles and of his first wife, that he would be in +America in the following September on a journey round the world, and there +accordingly he appeared--'on my way to Japan, China, Java, Singapore, and +the Straits of Malacca--taking with me as travelling companion my scheme +for a history of the nineteenth century,' a work projected on such ample +lines that a note of this year sets down 1899 as the probable date of +completion, "if I live so long." + +The record of this journey is to be found in the additional chapters to +_Greater Britain,_ first issued in 1876 as magazine articles, and added to +the eighth edition in 1885. He saw Japan before the Satsuma rebellion had +broken out in a last attempt to restore the old feudal regime, and he +stayed in the Tartar General's _yamen_ at Canton, where at gun-fire he and +the other Europeans in the same house were shut up within barred gates, +only representatives of the white race among 2,000,000 Chinese. As for the +Japanese, he wrote: + + "I'm in love with this country and people.... The theatre is where I + spend all my time.... There alone can you now see the soldiers in + masks, ferocious and hairy, with the chain-armour and javelins of + fifteen years ago. [Footnote: This was written in 1875.] There alone + can you now see the procession of daimios accompanied by two-sworded + Samurai, there alone have the true old Japan of the times before this + cursed 'New Reform Government' arose." + + 'My stay at Tokio was at the same moment as that of Shimadzu Suboro, + the old Satsuma Chief, uncle and adoptive father to the Satsuma + Princes, and last constitutional light of the Feudal party. The "great + Marshal" Saigo was commanding in chief the forces, and was in the next + year to head the Satsuma rebellion. The Corean Envoys--tall men, with + wondrous stars in their hair--were at the capital also, and I met them + often.' + +The beauty of Java, where he stayed at the Governor's Palace at +Buitenzorg, charmed him. + +His journey from the East was very rapid, and January, 1876, saw him back +in England. He was in time to address his constituents as usual before the +opening of Parliament. + +The speech contains what he points out as notable in one who 'so seldom +spoke upon the Irish question'--an attack on the Coercion Bill of the +previous year. It might be better, he said, to govern Ireland on the +assumption that human nature is much the same everywhere, and Irishmen +under no special bar of incapacity. A majority of the Irish +representatives were in favour of Home Rule, and "a reformed dual +constitution might possibly be devised which would work fairly well." This +was an extreme attitude for those days, and he went on to recommend "the +immediate creation of a local elective body, having power to deal with +public works and the like"--in short, very much what Mr. Chamberlain +advocated in 1885. + +The speech also protested against Lord Carnarvon's policy as Colonial +Minister, "in sending out Mr. Froude to stump South Africa against the +local Ministers of the Crown, which was the beginning of all the frightful +evils which afflicted South African affairs for the next nine years." + +The conduct of the Opposition did not escape comment. "The duty of a +Liberal leader is to follow his party, and this Lord Hartington has done +with exemplary fidelity and unexampled patience." Another phrase noted +that the Session of 1875 had left its mark on the House of Commons, "for +pillows had been for the first time provided for members who wished to +sleep," and the same atmosphere of repose marked the Session of 1876. The +Memoir sketches some Parliamentary operations with which Sir Charles was +connected: + + 'Early in this session occurred the introduction of the Royal Titles + Bill, conferring the Imperial title upon the Queen, and I wrote for + Fawcett a motion for an address to pray the Queen that she would be + graciously pleased not to assume any addition to her title in respect + of India other than the title of Queen. When the matter came on for + discussion Cowen, who had now come into the House for Newcastle, rose + to make his first speech. He had succeeded his old father, who was a + Whig in politics and an old fogey in appearance, the son being now an + ultra-Radical, now a democratic Tory, dressing like a workman, with a + black comforter round his neck, and the only wideawake hat at that + time known in the House of Commons. The next day Mr. Disraeli said: "I + am told that we are blamed for not having put up a Minister to answer + Cowen. How could we? I came into the House while he was speaking. I + saw a little man with one hand in his pocket, and the other arm + raising and waving uncouthly a clenched fist, making what appeared to + be a most impassioned oration. But I was in this difficulty. I did not + understand a word of it. I turned to my colleagues, and found that + they were in the same position. We could not reply to him; we did not + understand the tongue in which the speech was delivered." Cowen spoke + with a Newcastle burr so strong that it was not easy to follow his + words, and it was only by the context that one could guess what he + meant, when he used, for example, such a word as "rowing," which he + pronounced "woane."... + + 'I again brought forward my motion with regard to unreformed + corporations, with fresh illustrations and new jokes, and the second + edition was voted as popular as the first. Corfe Castle, with the Lord + High Admiral of the Isle of Purbeck, and a Corporation consisting of + one person, was a gem. Sir John Holker, who had to deal with the + question for the Government, and who prepared the Royal Commission + which sat to consider it in consequence of my motions, laid down some + law for my information, which I doubted, and thereon showed to + Harcourt, who said: "You will find the Attorney-General's law as bad + as might be expected." Holker was personally popular. But he + certainly, though a great winner of verdicts from juries, was one of + the dullest men who ever addressed the House of Commons.' + +Although Sir Charles was active and, generally speaking, successful during +this session, on two points he found himself without support. One was his +opposition to the principle of the Bills dealing with the University of +Oxford and the University of Cambridge, on both of which he "took a highly +Conservative tone without securing any assistance from Conservative +opinion." But a passage in his diary, March, 1877, describes his action +and that of the Liberal party on the "Universities Bill" of that year, and +mentions a meeting at which Lord Hartington, Goschen, Harcourt, Fawcett, +and Fitzmaurice were present, and at which 'it was decided to support my +amendments to the Bill.' [Footnote: See Appendix, p. 200.] + +His conservatism in academic matters revealed itself fully in 1878, as did +that abiding feeling for his old college which characterized every after-- +allusion to it or to his University life. The Papal diplomatist, Bishop +Bateman, founder of Trinity Hall, was mentioned by Sir Charles with the +respect due to a patron saint. No traditions were dearer to him than those +of Trinity Hall. Speaking at the College annual dinner, he impressed upon +the reforming Fellows their obligation, in the college interests, to +retain its exclusive teaching and qualifications for fellowship as laid +down by its founder, "for the study of the canon and civil law." +[Footnote: A scrap of the menu of the dinner of June 19th, 1878, is +preserved, which shows these toasts: '"The Lord Chief Justice of England-- +proposed by the Master; responded to by the Lord Chief Justice of England, +Sir Alexander Cockburn. Fellows and ex-Fellows--proposed by Sir Charles +Dilke, Bart., M.P.; responded to by (Fellows) Professor Fawcett, M.P., +(ex-Fellows) R. Romer, Esq. Our Old Blues and Captains of the T.H. Boat +and Cricket Clubs--Proposed by Leslie Stephen, Esq."] + + "It is a good thing for a small college that it should not be merely + one of the herd. It is a bad thing that a small college should be + driven to teach everything--classics, mathematics, law, theology, + medicine, and science, physical and moral--for if it teaches so many + things, of necessity, from its poverty in money and in men, it cannot + teach all well. A small college can only keep at a high moral and + social and intellectual level by having a distinguishing note or + accent. In our dear old House we have already in existence by our + history and by the Instrument of Foundation that special mark to + distinguish us from others which the most advanced University + Reformers clamour to see created as regards each College in the + University.... + + "It should keep its distinguishing note, and flourish for another five + hundred and twenty-eight years, not only in manners, good-fellowship, + and rowing, but as a school of law. + + "In rowing and law it had fallen off, but good-fellowship still + differentiates the College, and prevents it from surrendering to the + prevailing tendency to make the colleges in our grand old University + pale copies of French _lycées_--all cut on one pattern and + administered by schoolmasters, who will rule over dunces of universal + acquirements examined to the point of death." + +The other question on which he failed to secure support was his attack on +the Royal Academy: + + 'What I really wanted was that the Academy should be reminded that + they obtained their present magnificent site upon conditions which + have not been observed, and that they ought at least to give a free + day a week at their exhibition, and give up a portion of their + privileges against outsiders.' + +But the attack, as he admits, was not pressed with spirit for he had only +the _Pall Mall Gazette_ and the _Examiner_ with him in the Press. In the +House Lord Elcho [Footnote: Better known as Lord Wemyss, long the +venerable father of Parliament.] and Mr. George Bentinck 'alone understood +the question,' and the latter was too intimate with all the Academy +leaders to afford a hope that he would do otherwise than take their side. +So, feeling his isolation in the matter, Dilke limited himself to moving +for some papers, which were given. + +By the summer of 1876 Sir Charles was well again: + + 'I began this year to stay a great deal at Lady Waldegrave's, both at + Dudbrook in Essex and at Strawberry Hill; and ultimately I had a room + at Strawberry Hill, to which I went backwards and forwards as I chose. + The house was extremely pleasant, and so was Fortescue, and he + passionately adored his wife, and was afterwards completely broken + down and almost killed by her death. Fortescue was my friend; but she + was an excellent hostess, and the house was perfectly pleasant, and + that in a degree in which no other house of our time has been. The + other house which was always named as "the rival establishment," + Holland House, I also knew. Some of the same people went there-- + Abraham Hayward, commonly called the "Viper," and Charles Villiers, + for example. Lady Waldegrave always made everybody feel at home, which + Lady Holland did not always do. Those of whom I saw the most this + year, in addition to the Strawberry Hill people (who were Harcourt, + James, Ayrton, Villiers, Hayward, Dr. Smith the editor of the + _Quarterly,_ Henry Reeve the editor of the _Edinburgh,_ the Comte de + Paris, and the Due d'Aumale), were Lord Houghton and Mrs. Duncan + Stewart. Lord Houghton never met me without referring to a review of + his collected works, which appeared in the _Athenaeum_ in the spring, + and which had cut the old man to the heart' (because it rated his + poetry on a level with that of Eliza Cook). + + 'One of the most agreeable parties of clever people to which I ever + went was a luncheon given by Mrs. Stewart, when she was living a few + doors from me in my street, at which I was the only man, the party + chiefly consisting of old ladies; indeed, I was by far the youngest + person present. Besides Mrs. Stewart herself, there were friends, Lady + Hamilton Gordon, Lady Pollock, Lady Hopetoun, Mrs. Frank Hill, Mrs. + Oliphant, and Mrs. Lynn Linton--Lady Gordon, a remarkably able woman, + one of the bedchamber women of the Queen and a great gossip; Lady + Pollock, slow, but full of theatrical anecdote, being stage-mad, as + was her husband, old Sir Frederick, the Queen's Remembrancer, father + of my Cambridge friend Professor Pollock (now Sir Frederick) and of + Walter Pollock, the editor of the _Saturday Review_. A few days later + I met Lady Pollock at a great party given by Lord Houghton. Irving was + coming down the stairs, at the bottom of which we stood, having Mrs. + Singleton (now, 1894, the Ambassadress, Lady Currie) upon his arm. Old + Lady Pollock, clutching at my arm, exclaimed: "Who is that woman with + Irving?" To which I answered: "Mrs. Singleton, author of _Denzil + Place_--Violet Fane." "She won't do him any harm, will she?" was the + embarrassing question by which Lady Pollock replied to me.' + +In this summer Sir Charles gave dinner-parties which included ladies--'a +plan which I found so uncomfortable for a politician who had only a +grandmother to entertain them that I dropped it after August, 1876.' His +dinners were always among the pleasantest in London, but till 1886 they +were only dinners of men. + +Of men friends of this year he specially notes 'Gennadius, the Greek +Secretary, afterwards Minister,' with whom his friendship was lifelong. + + + + +APPENDIX + +A meeting was held at Devonshire House on March 1st, 1877: + + 'There were present, besides Lord Hartington and myself, Lowe, + Goschen, Harcourt, Fawcett, and Fitzmaurice.--It was decided to + support Grant Duff in adding the names of Huxley and Max Müller, and + not to support Fitzmaurice in adding Bryce, but to support him in + adding Hooker, and Goschen in adding Professor Bartholomew Price to + the Oxford Commission, and to support Hartington in moving to add Dr. + Bateson, the Master of John's, to the Cambridge Commission. Bouverie + was to be proposed by Harcourt, as against Cockburn, for chairman of + the Cambridge Commission, because we objected to overworked Judges + being on Commissions. The name of Bradley, afterwards Dean of + Westminster, was suggested for the Oxford Commission by Lowe, but not + supported by the meeting, and it was decided to support my amendments + to the Bill. The Commissions as originally suggested were badly + composed. The best men suggested were not good--Dr. Bellamy (President + of St. John's, Oxford), for example, the wealthiest of all college + officials, a precise, old-fashioned, kind-hearted nonentity, a simple + tool of more intelligent Conservatives; and Henry Smith, an Irishman + of the keenest order of intelligence, ready to give an intellectual + assent to the abstract desirability of the best and highest in all + things. On another of the names originally suggested I may quote Smith + himself, for when Dean Burgon's appointment was attacked in the House + of Commons by me and others, Smith, approaching Lord Salisbury at a + party, and engaging in conversation upon the matter, said that the + reasons for appointing him were overwhelming, at which Lord Salisbury + was greatly pleased; when Henry Smith went on: "No such Commission + could possibly be complete without its buffoon."' + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +REVIVAL OF THE EASTERN QUESTION + + +Sir Charles at this period of his career was passing from the status of a +formidable independent member to that of a recognized force in his party. +In May, 1876, he became Chairman of the Elections Committee at the Liberal +Central Association, and from that time forward up to 1880 'took a very +active part in connection with the choice of candidates.'@@Mr. Joseph +Chamberlain had been elected for Birmingham. He was lame from gout, and +resented it, saying to Sir Charles 'that it was an illness which should be +exclusively reserved by a just Providence for Tories.' On July 8th, 1876, +he wrote to Dilke that before coming up to take his seat he had called his +friends together and settled a programme and general course of action. "I +think there is every chance of our Union being productive of useful +practical results, but it is agreed that our arrangements shall remain +strictly private for the present. _Omne ignotum pro magnifico._" On August +2nd Sir Charles introduced to Lord Hartington at Devonshire House 'a great +private deputation upon the Education Bill from the North Country Liberal +Associations, which was in fact the first movement by what was afterwards +the National Liberal Federation.' So the "Caucus" began to make itself +felt in domestic affairs. + +Sir Charles notes that he 'for the first time began to be summoned to +meetings respecting the course to be taken by the party.' Here already he +found that-- + + 'Mr. Gladstone began, although somewhat ostentatiously proclaiming in + public the opposite principle, to interfere a good deal in + Hartington's leadership, and even Harcourt, who only a few months + before had ridiculed Mr. Gladstone's pretensions in such strong terms, + on the rare occasions when he was unable to get his way with + Hartington always now went off to Mr. Gladstone, to try to make use of + the power of his name.' + +"Foreign affairs had suddenly risen out of complete obscurity into a +position in which they overshadowed all other things, and left home +politics in stagnation." [Footnote: Speech at Notting Hill, August, 1876.] +These complications were destined to bring Mr. Gladstone back into an +activity not merely unimpaired, but redoubled, and to shake the power of +Mr. Disraeli to its fall. + +Sir Charles was, first and foremost, a "good European"; he conceived of +Europe as a body politic, bound in honour to regulate its own members. +Isolation appeared to him a mere abandonment of the duty of civilized +powers to maintain order in the civilized world. Corporate action was to +be encouraged, because, in most cases, the mere threat of it would suffice +either as between States to prevent wars of aggression, or as between +ruler and ruled to assert the ordinary principles of just government. + +The enforcement of this view might involve its support by force of arms, +and he worked all his life for our military preparedness, holding that it +was the best guarantee that armed intervention would be unnecessary, as it +was also the best guarantee of our own immunity from attack. + +At this moment "foreign affairs" meant the Eastern Question, in regard to +which the future of two nations, Russia and Greece, specially interested +him. He was notably a Phil-Hellene, who "dreamed of a new Greece"--a +"force of the future instead of a force of the past; a force of trade +instead of a force of war; European instead of Asiatic; intensely +independent, democratic, maritime." Here, and not in any Slavonic State, +did he see the rightful successors to the Ottoman dominion. Towards Russia +his feelings were complex: admiration for the people accompanied +detestation of the Government, and the unscrupulous power commanding the +services of so vast and virile a people always appeared in his eyes as a +menace to civilization. Yet in the future of Russia he "firmly believed," +and he repeats in speech after speech this creed: "Behind it are ranged +the forces of the future." "To compare the Russia of to-day to the Russia +that is to come is to compare chaos to the universe." "If by Russia we +mean the leading Slavonic power, whether a Russia one and indivisible, or +a Slavonian confederation, we mean one of the greatest forces of the +future." [Footnote: Speech at Notting Hill, August, 1876.] + +Sir Charles's speeches, taken in conjunction with the diary, give the +story of these Eastern troubles from the outside as well as from the +inside. His constituents had little excuse for being carried away by +popular cries. In his speech on the last day of the session he advocated +the sending of a "strong and efficient man to Constantinople in the name +of the Western Powers to carry out that policy of protection of Christian +subjects of Turkey which England had intended after the Crimea," +[Footnote: _Ibid._] But while condemning with the greatest energy the +Turkish barbarities in Bulgaria, he warned his constituents against +overlooking atrocities committed elsewhere, "for there was not one pin to +choose between Circassian ruffians on the one side and Montenegrin +ruffians on the other." To those who "were carried away by their belief +that the conflict was one between the present and the past, and between +Christianity and Islamism, and declared that the Turks must be driven out +of Europe," he pointed out the larger questions at stake. + +Turning to the Balkan States, he did not believe in a continuous united +movement among these "which would suffice to drive the Mohammedan out of +Europe." "To allow the Russians to interfere openly" would rouse Austria, +a Power which, in spite of the difficulties presented by its internal +"differences of creed and hostilities of races," must in the interests of +South-Eastern Europe be "bolstered up." In this instance he urged the need +for joint action, and laid bare some underlying difficulties awaiting +diplomacy. It was a situation complicated by the fact that "this Europe is +probably mined beneath our feet with secret treaties." [Footnote: Sir +Charles notes later: 'Since the accession of George III. the country had +concluded about forty treaties or separate articles of a secret nature +which were not communicated to Parliament at the time of their conclusion, +and in some instances not at all; but these secret engagements were mostly +concluded in anticipation of war, or during war, and ceased to have effect +when war was over.'] + +In his speech of January 15th, 1878, in Kensington, at one of the critical +moments of the struggle, he told the whole story, which began in August, +1875, when Mr. Disraeli's Government consented "with reluctance" to take +part in sending a European Consular Mission to inquire into disturbances +occasioned by Turkish misrule in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Great Britain's +reluctance weakened, so Sir Charles thought, the European concert, and the +mission resulted only in delusive promises of reform. In the following +winter Turkey was increasingly encouraged to lean upon British support in +withstanding pressure from the other Powers; and in May, 1876, after +disturbances in Bulgaria had been repressed with appalling ferocity, Mr. +Disraeli's Cabinet positively refused to join in a demand for certain +reforms to be carried out by Turkey under European supervision. + + 'Our Government had refused to sign the Berlin Memorandum on account + of a reference in it to the possible need of taking "efficacious + measures" to secure good government in Turkey. + + 'But' (commented Sir Charles in 1878, making plain exactly what he + meant by European intervention) 'it was England who, not shrinking + from mere words, but herself proposing deeds, had taken a really + "efficacious" part in the "efficacious measures" of 1860, when, after + the massacres in the Lebanon, Europe sent Lord Dufferin to Syria with + a French armed force--the Powers making that engagement not to accept + territory which could also have been made in 1876. In 1860 Lord + Dufferin, in the name of Europe, hanged a guilty Pasha and pacified + the Lebanon, which to this moment still enjoys, in consequence of + European intervention, a better government than the rest of Turkey, + and this with the result of an increase of strength to the Turkish, + power. Only the obstructiveness of our Government prevented the still + more easy pacification of the European provinces of Turkey in 1876, + and caused the present war with all its harm to British trade and all + its risks to "British interests."' [Footnote: Speech delivered at + Kensington on January 15th, 1878.] + +Holding these views, Sir Charles encouraged Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice to +place on the notice paper of the House of Commons a formal resolution of +censure on the Government for refusing to join in the Berlin Memorandum +without making a counter-proposal of their own. It was believed that Mr. +Gladstone approved the course indicated, but he was still in retirement, +and not only did Lord Granville and Lord Hartington think that any formal +action in the House would be impolitic, but many of the 'peace-at-any- +price' Radicals, who regarded Lord Derby's extreme policy of non- +intervention with favour, refused to support the proposed censure. The +resolution accordingly had to be withdrawn, amid the general disapproval, +however, of the Liberal Press. Thus the first attempt at action at +once betrayed a profound cleavage of opinion. This was unfortunately +only typical of everything which followed in this chapter of events, +though the debate which took place towards the end of the Session proved +very damaging to the Government. [Footnote: See _Hansard_, cxlii. 22; +_Life of Gladstone_, ii, 549; _Life of Granville, ii. 166 and 264, where +Lord Ampthill, writing in 1882, expresses the opinion that Lord Derby's +policy was most unfortunate.] + +It was on May 19th, 1876, that the British Government dated their refusal +to intervene. As early as June, accounts of what had been done in Bulgaria +began to appear in the Press. Mr. Disraeli ridiculed them in the House of +Commons, but testimony soon accumulated, and the most important evidence +was that of Mr. Eugene Schuyler, then attached to the American Legation at +Constantinople. As American Consul at St. Petersburg in 1869-70, he had +become acquainted with Sir Charles, and had seen a good deal of him in +London during the earlier part of 1875. It was, therefore, to Dilke that +Schuyler wrote his account of the massacres at Batak, based upon his visit +to the spot, which he found still horrible with unburied corpses; and in +August, on the last day of the Session, Dilke, addressing his constituents +at Notting Hill, read Schuyler's letter to them. + +Early in September, 1876, public indignation was set ablaze by Mr. +Gladstone's famous pamphlet, which demanded that the Turk should clear out +of Bulgaria, "bag and baggage." On the 14th of the same month Mr. Baring's +official report confirmed the Schuyler letter, and on the 21st Lord Derby +sent a despatch, which, says Sir Charles, 'in the sharpest words ever, I +think, used in a despatch, demanded reparation, and the "signal, +conspicuous, and exemplary punishment" of Chefket Pasha, director of the +Bulgarian massacres.' + +Meanwhile Servia and Montenegro, feudatory States of the Porte, had gone +to war with their overlord; and in order to induce the Turks to grant an +armistice, Russia and Austria proposed to England a joint naval +demonstration, carried out in the name of Europe, by England and France. +Lord Derby proposed instead a conference of Europe to take place at +Constantinople, and to this the Powers agreed. But Russia, not contented +with this step, presented an ultimatum to Turkey demanding an armistice +for Servia, and obtained it on November 1st. Thus, by Lord Derby's action, +'the armistice was refused to Europe and yielded to a Russian ultimatum.' + +The conference met at Constantinople in December, 1876, and on the 14th +Lord Salisbury, who represented England, was advocating the "efficacious +measure" of occupying Bulgaria by English troops, and, when this was +refused, proposed the employment of Belgians. But-- + + 'It was now too late. Turkey had been encouraged by us into + mobilization. Russia had been thwarted by us into mobilization. The + time was past when we might have averted war, might have pacified the + East, protected alike the Eastern Christians and "British interests" + by a signature.' + +Replying to a common argument, he said: 'Want of money will not cause +Russia to terminate the war. Machiavelli has truly said that nothing is +more false than the common belief that money is the sinews of war.' + +The conference failing, all Ambassadors were withdrawn from the Porte, and +Russia continued to parley with the other Powers. 'Early in March, 1877, a +draft Protocol regarding the expectation of the Powers with regard to +Turkish reforms was handed to Lord Derby, who promised to sign if Russia +would promise to disarm.' Russia specified the conditions on which she +would 'disarm,' and Lord Derby then signed the Protocol, but added a +declaration that his signature should be null unless disarmament followed +both in Russia and Turkey. This, in Sir Charles's judgment, was tantamount +to a refusal to sign, because Lord Derby must have known that Turkey would +never grant, except under coercion, the conditions on which Russia had +consented to disarm. "All Turkish promises are of one material-- +paper," he said, and in severely criticizing the action of the Government +added: "The unreformed state of Turkey is, and will continue to be, the +greatest standing menace to the peace of Europe." + +Further, at the same moment England again separated herself from the other +Powers by sending an Ambassador--Mr. Layard--to Constantinople, 'to which +the Turks replied: "The Porte is very sensible of this delicate mark of +attention."' + +The effect was to encourage Turkey to count on English support, and +Russia, unable to secure concerted action, declared war single-handed. + +Thus, not only was the result missed which Sir Charles desired and thought +possible--namely, the restoration of order by joint action of Europe--but +the way was paved for another result which he deplored--the extension of +Russia's influence, and even of her territorial sway. + +As his speeches gave the story of the European position, so his diary +provides a commentary on that story from within: + + 'Things generally were in a disturbed condition at this moment. The + Eastern Question, which was to be so prominent for the next four + years, had grown critical, and Bourke, the Under-Secretary for Foreign + Affairs (afterwards Lord Connemara and Governor of Madras), said to me + at the House of Commons: "The one thing that astonishes me is the + confidence of people in Lord Derby." Now, Lord Derby was his chief. + This proved pretty clearly that Mr. Disraeli was, in fact, his own + Foreign Secretary, and had made up his mind that Lord Derby should + "go." [Footnote: Lord Derby did not "go" till the spring of 1878.] + + 'June 28th, 1876, is the date of the first of my letters mentioning + the Eastern Question. It is from Auberon Herbert: "We are sure to get + into some frightful trouble if Dizzy is to be allowed uninterruptedly + to offer what sacrifices he will on the altar of his vanity. You all + seem to me to be living in Drowsy Hollow, while Dizzy is consulting + his imagination, and Hartington politely bowing. What can you all be + doing? Is it the hot weather? Or are all of you secretly pleased at + England's 'determined attitude'? Please, dear Neros, cease fiddling + for a short time, and let us poor, harmless, innocent-minded country- + folk have some assurance that you are not going to fight all + Europe.... You sleepy and unfaithful guardians." ... + + 'Although I was the first politician to make a speech upon the + Bulgarian massacres, [Footnote: See reference to Eugene Schuyler's + letter in speech of August, 1876, p. 207.] I afterwards refused to + follow Mr. Gladstone into what was called the "atrocity agitation," + because I feared that we should find ourselves plunged into a war with + Turkey in alliance with Russia, of which I should have disapproved.' + +He subscribed, however, to the funds of those who took charge of the +fugitives on both sides. + +The agitation offended him by its extravagance. "If Gladstone goes on much +longer, I shall turn Turk," he wrote to Sir William Harcourt. There was +general disquiet in the Liberal party. On October 10th, 1876, Sir William +Harcourt wrote: + + "Things here are in the most damnable mess that politics have ever + been in in my time. Gladstone and Dizzy seem to cap one another in + folly and in pretence, and I do not know which has made the greatest + ass of himself. Blessed are they that hold their tongue and wait to be + wise after the event. To this sagacious policy you will see we" + (_i.e.,_ the Hartington section) "have adhered, and shall adhere. I + had a long letter from Hartington from Constantinople (whither, as you + will see, he has prudently retired), full of his usual good sense and + caution. I quite concur with him that, though a strong case can be + made against the Government for their deliberate _status quo_ policy + during the months of June, July, and August, there is little fault to + find with what they have been doing since Derby has taken the matter + into his own hands in September. There is a decided reaction against + Gladstone's agitation. The Brooksite Whigs are furious with him, and + so are the commercial gents and the Norwood-Samuda [Footnote: Leading + shipowners and Members of Parliament.] lot, whose pecuniary interests + are seriously compromised. The Bucks election [Footnote: This by- + election, on September 22nd, 1876, was consequent on Mr. Disraeli's + acceptance of a Peerage. The Conservative (Hon. T. F. Fremantle) beat + the Liberal (Mr. R. Carington, brother to Lord Carrington), but only + by 186 votes on a poll of over 5,000.] has a good smell for Dizzy. All + the Rothschild tenants voted Tory, though, to save his own skin, Nat. + went on Carington's committee. The Rothschilds will never forgive + Gladstone and Lowe for the Egyptian business. Chamberlain and Fawcett + ... are using the opportunity to demand the demission of Hartington + and the return of Gladstone. But you need not ... prepare for extreme + measures." + +By the same post came a letter from Mr. Chamberlain, who declared that he +was "not Gladstonian," but considered that-- + + "After all, he is our best card. You see Forster's speech--trimming as + usual, and trying to dish the Radicals by bidding for the Whigs and + Moderates. Gladstone is the best answer to this sort of thing, and if + he were to come back for a few years he would probably do much for us, + and pave the way for more. Lord Hartington ... is away and silent, + besides which he is pro-Turk. If Gladstone could be induced formally + to resume the reins, it would be almost equivalent to a victory, and + would stir what Bright calls 'the masses of my countrymen' to the + depths." + +Sir Charles's own considered opinion was written to Sir William Harcourt +on October 16th: + + "I, as you know, think Hartington the best man for us--the Radicals-- + because he is quite fearless, always goes with us when he thinks it + safe for the party, and generally judges rightly--or takes the + soundest advice on this point. In fact, I don't think he's ever made a + mistake at all--as yet; but Chamberlain seems, by a sort of quasi- + hereditary Birmingham position, to look at him as Bright used to look + at Palmerston. This is serious, because Chamberlain is a strong man + and does not easily change, unlike the other member of our + triumvirate, Cowen, who is as fickle as the wind, one day Hartington, + one day you, one day Gladstone, and never seeming to know even his own + mind." + +Mr. Gladstone's return to leadership was more and more assured, but he +would not find his old antagonist face to face with him in the House of +Commons. At the close of the Session of 1876 Sir Charles had unknowingly +witnessed a great withdrawal. + + 'On the night of August 11th I had listened to Mr. Disraeli's last + speech as a Commoner, and had noticed that on leaving the House in a + long white overcoat and dandified lavender kid gloves, leaning on his + secretary's arm, he had shaken hands with a good many people, none of + whom knew that he was bidding farewell to the House of Commons.' + +This withdrawal marked no lessening of power. As Sir Charles had +perceived, Disraeli was his own Foreign Secretary, and a Foreign +Minister's influence gained by being exercised in the House of Lords. +Meanwhile, in Gladstone's absence the Liberal party seemed broken and +divided beyond hope of recovery. In the country, though the campaign +launched by the Bulgarian pamphlet had seemed so immediately effective +that a Tory county member said to Mr. Gladstone, "If there were a +dissolution now, I should not get a vote," yet the reaction, spoken of in +Harcourt's letter to Dilke on October 10th, very quickly developed. Those +who supported Mr. Gladstone identified themselves unreservedly with the +Slav as against the Turk. But by others the demand for ejection of the +Turk, "bag and baggage," from Bulgaria was construed as an invitation for +Russia to seize Constantinople, and thus as a direct infringement of +British interests in Egypt and the Mediterranean. Lord Beaconsfield +skilfully played upon this feeling, and there ensued a condition of +affairs in which Mr. Gladstone made triumphal progresses through the north +of England, and was hooted weekly in the streets of London. + +Sir Charles himself was in a great difficulty, being as he says, 'anti- +Russian without being for that pro-Turk.' Sharing to the full the general +detestation of these massacres, of which the earliest complete exposure +had been made public [Footnote: See p. 207, Schuyler's letter.] by him, he +held that there ought to be armed intervention. But he knew too much of +Russia's action in conquered provinces to feel that the matter could be +settled satisfactorily by allowing Russian influence to replace Turkish +control. + +What was more, he knew that in 1870, when Russia repudiated the Black Sea +article in the Treaty of Paris, March 30th, 1856, Mr. Gladstone's +Government had pressed the Powers of Europe to make general the Tripartite +Treaty, April 27th, 1856, 'Our Government (Gladstone-Granville) proposed +to answer the Russian Circular by extending the Tripartite Treaty to all +the Powers, and it was only Germany's refusal that stopped it.' By this +treaty, 'France, Austria, and the United Kingdom bound themselves to +consider any breach of the Treaty of Paris, 1856, or any invasion of the +integrity of the Ottoman Empire, as a _casus belli_.' In other words, the +Liberal Government had been anxious in 1870 that all the Powers should +guarantee for all time the power of the Turk in its full extension, though +Turkish methods were in 1870 and before it no other than they revealed +themselves at Batak in 1876. Sir Charles thought that, as Liberals had +been precipitate in their desire to guarantee Ottoman integrity in 1870, +so now they were precipitate in their Pan-Slavism. Moreover, the +vacillation of the Liberal leaders had put a weapon into the hands of the +Government. 'Fancy what a temptation to the present Government to publish +the despatches,' notes Sir Charles, in comment on Sir William Harcourt's +remark 'that the Tripartite Treaty discussion would be a mine of gunpowder +to the Liberal Front Bench.' + +He set forth his position in a speech to his constituents at Kensington on +January 9th, 1877. He condemned Lord Derby, who had neither "the energy +nor the force of character to fit him for the post of Foreign Secretary," +and whose policy had left them at the close of 1876 in "absolute +isolation." Yet, "on the other hand, he marvelled to see Radicals, for +years the enemies of Russian autocracy, propose the immediate adoption of +the policy of Canon Liddon and of the Emperor Alexander." [Footnote: Dr. +H. P. Liddon and Dr. Malcolm MacColl were conspicuous as enthusiastic +supporters of Mr. Gladstone's campaign.] And he went on to depict what +that policy might mean: + +"The world could not afford to see 120,000,000 of Slavs united under the +sceptre of an absolute despot, holding at Constantinople the strongest +position in all Europe, stretching from the Adriatic to Kamskatka and the +Behring Straits, and holding in Corea the strongest position in the +Pacific." Then he recalled the record of "that Power with which the +Liberals of England were to strike alliance--an absolute autocracy of the +purest type, the Power which crushed Poland, the Power which crushed +Hungary for Austria." And by what methods! The long story of violation +"both of the public and the moral law" was repeated, with citation of +British Ministers who had spoken in fierce condemnation of, Russian +methods; the decoration of Mouravief, the "woman-flogging General," was +set off against the promotion of Chefket Pasha. He himself had seen in +1869 "long processions of Polish exiles, who were still being sent by +hundreds into the solitudes of Siberia." In Turkestan General Kaufmann had +ordered a massacre of women and children, and Kaufmann, "loaded with +favours by the Emperor Alexander, still ruled in Turkestan." It was a +vehement denunciation of the autocracy of Russia, and he notes that he had +never before so moved his hearers. To his attack on the Russian Government +were added some severe strictures on the barbarities perpetrated by +Servians, and by Mr. Gladstone's special favourites, the Montenegrins, +inhabitants of "countries whose civilization had not sufficiently +progressed to allow of the belief that they were the unselfish champions +of an outraged Christianity." + +Holding these views, and holding them the more strongly because they were +the outcome of personal experience and knowledge laboriously acquired, he +was in a considerable degree isolated, not only from the Liberal party as +a whole, but even from that more intimate organization whose existence was +already recognized in the autumn of 1876, when Mr. Knowles asked him to +write in the _Nineteenth Century_ on the "New Party." + +His closest associate, now and henceforward, was Mr. Chamberlain, who in +1877 stayed a great deal in Sloane Street, and Dilke notes that in +February of that year he was giving dinners almost every night to +introduce the member for Birmingham to London. But the "New Party," when +Mr. Knowles made his unsuccessful request, consisted + + 'of Chamberlain and myself and Cowen in the House of Commons, and + Morley outside of it.... As Chamberlain and Cowen failed to agree upon + any subject whatever, the House of Commons portion of the party soon + dwindled to two leaders, in the persons of Chamberlain and myself, + who, however, picked up one faithful follower in Dillwyn. From + September, 1876, to April, 1880, there did exist a very real and very + influential, but little numerous, party, consisting of Chamberlain and + myself, followed blindly by dear old Dillwyn, and supported in the + Press by Morley. As Randolph Churchill afterwards said to me, shaking + his head over Balfour's desertion: "When you and Chamberlain were + together, your party was not too large." He had begun with four (three + regular and one half-attached), and found it certainly one, perhaps + two, and I sometimes think three, too many, though Wolff indeed + followed him almost as steadily as Dillwyn followed us.' + +For a time the "New Party" consisted of six. Mr. Edmund Dwyer Gray, an +Irish Nationalist, owner of the _Freeman's Journal_, was of it, but soon +dropped out, and for a time Mr. Burt--Father of the House in 1910--was +also included. + +At the beginning of 1877 summons was sent to a meeting before the opening +of Parliament, to which Mr. Chamberlain replied solemnly: "The party will +be complete." Further solemnity was added by the holding, at 76, Sloane +Street, of a Queen's Speech dinner in due form on the eve of the Session, +but-- + + 'the dinner of six members, which assembled democratically without + dressing in order to suit Burt's habits, was not graced by that copy + of the Queen's Speech which is sent by Government to the leaders of + the regular Opposition.' + +The "New Party" of 1876-77 differed notably in one respect from the other +small and influential group of which it was the forerunner. It had no +leader. + + 'On Saturday, February 17th, Chamberlain dined with the Prince of + Wales. In noting the invitation in my diary I put down: "The Prince of + Wales has asked Chamberlain to dinner for Saturday. I call this + 'nobbling my party.'" But the possessive pronoun with regard to the + party was not according to my custom. We always said that the party + consisted of three in all--two leaders and a follower--and Dillwyn + acknowledged Chamberlain and myself as equal leaders.' + + 'On July 4th I drove Dillwyn down to Chiswick to the Duke of + Devonshire's garden party. The Prince of Wales was there, and gave + Dillwyn a very friendly bow, whereupon I asked Dillwyn how he came to + know him so well, to which "the party" answered that he had shot + pigeons with him; and on my reproaching my old friend for indulging in + such sport, he said that he not only shot pigeons, but that the Prince + had been so struck with his shooting that he had asked who the old + gentleman was "who looked like a Methodist parson and shot like an + angel."' + +At the beginning of 1877, when they were still six, division existed even +in that small group on the burning question of the hour. Mr. Cowen was +strongly influenced by his intercourse with a settlement of Poles at +Newcastle, and-- + + 'although his anti-Russian views were only the same as my own, yet he + allowed them, as I think, without reason, to drive him into a position + of support of the Government which from this time forward separated + him from the Liberal party.' + +None of Sir Charles's other colleagues approached the Eastern Question +entirely on its own merits as distinct from party. His study of foreign +politics had, however, forced him to understand the issues, and thus his +position was rendered difficult: 'I was anti-Russian, and in this with +Hartington. On the other hand, I was for avowed intervention in the East, +and in this more extreme than Mr. Gladstone.' But at the same time his +exceptional competence in the discussion brought him steadily to the +front. Without any sacrifice of independent judgment he found himself +increasingly consulted. + +His Memoir gives, therefore, an interesting picture of the movement of +opinion in the Liberal party. At the beginning of the Session, when it was +known that Lord Salisbury had advocated active interference in the name of +Europe, Sir Charles found that 'only Harcourt and the Duke of Argyll were +for strong action in the sense of coercion of Turkey.' The Duke, however, +soon made two converts, and Dilke wrote to his brother on January 6th, +1877: + + "Lord Granville and Lord Hartington will, I am delighted to say, speak + for concerted intervention. The only man who strongly opposed their + doing so was Mr. Gladstone, who ran away from his own views." Against + this Sir Charles notes later: 'Both at the meeting of Parliament in + 1877, and also later on in the Session in the case of his own + memorable resolutions.' + + 'Mr. Gladstone had in private conversation told Harcourt that such a + course as European intervention to coerce Turkey "should only be + resolved upon after much deliberation." To this Harcourt had retorted: + "Well, Mr. Gladstone, if people outside knew what you were saying, + they might reflect it was you that hung the bag of powder on the + door."' + +On February 11th Sir Charles noted, 'Harcourt has got frightened and has +gone back,' fearing a division in the House of Commons on which Henry +Richard and the peace men would either support the Government or abstain +from voting, lest intervention should mean war. + +Thus party feeling fluctuated. On February 16th, 1877, Sir Charles's diary +recorded that 'the popular name for our Front Bench with the London mob is +"Bag and baggage Billy and his long-eared crew."' This showed that 'in the +popular mind the personality of Mr. Gladstone had finally triumphed over +that of Hartington.' + +At this moment Sir Charles's views coincided with those of Lord Hartington +to the extent of being anti-Russian, and, as already seen, he was more +drawn by personal feeling to him than to any of the various leaders. Mr. +Forster and Mr. Goschen seemed to him inclined to what a letter of +Harcourt's called "the old facing-both-ways style," and the magic of Mr. +Gladstone's personality never exercised its spell on Dilke. But he liked +Lord Hartington personally, and liked also Lord Hartington's ally, the +Duchess of Manchester, who, he says-- + + 'used to try very hard to pick up political information for Lord + Hartington; but her own strong Conservative prejudices and her want of + clearness of head made her by no means a useful guide, and in fact the + wonder to me always was to see how Hartington's strong common sense + kept him from making the mistakes into which she always tried by her + influence to press him.' + +That was written after an interview which Sir Charles had with her, at her +request, on January 8th, 1877. The Duchess had read a report of a speech +of his, in which 'I lectured on the Franco-German War, and condemned the +taking of territory as bound to lead to further wars.' On February 10th he +met her again to discuss the difficulties which were beginning to spring +up, since Mr. Gladstone's sudden access of activity, as to the leadership +of the party. In this matter Sir Charles kept himself 'absolutely +independent, going now with one and now with the other, with mere regard +to the opinions which they put forward.... I had a full knowledge of what +was going on behind the scenes,' although, because he was not in complete +agreement with either party among the Liberal leaders, he 'had not the +complete confidence of either side.' + +This detachment of attitude adds the more weight to the judgment which is +passed in the following detailed review of the situation as it was in the +spring of 1877: + + 'At this moment' (February 18th, 1877) 'London was a centre of + intrigue. But my interest in the Eastern Question had nothing to do + with persons, and was an honest one, and I found myself able to act + only with those who had no candidate of their own for the leadership + of the party, or who, like Lord Granville, were brought to a similar + position by the conflict between party loyalty and a personal + affection for Mr. Gladstone, and I was able therefore at this moment + to act more steadily with Lord Granville than with any other leading + member of the Liberal party. He was jealous of Lord Hartington, but he + was loyal to him as the party chief. Towards Mr. Gladstone he was + affectionate, but not blind.' [Footnote: Sir Charles summarises here a + memorandum he drew for Lord Granville for the debate on February 19th, + used then and on several other occasions. He pointed out that the + Government policy, since the failure of the Conference, of leaving + things alone, was safe for the moment, but it did nothing for the + Eastern Christians, gave no satisfaction to the demands made in the + name of the Queen by Lord Derby on September 21st, 1876, offered no + bridge to Russia for the avoidance of war, and therefore left the + Turkish Empire and British interests exposed to the gravest danger. + Concerted action was the course Liberals desired.] + + 'There can be no doubt that many were making use of the Eastern + Question for the purpose of advancing their particular views as to the + leadership of the party. When men have to use other men as tools for + the execution of any plan, it is difficult for them to refrain from + that tricky handling of them which is best for the immediate end, but + debases both the user and the used. To sway men by knowledge of their + weaknesses is the task of a charlatan rather than of a statesman. Mr. + Gladstone, with all his inconsistency upon the Eastern Question, and + in spite of the fact that he had only just seen evils which had always + been there, had that which the others lacked, moral conviction, and + Hartington was infected with moral indifferentism. The Conservatives + no doubt thought that Mr. Gladstone's attitude was mere emotional + facility, a mere exhibition of spasmodic power of transient + enthusiasm, an effect rather of temperament than of conviction, and + unlikely therefore to produce a continued consequence of action + sustained at a high level. The public, however, saw more clearly. + Power over the moral fibre of other natures is not given to those + whose own nature is wanting in this moral force, and Mr. Gladstone's + attitude on the Eastern Question, in spite of his contradictions and + of his occasional running away from the consequences of his own acts, + was appreciated with accuracy by that large section of the public + which ultimately followed him.' + +To this estimate should be added the record of a talk which passed in June +of the same year at a dinner party, where Sir Charles, 'along with Matthew +Arnold, Bowen, afterwards Lord of Appeal, and Frederick Pollock,' +discussed 'what is known as moral force': + + 'I upheld the view that to me Gathorne Hardy (although I never agreed + in a word which the future Lord Cranbrook said) possessed moral force + in the highest degree, but that this moral force was one which I felt + had only prejudice behind it. Still to me the intense conviction of + the man gave him immense strength, and made him the most really + eloquent Englishman to whom I had ever listened. Gladstone, I thought, + had moral force, because he believed in the particular thing of which + he was speaking at the particular moment at which he spoke. I somewhat + differed from the others with regard to Bright, thinking that he was + seldom really in earnest, although I admitted that no man gave more + strongly the impression of earnestness to his hearers, and therefore + no man had "moral force" in a higher degree.... Courtney (who had come + in during the autumn of 1876) and Fawcett both have "moral force."' + +In March, 1877, the last stage was reached in those long-drawn +negotiations by which the statesmen of Europe endeavoured to avoid war, +and the declaration which Lord Derby attached in the name of England to +the Protocol of London was virtually a refusal to assent to coercion of +Turkey. Acting as leader of the Opposition, Lord Hartington asked Dilke to +'sketch a vote of censure on the declaration.' In the debate which took +place on April 13th (the day after Russia declared war against Turkey)-- + + 'I spoke at great length, but too late for good reports, and by my + "gospel of selfishness" and other similar phrases raised ringing + cheers and counter-cheers, which for some time stopped my going on. I + felt after this day no longer afraid to stand up to anyone upon the + other side, but I noted that if Mr. Disraeli had been still in the + House I should not have hoped to have escaped as I did, after saying + all I had said of his colleagues in a full house, and coining such a + phrase of their proceedings as "gospel of selfishness"; but that which + struck me most in the whole debate was above all the want of + statesmanlike suggestion.' + +A week after the declaration of war it seemed all but certain that Great +Britain must be drawn into the conflict; and Sir Charles-- + + 'prepared (on April 20th, 1877) a resolution, which put on record my + opinions, and stated that the House regretted the failure of the + policy of the Government either to improve the position of Christian + subjects of the Porte or to avert war. It also regretted their + unwillingness to co-operate with any other of the European Powers.' + +But the Liberal party as a whole was not able to formulate any such clear +conclusion. Within a week Mr. Gladstone had determined to break away from +the "upper official circles of Liberalism," and to move a series of +Resolutions, which were actually drafted on April 26th, but the existence +of which did not become generally known till the 29th. + + '_29th April_.--Took Chamberlain to a party at Lord Houghton's, where + Lord and Lady Salisbury were leading figures, and where was Harcourt, + boiling over with rage at Mr. Gladstone, whose Resolutions had just + been heard of. Gladstone will very probably split the Liberal party + into two factions, but I do not see that he could have avoided doing + as he has done. Chamberlain and I and Fawcett must vote with him. + Cowen will vote against him, although if principles and not persons + were in question he must vote the other way. Gladstone will move a + string of resolutions, of which only one will touch the past--namely, + one to condemn the Turks for not carrying out the sentences on their + officers employed in the Bulgarian massacres. The main one, which + touches the future, will, I believe, bind over the Government not to + give aid to Turkey. His speech will be very fine.' + +The "upper official circles" met, and in full conclave decided to separate +themselves publicly from Mr. Gladstone. + +More serious still, this decision to oppose their colleague and quondam +leader was communicated to the Press. But on May 5th reconciliation was +effected. Concerning this Lord Morley says: + + "What was asked was that he (Mr. Gladstone) should consent to an + amended form of his second resolution, declaring more simply and + categorically that the Turk by his misgovernment had lost his claims." + +Gladstone himself wrote that the change was "little more than nominal." +But Sir Charles's Memoir of the time shows at once how far the schism had +gone, and also how different a view was taken of the alteration by some of +Mr. Gladstone's supporters: + + 'On May 3rd I noted in my diary: "The Liberal party will next week + cease to exist. I have already eighty-eight names of men who will vote + with Gladstone, and, the Front Bench having foolishly decided to + support the previous question, the party will be equally divided, and + Hartington will resign. Gladstone will, I think, refuse to lead. + Hartington will be asked to come back, but Goschen's friends may spoil + the absolute unanimity of the request, and Hartington then refusing, + Goschen would succeed. This seems to be the Goschen intrigue. I am + sincerely sorry. The Front Bench people might perfectly well have + voted against the 'previous question' on the ground that they support + the first resolution, and yet have spoken against Gladstone's later + resolutions."' He added later: 'I have still in my possession (1890) + the list of the party as made up by me, showing who would have voted + with Mr. Gladstone, who would have voted with Lord Hartington, ... and + who had stated that they would abstain. The analysis is of interest, + as the facts have never been made known.' [Footnote: For analysis see + Appendix at end of this chapter, p. 223.] + +The outcome was a day in which Mr. Gladstone had to sustain singlehanded +from half-past four to seven a Parliamentary wrangle of the most +embarrassing kind, concerning the alteration of the form (and possibly the +substance) of his original motion, and then to speak for another two hours +and a half.[Footnote: See _Life of Gladstone_, vol. ii., chap, iv., p. +565.] + + 'At the last moment Mr. Gladstone executed a sudden change of front, + which prevented a break-up of the party, but made his own position + somewhat foolish. I was lunching with old Mrs. Duncan Stewart to meet + Mrs. Grote and Lady Aberdare, the wife of Mr. Gladstone's former + colleague (Bruce, the Home Secretary), when I heard what was to + happen. But publicity was only given to the change at the last moment. + + 'On May 8th I recorded in my diary that "Gladstone's noble delivery of + his peroration last night saved the evening from being a complete + fiasco, but only just saved it. The Duke of Westminster, who was to + have presided at the meeting at St. James's Hall, absented himself on + account of the change of front; but the meeting was not told that the + third and fourth resolutions were to be withdrawn. Both Gladstone and + also the rest of the Front Bench people are in the wrong--he for + moving at all in a sense hostile to Lord Hartington unless he meant to + go through with the thing, and they for not finding a better way out. + Such a way was clear last night. If Hartington had given notice of a + direct vote of censure on the new reply to Russia published yesterday, + as he might have done consistently with his views, Gladstone could + have withdrawn in face of it."' + +A general note on his personal difficulties follows later: + + 'In August (1877) I was again embarrassed by my attitude upon the + Eastern Question. The fact that, being responsible, we had neglected + to be humane, or to be politic, during the previous one-and-twenty + years in which we might have taken the lead--might have insisted upon + reform in Turkey and fostered the possibilities of self-government in + the dependent States--made it difficult to approve the sudden activity + which the conduct of the Turks in their straits called forth on the + part of many Liberal politicians. Action might doubtless have been + taken by us at any time between the Crimean War and the outbreak of + the Russo-Turkish War, but, as the opportunity had been neglected, it + was difficult to inaugurate such a policy under pressure of the + atrocities agitation.... + + 'The new position of the Eastern Question, although it did not unite + me with Mr. Gladstone, made a political breach between myself and + Hartington. He fell more and more under the somewhat stupid influence + of his surroundings, and I, holding a position between the two wings + of the party, found few with whom I myself agreed. Randolph + Churchill... made advances towards me which led to joint action, as + will be seen, in 1878. But in the autumn of '77 I was isolated, for + Chamberlain went, although with moderation, with Mr. Gladstone's + agitation.' + + + + +APPENDIX + + +'The division of the party was a very singular one. The Whigs were +divided; the Radicals were divided; the wild Irish were divided, for the +wild Irish at this particular moment were receiving the Liberal whip, and +were, accordingly, on the party lists. On the whole, out of 296 members +who were at this moment receiving the Liberal whip, about 110 had +pronounced for Mr. Gladstone, and about 110 for Lord Hartington against +Mr. Gladstone, the remainder, who included a majority of the Irish, having +announced their intention of walking out, or having refused to take +sides.... With Lord Hartington and against Mr. Gladstone were, of course, +nearly all the Front Bench, even those who at first promised to support +Mr. Gladstone having seen fit to change under pressure. One curious fact +about my list is the large number of persons at first marked with a single +line, as having promised Mr. Gladstone, and afterwards altered to crosses +as having yielded under Front-Bench pressure. The Basses were with Lord +Hartington; Sir Thomas Bazley, leader of the middle-class Lancashire +Whigs, who at first had gone with Mr. Gladstone, had gone over to Lord +Hartington. The Beaumonts were with Lord Hartington, as were the Brasseys. +The two Brights, John and Jacob, who at first had been expected to support +Mr. Gladstone, had finally decided, under peace influences, to support +Lord Hartington, on the ground that his policy was less likely than that +of Mr. Gladstone to bring about an armed intervention. Campbell-Bannerman +was frankly with Lord Hartington from the first; and Lord Frederick and +Lord Edward Cavendish went with their brother, although Lord Frederick +Cavendish was one of Mr. Gladstone's dearest friends. Childers knew no +doubts, but Joe Cowen's support of Hartington was more peculiar. Peace +men, like Sir Wilfrid Lawson, who disapproved the Crimean War, were +perhaps in their right place in supporting Lord Hartington's opposition to +Mr. Gladstone's resolutions; but Cowen and his set, such as Norwood and +Leatham, went with Lord Hartington chiefly, I think, on account of their +bitter personal hatred for Mr. Gladstone. J. K. Cross, afterwards to be +Under-Secretary of State for India, went with Hartington, against our +expectation; but the joint weight of Devonshire influence and the Brights +was too much for Lancashire. Cowper Temple, de Grey (afterwards lady +Ripon), and Grant Duff were with Lord Hartington, as was to be expected. +Ellice, and Evans of Derbyshire, representative Whigs, separated +themselves from such other ordinary Whigs as Leveson-Gower and Young, and +went with Hartington. Fitzmaurice separated himself from Fawcett and me +and Chamberlain and Courtney, and pronounced, after some hesitation, for +Hartington. W. E. Forster, the two Goldsmids, Goschen, Harcourt, and +Hayter, were, of course, with Hartington, as was also Herschell. Sir Henry +James could no more be expected to separate himself from Hartington than +could Nigel Kingscote, Knatchbull-Hugessen, or Lord Kensington, the Second +Whip.... Stansfeld supported Hartington, as did very naturally Sir N. de +Rothschild (afterwards Lord Rothschild), the Marquis of Stafford, Lord +Tavistock, and Mr. Roebuck (who, oddly enough, received our whip, though +he never voted with us unless we went wrong). Trevelyan went with +Hartington--a thing which had been less expected than the support of +Hartington by Mr. Villiers, by Mr. Whitbread, and by Walter of the +_Times_.... Mr. Biggar characteristically stated to various people that he +should vote against Hartington, for Hartington, and not at all.... Mr. +Butt from the first declared that he should not compromise his party by +taking part in the division.... Parnell, like Butt, from the first said +that he should abstain.... P. J. Smyth, the orator of the Irish party, or +who might perhaps rather be described as forming a party in himself, for +he was not a Home Ruler, but a Repealer, also, after at first intending to +support Mr. Gladstone, decided not to vote.' + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +HOME POLITICS AND PERSONAL SURROUNDINGS + + +In a week spent in Paris at the end of 1876 Sir Charles stayed with +Gambetta, and took occasion to bring about a meeting between him and Sir +William and Lady Harcourt, who were also in Paris. With Sir William +Harcourt was his son and inseparable companion Mr. Lewis Harcourt, who +recalls a day when Sir Charles said to him: "Now, Loulou, I want you to +come and have lunch with me by yourself; I'm not asking your father and +mother to-day." He remembers his pride in going off to the Café Anglais, +where they were met by a man with a big black beard. "This, Loulou, is +Monsieur Gambetta." The two men talked, and the boy listened, as he was +well used to do, for in those days he constantly "ran about beside his +father like a little dog." After lunch they went for a drive, and still +the men talked, and Gambetta pointed to the window from which he had +proclaimed the Republic, and Dilke showed where he had lain for half a day +while the French troops were besieging the French of Paris. The boy +listened eagerly--to understand, years after, how the whole drive had been +planned for his edification and delight. + +Since August, 1876, Gambetta had been talking of a visit, proposing, says +Sir Charles, to "come to me in town, and probably bring Challemel-Lacour +also to 76, Sloane Street." The visit was to be purely private and social; +"he will receive no deputations, no addresses, and will visit no +provincial towns." + + 'It was in 1876 that he sent to me a certain Gérard, who became French + reader to the Empress Augusta of Germany, and it is supposed that the + somewhat brilliant volume called _The Society of Berlin_, long + afterwards published under the name of _Count Paul Vasili_ by Madame + Adam (although not the later volumes of the same series, which were by + Vandam), was from Gérard's pen. Gambetta, when he came to power as + Prime Minister, appointed Gérard, who was then in the Legation at + Washington, his private secretary, Georges Pallain being the second, + and Joseph Reinach the third. But Pallain and Reinach, in fact, + exercised the functions, because Gambetta fell before Gérard arrived. + Gérard is now (1909) an Ambassador.' + +Just before Dilke's visit to Gambetta in the spring of 1877 another +indication of his popularity in France occurred. 'Gavard had come to me +from the French Embassy to ask me whether I should like to go to Paris +with Sir Louis Mallet to arrange a new French Treaty, as "his Government +would like me."' The proposal fell through. As Sir Charles said, 'the +Government could not well, I think, have sent two Liberals at the head of +the Commission.' Mallet + + 'was a very experienced official, not, however, very successful at the + Board of Trade, and greatly given to grumble and growl. He held the + mildly reciprocitarian views in which he followed Mill and expanded + Cobden's opinions, and was thought by us to be the author of the + _Letters of a Disciple of Richard Cobden_, the circulation of which by + the Cobden Club, at his own request, nearly destroyed that + institution. He afterwards left the Board of Trade for the India + Office, where he became permanent Under-Secretary of State, on which + occasion Grant Duff said, "Mallet will be happy now. He will have + _two_ worlds to despair of;" for he generally began each sentence with + the words, "I despair," uttered in a deep voice.' + +On April 10th, 1877, just before the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War, +which seemed as if it might involve all the Great Powers, is this entry of +a dinner with the French Minister: + + 'Went to dine with Gavard, meeting his second and third secretaries, + the Italian first secretary, the Dutch Minister (Baron de Bylandt), + the Belgian Minister (Solvyns), and "The Viper" (alias Abraham + Hayward, Q.C.). Cypher telegrams poured in all through dinner, and + portended no good to the peace of Europe. It was, however, a pleasant + dinner, in which Hayward and Solvyns had most of the talk to + themselves, but made it good talk. Gavard was afterwards accused by + the Republican party of having conspired against them, which for his + friends seemed always to be a statement in the nature of a joke. I + once asked Gambetta if he seriously believed that Gavard had + conspired, at which Gambetta shook with laughter in his jovial way, + but added that it was absolutely necessary to pretend he had, for + other people had conspired in the Embassy, and the head man (in the + absence of an Ambassador) must be held responsible in such a case.' + +Another diplomatist whom Sir Charles met in the same month was the Comte +de Montgélas, first secretary to the Austrian Embassy: + + '... A man who played a great part at this time, belonging to a + Bavarian family which had furnished a distinguished politician to the + Congress of Vienna. He went everywhere, knew everyone, was clever, + showy, talkative; but after being one of the leading exponents of the + Beaconsfield policy, he was suddenly dismissed by his Government, ... + and when, many years afterwards, I again saw him, he had become a + servant of the British North Borneo Company. I believe he was too + friendly to Bismarck to please Beust (then Austrian Ambassador in + London).' + +He tells also the story of a 'King-maker': + + 'The Portuguese Minister in 1876 was the old Duc de Saldanha. This was + the man who some years previously, at the age of eighty, being + dissatisfied with the state of things in Lisbon, had taken the steamer + from Southampton, and, though he was at the time Minister in London, + landed at Lisbon, put himself at the head of the Guards, marched on + the palace, locked up the King, turned out the Ministers, put in his + friends, released the King, and returned by the next steamer to his + legation.' + +Here too is gossip from Berlin: + + 'On June 15th, 1877, I breakfasted with Goschen to meet Lord Odo + Russell, who was most amusing. He told us that, Bismarck being ill, + the Chancellor's temper was so bad as to make him "impossible for his + family, his subordinates, and even his Sovereign." He said that + Bismarck hates the Empress Augusta with so deadly a hatred as to have + lately said to him: "I am not Foreign Secretary. My master's Foreign + Secretary is the Empress, whose Foreign Secretary is the French + Ambassador, whose Foreign Secretary is the General of the Jesuits."... + + 'At this time General Grant came to London, and, as I had known him at + Washington and he had liked me there, I had to go about a good deal to + meet him at his wish, and he also dined with me on June 10th, when I + invited him to choose his own party. He knew, however, so few men in + London that I had to suggest men to him, and asked him whether he + would like to meet Butt as the leader of the Irish party. He said he + should, but was very silent all through dinner and until he had begun + the second of two big cigars. Then, as usual with him, he began to + thaw under the influence of tobacco, and whispered to me--when Butt + was talking very pleasantly under the influence of something besides + tobacco, and with his enormous, perfectly round face assuming, as it + always did after dinner, the appearance of the harvest moon--"Is he a + Papist?" to which I replied "No"; whereupon Grant became friendly to + him. General Grant's chief weakness, unless that position be assigned + to his cigars, was his detestation of the Roman Catholics.' + +Many political personages are sketched in passing reference. Here is +Roebuck, who in his fierce prime had been known as 'Tear 'em': + + 'The famous orator and Radical of past days was now a little, + shrivelled-up old man, but he was still able to play a great part in + the House of Commons, although entirely decayed in mind. His vinegary + hatred of Mr. Gladstone, and of the Liberal party generally, uttered + from the Liberal side in a piercing treble, was destined to be cheered + to the echo for a short time from the Tory benches, and Roebuck, later + than this, saw himself made a Privy Councillor by Lord Beaconsfield.' + +In January, 1877, is this reference to a force of the future: + + 'Randolph Churchill and Drummond Wolff to dinner; amusing in the style + of Robert Macaire and his man.' + +Among more disciplined sections of the Tory party Sir Charles had many +friends. One of them, a social figure of great charm and distinction, was +Lord Barrington, + + 'who used, when Mr. Disraeli was leader of the House of Commons, to + keep for him the notes which have to be kept by the Prime Minister for + the Queen.... Barrington showed me his one night; it began: "Lord + Barrington presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs to + inform your Majesty that..." The Queen in no way showed her + favouritism to Mr. Disraeli more than in excusing him from the + performance of this tiresome duty, which, however, had the one + advantage of giving Mr. Gladstone in his administration something + quiet to do during exciting divisions such as those on Bradlaugh.... + + 'Lady Waldegrave pressed me to go to Strawberry Hill on a particular + Saturday in the month--the only one, I think, on which, as a fact, I + did not go--to meet the Prince of Wales, but as she playfully took me + to task at the same time for not attending levees, I connected the two + things, and thought she had been asked to speak to me, and declined. I + told her that I had left off going to levees in 1865, before I left + Cambridge, for no reason except that they bored me; and that if I were + suddenly to go, people would think that I had changed my views, and + wished it to be known that I had changed them, for they thought that + my not going was connected with my opinions, which, however, it was + not.' + +There is a note early in this year: + + 'I was engaged at this moment on an attempt to form a circle of + friends who would be superior, from the existence with them of a + standpoint, to the mere ordinary political world, and I began doing my + best to meet frequently those whom I most liked--John Morley, Dillwyn, + Leonard Courtney, and Fitzmaurice, prominently among the politicians; + and Burton (Director of the National Gallery), Minto, and Joseph + Knight, prominently among the artists and men of letters. All these + were men with something noble in their natures, or something delicate + and beautiful, full of sterling qualities.' + +Minto was the well-known man of letters. Joseph Knight, for many years +dramatic critic of the Athenaeum, and, later, editor of _Notes and +Queries_, was perhaps the best known and most beloved of Bohemians, a +pillar of the Garrick Club, and one of the men to whose tongue came +ceaselessly apt and unexpected quotations from Shakespeare. He had the +same passion as old Mr. Dilke for accumulating books, and like him, too, +was a living catalogue to his own library, or libraries, for he +accumulated and sold two in his lifetime. + +Another man of letters needs no introduction: + + 'A wreck of glasses attests the presence of Swinburne. He compared + himself to Dante; repeatedly named himself with Shelley and Dante, to + the exclusion of all other poets; assured me that he was a great man + only because he had been properly flogged at Eton, the last time for + reading _The Scarlet Letter_ when he should have been reading Greek; + confessed to never having read Helvétius, though he talked of Diderot + and Rousseau, and finally informed me that two glasses of green + Chartreuse were a perfect antidote to one of yellow, or two of yellow + to one of green. It was immediately after this that Theodore Watts- + Dunton took charge of him and reduced him to absolute respectability.' + +Sir Charles tells stories of a remarkable political and literary +personage. + + 'Lord Houghton's anecdotes were rendered good by the remarkable people + that he had known.... He once about this time said to me: "I have + known everyone in the present century that was worth knowing." With a + little doubt in my mind, I murmured, "Napoleon Bonaparte?" "I was + taken to Elba when I was a boy," said Houghton instantly. I thought + his recollections of the first Emperor apocryphal. There was, however, + a chance that the father--who was in Italy--did take the child to + Elba.' + +Another story, of which Lord Houghton was not the narrator, but the +subject, came to Sir Charles during a party at Lady Pollock's, and +concerned the dinner which had preceded the party. + + 'It had been at seven o'clock in honour of Tennyson, who would not + dine at any other hour, and Tennyson sat on one side of the hostess, + and Lord Houghton on the other; and the latter was cross at being made + to dine at 7, preferring to dine at 8.30, and sup, after dinner, at + 11. The conversation turned on a poem which had been written by + Tennyson in his youth, and Tennyson observed "I have not even a copy + myself--no one has it." To which Lord Houghton answered: "I have one. + I have copies of all the rubbish you ever wrote."--A pause.--"When you + are dead I mean to publish them all. It will make my fortune and + destroy your reputation." After this Tennyson was heard to murmur, + "Beast!" It must have been a real pleasure to him to find himself + survive his brother poet. + + 'On the same evening I heard a story (probably a well-known one, but + certainly good) of the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon's body; how the + Government of the day wrote to the Duke to tell him they had agreed to + let the French transport the corpse from St. Helena, the Duke being in + Opposition at the time; how the answer ran: "F.-M. the Duke of + Wellington presents his compliments to H.M.'s Ministers. If they wish + to know F.-M. the Duke of Wellington's opinion as on a matter of + public policy, he must decline to give one. If, however, they wish + only to consult him as a private individual, F.-M. the Duke of + Wellington has no hesitation in saying that he does not care one + twopenny damn what becomes of the ashes of Napoleon Buonaparte."' + +Sir Charles had always many friends among artists, and his weekly visit to +the National Gallery was rarely intermitted by him even when in office. To +the end of his life he maintained the habit of going there whenever he +could make time, and always inspecting each new purchase. He kept in +touch, too, regularly with the art of his own day, and records his sight +of the first exhibition in the still unfinished Grosvenor Gallery. The +exhibition did not please him as a whole, though he admired not only +Burne-Jones's "Days of Creation," but a picture called "Passing Days," +also allegorical, the work of Burne-Jones's disciple, Mr. Strudwick. His +taste in art was always personal; Velasquez, the painters' painter, made +no appeal to him. He worshipped Perugino and Bellini, rating "The Doge" +among the masterpieces of the world; while Raphael had for him degenerated +from his master's (Perugino's) perfection into mere expressionless beauty. +His appreciations were made with great force and originality, and an old +Academician who had accompanied him round galleries once said to the +second Lady Dilke (herself a most authoritative judge of painting): "It is +always interesting to see what a man like that will admire." + +Mr. Chamberlain, Sir Charles's frequent guest at 76, Sloane Street, was +usually his companion in picture-seeing. It is also recorded that in the +spring of this year Dilke took his friend, 'at an unearthly hour for one +of his lazy habits,' to see the Oxford and Cambridge boat-race. + +In the matter of music his preferences were no less emphatic, as witness +this entry: + + 'On May 29th I dined with a sister of Edward Levy Lawson, married to a + German who was Rubinstein's great friend; and not only Rubinstein, but + Joachim, played to the guests. Mrs. Bourke, a sister-in-law of Lord + Mayo, was always asked everywhere in London where Joachim was meant to + play, inasmuch as she was his favourite accompanist among amateurs. + The modesty of the great man led him after dinner, once when I was + dining with the Mitfords, when he knew that his time had come, to turn + to Mrs. Bourke, who was famous only as shining in his reflected light, + and say: "Mrs. Bourke, won't you play us something, and I will just + come in with my fiddle?" Rubinstein's playing I never liked. To me he + seemed only the most violent of all the piano-bangers of the world; + but he was literally worshipped by his admirers, and was grand to look + at--as fine as Beethoven must have been.' + +Early in March of this year occurred the death of George Odger. The +working class of London decided to show their great respect by giving him +such a funeral ceremony as is rare in England, and Sir Charles walked +bareheaded through the streets with the great procession that accompanied +the body from the house in High Street, St. Giles's, all the long miles to +Brompton Cemetery. + +A shrewd observer of Parliaments wrote of Sir Charles at this time: + + "There is no more popular man in the House of Commons than he who + seven years ago" (it was only five) "was hooted and howled at, and was + for many succeeding months the mark of contumely and scorn in all + well-conducted journals." + +On this statement Sir Charles's diary affords a commentary: + + 'At this time (April, 1877) there occurred some discussion between + Chamberlain and me as to what should be our attitude in the event of + the formation of a Liberal Government, and he was willing to accept + office other than Cabinet office, provided that it was office such as + to give him the representation of his department in the House of + Commons. Chamberlain and I found that we could exercise much power + through the Executive Committee of the Liberal Central Association, + which was a new body which at this time managed the whole of the + electoral affairs of the party. It comprised the two Whips _ex- + officio_--the Right Hon. W. P. Adam, and Lord Kensington; and among + the other seven members, Chamberlain and I represented the Radicals, + and communicated with the union of Liberal associations commonly known + as the Birmingham Caucus. Of the others Waddy was there to represent + the Methodists; C. C. Cotes [Footnote: M.P. for Shrewsbury. He was a + Lord of the Treasury and one of the Whips in Mr. Gladstone's second + Government.] and Sir Henry James were there chiefly as amateur whips + fond of electoral work; Lord Frederick Cavendish, to represent his + brother, the leader of the party; and Whitbread, to strengthen the + Whig influence.' + +Sir Charles notes here that on June 29th, when he was to second, as usual, +Mr. Trevelyan's annual motion concerning franchise and redistribution, he + + 'had a conference with Chamberlain on the question whether we could + possibly get together a small knot of young peers to help us in the + House of Lords. Rosebery seemed the only one that we could find worth + thinking of, and we had him to dinner, and went to stay with him, and + generally tried to join forces, but without any very marked effect.' + +Dilke and Chamberlain also sounded the Home Rulers to see if they could +find any basis of co-operation; and about this date Sir Charles, with Lord +and Lady Francis Conyngham and Butt, and 'in their sitting-room, full of +perennial clouds of smoke,' where a captive nightingale sang ('thinking +the gas the moon unless he took Butt's face for that luminary of the +heavens'), settled with the Irish leader that in following years they +should amend Mr. Trevelyan's franchise resolution by moving for the +extension of the franchise in counties throughout the United Kingdom; not +even Radicals had previously proposed to enlarge the electorate in +Ireland. + +But in these days the Irish party were beginning to apply and develop that +use of Parliamentary forms for obstructive purposes which had been first +systematically attempted by the "Colonels" in opposition to Mr. Cardwell's +Bill for abolishing purchase in the Army, and Liberals were a little +scandalized by their allies. In the close of July Sir John Lubbock, then a +Liberal, 'foreshadowed his future Unionism by observing that "the +obstructive Irish were the Bashi Bazouks, who did more harm to us by their +atrocities than good by their fighting."' A couple of days later, when +Liberals supported an Irish amendment, Dilke himself agreed with Mr. +Rylands's pun that "they would have had a bigger vote if it hadn't been +Biggar." Upon this matter Sir Charles's attitude was naturally affected by +that of Butt, in whose company he delighted. The great advocate believed +in his own power to effect by eloquence and reasoned argument that change +of mind in the British House of Commons which five-and-twenty years' +experience of Ireland had wrought in himself since the days when he +opposed O'Connell on Repeal, and this led him to resent the methods of +unreason. Mr. Parnell, who never believed that England was open to reason +in the matter of Ireland, was only beginning to impress his personality on +the House; there is but one incidental mention of his name in the Memoir +for 1877. + +But notwithstanding all the claims of home politics, in Sir Charles's +judgment every statesman had, under existing conditions, to study the +details of modern warfare, and he kept closely in touch with naval +armament: + + 'On February 24th I suddenly went down to Portsmouth to go over the + dockyard and see the ships building there, taking letters from + Childers and from Sir Edward Reed to Admiral Sir Leopold McClintock, + the Arctic explorer (Superintendent), and to Mr. Robinson, the Chief + Constructor. I went over the _Inflexible_, the _Thunderer_, and the + _Glatton_, which were lighted up for me. Noting the number of sets of + engines, and the number of the separate watertight compartments of the + _Inflexible_, I wrote: "All these extremely complicated arrangements + are handed over to a captain, of whom ... is a favourable example, and + to engineers who are denied their due rank in command."' + +Nearly thirty years later the necessary reform which the last words +indicate was carried out by Lord Fisher. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE EASTERN QUESTION--TREATY OF SAN STEFANO AND CONGRESS OF BERLIN + + +At the beginning of 1878 Parliament was summoned a month earlier than +usual to tranquillize public feeling--a result not thereby attained, for +the Russians, now completely victorious, were but a short distance from +Constantinople. + +Sir Charles returned from Toulon, 'breakfasting with Gambetta on the 14th +January,' and on the 15th delivered to his constituents the speech already +quoted, which gave a summary of the events leading up to the war, his +judgment of the facts as they existed at the time of his speaking being +that the Government's whole policy was "isolated, undignified, +inconsistent, unsafe." [Footnote: See p. 205] + + "We stand alone, absolutely alone, in face of terms of peace which we + dislike, but can't resist. Turkey is crushed, about whose integrity + the Tory party raved. Russian influence will have risen and English + influence fallen in the East. Greece, the anti-Russian friend of + England, is not to gain. Servia and Montenegro, the tools of Russia, + are to be rewarded. Bulgaria is to owe its freedom, not to Europe, but + to Russia." + +So much was accomplished fact. It had still to be decided how much farther +Russia should be allowed to push her advantage. Upon this he said, +speaking "as a European Liberal," + + 'I agree with what the first Napoleon said, in those St. Helena days + when he was acting Liberalism for the benefit of his historic + character and of his line, that "it is necessary to set up a + guaranteed kingdom, formed of Constantinople and its provinces, to + serve as a barrier against Russia." The open question for discussion + is whether the present Turkey serves the purpose.... + + 'Were the choice between Russia at Constantinople and Turkey at + Constantinople, I should prefer the latter. The Turkish is in ordinary + times a less stifling despotism than the Russian.... + + 'The Turks let any man go to any church and read any book, the + Russians do not, and in such a position of power as Constantinople I + should prefer the Turk if, as I do not think, the choice lay only + there.' + +Where else, then, did the choice lie? The answer is that Dilke, in his own +words, "dreamed of a new Greece." He spoke of the lands then blighted by +the Sultan's Government--of "rose-clad Roumelia and glorious Crete"--of +countries held back by Turkish incompetence, that were by Nature +incredibly rich--"the choicest parts of Europe, perhaps of the world." + + "The Greek kingdom is a failure, we are told. Greece, liberated by the + wise foresight of Mr. Canning, but left, on his ill-timed death, + without Thessaly, Epirus, Crete, has been starved and shorn by the + Great Powers. As once said Lafayette, "the greater part of Greece was + left out of Greece." What kind of Greece is a Greece which does not + include Lemnos, Lesbos, or Mitylene, Chios, Mount Olympus, Mount Ossa, + and Mount Athos? Not only the larger part, but the most Greek part of + Greece, was omitted from the Hellenic kingdom. Crete and the other + islands, the coast of Thrace, and the Greek colony at Constantinople, + are the Greek Greece indeed, for Continental Greece within the limits + of the kingdom is by race half Slav and half Albanian. We must not, + however, attach too much importance to this fact, for in all times the + Greeks have been a little people, grafting themselves on to various + barbaric stocks. Race is a small thing by the side of national spirit, + and in national spirit the Greeks are as little Slav as the Italians + are Teutonic. Even the corrupting influence of long slavery--and it + was deep indeed--had not touched this spirit, and the very thieves and + robbers of the hills of Greece made for themselves in Byron's days a + glorious name in history. I do not think that Greece has failed. I + believe in Greece, believe In the ultimate replacement of the Turkish + State by powerful and progressive Greece, attached in friendship to + France and England, her creators--an outpost of Western Europe in the + East; and I think the day will come when even Homer's city may once + more be Greek. Those who do not wish to see Slavonic claims pushed + much farther than justice needs should speak their word on behalf of + Greece." + +From this ideal he never swerved, and the authority which he possessed in +European politics helped to keep it present before the mind of Europe. +Greece knew her friend, and after his death the Municipality of Athens +gave his name--_hodos Dilke_--to a fine street in the true mother city of +Hellas. [Footnote: "The name of Sir Charles Dilke is more highly prized in +Greece than that of any living Englishman," wrote M. Zinopoulos, General +Secretary to the Ministry of the Interior in Greece. "This feeling still +survived in 1887, when we went to Athens," adds Sir Charles's note.] He +never lived to see Hellenic government extend itself over Turkish fiefs, +except in that poor strip of northern territory which, thanks greatly to +his exertions, was secured for Greece in 1881. But before this memorial of +him could be completed, while those who worked on it were still searching +among his papers to reconstitute the projects he had shaped, came the +realization of some of his premonitions, and the end of Turkish sway in +"the most Greek parts of Greece." + + 'It was a good speech so far as concerned the position of Russia, of + Turkey, and of the Opposition, and in its protest against Manchester + Doctrine and in favour of a broader view of foreign policy, but it + proposed the annexation of Egypt, a view from which I soon afterwards + drew back, and which I did not hold at the time at which it became + popular some years later on.' + +Upon the main issue which in 1878 lay before the mind of Europe, he was +for a partition of the Turkish Empire, though upon condition of keeping +Constantinople secured to the Turk. But as to the question of England's +going to war, he asked: + + "For what are we to fight? Against an extension of Russian boundaries + in Armenia which will be slight, and which, if it were great, would be + better met by an even greater extension of English territories in + Egypt? Against 'the passage of the Dardanelles'--which means in time + of war its passage if Russia can--a passage which Russia would equally + attempt if she could, but had not the right. Against this we are to + fight without allies. Again, let us pray for peace. I will not + describe what war must mean--your sons and daughters killed, or lying + crippled amid horrors worse than death; the proceeds of your toil + wrung from you by new taxes; the dearness of your children's bread. I + have seen too much of war. ... No tongue can depict its horrors. ... + It is said that the constituencies are warlike, and that party wire- + pullers think that war would be "a good card to play." I hope and + believe that English constituencies would be warlike if real honour + and real interests were at stake. If they are warlike now, it is that + they know not war. Are those for war who know its face? ... The day + may come when England will have to fight for her existence, but for + Heaven's sake let us not commit the folly of plunging into war at a + moment when all Europe would be hostile to our arms--not one Power + allied to the English cause." + +It seemed as if that folly were to be committed. When Parliament opened in +January, a declaration of war was foreshadowed by the hint of a demand for +funds to make "adequate preparation against some unexpected occurrence." + +Nor was there any steady rallying point offered by the Opposition: + + 'January 17th was the day of the meeting of the House, the Radical + Club Dinner having replaced our private Queen's Speech Dinner of 1877. + But the disorganization of the Liberal party at this moment was so + complete that no Front Bench party was given on the night before + Parliament met, and Liberal politicians, or such of them as were + asked, had had to do their best to talk at a Tory house--Lady + Stanhope's in Grosvenor Place--where I met Harcourt and some of the + others. The situation in the debate on the Address was one which ought + to have led to successful attack upon the Government. The Queen's + Speech was neither of war nor of peace, but of perplexity and + division, and gravely informed us that poor Turkey had not interfered + with British interests. The discourses of the Ministers were peaceful + in the Lower House, and warlike in the Upper. Money was to be asked + for in the event of an "unexpected occurrence" happening.' + + 'Nothing, however, was made of the situation by the Opposition, and I + felt more interest therefore for the moment in my proposed political + reforms, in which I was on the point of a partial success, [Footnote: + 'I introduced my two Bills of the previous year--both destined this + year to pass, though one of them after amalgamation with a + Conservative Bill--my Hours of Polling Bill and my Registration Bill. + I moved for my return, intended to facilitate my action in the + direction of redistribution, and got my Select Committee promised + me.'] and sheered off from the Eastern Question, with regard to which + I felt that in Parliament at the moment I could do no good.' + +The speech to his constituents had attracted much attention. Among the +personal congratulations which he received he valued most highly those of +a great diplomatist and friend, 'high praise from Sir William White.' +[Footnote: Sir William White (1821-1891): February 27th, 1875, British +Agent and Consul-General in Servia; March 3rd, 1879, Envoy Extraordinary +and Minister Plenipotentiary at Bucharest, Roumania; April 18th, 1885, +Envoy Extraordinary at Constantinople; October 11th, 1886, Special +Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at Constantinople.] On +January 17th he 'received a deputation of London merchants with regard to +the Black Sea blockade.' + + 'On Friday the 18th I dined at Lady Waldegrave's to meet the old + Strawberry Hill set--the Duke of Argyll, the Duchess of Manchester, + Lord and Lady Granville, Harcourt, James, Ayrton, Lord William Hay, + and Mr. and Mrs. Tom Hughes--and some people came in after dinner, of + whom Sir J. Rose and his daughter (Mrs. Stanley Clarke) warmly + congratulated me on my speech. There was a discussion between the + Liberals and the Duchess of Manchester, who was in both camps, and Sir + John Rose, who as a financier was the same, as to the reasons for Lord + Carnarvon's absence from Lord Beaconsfield's Queen's Speech Dinner, + but we could not get farther than to learn that "Dizzy had made it + unpleasant for him. ..." [Footnote: 'Another matter as to which I was + personally interested, though the others seemed hardly to have heard + of it, was a communication which had been made to France about Egypt + with regard to joint inquiry into the state of finances, a + communication all but volunteered by us, and not, I thought, in the + least necessary, but which was so strong in terms as to appear to shut + the door in the future against any possibility of action on our part + other than joint action with the French.'] + + 'On Saturday the 19th Mr. Gladstone sent Lefevre to me, and asked me + not to raise the case of Greece at present, as he thought that a + combined movement with regard to Greece might soon be made in the + House of Commons with some chance of success. + + 'On the Sunday Drummond Wolff dined with me, very full of the + intrigues to get rid of Lord Derby and Lord Carnarvon from the + Conservative Front Bench, and very hopeful of success, for at this + moment the Conservatives were so angry with their two peaceful men + that they made no secret of their intention to force them out, and + used freely to discuss the situation with the Liberals. + + 'On January 22nd I started an attempt to get up a Greek Committee, an + attempt which was successful, for our little meeting of this day, of + Fitzmaurice and Lefevre and myself, with the adhesion by letter of + Lansdowne and of Rosebery, led to the private formation of a + Committee, afterwards made public, and much enlarged, of which I made + Lewis Sergeant secretary, and which was able to do much good in the + course of the three next years. ...That night I dined with Mrs. Inwood + Jones (Lady Morgan's niece), and met Mr. and Mrs. Stansfeld, Browning, + Charles Villiers, Lady Hamilton Gordon, and another man whom I will + not name, because I wish to mention that I received from him on that + occasion a document relating to Greek affairs, from which I was + afterwards able to show how badly our Government had treated Greece, + but the origin of which I ought not to reveal. + + 'On January 23rd Evelyn Ashley, Chamberlain, and I had a meeting with + regard to Greek matters, at which we drew up the public declaration to + be made on behalf of the friends of Greece. + + 'On the next day, January 24th, a good many startling events occurred. + A War Ministry was formed at Athens; the vote of money was announced + in the British Parliament. Lord Carnarvon resigned in the morning, and + Lord Derby at night; but Lord Derby's resignation was for a time + withdrawn.' + +In 'the great debate' on Mr. Forster's motion against the vote of six +millions sterling for 'adequate preparation'--a debate which opened on +January 31st, and was prolonged to the second week in February--Sir +Charles took part on the fourth day. Great interest attaches to this +speech in view of all his later work: + + 'I pointed out that we spend normally on defence or war far more than + any other Power: at that time twenty-five millions sterling at home + and seventeen millions in India, or forty-two millions in all, swelled + in that year by the extraordinary vote to forty-eight millions, while + France and Germany spent much less. I was to return to this subject + after many years, and when I wrote upon it in 1890, while the Indian + expenditure stood at the same sum, the annual expenditure in England + had risen to over thirty-eight millions, making the whole fifty-five, + and with the rest of the Empire nearly fifty-seven millions sterling.' + +A side-note adds: 'It is now (1905) vastly greater.' + +As he was the first non-military politician to devote himself to the +question of defence and to call public attention to the subject, so this +question of wasteful expenditure always occupied his attention. He laid +stress on the inadequate return received for naval and military outlay, +not only on the popular ground that money was thus deflected from projects +of internal reform, but pre-eminently because the nation in time of peace +resents heavy defence expenditure, and he feared that the necessary money +might not be forthcoming for that naval equipment which he held to be +essential to our existence as a Great Power. + +But the main burden of his complaint was that now when a Conference was +proposed, and when England ought to have gone into the Conference with all +the weight of a unanimous people, the bringing forward of a "sham war +vote," which was a contradiction of the alleged desire to negotiate, had +produced inevitable division of counsels. Before the debate closed came +the rumour of an occupation of Constantinople by the Russians, and under +the belief that the war vote might be needed in good earnest, Mr. +Forster's motion was withdrawn. + + 'On February 6th ... I dined with Lady Brett and went on to Mrs. + Brand's, and at the Speaker's House heard that the Russians had + occupied a fort in the Constantinople lines. This lie got out the next + day, and was universally believed; and after a panic in the City, + Hartington decided, also in a panic, to make W. E. Forster drop the + resolutions which he had brought forward at Hartington's request. + Hartington saw me, and told me this behind the Speaker's chair before + questions. Within an hour after the withdrawal of the resolutions had + been mentioned in the House the whole story had been blown into the + air by the Russian Ambassador.' + +At this period Sir Charles Dilke had entered into relations with Lord +Randolph Churchill, who was virtually against the policy of the Government +and yet 'open-mouthed in his general dislike of Lord Derby and Lord +Carnarvon, though in complete agreement with their principles.' The Fourth +Party did not yet exist. Nor was it in this Parliament that Lord Randolph +achieved ascendancy. + + 'As late as the autumn of 1880 Lord Beaconsfield was to style Randolph + "only Dilke and water"; but had he lived for another twelvemonth + longer he would not have used this language, for Churchill had then + developed a very different "Moloch of Midlothian" style, and had made + himself through his party a greater power than I ever was.' + +The attempt to concert action between independent Tory and independent +Radical began after the great scare of February 6th. [Footnote: This +correspondence was placed at Mr. Winston Churchill's disposal by Sir +Charles Dilke, and used by him in the _Life of Lord Randolph Churchill._ +Sir Stafford Northcote was leader of the House of Commons and Chancellor +of the Exchequer.] + + 'On February 7th negotiations between Randolph Churchill and myself + began as to moving an address to the Crown praying that the objects + with which England should enter any Conference that might be held, + should be European and civilized rather than pro-Turkish. On this day + he wrote to me: + + '"MY DEAR SIR CHARLES DILKE, + + '"As I suppose this debate will come to a close with an enormous and + disproportionate majority for the Government, and as I think the + Opposition have made their stand on an unfortunate ground, and that + another fight might yet be fought with far greater chances of + commanding sympathy in the country, I want to know whether, if an + address to the Crown praying Her Majesty to use her influence at the + Conference in favour of the widest possible freedom to Bulgaria, + Bosnia, Herzegovina, Thessaly, and Epirus, and in favour of totally + and finally putting an end to all direct Turkish Government in these + provinces, was moved by me on the Tory side of the House, it would be + supported by the Liberal party. I think I could almost make sure of a + strong Home Rule vote on this. I think some Conservatives would + support it. If Northcote does not give some very clear intimation of + what is going to be the policy of the Government, I think a motion of + this sort should be made on the Report. The real cry for the country + is not sympathy with Russia, still less with Turkey, but complete + freedom for the Slav and Hellenic nationalities. I am off to Ireland + to-night. I don't care enough for the Government to vote for them. ... + I shall see Butt in Dublin, and shall sound him on what I have written + to you. My address is Phoenix Park, Dublin. Please excuse this lone + letter. + + '"Yours truly, + + '"RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL." + + 'The reference to Butt is curious, and the address of "Phoenix Park," + for Lord Randolph was at this time private secretary to his father, + who was Viceroy of Ireland, and was living in the Viceregal Lodge, + which, of course, is in the Phoenix Park. How far the Duke of + Marlborough was cognizant of the intrigues between his son and the + Irish I never knew, but at one time relations were very close." + [Footnote: Sir John Gorst read this chapter in 1913 and wrote: + + "With Randolph's negotiations with the Irish at this time I had + nothing to do. I was not cognizant of them; I never acted with R. + before 1880. + + "So far as I knew, the alliance between the Fourth Party and the Irish + leader arose in this way: In the 1880 Parliament Parnell had not + enough men to move an adjournment of the House--in those days the most + effective form of obstruction. Forty members must stand up. On one + occasion after 1880, P., wanting to move an adjournment, sought an + interview with us--Balfour may or may not have been present. He stated + his case, and we replied that the matter was a proper case for an + adjournment, and we and those we could influence would stand up in + support. He thanked us and was leaving the room, when R., twirling his + moustache, said: 'I suppose, Mr. Parnell, that in cases of this kind + there will be a little reciprocity.' After that, when we moved + adjournments, the Parnellite members always stood up for us.--J. E. + G."] + + 'On February 8th Lord Randolph wrote: + + '"THE CASTLE, DUBLIN. + + '"DEAR SIR CHARLES DILKE, + + '"Many thanks for your two letters. As you say, things remain in such + an uncertain state nothing can be done. The Government have too great + an advantage, but I think if we are led into taking any decisive steps + hostile to Russia, a great effort should be made for an authoritative + declaration that the ultimate aim and object of any move on our part + is the complete freedom and independence of the Slav nationality, as + opposed to any reconstruction of the Turkish Empire. This I am sure + should be the line for the Liberal party, and not the peace-at-any- + price cry which it is evident the country won't have. In this I shall + be ready to co-operate heartily as far as my poor efforts can be any + good. It is just possible that if any movement of this kind be made it + would be better for it to originate from the Conservative side of the + House. I regret to see so much excitement getting up among the masses. + It is dangerous matter for Beaconsfield to work on. Would you think me + very foolish or visionary if I say that I look for a republican form + of Government for Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, as far more to be + preferred than some German, Russian, or other Prince set up as a + puppet under the name of constitutional monarchy? Perhaps if these + ideas seem at all to your liking, and if you think they would command + the support of the Liberal party, you would advise me what appeared to + you the most favourable moment for bringing them forward. I shall have + some conversation with Butt, and have great hope of securing a solid + Irish vote on any proposition which might seem to favour the self- + government of nationalities. + + '"Yours truly, + + '"_February 8th_. + '"RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL. + + 'A few days later Lord Randolph telegraphed to me from Careysville, + Fermoy: "I shall be in London Monday morning. Am not ambitious of + taking any prominent part unless it might contribute to the advantage + of ideas which I think we have in common that a motion should be made + from my side of the House. I leave it absolutely to your judgment." + + 'On this telegram I wrote to Lord Granville, who replied, dating his + letter "September 13th" by mistake for February 13th: + + '" 18, CARLTON HOUSE TERRACE. + + '"MY DEAR DILKE, + + '"Such a motion as Lord R. C. proposes, supported by a certain number + of Conservatives, might be well worth consideration. But I doubt his + getting any Conservative support, and a contingent of Home Rulers + would hardly justify us in making another attack upon Plevna just yet, + with the probable alternative of either a crushing defeat or a second + withdrawal in face of the enemy. I gather that you are doubtful. What + did Hartington think? + + '"Yours sincerely, + + '"GRANVILLE. + + '"If R. Churchill could give you evidence on which you felt you _could + rely_ that he would have real Conservative support, the case would be + different." + + 'Hartington thought nothing, merely recommended acceptance of Lord + Granville's advice. Lord Granville's mistake in date was + characteristic, for, while a most able man who did not, in my opinion, + decline in intellectual vigour during the many years in which he took + a great part in public affairs, he always had the habit of + substitution of words, and I have known him carry on a long + conversation with me at the Foreign Office about the proceedings of + two Ambassadors who were engaged on the opposite sides in a great + negotiation, and call A "B," and B "A," through the whole of it, which + was, to say the least, confusing. He also sometimes entirely forgot + the principal name in connection with the subject, as, for example, + that of Mr. Gladstone when Prime Minister, and had to resort to the + most extraordinary forms of language in order to convey his meaning. + + 'Randolph wrote after his telegram from a fishing lodge on the Irish + Blackwater: + + '"MY DEAR SIR CHARLES, + + '"I have sent you a telegram which I think you will understand. I am + sure that my views, whatever they are worth, are in accordance with + your speech, and Harcourt's, and Gladstone's, on the question of the + future policy of this country. I am convinced that under the present + circumstances no motion should be unduly hastened on. There is lots of + time. If I was asked to move a resolution my speech would be an attack + on Chaplin, Wolff, and the rest of the Pro-Turkish party, confidence + in the Government and invitation to the Liberal party to act as a + whole. I feel I am awfully young to endeavour to initiate such a line; + but I am so convinced of the soundness of our views that I would risk + a smash willingly to have them properly brought forward. If only your + party would agree as a whole to support a resolution moved from my + side, the Government would only at the best have a majority of 80, + after 190, and that would be a check. I shall see Butt before arriving + in London, and endeavour to make him take up a position upon this + question. The Government are apparently doing their 'level best' to + keep the peace, and perhaps another debate might not be unwelcome to + them. + + '"Yours very truly, + + '"_February 15th._ + '"RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL. + + 'In reply, and in consequence of Lord Granville's suggestion, I + pressed him closely as to who would vote with him, and he wrote: + + '"CASTLE BERNARD, + '"BANDON. + + '"MY DEAR SIR CHARLES, + + '"In reply to your letter I shall be over in London on the 26th inst., + and I think it will be time enough then to make my motion. I should + not like to make it unless it would command the support of a large + number of members. Such support could only come from your side. I + think the Conservative party are gone mad. Their speeches are + calculated to provoke war. As it is so uncertain whether we shall go + to war or to a Conference, I think I had better wait a little, as, + though the motion should, I think, be made in any case, the terms of + it would vary very much according to either alternative.... I know of + no one except Forsyth whom I could ask to ballot for me. If the motion + commanded much support, I should certainly like to press it even to a + division. Cowen's speech (and the vociferous cheers of the C. party) + evidently shows that the idea of the integrity and independence of the + Turkish Empire is still predominant on our side, and against that I + would try to go a great way. I should, of course, be very glad if you + would second any motion of the nature of those sketched.... I send a + sketch of it. + + '"Yours very truly, + + '"RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL." + + '"_Draft of Motion._ + + '"That in view of the extreme sufferings so long undergone by the + Slav, Bulgarian, and Hellenic nationalities of Bosnia, Herzegovina, + Bulgaria, Thessaly, and Epirus, and considering that the Turkish rule + over these provinces has now been definitely put an end to, the + efforts of Her Majesty's Government, in the opinion of the House of + Commons, should be principally directed towards the establishment of + the complete freedom and independence of the populations of these + provinces." + + 'I have in my diary on Friday the 15th the note: "See Chamberlain as + to Churchill's plan, and say I won't go to a meeting." Evidently I had + seen that Churchill was unsafe. + + 'When Randolph Churchill came back to town I discovered, or rather he + discovered and told me, that old Walpole, the ex-Home Secretary, was + the only member upon his own side who would even pretend that he would + vote with him, and when it came to the point on one occasion, Walpole + himself said that he should go away.' + +Preparations for war were pressed on till, on March 3rd, the signing of +the Treaty of San Stefano, which put an end to Turkish rule in Bulgaria, +seemed to close the crisis. But instantly the trouble broke out again. The +British Government claimed that this new treaty, since it altered the +European settlement ratified in 1856 by the Treaty of Paris, must be +submitted to and endorsed by a Congress of the Powers. Russia declined to +be thus bound, and a new crisis arose in which Lord Derby, who had +withdrawn his previous resignation, now finally gave up the Secretaryship +of Foreign Affairs, being succeeded by Lord Salisbury. + +In 1881 Sir Charles, while Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, became +aware that Lord Derby's retention of office after his first resignation +had been little more than nominal. He says in the Memoir for that year: + + 'In the course of my researches among the Tunis papers I discovered + the curious fact that in February and March, 1878, foreign affairs + were being conducted by a committee of the Cabinet, consisting of Lord + Beaconsfield, Lord Cairns, and Lord Salisbury, and that Lord Derby, + the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, was virtually shelved for + the whole period. At this moment Lord Beaconsfield proposed the + creation of a Mediterranean league for the maintenance of the _status + quo_ in the Mediterranean: England, France, Italy, and Greece to be + first consulted, and Austria to come in afterwards if she pleased. + Italy declining, the scheme collapsed. Foolish Italy!' + +While in Parliament the Tory party was ridding itself of its 'peace men,' +party feeling out of doors ran to unusual heights. These were the days +when a music-hall song added a word to the political vocabulary, and the +"jingo" crowd signalized its patriotism by wrecking Mr. Gladstone's +windows at 73, Harley Street, where he went to live after his retirement +from the Liberal leadership. + +'On Sunday, March 10th, in coming back from the Grosvenor Gallery, I +passed a great mob, who were going to howl at Mr. Gladstone--at this time +the ordinary Sunday afternoon diversion of the London rough.' + +Schouvalof, the Russian Ambassador, had on March 4th summed up the +situation in an epigram: "England has challenged Russia to a duel, and has +chosen for her weapon swords at fifteen paces" (_l'épée à quinze pas_). +But the preparations for this combat were menacing. + + 'On March 29th the Eastern Question blazed up again with Lord Derby's + resignation, the discussion of which enlivened a party at Lady + Waldegrave's, there being before us a Queen's Message alleging the + existence of imminent national danger and great emergency as a reason + for calling out the reserves. On Saturday the 30th Trevelyan ... + informed me of a resolution which had been prepared by Lubbock on + behalf of those Whigs who had not gone with Gladstone, but wished to + make some movement of their own. Later in the evening I saw Childers, + who proposed a better motion in the form of an addition to the Message + in the sense of a strong desire for peace. The object of both + suggestions, of course, was by a moderate middle course to prevent a + division for and against the Message in which Gladstone and Bright and + eighty others would vote No, while eighty would follow Hartington in + voting Yes, and the majority of the party run away, thus destroying + the Liberal party, as it was destroyed in the time of Pitt and the war + with France. Later, again, in the evening I saw Montgélas (who told me + that Russia had held different language to Austria and to England, and + that she had drawn back and did not mean war) [Footnote: 'On February + 9th I went to a party at the Austrian Embassy "to meet the Archduke + Rudolf." Beust was gone away and Montgélas was host. ... On February + 12th I met again the Crown Prince of Austria.'] and Randolph + Churchill, who made an appointment to come to me on Sunday about the + papers, which he agreed with me in thinking damaging to the + Government, and full of evidence of their total isolation. When he + came, we decided only that the Government ought to be asked for + further papers.' + +This demand Sir Charles accordingly made on April 1st. His position was at +this point extremely difficult. He was not prepared to acquiesce in the +aggrandisement of Russia, and therefore could not go with his habitual +associates, who had formed a Committee upon the Eastern Question. On the +other hand, he was determined to join with them in opposing the calling +out of the reserves, because this step implied that England would go to +war alone, and he did not believe either that England was likely to do so, +or that she ought, as a member of the European Concert, to take such a +step. + + 'There was a moment after the fall of Lord Derby when I became a + supporter of the Government in their Eastern policy, for they appeared + to me to adopt my own, but it did not last long. "Lord Salisbury's + circular" (so-called, but written by Lord Cairns), issued upon the + accession of Lord Salisbury to the Foreign Office, contained the + statement of this policy. ... Speaking in the House on April 9th ..., + I repudiated the defence which came from some on the Liberal side, of + the conduct of Russia, and, looking upon the Government despatch as a + vindication primarily of general European interests, and, in the + second place, of Hellenic interests, against Russian violence and + universal Slav dominion throughout the Levant, I separated myself from + my party and praised the new Minister of Foreign Affairs. I was + afterwards bitterly disappointed at finding the policy of the April + circular abandoned by its authors in the Congress of Berlin. ... + + 'On April 4th Gennadius, the Greek Chargé d'Affaires (afterwards + Minister), the American Minister, Matthew Arnold, W. E. Forster, Grant + Duff, Lubbock, George Sheffield (Lord Lyons' factotum), Tom Hughes, + and my old friend Sir David Wedderburn dined with me. And in this Whig + and Hellenic party a general agreement with my views was met with; but + the same was not the case amongst my brother Radicals of "Mr. + Dillwyn's Committee upon the Eastern Question."' + +This Radical organization got into difficulties of its own while +contemplating a motion to condemn explicitly the calling out of the +reserves. + + 'On April 5th Dillwyn's Committee had had before it a letter from Lord + Hartington, saying that Mr. Gladstone on Monday wished to speak next + after Sir Stafford Northcote, and to deprecate the moving of an + amendment. It was in consequence resolved by a majority that no + amendment should be moved. Courtney then said that the intimation of + Mr. Gladstone's opinion had been obtained from him by gross pressure, + and that he himself should move an amendment if no one else did. + Wilfrid Lawson then said that he would move; and there were seven in + favour of an amendment. This broke up the Committee, and on Dillwyn + reporting to Hartington its dissolution, the latter said: "Well, Mr. + Dillwyn, you see it is not so easy to lead." + + 'On Sunday, April 7th, there dined with me, among others, Hartington, + Harcourt, Goschen, Lord Granville, and Lord Ripon, and we discussed + the position, on which Lord Ripon was far from agreement with me. I + warmly supported to them the Government circular (issued by Lord + Salisbury), as putting British action on European rather than on + British-interests grounds, and only differed from the policy of + calling out the reserves because this was an action of isolation.' + +When Sir Wilfrid Lawson's amendment was moved, Sir Charles voted with the +Radical minority of sixty-four against calling out the reserves, but +'differed from every word in which the Radical speakers supported their +view.' + +The pith of his speech was a powerful plea for allowing Greece to secure +the emancipation of Greek populations, then under a Turkish rule heavy as +that from which Russia claimed to liberate the Slavs of Bulgaria. + +So far, the action of the Government had not united the Liberal party in +any concentrated attitude of resistance. But during the Easter recess, +which Sir Charles spent in France, meeting Gambetta, politics took a more +dramatic turn. + + 'When Parliament adjourned for the holidays, not one word had been + said of an act long previously determined, which was announced the + next day. The fact that Parliament was allowed to learn from the + newspapers that it was intended by the Government for the first time + to employ Indian troops within the European dominions of the Crown in + time of peace, without the previous consent of Parliament, [Footnote: + By despatching 7,000 Sepoys to Malta.] was a singular commentary upon + the Government declaration at the beginning of the Session that + Parliament had been called together at an unusually early date in + order that under circumstances of delicacy the Ministry might have the + advantage of its advice.... Public feeling, I found from Chamberlain, + had gone round a good deal during my absence, and to satisfy the + opinion of our Radicals he was determined to move something. I + suggested to him (on May 6th) a resolution condemning "the policy of + menace and warlike demonstration which has been pursued by the + Government," and expressing the belief "that an honourable and + peaceful settlement of existing difficulties will be best promoted by + their consenting to state frankly the changes in the Treaty of San + Stefano which they consider necessary for the general good of Europe + and the interests of this country."' + +But already the Government were in secret negotiation with Russia, and had +entered into an agreement as to the modification of the provisions of the +Treaty of San Stefano. Amongst other changes it was proposed to curtail +the limits of Bulgaria by a division severing South from North, and to +allow Austria-Hungary to occupy Bosnia and the Herzegovina. + + 'On Tuesday, May 7th, after the Radical Club, at a party at the + Harcourts', I learned what the Government intended to do at the + Conference or Congress--namely, limit Bulgaria on the south by the + Balkans. But I was informed at the same time that they would + themselves propose to give Thessaly and Epirus to Greece, an + undertaking which I think they did give to the King of Greece, but + from which, if so, they afterwards departed. The Greek Patriarch from + Constantinople came over at this time, as did the Armenian Patriarch + shortly afterwards, and I met both, although conversation with these + dignitaries was not easy, for their French was about as feeble as my + Greek; but through Gennadius I, of course, knew the views of the + Greeks, and in the Armenian question I took no special part.' + +The question of employing the Indian troops was debated on May 20th. Lord +Hartington opened; and Sir Charles replied to Sir Michael Hicks Beach, who +followed Lord Hartington. Concerning the discussion, he says: + + 'The technical point which we argued was a narrow one. Had Cyprus been + in Asia, our arguments would not have applied to Cyprus; and it is + very likely that the Government thought Cyprus was in Asia, and did + not like to say that they had made a mistake, and having first ordered + the troops to Cyprus, and then ordered them to Malta (which was + undoubtedly in Europe), had forgotten the distinction. The real + objection to the bringing of the Sepoys was the same as the objection + to the calling out of the reserves--that it was isolated action, and + that these military measures and the expenditure which they involved + were mere bunkum, and mere waste if the Government intended to give + up, as they were secretly telling Russia they did intend to give up, + the main points of dispute. Moreover, Russia could do us hurt in + India, and Indian troops could not touch her at all.... + + 'The Government were said to have only "conquered by giving way," for + they agreed to put the number of men into the Estimate, and thus avoid + making a precedent, according to our contention, absolutely + unconstitutional. On the other hand, Lord Beaconsfield's speech in the + House of Lords was defiant in the extreme, and Holker's [Footnote: The + Attorney-General.] in the Lower House was an assertion of higher + prerogative doctrine than had been heard in Parliament since the days + of Elizabeth.' + + 'On May 30th I dined with Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, and met Lord + Northbrook (the former Viceroy of India) and his daughter, Lady Emma + Baring, Lord Rosebery, Lord and Lady Napier (he a most distinguished + man, the best of Ambassadors to Russia and the best of Governors of + Madras, too little known),[Footnote: Baron Napier and Ettrick.] Lord + Macduff (afterwards Duke of Fife), and Monty Corry, afterwards Lord + Rowton, Lord Beaconsfield's private secretary.' Corry 'told me what + was at the moment a startling secret--that Lord Beaconsfield was going + to the Congress himself. "Can he speak French?" I asked with wonder, + to which he shook his head.' + +On the day after the meeting of the Congress a sensational disclosure +revealed to the world that it met; only to register foregone conclusions. + + 'At the end of the month (May) the secret agreement was signed with + Russia, and revealed to us by the _Globe_ [Footnote: The Globe + disclosure came from Mr. Marvin, a civil servant in temporary employ. + Dilke noted: "Besides the 'Marvin Memorandum' and an annex, there was + a curious stipulation insisted on by Russia, that the annex should + never be published, even if No. 1--that is, the 'Marvin Memorandum'-- + should become public; and this looks very much as though Marvin was + really the Russian Government, which I have always suspected. They had + this to gain by publishing the Memorandum--that they showed themselves + the real victors in the Congress of Berlin, in spite of all our + bluster, and they damaged Lord Beaconsfield, who was their enemy. + Marvin could never have got a copy, and always pretended that he had + learned the whole document by heart, which, considering its length and + the total absence in the copy published in the _Globe_ of the + slightest error, even of punctuation, is incredible. The annex, which + was dated May 31st, only said that the Russians had no intention of + extending their conquests in Asiatic Turkey: 'The Emperor of Russia + ... not having the intention of extending Ids conquests in Asia ... + the Imperial Government does not refuse to conclude with the British + Government a secret engagement for the purpose of reassuring it upon + this point.'"] on June 14th; and it then appeared that the military + preparations of the country must have been intended to keep up the + spirits of the Jingoes while their cherished principles were being + sacrificed behind their backs. The _Daily Telegraph_, which was the + Jingo organ, said: "If _such_ a compact has been concluded, this + country has fatally descended from the lofty position occupied by the + Salisbury despatch." Not only was the compact authentic, but there + were two other secret compacts of the same date which did not come + out. What the Government had done was to give up all the points for + which they had made their enthusiastic followers believe that they + would fight, and at the same time in the Anglo-Turkish Convention to + declare that their successors should fight for what was left. This may + have been a prudent policy, but it was not a policy which carried with + it the necessity for bringing Indian troops to Europe or spending + eight or nine millions sterling upon apparent preparations for + immediate war. The third agreement, in addition to the Salisbury- + Schouvalof agreement and the Anglo-Turkish Convention, the first of + which came out by chance and the second of which was ultimately + published by the Government, was an Anglo-Austrian secret agreement + which has never been printed, the character of which is revealed by + the fact that the English plenipotentiaries themselves proposed at + Berlin, in spite of the strong dissent of Turkey, to make to Austria + the gift of Bosnia and Herzegovina.' + +To this note, written in 1890, there is added in the margin of the +manuscript: 'There was also a secret supplementary agreement with Russia, +of which later.' And also this: "The compact giving Bosnia and Herzegovina +to Austria is now (1908) known to Lucien Wolf." [Footnote: See Thomas +Erskine Holland, _The European Concert in the Eastern Question_, 292, +293.] + +Before the Berlin Congress met, Sir Charles had pressed by way of +questions to secure if possible a representation for Greece at the +Congress, and failed; and the speech which he made in the debate (opened +on July 29th) on the Treaty of Berlin was mainly a censure on Great +Britain for having failed to support the Hellenic claims. He dwelt +specially on Crete, the government of which by Turkey was, he said, "a +perpetual menace to European peace." + +Replying in the debate for the Liberal party to Mr. David Plunket +(afterwards Lord Rathmore), he notes that he + + 'spoke, and spoke well, making the best of my debating speeches, but + was overshadowed by one speech which would have caused better speeches + than mine to have been easily forgotten. Mr. Gladstone's speech on + this occasion, like all his speeches, does not read; but it was the + finest that I ever heard him make with one exception--the Bradlaugh + speech in the next Parliament.' + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +POLITICS AND PERSONS + + +I. + +Sir Charles Dilke's first concern was with foreign affairs, but he was +also of high authority in whatever related to the business and management +of the House of Commons; and at this period the question of remodelling +forms which lent themselves to the arts of delay began to be urgent, and +threatened to become paramount. Here, early in 1878, is the first +considerable mention of the man whose relentless use of obstruction has +affected parliamentary procedure all over the world: + + 'On February 20th I was asked by Lord Hartington to serve upon the + Government Select Committee on the business and forms of the House, + upon which Parnell was asked to represent the obstructive element. It + was somewhat a distinction, as I was to be the sole representative of + the English independent members, and in consequence I gave up the + Standing Committee on Commons, upon which I asked Fitzmaurice to + replace me. The proceedings of Sir Stafford Northcote's Committee, as + the Committee on Public Business was called, presented only one + singularity--namely, the examination of the Speaker--a prolonged one-- + by Parnell. Both of them were in a way able men; but both were + extraordinarily slow of intellect--that is, slow in appreciating a + point or catching a new idea--and Mr. Brand (as he then was) and + Parnell used to face one another in inarticulate despair in the + attempt to understand each the other's meaning. There were a good many + fairly stupid men on the Committee, but there was not a single member + of it who did not understand what Parnell meant by a question more + quickly than could the Speaker, and not a man who could not understand + what the Speaker meant by a reply more quickly than Parnell.' + + 'With Speaker Brand I afterwards had a singular connection. + + 'At the time when the President of the Free State, whose name was also + Brand, had rendered important services to the British Government, I + made one of the briefest of my brief minutes and put it in a box, and + sent it round the Cabinet: "I think Brand should be knighted.--Ch's W. + D." Nearly all the members of the Cabinet having added their initials + in approval, Brand was knighted, but the wrong Brand, for they gave + the G.C.B. to the Speaker, and it was only some time afterwards that + the G.C.M.G. was conferred on the South African statesman. I had not + thought of the Speaker, and Mr. Gladstone or his private secretary, + Edward Hamilton, had forgotten the Free State. What may have been the + frame of mind of the various members of the Cabinet who approved my + suggestion I do not know, but some probably meant the one and some + probably meant the other, and no one remembered that there were two.' + +Concerning the proposals which Sir Stafford Northcote was contemplating as +the result of the Committee on Public Business, but not in exact +accordance with its decisions, Sir Charles notes, under June 25th, that he +was not in agreement with the mass of the Liberal party. + + 'Our men were inclined to oppose all proposals for closure by + majorities, and for investing the Speaker with large powers, while I + was beginning to feel as strongly favourable to such proposals as I + afterwards became. My "record" upon this subject constituted, + therefore, almost as "sharp a curve" as that of others. As a rule I + have not greatly changed my mind upon political subjects, but upon + this one (as upon Africa [Footnote: See Chapter XVI., p. 238, and also + Chapter XLVIII, (Vol. II., pp. 251-2).]) I undoubtedly turned round, + and did so in consequence of the full consideration which I had to + give it in the course of this single year.' + +In the same year Sir Charles had secured support of Tory metropolitan +members, whose constituents were affected, for his Bill to extend the +hours of polling in London; and it passed before the end of January as an +agreed measure. Then came another advance: + + 'On February 27th, at the most important sitting of my Committee on + the Registration Bills, which had three Bills before it, mine being + one; and Martin, who had charge of the Conservative Bill, being in the + Chair, with a Conservative majority on the Committee, Martin's Bill + was rejected, and mine adopted by the Committee on a division as a + base for its proceedings. I at once decided that I would hand over my + Bill to Martin, so as to let him have charge of it, as Chairman of the + Committee, as the Bill of the Committee.' + +This was designed not so much to insure the passage of his own Bill as 'to +prevent Martin from carrying a mere bit of a Bill with some of the things +in it which we wanted.' But, 'to the amazement of everyone,' Sir Charles's +measure, under its new sponsorship, actually passed, and 'became law in +1878, and ultimately added an enormous number of voters to the franchise +rolls.' + +By June 7th the Registration Bill was read a third time, and + + 'My Hours of Polling Bill had now become "Dilke's Act," and I felt as + though I was making such progress towards the political reforms I had + long advocated that there might be some faint chance that one day + redistribution itself might be accomplished.' + +Six years later he himself carried out redistribution and extension of the +suffrage on a scale hardly dreamed of by politicians in 1878. Already, in +the debate of February 22nd, when Sir Charles, as usual, seconded Mr. +Trevelyan's annual motion on the equalization of voting power, the +division was better than ever before, and the _Annual Register_, which a +few years earlier had known nothing but contempt and aversion for this +Radical group, devoted considerable space to the arguments by which reform +was supported, with full reference to Sir Charles's speech. Mr. Goschen +and Mr. Lowe were the only Liberals of note who opposed the motion--if, +indeed, Mr. Lowe could still be called a Liberal--and Lord Hartington +spoke for it. + +One of Sir Charles's preoccupations at this moment was the choice of a +Liberal candidate to stand for Chelsea with him, and the matter presented +difficulties. + + 'Horace Davey ... was wishful to stand with us, and I had asked him to + a dinner at which he met some of the leading men, and later he called + on me to see whether he would "do." In the meantime I had sounded our + best people, and found that he would not.... I told him at once that + he must vote against fresh dowries to the Royal Family until a Civil + List inquiry had been held, which ... sent him away.' + +Another lawyer followed, and was shown off at several dinners, but 'the +borough did not seem inclined to welcome Queen's Counsel,' and ultimately +settled, very much to its own satisfaction and Sir Charles's, on a great +friend, Mr. Firth. + +The campaign in defence of open spaces was actively carried on this year, +and in March Sir Charles was fighting on behalf of the Commons +Preservation Society to resist the erection of a new cottage with an +enclosure for the Deputy Ranger in Hyde Park. The cottage was erected, but +Sir Charles and his allies 'were ultimately able to get back a large part +of the land which had been enclosed near it.' Another encroachment was +resisted more successfully, and by other means. In Fulham 'the +Ecclesiastical Commissioners had made an enclosure shutting out the public +from Eelbrook Common, the use of which it had enjoyed for many years.' + + 'I went to a meeting at Beaufort House, and made, as I thought, a + moderate speech recommending abstention from acts of violence, but one + at the close of which the meeting went off to the place, pulled down + the fence, and burnt it in a large bonfire. The enclosure was never + reasserted, and the ground was ultimately handed over to the + Metropolitan Board of Works to be managed as an open space, and is + open now for ever.... In Lord Eversley's _Commons_, revised edition of + 1910, he names my services to the "cause," but not _this_ one.' + +At the close of the Session + + 'On September 4th I addressed my constituents, and received an ovation + in consequence of the passing of the Hours of Polling Bill (letting + them vote till eight in the evening instead of four) and of my + Registration Bill. Vast numbers of electors had been disfranchised by + the former hours, who were able now to record their votes. My + Registration Act was only to come into force in the course of the + following year, and was to affect the next registration and revision. + + 'Turning to foreign affairs, I pointed out the absolute impossibility + of the fulfilment of the promises which the Government had made to + give to Asiatic Turkey "rest from the heavy weight of military + service, rest from the uncertainty of unjust Judges and persons placed + in command." I went on to discuss the Greek question, which I had to + do somewhat fully, because the Greek Committee was at present only + operating in the dark, and had not made known its constitution to the + public. [Footnote: He made in this year the acquaintance of + 'Delyannis, Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs. He was a very inferior + man to his great rival, Tricoupis.'] + + 'Two days after my speech, on September 6th, I learnt that the Greek + Government had decided to recognize the insurgent Debt of 1824. People + often talk of the possibilities of Ministers speculating on the Stock + Exchange on secret information. It is a curious and perhaps an + interesting fact that during the more than five years that I was in + office I do not think that any official information came into my hands + the possession of which would have enabled any Minister to make money + on the Stock Exchange, although a private secretary was charged with + the offence during those years--most unjustly charged. On the other + hand, it is the case that on at least two occasions when I was a + private member of Parliament, before I had held office, I had secret + information of a certain kind upon which I might have speculated, and + which very probably was given me with the intention that I should do + so. This was one of the two occasions. The other was my knowledge of + the financial intervention in Egypt before it took place. [Footnote: + He knew this from something said to him by Nubar Pasha.] + + 'The Greek information of September 6th reached me in Paris, whither I + had gone on the day after my speech, and to which I was followed by + very favourable criticism upon it. Gambetta, with whom I breakfasted + on the 6th, told me that Lord Salisbury, who had been in Paris, had + come there with a view to reopen the Egyptian question, but had not + received encouragement. + + 'On Thursday, September 12th, I breakfasted with Gambetta in the + country, he coming to fetch me at the Grand Hotel, and driving me down + in a victoria. We talked partly of Egypt, partly of people.' + +That autumn Sir Charles spent in the South of France, still working on his +History. [Footnote: _History of the Nineteenth Century_. See Chapter XI., +p. 154; also Chapter LX. (Vol. II., p. 537).] His son, then four years +old, used to be with him at La Sainte Campagne, Cap Brun, his house near +Toulon. In November a new crisis arose. 'There seemed a chance of war with +Russia about the Afghan complications,' and Sir Charles proposed to his +brother Ashton that, 'in the event of Russia's entry on the war, he should +bring out a daily halfpenny noonday paper, to give, on a small sheet, news +only, and not opinions. At that time evening papers could not be bought +till four o'clock, and the idea was discussed between us until it became +clear that we were only going to fight Afghans, and not Russians.' + +The situation was serious enough to demand an autumn Session, because the +beginnings of the war were directly connected with Russian action. After +the Queen had assumed her new title of Empress of India, Lord Lytton was +instructed to propose a Mission to the Amir. But the Amir, who had +previously declined to admit surveying parties of British officers, now +refused this. In the spring of 1878, when war threatened between England +and Russia, the Russian Government also proposed an Embassy to Kabul, and +although they likewise met with a refusal, the Mission was despatched and +reached Kabul. + +The Indian Government now saw themselves under a slight; Russia's Mission +had been received, theirs had been refused entrance. Peremptorily they +renewed their request. No answer was returned; the Mission set out, and +was stopped by armed force. Declaration of war followed, and by November +20th British troops had crossed the frontier. Invasion of Afghanistan was +in full progress when Parliament assembled. + +Sir Charles saw Gambetta on December 3rd, and returned to England, and by +the 4th was discussing at the Radical Club the course to be taken on the +Address. In his travels he had visited the north-west frontier of India. +It was settled that he should speak, but, as he notes, the debate in the +Commons 'was swamped by that in the Lords,' and, further, 'I found myself +once again in a difficulty on the Afghan question, as I had been on the +Eastern Question, that of not agreeing with either side.' + +Lord Hartington, as usual, had been prompt in the assurance of patriotic +support for a Government actually engaged in war; Mr. Gladstone was +passionate in denunciation of the war itself. Between these poles Sir +Charles had to steer, and the pith of his speech was a charge against the +Government that they were punishing the Afghans for having submitted to a +violent act of aggression perpetrated by Russia. + + 'On Tuesday, December 10th, I spoke in the debate, doing my best to + calm down a revolt which had broken out below the gangway against + Hartington for not having countenanced an amendment to the Address, + and for having made on the Address a speech supposed to be too + friendly to the Government. + + 'On the other hand, Edward Jenkins, [Footnote: Author of _Ginx's + Baby_.] who called himself a Radical, and who was a strong + Imperialist, was busy drawing amendments which were mere pretexts for + voting with the Government, and I noted in my diary my despair at + finding such men blaming Hartington for going too far, when + Chamberlain was blaming him for not going far enough. While I was + speaking on the 10th Wilfrid Lawson passed to me his copy of the + Orders of the Day, bearing at the head the lines: + + '"Lord Salisbury once was the 'master of jeers, + But now he has met with disaster; + For, on reading the Blue Book, it plainly appears + That Giers is Lord Salisbury's master." + + + The lines were excellent, and I burst out laughing in the middle of my + speech. Giers was the new Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, and + the phrase quoted in Lawson's first line was, of course, an abridgment + of Mr. Disraeli's memorable quotation from Shakespeare about his + colleague, and the four lines formed a summary of my speech.... + [Footnote: On August 5th, 1874, Disraeli, speaking in the debate on + the Lords' disagreement to certain amendments made by the House of + Commons in the Public Worship Regulation Bill, had described Lord + Salisbury as "a great master of gibes and flouts and jeers."] It came + out clearly in these debates that Northcote had not expected war, and + that Lord Lytton had acted directly under the instructions of the + Prime Minister, and had not only expected, but intended it. I called + Lord Lytton in my speech "a diplomatist rather than a Viceroy, a + Secretary of Legation rather than a ruler of men." This was not + intended for abuse, but to bring the House to see him as I had seen + him in my knowledge of him as Secretary at Paris, in order to show + that he had been sent out to India to be an instrument--obedient to a + policy dictated to him from home.' [Footnote: Sir Charles had been + staying with the Commander-in-Chief at Madras, General Haines, + afterwards Field-Marshal, in January, 1876, when the news came of Lord + Lytton's appointment as Governor-General. 'The old soldier absolutely + refused to credit the information, being a strong Conservative, and + unwilling to admit that Mr. Disraeli could have been guilty of so + extraordinary a mistake.'] + +This Afghan War, so lightly begun, and fraught with so much disaster, was +the first of a series of events which sapped the credit of the Government +that had triumphantly claimed to bring back "peace with honour" from the +Congress of Berlin. + +Some intimate aspects of that gathering are preserved in Sir Charles's +account of a dinner-party at Sir William Harcourt's house on December +11th, the guests including the Russian Ambassador, who had been one of the +plenipotentiaries. + + 'Schouvalof was very funny. He gave us a fancy picture of the whole + Congress of Berlin. He described almost every member of the Congress, + standing up at the table speaking English when he did Lord + Beaconsfield, and mimicking the Prime Minister's grave manner, with + absurdly comical effect. At last he came to Lord Salisbury, who, + according to him, spoke bad French. He made Lord Salisbury coin an + extraordinary phrase, at which he himself (Schouvalof), all the + Frenchmen, and Gortschakof, shrugged their shoulders with one accord. + Lord Salisbury turned fiercely round, and asked what was the matter + with it, to which Saint-Vallier replied that "there was nothing the + matter with it except that it was not French." "Not French?" said Lord + Salisbury, and rang the electric bell by the button in front of him, + and when the door was opened, holding up his hand to show the + messenger who had rung, said: "Fetch Mr. Currie." Philip Currie + appeared at the door, bowing deeply, whereon Lord Salisbury read his + phrase to him, and said, "Mr. Currie, is that good French?" to which + Currie replied, "Excellent French, my lord;" whereon Lord Salisbury + turned, said Schouvalof, "to our French colleagues, and said: + 'There!'" Schouvalof carried on violent discussions between Lord + Beaconsfield, speaking English, and Gortschakof, speaking French, + about various boundary questions, and brought in Bismarck every minute + or two as a chorus, the Chancellor stalking up and down the room with + his arms folded, and growling in a deep voice: "Eh bien, messieurs, + arrangez-vous; car, si vous ne vous arrangez pas, demain je pars pour + Kissingen." Under this Bismarckian pressure Schouvalof, after making + us shriek for half an hour, brought his Congress to an end.... In a + confidential talk with me afterwards Schouvalof said: "I have known + many rude people, but I never knew anyone so rude as was Bismarck at + the Congress. I happened to name our poor clients, the Montenegrins, + when Bismarck roared at me: "Je ne veux pas entendre parler de ces + gens-là." Schouvalof also said of our relations with the Afghans: "You + don't understand dealing with Orientals. Compare your letters to the + Amir and ours, published in your Blue-Book. We call him the Sun and + Moon, and you call him an 'earthen pipkin.'" This last was an allusion + to the phrase used to the Amir, "an earthen pipkin between two iron + pots," the iron pots being ourselves and Russia.' + + +II. + +Sir Charles Dilke in this year has record of meeting with many interesting +persons, some of them links with a vanishing past, such as the daughter of +Horace Smith, who with his brother wrote _Rejected Addresses_. Miss "Tizy" +Smith was, he says, + + 'the last survivor of that school of noisy, frolicsome, boisterous old + ladies given to punning and banging people on the back; but she was + very witty, and, for those who had spirits to bear her spirits, most + entertaining. She was for many years known as the "Queen of Brighton," + but her sway was not despotic.' + +In February he + + 'dined with Lady Waldegrave to meet the Duc de Chartres--no better and + no worse than the other Princes of his house...., not excepting the + Duc d'Aumale, who had, however, the reputation of being brilliant, and + who ... was interesting from his great memory of great men. They all + grew deaf as they grew old, and the Comte de Paris is now (1890) + almost as deaf as the Prince de Joinville, who was put into the navy + in his youth, because, not hearing the big guns, he alone of all the + family was not frightened by them.' + +In March, 1878, Gambetta sent to Dilke with an introduction 'Henri Hecht, +who was deep in his secrets, and in the habit from this time forward of +visiting for him Germany as well as England.' Going backwards and forwards +to his house at Toulon, Sir Charles always broke the journey at Paris to +see Gambetta. He writes to Ashton Dilke: + + "Gambetta says that he shall say at Grenoble that MacMahon said: + 'J'irai jusqu'au bout,' and that he must--_i.e._, he must complete his + term. He won't have him again. 'J'en ai assez d'une fois.'" + +At Easter Sir Charles was using his influence with Gambetta on behalf of a +great artist who had been politically compromised in the troubles of 1871 +--Dalou the sculptor, who had done to Dilke's commission a copy in has- +relief of Flaxman's "Mercury and Pandora." + + 'When I was leaving for Paris I had several interviews with Dalou as + to getting him leave to return to France without his asking for it. He + had been sub-curator of the Louvre under the Commune, and had helped + to preserve the collections from destruction; but after he fled the + country he had always refused to ask for leave to return, which, had + he asked, would at once have been granted to him. Gambetta always + insisted, when I spoke to him upon the matter, that Dalou should write + some letter, however private and however personal, to ask for leave to + return; but this was just what Dalou's pride would never let him do, + and although he was willing to ask me verbally, and even to refer to + the matter in a private letter to myself, he never would write about + it to anyone in France. Dalou was afterwards selected to make the + official statues of the Republic, and may be said to have become, + after the general amnesty, Sculptor-in-Ordinary to the Government of + France.' + +There is a story of Count Beust's difficulties when the Empress of Austria +suddenly asked herself to dine with him at the Austrian Embassy at six on +Sunday, at twenty-four hours' notice. Beust's cook was out of town; but +worse was the difficulty of finding guests of adequate importance. The +Prince of Wales had a dinner-party of his own at Marlborough House, so +recourse was had to another Royal couple, the Duke and Duchess of Teck. +They were engaged to the Marlborough House dinner, but suggested a heroic +expedient. "Why not dine with you at six, and go on at a quarter-past +eight and dine again!" So it was settled. + +An eccentric dinner took place at 76, Sloane Street, when the Maharajah of +Johore returned the visit which Sir Charles had paid him in his States +near Singapore. Lord Randolph Churchill and other people interested in +India were among the guests, and the Maharajah brought his own cook, who +prepared enough for all, so that the guests had their choice of two menus. +The host took the Maharajah's, 'which was good but rich,' and 'suffered, +as did all who ate his garlics and his grease.' + + 'On March 21st I breakfasted with Lord Granville to meet Lord Lyons, + there being also there Lord Ripon, Lord Acton (a man of great learning + and much charm), Lord Carlingford (Chichester Fortescue that had + been), Grant Duff, Sir Thomas Wade (the great Chinese scholar, and + afterwards Professor of Chinese at Cambridge), Lefevre, Meredith + Townsend of the _Spectator_, old Charles Howard, and "old White," + roaring with that terrible roar which seems almost necessary to go + with his appearance. I have known two men, both in the Foreign Office + service, that looked like bears--Lord Tenterden, [Footnote: Permanent + Under-Secretary of State, afterwards Dilke's colleague at the Foreign + Office.] a little black graminivorous European bear, and "old White," + a polar bear if ever I saw one, always ready to hug his enemies or his + friends, and always roaring so as to shake the foundations of your + house. "Lord Lyons," I noted in my diary, "does not make any mark in + private, but that may be because he does his duty and holds his + tongue. The diplomatists who talk delightfully, like Odo Russell, are + perhaps not the best models of diplomacy." But White afterwards made a + great Ambassador. + + 'On March 3rd Goschen dined with me, asked by me to meet "Brett, + Hartington's new secretary"' (now Lord Esher). 'Reginald Brett was, + and is, an extremely pleasant fellow, and he was the ablest secretary, + except Edward Hamilton, that I ever came across; but he was far from + being a model secretary, because ... he always behaved as if he held + delegated authority from Hartington to represent Hartington's + conscience when it would not otherwise have moved, and "Hartington's + opinion" when the chief had none.... But Brett in all he did had + public ends in view.... + + 'On July 30th I dined at a dinner given by a lion-hunter who managed + to get together some remarkable and some pleasant people--Cardinal + Manning, Ruskin, Greenwood, and Borthwick. But whether it was the + influence of the host, or whether it was because Manning did not like + his company except me, and Ruskin did not like his company at all, the + dinner was a failure. No one talked but Ruskin, and he prosed, and his + prose of speech was not his prose of pen. Manning wished to see me + about some education matter, and I called on him on August 2nd, and + from that time forward saw a good deal of the Cardinal.' + +Next came members of what was to be the Fourth Party, although then +'isolated individuals.' In February Sir Charles had a long talk with Sir +Henry Drummond Wolff, and 'found him holding very different views upon +foreign affairs from those which afterwards united him with his future +leader. In fact, he had nothing at this moment in common with Lord +Randolph except a personal detestation of Lord Derby.' + +Sir John Gorst had acted with Sir Charles to preserve the rights of native +races, especially the Maories; and thus a friendship had grown up, in +which Dilke was anxious to include Mr. Chamberlain. + + 'On July 26th Chamberlain dined with me to meet Richard Power, the new + Irish Whip, and Gorst, the latter soon afterwards to join with + Randolph Churchill in the formation of the memorable Fourth Party, and + to be known as "Randolph's Attorney-General." Many years afterwards, + when Randolph Churchill had quarrelled with Gorst, and the Fourth + Party had finally gone to pieces, Lord Randolph said to me: "Gorst was + the best adviser I ever had. I often failed to follow his advice, and + have always regretted not following it." When the Fourth Party was + first formed, he advised that we should sit immediately behind the + leaders--I with my knees in Northcote's back. I overruled him, and we + sat below the gangway; but he was right. We should have done far more + execution if I had been nearer to "the Goat." Lord Randolph never + alluded to Sir Stafford Northcote except by this playful appellation, + based upon the long, straggling, yellow-white beard of the + Conservative Chief. When he was in good humour the Fourth Party leader + alluded to the Conservative leader as "the goat"; but when angry as + "the old goat," and often with many of those disrespectful adjectives + in which in private conversation he delighted. + + 'At dinner at the Harcourts' on August 10th, Arthur Balfour present: + ... I am the greatest of admirers of his "charm."' + +Ireland, which makes or breaks politicians, made Mr. A. J. Balfour. Here +is some detail of one of the men whom Ireland broke. Towards the end of +the Session came to Sir Charles a letter from the Duchess of Manchester at +Aix-les-Bains: + + "Please back up Mr. Forster. I think he is quite right. Fancy, to be + chosen and proposed by a Committee, adopted by 300 idiots or geniuses, + and to have to submit, when you can stand on your own merits." + + 'A German Conservative Duchess was not likely to be able to understand + the Caucus. Forster was her friend, going and sitting with her almost + every day, and chuckling over her politics with his extraordinary + chuckle, and playing cards with her at night. To his card-playing, + indeed, he ultimately owed his life, for the Invincibles in Dublin + used to wait for him night after night outside his club to murder him + (as afterwards came out in the Phoenix Park trial), and, tired out + with waiting, at last fancy that he must have gone home. Forster was + at this moment at loggerheads with his Bradford constituents, and + hence the letter of the Duchess; but I did not "back up" Forster, + being myself an absolute believer in the wisdom of the Caucus system. + I had, indeed, invented a Caucus in Chelsea before the first + Birmingham Election Association was started.' + +Sir Charles left for Paris, and-- + + 'on September 6th I met Émile Ollivier, who said that there had never + been in France a personal power equal to that of Gambetta at this + moment; even that of Napoleon, when First Consul, was not so great. + Then the Bourbons were dimly seen behind. "Now there is nothing + behind; nothing except Clericalism, and Clericalism can be bought." + + 'Ollivier I found still full of burning hatred for the Empress, but he + had forgiven Rouher and the Emperor for making him the scapegoat. I + discussed with him once more the origin of the war of 1870, and he + maintained most stoutly that France had been driven into it by + Bismarck, and had only put herself in the wrong by herself declaring + war, and had done this because her army system gave her a fortnight's + start, the advantage of which was lost through the Emperor's + hesitations. He thinks that in that fortnight the German Army could + have been destroyed. It is on this point that he is wrong.' + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE ZULU WAR AND THE GREEK COMMITTEE + + +The chronicle of the year 1879 begins with a visit paid by Sir Charles to +Paris on his way back from his house near Toulon, to which he had returned +after the brief Session of December, On February 2nd 'I breakfasted with +Gambetta. His furniture was being packed up for removal to the Palais +Bourbon, where he was about to take up residence as President of the +Chamber,' and 'saw him again late at night at the office of his paper' +(_La République Française_). 'Gambetta was then,' says a note added later, +'at the height of his power, and, in fact, Dictator. He was a patriot, but +too big for the Republic.' + +'On my return to London I found that Chamberlain was most anxious to see +me,' and on February 5th Sir Charles went to Birmingham, to discuss their +joint line of action in the coming Session. During this visit 'Chamberlain +told me of Lord Beaconsfield's pleasant prophecies with regard to myself, +of which I heard from all sides just after this time.' + +The "pleasant prophecies" declared that Sir Charles would certainly be +Prime Minister. Mr. Gladstone, it will be seen later, came to the +conclusion in 1882 that Dilke would be his natural successor in the House +of Commons; but this opinion was given only a little in advance of a +widely received public estimate, and it came after the test of office had +proved those qualities which Lord Beaconsfield discerned while the younger +statesman was still only a private member of the Opposition, not promoted +to the Front Bench. + +But no one, even in 1879, doubted that Sir Charles was of Front Bench +rank; and close upon this came a decisive opportunity in Parliament. + +Trouble, which threatened to become acute, between the Zulu power under +Cetewayo and his encroaching Boer neighbours had led the British +Government to carry out the annexation of the Transvaal during the course +of 1877. The Zulus were inclined to trust the British more than the Dutch; +but the advent of Sir Bartle Frere as High Commissioner put a new +complexion on matters. Frere had made up his mind that the Zulu power must +be broken, and a pretext was soon found in a demand for the abolition of +the Zulu military system. This ultimatum was presented on December 11th, +1878, by Frere, of his own motion, and without warning to the Home +Government. The inevitable refusal followed, leading to invasion of the +Zulu territory, with disastrous result. On January 23rd, 1879, Lord +Chelmsford's force was cut to pieces at Isandhlwana; and it seemed +possible that the whole colony of Natal might be overrun by Zulu _impis_. + +This was the governing factor of the political situation at the moment +when Parliament reopened in 1879. Sir Charles had not previously taken a +prominent part in the discussion of South African affairs, and his +attitude is indicated only by isolated passages in the Memoir. + +In 1875, when Lord Carnarvon sent J. A. Froude to 'stump South Africa' in +advocacy of a scheme of federation devised in Downing Street, Sir Charles +condemned a mission which seemed to him to cast a slur on the local +Colonial governments. In his opinion, this mission helped to create those +disturbances which rent South Africa in the succeeding years. On May 27th, +1877, he noted that the Blue Book on the Transvaal, then published, was +'an indictment of the Republic intended to justify the annexation,' but +that it did not 'show the existence of any overwhelming necessity for +annexation, or, indeed, any necessity at all.' Yet he gave only a half- +hearted support to Mr. Courtney's opposition to the South Africa Bill when +those matters were debated in the House, for, as he wrote in a letter to +the _Spectator_, he was opposed, "not to the policy of annexation, which, +as leading up to confederation," he supported, "but to the manner in which +that annexation had been carried out." It was said to have been done by +the desire of the Dutch themselves. If so, why were three battalions of +British troops still needed in the Transvaal? The Bill did not establish a +self-governing federation; it only provided that federation might be +established by an Order in Council. What guarantee had the Dutch, he +asked, that such an order would ever be issued? + +Events justified his question, for the promise was never made good, even +when the Liberals themselves came into office, and Sir Charles resented +the iniquity of this dealing. + +In February, 1878, he met Froude at dinner, and 'discussed with him the +South African question, on which we took widely different views, and of +which his were to be the source of much unhappiness to the Mother Country +and the Colonies.' + +With the difficulty of the Transvaal the Zulu outbreak was indirectly +connected. Great Britain had been drawn into strife with the Zulu power, +which had for more than thirty years lived peaceably beside the Natal +Government, only because the annexation had made England responsible for +the peace of the disputed territories beyond the Vaal. There was also a +strong if indirect connecting-link in the personality of Sir Bartle Frere, +who, as High Commissioner in South Africa, had belittled the Boer claims, +and who now by a violent stretch of authority had precipitated war with +the Zulus. + +After his discussion with Chamberlain at Birmingham, Sir Charles had +decided to indict the Government's South African policy on the first +possible occasion, and he communicated this intention to Lord Hartington. +Owing to the prolonged winter Session there was to be no Queen's Speech, +and consequently no Address, at the opening of Parliament, and Sir +Stafford Northcote was to begin the proceedings with a general statement. +Lord Hartington, after some hesitation as to the course to be pursued, +ultimately commissioned Sir Charles to reply at once on behalf of the +Opposition--a task which would naturally fall to the official leader of +the party. The opportunity thus given to him was the more notable because +the Liberal chiefs were divided as to the line which should be taken. +Harcourt, Sir Charles records, 'tried to prevent me from bringing forward +any motion as to the Zulu War,' but Chamberlain was strong in the opposite +sense. "We want to din into the constituencies," he wrote, "that the +Government policy is one of _continual_, petty, fruitless, unnecessary, +and inglorious squabbles--all due to their bullying, nagging ways." This +was consonant with the Birmingham leader's fierce opposition to Jingoism; +and for once he shared the view of his titular leader. + + 'Hartington fell in with the view taken by Chamberlain, and my notice + to call attention to the South African papers and the causes of the + war was given with his consent. The bad news from the Cape '--news of + Isandhlwana--' which came on February 11th, had changed his former + view. My speech on Northcote's motion was on the 13th February.' + +He then brought forward on behalf of the Liberal party a resolution +condemning the Government's policy in South Africa, and more especially +the conduct of Sir Bartle Frere. The date for this main attack was not +fixed till after considerable delay, and before it arrived the words of +the motion which stood in Sir Charles's name were annexed bodily, and put +down in the name of Lord Lansdowne, to be moved in the Lords on an earlier +day. Lord Lansdowne sat on the Liberal Front Bench in the Upper House +(where he took an active part in criticism of Conservative policy), and +Sir Charles called this proceeding "taking the bread out of a private +member's mouth," despite the implied compliment to his tact in drafting +the Resolution. Sunday, the 23rd March, he spent at Mentmore, Lord +Rosebery's house, where Lord and Lady Granville were staying, and he +notes: + + 'I could not but think (although Lord Granville was very civil and + told me that he had advised the King of the Belgians to go to the + House of Commons on the following Thursday to hear my speech) that if + Lord Granville had thought that my speech was going to be a success, + he would not have stolen my motion for Lord Lansdowne to bring it on + first in the House of Lords. I could not see the wisdom of the + tactics, because it was already certain we should have a better + division in the Commons, proportionately speaking, than in the Lords. + At Devonshire House, on the previous Wednesday, Lord Lansdowne came up + to me in the entrance hall, where it is rather dark, and began talking + to me, and as I did not see who it was, he introduced himself-- + "Lansdowne the pirate," of course in allusion to the robbery of my + words.' + +The words were-- + + "That this House, while willing to support Her Majesty's Government in + all necessary measures for defending the possessions of Her Majesty in + South Africa, regrets that the ultimatum which was calculated to + produce immediate war should have been presented to the Zulu king + without authority from the responsible advisers of the Crown, and that + an offensive war should have been commenced without imperative or + pressing necessity or adequate preparation; and this House further + regrets that after the censure passed, upon the High Commissioner by + Her Majesty's Government in the despatch of the 19th day of March, + 1879, the conduct of affairs in South Africa should be retained in his + hands." + + 'These words did not please all men. Fawcett wrote me two strong + letters to protest against them. Lord Granville also discussed them at + some length with me in writing. Fawcett was largely moved by + detestation of Sir Bartle Frere, and, while my chief object was to + stop the war, his object was to force Frere to resign. The feeling + against the proconsul was strong among the Liberals. + + 'On the 25th the debate in the Lords took place. The House was + thronged, the galleries being filled with ladies, and (there being a + Court mourning) all in black--save one, Lady ----. She was in scarlet + from top to toe, or more than toe, for she displayed a pair of long + scarlet stockings to a startled House, and each member as he came in + said, "Good gracious me, who's that?" so that Lansdowne could hardly + begin for the buzz. His speech was dull, and the result was favourable + to the Government. Two days later I brought forward my motion in the + Commons, and had a great personal success, receiving the + congratulations of all the leading men of both parties. I spoke for + two hours and a half, and kept the House full, without ever for an + instant being in doubt as to the complete success of the speech; + greatly cheered by my own side, without being once questioned or + interrupted by the other. But the speech was far from being my best + speech, although it was by far my greatest success. It was an easy + speech to make--a mere Blue-Book speech. The case from the papers was + overwhelming. All that had to be done was to state it in a clear way, + and I should think that more than half the speech consisted of mere + reading of extracts, which, however, I read in such a way as to + incorporate them in the body of the speech. The opening and the + conclusion, both of which were effective, were not my own; for they + were suggested to me, only I think on the same day, by William + Rathbone, who sometimes thought of a good way of putting things. While + I was gratified by the success of the speech, I could not help feeling + how completely these things are a matter of opportunity, inasmuch as I + had made dozens of better speeches in the House, of which some had + been wholly unsuccessful.' + +Nothing was wanting to the completeness of the after-effects of his House +of Commons triumph. + + 'The general feeling seemed to be, as Lord Reay put it in his letter + of congratulation, that my speech on South African affairs was "the + Cape of Good Hope of the Liberal party."' [Footnote: Lord Reay (Baron + Mackay of Ophemert), a Hollander by birth, then recently naturalized, + spoke with special authority when South Africa was in question. The + Barony was originally Scotch, and created in 1628. A peerage of the + United Kingdom was conferred on Lord Reay (the eleventh Baron) in + 1881.] + +By this speech his contemporaries remember Sir Charles as a speaker. Sir +George Trevelyan writes: + + "His great speech on South Africa was a wonderful exposition, lucid, + convincing, detailed, without being heavy. I can well recall how old + members admired the manner in which he ticked off topic after topic, + with its due amount of illustration from the Blue-Books." + +A letter to Mrs. Pattison, written, as he says in it, "under the violent +excitement of a splendid personal success," contains his own estimate. The +congratulations of leading men of all parties were couched, he said, "in +such a way as made me realize how badly I had always spoken before." And +in his Memoir he adds the modest comment that 'praise was forthcoming in +abundance. The only praise, however, that I can accept as fairly belonging +to this speech, is praise for a past of work which had led up to it.' + +The result, especially with an indolent man like Lord Hartington as +leader, was that the conduct of the Opposition's case was increasingly +left to Sir Charles Dilke. _Truth_ put the popular view amusingly enough +in Hiawathan verse: + + "Never absent, always ready + To take up the burning question + Of the hour and make a motion: + Be it Cyprus, be it Zulu, + He can speak for hours about it + From his place below the gangway. + No Blue Book avails to fright him: + He's the stomach of an ostrich + For the hardest facts and figures, + And assimilates despatches + In the most surprising fashion." + +A serious tribute to his success follows: + + 'I was asked by Sir Thomas Bazley, who was eighty-two years of age, to + stand for Manchester in his place, with a promise from Manchester that + my expenses would be paid. But I was under a volunteered pledge not to + leave Chelsea until beaten, which I thought I should be "this time."' + +Sir Charles records as one feature of the debate the sudden and painful +failure of Mr. Lowe's hitherto great debating powers: + + 'On the second night of the debate I dined with Sir Charles Forster' + (member for Walsall, and well known as a dinner-giver to the chiefs of + the Liberal party) 'to meet Lord Hartington, Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. + Bright. Almost the sole topic of conversation was the breakdown in the + debate of Lowe, who had apparently been trusting as usual to his + hitherto marvellous memory, when this had failed him, and he stopped + short' (in the middle of a sentence), 'and failed ever, henceforward, + to regain his power.' + +The future of Greece engaged Sir Charles's attention far more constantly +than this South African embroilment. Cyprus was a branch of the Greek +question, and (in a speech of March 20th, 1879) he had attacked Wolseley's +administration of the island. The General replied in a Blue Book, which +was debated on June 20th, 1879: + + 'The Cypriotes were so excited that they were sending me not only + every fact, but every story, and as it was difficult to sift them in + London, I dare say some of the charges were untrue and some were + certainly trivial.' + +One telegram had complained bitterly of the injustice done to two priests +whose beards were cut off in a British gaol, although nothing was said as +to the justice of their imprisonment. But "the existence of forced labour +under our rule had certainly been admitted," said Sir Charles in his +speeches on the question, and on this and on the law which the Government +of Cyprus had passed, taking to itself powers of arbitrary exile without +trial, he rested a case in which he persevered throughout the Session, +debating Cyprus 'at such length, I fear, as to bore the House.' He relates +that he once began a speech on Cyprus before a party of members set out +for the Crystal Palace to dine, and was still delivering the same speech +when they came back. Later, when in office, he was able to make the +administrative changes he desired for the benefit of the island. + +One result of Sir Charles's interest in the affairs of Cyprus was to bring +down upon him 'an enormous correspondence in modern Greek, to read which I +had to engage the services of a translator.' + + 'The Cypriote Bishops are the most long-winded people with whom I ever + had to do, and their communications, although flattering, were + somewhat burdensome. I was also receiving many letters in modern Greek + from Athens and various centres of Greek activity with regard to the + proceedings of the Greek Committee, and I received addresses from + Epirus and from the other Turkish provinces and islands inhabited by + Greeks in which there was any thought of cession. I was appointed + Honorary President of the "Zenon," whatever that might be, and + received similar appointments from various Greek societies. I am, + indeed, also a "citizen of Athens."' + +He received the freedom of that city on July 12th, 1879; the Grand Cross +of the Saviour was also offered, but declined. + + 'On Sunday, March 30th, Hartington sent to me to exchange notes upon + the position of the Greek question, and his attitude seemed to me + that, as he did not understand anything about it, he hoped I was being + careful and not doing anything very wrong. At all events, he left me + to myself, and I delivered my soul in the House.' + +This he did on April 17th, putting forward a complaint that, although +Greece looked to Great Britain's representatives at the Congress of Berlin +for a traditional championship of the Hellenic claims, Lord Beaconsfield +and Lord Salisbury had allowed the proposal for an extension of Greek +territory to come from French diplomatists; and, further, that the +recommendation to this effect inserted in the Treaty of Berlin had been +evaded by Turkey. He described in his speech the delays and the +unsatisfactory proposals which had been put forward by Turkey in +conference with Greek delegates, and demanded European pressure to carry +out the declared intentions of Europe. A special obligation of honour +rested upon England, so he held, because England had induced Greece to +desist from war when Turkey was at grips with Russia, and when the Greeks, +by attacking, might easily have secured possession of the territory they +desired. + +These representations were put forward a month later as the general appeal +of the Greek Committee, which had existed as a secret body for a year, but +was formally and publicly organized on April 25th, 1879. Preparations were +begun for a public meeting, and after several conferences with Lord +Lansdowne + + 'I invited the speakers and drew up an appeal to the public, and acted + as Chairman of the Executive Committee, with Rosebery for President + and Lefevre for Treasurer. The meeting was held at Willis's Rooms on + May 17th, 1879, and was attended by men of all shades of opinion--the + Duke of Westminster, Sir Robert Peel, an independent Conservative, and + several other Conservatives, as well as the mass of the Liberals. I + presided, and Lansdowne moved the first resolution.' + +Dilke said afterwards that this meeting had been 'sufficiently interesting +to keep Harcourt and a Duke standing for three hours--putting Harcourt +first because he was the more august.' + +Immediately afterwards he went to Liverpool, as the guest of the Liverpool +Reform Club, to speak specially upon the Greek question. + + 'My speech was dull; the best thing said in the course of the evening + was said by a man who had been _Daily News_ correspondent in Crete-- + "They talk of Europe! What is Europe? Europe is a number of wicked old + gentlemen with decorations, assembled in a room." + + 'During my stay in the neighbourhood of Liverpool I was the guest at + Knowsley of Lord and Lady Derby, who were trying by all means in their + power to emphasize the fact that they were quite ready to go over to + the Liberal side' (as they did within the year). 'I tried hard to get + Rosebery to make some speeches in the country upon the Greek question, + but this attempt was a failure. He was greatly pressed to go to + Manchester in the same way in which I had gone to Liverpool, but after + taking a long time to think of the thing, he distinctly refused. I + never quite knew why; but caution was always the predominant element + in his nature, though he was occasionally rash just when he should + have been cautious.' + +In June Sir Charles became possessed of 'a curious document which he +translated and made public.' According to the story told him, the letter +had been in the mailbags aboard a steamer which was wrecked, and it had +been retrieved along with the rest from the bottom of the sea. But + + 'it was probably bought for the Greeks by their spy Fitzgerald, the + "journalist" who afterwards disappeared--finally--about 1894. He had, + however, often disappeared for some years. The letter was stamped with + an Italian stamp for foreign post, addressed to Mouktar Pasha, + commanding in chief the Turkish army in Epirus; and, although the + envelope was plain and not calculated to attract attention, the letter + was on Italian Foreign Office paper, and dated from the Foreign Office + at Rome on April 6th. It was from Corte, an Italian Consul-General who + had been employed in Albania and afterwards in the Italian Foreign + Office, and pointed to Italian intrigue in Albania to make the + Italians rather than the Greeks the successors of the Turks in Albania + and Epirus. Seven years later I saw a good deal of Mouktar Pasha at + Constantinople, but I did not mention this letter either to him or to + the Sultan. It referred to Mouktar's idea of "colonization in Epirus," + and, from the context, and from what we know of previous proceedings, + it would seem that this colonization of Epirus was to have been a + colonization by Italian peasants.' + +This letter came to Sir Charles as President of the Greek Committee, and +here may be added notice of the birth of an enterprise kindred in spirit +to the political association of those who loved Greece: + + 'On Monday, June 16th, I took part in the meeting at which the + Hellenic Society was founded, it having grown out of a conference held + at Cambridge between Mr. Newton of the British Museum (afterwards Sir + Charles Newton), Professor Colvin, and me. The first resolution was + moved by Lord Morley (Earl Morley, afterwards Chairman of Committees + of the House of Lords), and seconded by Professor Sayce; the second by + me, and seconded by the Dean of St. Paul's; the third by Sir John + Lubbock, and seconded by Professor Jebb; and the fourth by Professor + Colvin, and seconded by Gennadius.' + +Two other questions of abiding interest were touched on by Sir Charles +this year. That of Upper Houses is mentioned in connection with interviews +with Sir Graham Berry, one of his Colonial acquaintances. + + 'Mr. (afterwards Sir) Graham Berry, Prime Minister, or, as they call + it in the Colonies, "Premier" of Victoria; a rough, able man, son of a + Chelsea tradesman.... We arranged a reception, which was given to + Berry by the parish of Chelsea at the Chelsea Vestry Hall, myself in + the chair, when we presented him with an address expressing the hope + that the Victoria Lower House might prevail in its struggle against + the Upper. Professor Pearson, formerly of Oxford--a Free Trader, + though Mr. Berry was a Protectionist--was with him, and they were over + to try to persuade the Colonial Office to support them against the + Upper House.' + + 'Sir Graham Berry was afterwards the Agent-General of his Colony, but + still possessed the confidence of the Liberal party in Victoria in a + higher degree than any other man, and he afterwards returned to local + politics and became Speaker. Pearson wrote a great book before he + died.' + +Sir Graham Berry wrote later in this year 'for opinions upon a Bill of +reform of the Upper House in his Parliament,' to which Sir Charles replied +'that I disliked Upper Houses so much as not to be in favour of reforming +them.' + +This attitude he always maintained. His views upon the whole question of +representation were this year put into a pamphlet which + + 'advocated, in addition to the reforms upon which Liberals were + agreed, the system of double elections, as on the Continent--that is + to say, a second poll to be held when at the first the person at the + head of the poll did not obtain a clear majority of votes.' + +The other question takes the first place in Sir Charles's note of his +conversations with Chamberlain at the beginning of the Session. This +touched on economic difficulties, and runs thus: + + "That it would be wise to have a motion on the condition of the realm: + probably by moving for a Committee to inquire into the cause of the + present distress, and that Mundella would be the best person to move, + especially if the Front Bench would support him, as the distress is + most severe in Sheffield." + +Some years, however, elapsed before Sir Charles was able to deal with such +questions authoritatively as President of the Local Government Board. + +We can trace at this time the beginning of those close relations which +Dilke and Chamberlain cultivated (even after they had joined Mr. +Gladstone's Government) with the new power that was growing up in +Parliament. On February 15th, 'we were anxious that the Irish should vote +with us about the Zulu War, the more so because her leaders were +hesitating upon the subject,' and Sir Charles invited Mr. Parnell to meet +Mr. Chamberlain at dinner; but they 'were able to make but little of him.' +Further meetings took place, from which the only practical result was a +promise of Parnell's support in their opposition to the County Boards +Bill, which the Conservative Government were putting forward as their main +measure. The ground of opposition was that 'it was better to leave the +present system alone than to create new Boards only half elective.' + +The Memoir has a note respecting one of these meetings with the Irish +leader at which Parnell was accompanied by Major Nolan, then member for +County Galway: + + 'Nolan showed opportunist Nationalism; Parnell irreconcilable + Nationalism. The latter let out, in spite of his great caution, that + if we chose to go to Ireland on Mill's land programme, we could + destroy his position and the Home Rule movement. Nolan said that a + party which would give security of tenure to the small tenants could + afford to leave the large ones out. (To touch the large tenancies in + that sense would be virtually to charge the possession of property in + Ireland with partial compensation.)' + +At this moment, the beginning of 1879, the purely Nationalist agitation +for self-government had not yet been joined to the demand for an improved +and freer status for the Irish tenant. This was mainly the work of Davitt, +and Davitt had scarcely yet been heard of by the wider public. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +SOCIAL AND POLITICAL INTERESTS + + +Hospitable and popular, Sir Charles had the best of what those days could +offer in talk and talkers. He compared his own country very unfavourably +with the possible standard of social intercourse: + + 'In England and in France people seem wholly unaware that they cannot + either in politics or in literature deal with or even understand + questions involving philosophical and historical considerations + without any training in either philosophy or history, and one sees + writings and speeches by persons who think themselves members of an + educated class which are unintelligible to any who have the slightest + discipline of either habit of thought or form of expression.' + + 'In the best English political and literary society there is no + conversation. Mr. Gladstone will talk with much charm about matters + that he does not understand, or books that he is not really competent + to criticize; but his conversation has no merit to those who are + acquainted with the subjects on which he speaks. Men like Lord + Rosslyn, [Footnote: Lord Rosslyn died in 1890.] Lord Houghton, Lord + Granville (before his deafness), had a pleasant wit and some + cultivation, as had Bromley Davenport, Beresford Hope, and others, as + well as Arthur Balfour, but none of these men were or are at a high + level; and where you get the high level in England, you fall into + priggism. On the whole, Hastings, Duke of Bedford, was the best + specimen that I ever knew of an English gentleman as regards learning + and conversation; but then he was horrible as a man, in spite of his + pretty manners, because ferocious in his ideas upon property. Now, at + Rome is to be found that which is unknown in London, in Paris, in St. + Petersburg, and unknown, I fancy, at Vienna and Berlin, although of + these I know far less--namely, conversation not priggish or academic, + and yet consistently maintained at a high level. + + 'I often heard Mr. Gladstone talk well at little Charles Forster's. + "Mr. G." also seemed to me to talk especially well at the table of Sir + Walter James, [Footnote: The first Lord Northbourne.] an old gentleman + who had left Parliament soon after I was born. In those two houses he + was supreme; but if Coleridge or the Viper (Abraham Hayward) or + Browning were present, who talked better than he did, and would not + give way to him, he was less good. Villiers, who was another good + talker, "Mr. G." could not abide, and his presence also was a damper.' + +In the next year we have 'a dinner at the French Embassy, where Gladstone +was very agreeable, talking French well in an old-fashioned style.' + +Also, in 1880, there is a dinner to which + + 'the first man to come was the Duke of Cambridge, who gave Mr. + Gladstone his left hand, and said that his right was too painful + through gout. Mr. Gladstone threw his arms up to the sky, as though he + had just heard of the reception of Lord Beaconsfield in heaven, or of + some other similar terrible news. His habit of play-acting in this + fashion, in the interest of a supposed politeness, is a very odd one, + giving a great air of unreality to everything he does; but of course + it is a habit of long years. + + 'I heard good talk about this time at Coleridge's house, but preferred + his Blakes--which were even better than mine--to his conversation.' + +Under the date February 23rd is record of sitting up late at night at the +Lubbocks' with Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, the Judge: + + 'We did not agree upon any point, for his opinions upon all things, + especially hanging, were the exact opposite of my own. He talked of + "our dear old British gallows." But we got on well, and I was one of + those who greatly regretted his breakdown, which occurred some ten + years later. He and Leslie Stephen were the sons of Sir James Stephen, + Professor of History at Cambridge--very unlike one another in early + life, when J. F. Stephen was a fat, half-Whig, half-Tory lawyer and + _Saturday Reviewer_, and Leslie a starved-looking, free-thinking + Radical parson, afterwards to throw off his Orders. As they grew old + they became much alike in appearance, and in opinion.' + +There is a note of spending a Sunday in March 'at Aston Clinton, with the +widow of Sir Anthony de Rothschild and her daughter, Mrs. Cyril Flower, +afterwards Lady Battersea. + +'Sir Nathaniel de Rothschild and his wife came to dinner, and, well +knowing as I did two other members of the family, I could see how +strangely like a Royal family the Rothschilds are in one respect-- +namely, that they all quarrel with one another, but are united as against +the world. When Cyril Flower, in 1878, made a speech unfriendly to the +Government, but not more so than might naturally be expected at that time +from a Liberal member, Baron Lionel sent for him, and told him that it was +"wicked and abominable for him to attack a man who had been a poor Jew and +was now the greatest man in England." "In Europe, papa," cut in Nathaniel, +who was present at this public cursing. + + 'From March 15th to the 17th I stayed at York House with the Grant + Duffs, where I met the Marquis and Marquise de la Ferronnays, Henry + Cowper, Minto, Lord Reay, and Herbert Spencer. La Ferronnays was at + this time Military Attaché at the French Embassy, but resigned as soon + as the Republic became consolidated, and, being elected to the + Chamber, was soon the fighting leader of the high Tory party--a not + clever, but excellent gentleman, like the others. + + 'On Monday, March 31st, I dined at the Harcourts', but, alas I this + time no Schouvalof. His place was occupied by Rancez, the Spanish + Minister, who had the same diplomatic capacity for concealing the + truth while talking with equal apparent frankness, but who was less + amusing. + + 'On Monday, April 7th, I dined with Lord and Lady Arthur Russell, to + meet old Lady Russell. I had seen her once before at Pembroke Lodge, + and once at Harcourt's at dinner, on both of which previous occasions + I had seen Lord Russell too--a shadow of his former self.... On this + occasion Lady Russell was alone, Lord Russell having died in the + previous year. [Footnote: In 1878.] The old lady was pleasant, and + gave me a general invitation to come to Pembroke Lodge any or every + Sunday, an invitation of which I afterwards availed myself. + + 'On April 9th I left for France for Easter, and had long and pleasant + breakfasts at the Palais Bourbon with Gambetta, varied by a grand + dinner on April 16th, at which I met many of those who afterwards held + office--Ferry, afterwards Prime Minister; Rouvier, afterwards Prime + Minister; Spuller, afterwards Minister for Foreign Affairs; Constans, + afterwards Minister of the Interior; and Freycinet, afterwards Prime + Minister--all of them dull men enough. Spuller, a kindly and pleasant + dull man; Constans, a red-faced Burgundy drinker; Freycinet, a little + white intriguer--on the whole a sorry crew, Gambetta towering above + them in ability, in joviality, and even in reading.' + +In a scrap of an old letter, dated Wednesday, April 16th, Sir Charles +says: + + "I've spent nearly all my time with Gambetta. He said that he thinks + Sella 'le premier homme politique de l'Italie, mais enragé + protectionniste.' He says he told him that if he were not so violent a + Protectionist he would be 'l'homme absolument nécessaire.'" + +On this follows later the observation: + + 'If Gambetta was anything, he was anti-Russian and a Free Trader, and + his friends, professing to continue his work, became, after about + 1887, rabid Russians and fierce Protectionists.' + + He speaks of Gambetta's 'contempt for Sella because Sella was a + Protectionist,' and adds: 'I suppose Gambetta would have become one + had he lived.' + +While Dilke was in Paris he received a letter from Chamberlain referring +to a motion about 'the interference of the Crown in politics,' of which +Mr. Dillwyn had given notice. Mr. Chamberlain thought the subject +"certainly a popular one, but very difficult to treat in the House of +Commons." + + 'Dillwyn's motion was obviously what people would call "interesting," + but obviously also highly dangerous, as it was really impossible to + prove the case. The Queen does interfere constantly; more, however, + when Liberal Ministers are in power than when she has a Conservative + Cabinet, because the Conservatives on the whole do what she likes, as + she is a Conservative; whereas the Liberals are continually doing, and + indeed exist for the purpose of doing, the things she does not like. + But it is very doubtful how far her interference is unconstitutional, + and it would be quite impossible to prove it, unless Mr. Gladstone, + for example, were to publish her letters--a not very likely + supposition. The Queen is a woman of great ability.... She writes to + the Prime Minister about everything she does not like, which, when he + is a Liberal, means almost everything that he says or does. She + complains of his colleagues' speeches. She complains, with less + violence, of his own. She protests against Bills. She insists that + administrative acts should not be done without delay, for the purpose + of consulting with regard to them persons whose opinions she knows + will be unfavourable. But if the Minister acts as she directs, he, and + not she, becomes responsible; and he may be impeached, for example, + for so doing. And... her action, to my mind, is, strictly speaking, + constitutional. Even in the House of Commons, and in a speech taking a + rough popular view of the Constitution, it would be difficult to + maintain that with her immense experience the Queen is not justified + in asking for time in order that men of distinction should be + consulted upon various acts; and anything beyond this would be mere + matter of inference, not proving the case even if the facts were + known, which of course they are not. Our poor Dillwyn on this + occasion, prompted by Trevelyan, walked into a hornets' nest; and, as + he did it without consulting his two leaders, his leaders were not + bound to follow him.' + + 'On March 21st I dined with Sir Baliol and Lady Bret, meeting the + German Ambassador (Count Münster) and his daughter, and Lord and Lady + Derby. She was not at all bitter about Lord Beaconsfield, although + very bitter about the Court; and after dinner Lord Derby said that the + Queen was now carrying on a confidential correspondence with every + quarter of the globe, so that he was evidently bitter too.... + + 'On April 22nd I received from Auberon Herbert a letter: "Things look + well. The gilding is much tarnished, and shows the brass underneath. + You have done right well. Many thanks for your letter. I went to + Leeds--on the chance but I suspect I am best out of the House. I can + do more to make people believe in themselves, and not in our Moslem + idea of government--perhaps--outside the House than in it. You do + agree in the fearfully paralyzing effect of belief in Government, + don't you?" The last words reveal the growth in Auberon Herbert of + anarchic views, which shortly afterwards turned him for all practical + purposes from a Radical into a Tory, or, rather, turned him back to + the point from which he had started, for as a Tory private secretary + to a Tory Cabinet Minister he had begun political life at the time + when he drew up the plan for the action of the troops against the mob + on the day of the Hyde Park railings being torn down--a plan so + drastic that the Home Secretary, Walpole, refused to move. + + 'On Wednesday, April 23rd, I dined with Waddy, M.P., Q.C., [Footnote: + Afterwards County Court Judge.] a man who would have been a Judge but + for his odd name and his odder manners, "to meet Lord Hartington and + the President of the Wesleyan Conference," an odd mixture. Waddy is a + Wesleyan, and wanted Hartington to make the acquaintance of the + leading Wesleyans in England, and took this course to bring about the + result. + + 'My Sundays at this time I had taken to spend at Pembroke Lodge, + preferring it to Strawberry Hill as quieter, for we often had there + (besides Lady Russell) only Lady Agatha and Rollo Russell, and little + Lord Russell when he was home for the holidays from Winchester. + + 'On Monday, April 28th, I had an interview with the Duke of Argyll at + his wish with regard to the Eastern Question generally, in which he + took deep interest, and on which he made, perhaps, on the whole, the + most conclusive speech delivered in Parliament against the policy of + the Conservative Government. The Duke of Argyll was at this time the + most finished and (for a stately occasion and a cultivated audience) + about the most convincing speaker that could be found--to me, not so + convincing as Gathorne Hardy, and, to all men, less gifted with charm + and melody of voice than Mr. Bright; but fine in the extreme, with no + serious drawbacks except a little too much satisfaction with himself; + a very able man, as his monumental book upon the Eastern Question will + suffice to show. In philosophy he dabbled, and for dabblers was a + philosopher. + + 'On Friday, May 9th, I lunched with Lord and Lady Lansdowne, and found + her one of the nicest women that I had ever met--a plain and simple + lady. In the evening I dined with Lady Elizabeth Biddulph, and made + the acquaintance of Herbert of the Colonial Office, whom I afterwards + heard described by Grant Duff in a public speech as "the perfect + permanent official." I had later, when Undersecretary of State for + Foreign Affairs, to act twice for a short time during changes in the + Colonial Office as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the + Colonial Office, in addition to my own duties, and I was able to + discover for myself how true was what Grant Duff said. On one of these + occasions Hicks Beach, who had been Colonial Secretary, gave notice to + call attention to salaries of officers on the West Coast of Africa, + and I at once sent over to the Colonial Office to tell Herbert that he + had done so. Herbert immediately replied that the salaries were low, + and the coast unhealthy, and that salaries could hardly be reduced; + while, on the other hand, when Sir Michael had been Secretary of + State, he had not proposed to raise them; but that so soon as we could + learn which it was that he intended--_i.e._, to lower or to raise--he + would send me, "in either event, a perfect case." + + 'On May 10th George Sheffield, the _alter ego_ of Lord Lyons, asked + himself to breakfast, and I gathered that Lord Lyons had told him to + come and pump me as to what Gambetta had indicated of his intentions + in France, as George Sheffield kept telling me that Gambetta evidently + intended to make himself Dictator in name, as he was in fact. + + 'On Sunday, May 11th, I dined with Edmund Yates and his wife, meeting + Irving, Browning, Sala, Mrs. Lynn Linton (just back from three years + in Florence), Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Murray, and some others. I was + intensely amused at watching Mrs. Douglas Murray, agreeable but rather + superfine, looking at the Bardolphian nose of "George Augustus," who + took her in to dinner, and of whom she had evidently never heard, and + wondering what manner of wild man he could be. + + 'On May 17th, after the Greek Committee, I dined with the Lyulph + Stanleys.... Chamberlain took Lord Airlie, whom he had never + previously met, for Sir George Campbell, and addressed him in a + friendly but disrespectful manner, whereupon Lord Airlie promptly and + publicly said: "It is all right. You take me for Sir George Campbell. + I am used to it; "for they were extraordinarily alike. [Footnote: Mr. + Gladstone once made exactly the same mistake at a great public meeting + in Scotland in 1879.] In fact, Lord Airlie used to wear his ribbon + oftener than other people chiefly because Campbell had not got one, so + that it formed a distinction, but not a sufficient one, for members of + the House sometimes said to me at parties, "What is that ribbon that + Campbell is wearing?" It must have been a relief to Sir George + Campbell when Lord Airlie died; but it would have been a greater + relief to Lord Airlie had Campbell died first. + + 'The next day I spent at Lubbock's.... Fitzmaurice, Fawcett, and I + went for a walk to the oak under which Wilberforce decided to abolish + slavery, and, strolling on, came to a stile, where we were doubtful of + our way. Fawcett sat down, and Fitzmaurice, looking for the road, + cried out: "Here comes a clod. We will ask him." The slouching + labourer was Lord Derby, as we recognized with a loud laugh, joined in + with terrific shouting by Fawcett as we privately informed him of the + cause, at which Lord Derby was no doubt astonished. However, he did as + well as the yokel, for he led us towards home. My low opinion of Lord + Derby as a politician does not prevent my thinking that in private he + is a most agreeable man; but his appearance is against him. He took us + round by Holmwood, where Pitt lived, and Hayes, where his father, + Chatham, lived. + + 'Whitsuntide I spent partly upon the river in my canoe, [Footnote: + Canoeing had at this time taken for him the place of rowing, and he + spent his Sundays on the river.] partly at Lord Derby's, and partly at + Dudbrook, Lady Waldegrave's place in Essex; but the first part of my + holiday was spoiled by a summer flood, although the river was very + beautiful, there being beds of the snowflake or summer snowdrop in + bloom, with large white cups tipped with green. They are all gone now + (1900). [Footnote: One at least grew in the willow thicket by his + house at Dockett Eddy in May, 1911, after his death, close by a + nesting swan--two sights which would have filled him with interest and + joy.] The weather was so cold that Lord Derby called it "winter + dressed in green." He and his wife seemed to me to have come over to + our side with almost indecent violence and suddenness; but to be + called "Titus Oates" in the House of Lords by your relative and + successor is too much. [Footnote: This speech of Lord Salisbury's was + made on July 18th, 1878.] The close family connection between the + Derbys and Lord Salisbury had a great deal to answer for in the + sharpness of the quarrel. + + 'At the beginning of June I received at my house two distinguished + Frenchmen whom I had not previously known: Edmond About and Coquelin + the actor, the latter introduced to me by Gambetta.' + +Coquelin was thus introduced: + + '"CHAMBRE DES DÉPUTÉS, + '"PRÉSIDENCE, + '"31 _Mai_, 1879. + + '"CHER AMI, + + '"J'introduis auprès de vous mon ami Coquelin dont vous pourrez + apprècier le charmant esprit, et je vous le recommande sans autrement + faire de phrases, sachant que vous savez à premier vu reconnaître les + vrais hommes. + + '"C'est à l'ami que je confie l'ami, + + '"À vous, LÉON GAMBETTA." + + + 'About dined with me at the House of Commons on the day on which the + House of Commons met after the Whitsuntide recess; but I did not at + the moment know his peculiarity of being unable to touch any article + of food which contained onion in any form or had been cooked with it, + so that I am afraid I starved him. On June 13th I had prepared + accordingly, and he dined with me, and met all the people who spoke + good French--Leighton, Mitford, Fitzmaurice, Borthwick, Barrington, + Bourke (the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs), Chamberlain--and + Montebello and La Ferronnays of his own Embassy, and Gennadius the + Greek. It was hard to say whether Mitford, Leighton, or Borthwick + spoke the best French. But certainly neither Fitzmaurice, who was a + quarter French, nor the three Frenchmen, could venture to contest + matters with such talkers. I never heard any fault found with + Leighton's French except that it is too good, though I have heard + people declare that his Italian and his German were yet better; but I + myself could see no fault in Mitford's. About naturally came to the + conclusion, not entirely justified by fact, that all Englishmen could + speak French. + + 'On June 22nd I gave a dinner for Gambetta's friends, Coquelin and + Hecht, at which I had Lord Granville, Lord Lansdowne, Malet, + Montgélas, Lord Reay, Lord Arthur Russell, and Gavard. Lord Granville + was at his very best, shining as he always did when he could talk + French theatre anecdotes to a man playing up to him as could Coquelin. + + 'I think it was on Thursday night, June 19th (1879), that, about + midnight, Pender brought me a telegram to the House of Commons telling + me that Prince Louis Napoleon had been killed by the Zulus, in order + that I might telegraph it to Gambetta. I did so; and in the morning + received from Gambetta a telegram asking me to repeat my telegram if + it really came from me, evidently thinking that he had been hoaxed in + my name, for my news reached Paris long before the thing was known + there. The Queen was not told till 10.30 a.m., and she then informed + the Empress Eugénie, so that I knew it eleven hours before the poor + mother.' + +On Sunday, June 29th, Sir Charles had stayed at Strawberry Hill. Within +the same week Lady Waldegrave died suddenly. He was among the friends who +went down to see her buried at Chewton, near Chewton Priory, her place in +Somersetshire. + + 'Carlingford was present at the funeral, although his condition was + very painful to his friends and he refused to leave the place, and + remained there, with great fortitude but little wisdom, for a long + time, until his nerve was completely gone. He never was afterwards the + same man, and, although Mr. Gladstone put him into his Cabinet in + 1881, for friendship's sake, [Footnote: There was another reason: his + intimate knowledge of the details of the Irish Land Question, then the + subject of legislation. He became Lord Privy Seal on the resignation + of the Duke of Argyll.] he had become a broken invalid, and was unable + even to bear the smallest reference to past days or even the sudden + sight of friends who had known him in happier times.' + +On July 8th there is a note of dining with Lord and Lady Derby, where were +'Lord Odo Russell and a good many other interesting people; Odo Russell +always easily the first wherever he goes. He told me, what I was glad to +hear, that Bismarck was most favourable to Greece.' + + '_July_.--Two Crown Princes were in London at this time, and to both + of them I had to be introduced as the maker of speeches in the House + which they had heard: the Crown Prince of Sweden and the Hereditary + Duke (son of the Grand Duke) of Baden. Like all Kings and Princes, + except the King of Greece, and in later days the Emperor William II., + they seemed to me heavy men, bored by having to pretend to be + thoughtful persons, and I found that difficulty in distinguishing them + the one from the other, which has always oppressed me in dealing with + Royal personages.' + + 'At this time I had several interviews with Cardinal Manning, at his + wish, about the Irish primary education question, in which I agreed + with him, differing, however, wholly from him with regard to English + education, which caused him always to reproach me with having what he + playfully called a "geographical conscience."' + + 'In the many visits that I received from the Cardinal and paid to him + at the end of July and beginning of August, 1879, I was amused by + finding how much he cared for general gossip and even scandal. He + insisted on talking to me about Sarah Bernhardt, and Gambetta, and the + Prince of Wales, and all sorts and conditions of people. He told me + that if he was not Cardinal Archbishop he would stand for Westminster + in the Radical interest. But, Radical though he be in social + questions, he is a ferocious Jingo.' + +Manning, unlike almost all other Englishmen of his creed, had a sympathy +for Irish Nationalism. Dilke shared the Cardinal-Archbishop's view as to +the power of Rome in Irish politics, as may be seen from the concluding +sentence of this passage from a letter written by him in August, 1879, +with regard to the Act establishing what was called the Royal University: + + "Shaw is a Protestant--a Congregationalist--who once was a preacher + and now is a banker, but he is the leader of the Irish party, and + speaks for the Bishops, as did Butt, who also was a Protestant. + Parnell, too, is a Protestant, curiously enough. Biggar was, but has + turned. I don't think popular feeling is engaged; but you must either + govern through and with the priests--or by force." + +Mr. Shaw's day of influence was nearly ended. The revolutionary party--for +they aimed at, and effected nothing less than, a revolution--led by +Parnell in the House and by Davitt in the country, were sweeping away the +staunch adherents of pure constitutionalism, among whom Shaw and Butt were +to be numbered. The Irish party was not the only one which contained +conflicting elements: + + 'Manning attached more importance to an understanding with me and + Chamberlain than to one with Hartington, and sided with us in the + conflict which followed the scene between Hartington and Chamberlain + on July 7th.' + +Sir Charles describes the occurrence, though somewhat toning down a +sufficiently stormy passage: + + 'What occurred was this: James, who was Hartington's right-hand man, + and absolutely in his confidence, had started a debate on flogging, + and came to us and told us that he quite agreed in our view that much + should be made of it, and that it offered a good opportunity for + getting rid of flogging in the Army, and then went away to dinner. Our + men kept up the debate with a good deal of violence of language; and + then Hartington, strolling in after dinner, and hearing that there was + this obstruction, made a violent attack upon poor Hopwood (the Queen's + Counsel, afterwards Recorder of Liverpool, a member of the Radical + Club) and on those acting with him, for obstruction. Chamberlain, much + nettled by this attack upon our men below the gangway for doing only + that which they had been told to do, got up and ironically referred to + Hartington as "the late leader," and I was stung, by Fawcett clumsily + siding with Hartington, into supporting Chamberlain and Hopwood. + + 'My talents of diplomacy were called into requisition after the + Hartington-Chamberlain quarrel, and I was very proud of managing to + get through nineteen clauses of the Irish University Bill on the next + day, July 8th, stopping all divisions except one, in which Parnell and + I told together, and got Hartington into our lobby, which was, I + think, a triumph of conciliation. + + 'Later in the month the Whigs, or men above the gangway, showed great + anger at the completeness of Hartington's surrender to us, which, + indeed, meant more than the immediate conquest, for it involved the + ultimate supersession of Hartington by Gladstone. Harcourt, James, and + Adam [Footnote: The Right Hon. W. P. Adam, afterwards Governor of + Madras.] (the Chief Whip), in giving Chamberlain the victory by + insisting that Hartington should yield, were considering the + constituencies, not the House. As regarded the House, the popularity + of stamping upon us would have been great. There was strong Whig + dislike of our activity, and strong Radical personal hatred among + ourselves. If Chamberlain were to have fought Hartington on any + question on which he had not the Liberal constituencies with him, he + would have got the worst of it; but then he was too wise to stir on + any question on which he could not at least carry all the active + elements of the party in large towns. The anti-Chamberlain set went to + work to get up a banquet to Hartington, and were very cross with me + when I told them that I was certain that the Whips would not let + Hartington accept the banquet unless they obtained Chamberlain's + signature to the requisition. It, of course, turned out as I expected. + Some twenty men said that they would not sign unless Chamberlain did + so, and he was then begged to sign, and, when he did, at once deprived + the manifestation of all significance. It was all rather small and + mean, but when one went to the root of the matter, one saw that the + whole difficulty sprang from the fact that the Whigs had now no + principles. Once upon a time they had had principles, but their + principles had been adopted by the other side, and long before 1879 + their distinctive opinions had been taken from them. A party cannot be + dignified and consistent if its chiefs and the mass of its rank and + file have no principles. My own opinion, which I preached on all + occasions, was that the right course in these democratic days was for + leaders to say, "Here are my opinions, but I know that on certain + points they are not those of a majority;" and not to continue to + pretend that all agreed when, as a fact, they differed. + + 'In a note in my diary upon the question of the leadership I say: + "Harcourt's good points and bad points are both on a large scale. + Childers is too much in city business and in companies to be one of + the leading men in the party in the future. Hartington is too careless + and too much bored to interest others. Gladstone and Bright are old; + Bright 'past'; Gladstone still a great power, and, but for his Scotch + deference to the aristocracy, which is a sad drawback, I could admire + him with little check." + + 'On July 26th I received from Bradlaugh a letter about his candidature + for Parliament, in which he wrote: "It appears that the so-called + moderate Liberals mean to fight for one seat only at Northampton. I, + therefore, can only fight for myself. This means Phipps's seat sure, + and for the second either Merryweather or Ayrton, and I think the + order expresses--subject to contingencies--the probability. There are + one or two county constituencies and several boroughs where moderate + Liberals will stand who cannot be elected without the votes of my + friends. I am now consulted as to what my friends in such cases ought + to do. Speaking moderately, I think I could surely prevent the return + of five or six moderates, and render doubtful the return of ten or + twelve more. Is it reasonable to expect me to aid actively those who + do me the most possible mischief? I owe no debt of gratitude to anyone + in England ... except the people who love me. May it not be as well + for me this coming election to pick, say, twenty seats and make a few + burnt-offerings by way of example, to show the moderates that I am + strong enough to be worth reckoning with? Pardon me if I am boring you + with a matter in which you have no interest."' + +At the close of the Session Sir Charles addressed his constituents-- + + 'with an overwhelming case against the Government, in which I showed + the folly of the pretences which had been put forward as to the Berlin + settlement in Bulgaria and in Asia Minor, of the Anglo-Turkish + Convention, of the occupation of Cyprus, and of the South African + policy; and pointed out the fact that in the year we were spending + fifty millions sterling upon our army and navy, and that if the navy + was in excellent condition, no one would venture to make the same + assertion with regard to our land forces.' + +He crossed to France, saw Gambetta in Paris, and also Nubar Pasha, and +went to drink waters at La Bourboule, and on to Le Puy, and thence started +on one of the long tramps by which he came to know France as few +Englishmen have done. He walked across to Vals, 'and so to the Rhone, and +then to my solemn Provençal country--to my mind, a better Italy.' + +At Toulon he busied himself with the German history of the nineteenth +century for his projected book, and wrote much to his brother, who was now +hoping to enter Parliament. + + 'Nubar, who had a quarrel with our Foreign Office, and who had been + expelled from Egypt by the new Khedive, but, as Nubar thought, at the + wish of the French Consul-General, was another correspondent of these + days, destined afterwards to return to be made Prime Minister at the + hands of this same Khedive.' + +The Government's sixth year of office was running out, and a General +Election was at hand. + + 'At the end of the year I had letters describing the state of things + in England from Harcourt, Chamberlain, and Adam. Chamberlain wrote: + "Things look bad for the Tories. We shall have a majority at the next + election. I feel confident." Adam wrote: "As things are at present, we + shall have a majority independent of Home Rulers." Harcourt wrote that + he was unusually dull and stupid: "I feel as if the soul of Northcote + had transmigrated into me, and, if only I had a flaxen beard, I am + sure I should make one of his Midland speeches to admiration.... I + really find nothing new to say. Of course, there is the old story of + Afghanistan, but the latter is already discounted, and it is rather a + ticklish question. I never felt it so difficult to mix a prescription + good for the present feeling of the constituencies.... Depend upon + it, if we are to win (as we shall), it will not be on some startling + cry, but by the turning over to us of that floating mass of middle + votes which went over to the Tories last time, and will come back from + them in disgust at the next election. It is much easier to persuade + the public that the Government are duffers than that we are conjurers. + I shall therefore ... be dull and safe, and not overabusive. That, at + least, is my diagnosis of the treatment the patient requires just + now.... Not having materials for one speech, I have got to make a + second. I must trust to the newspaper abuse of the first to supply me + with materials for the second."' + +Sir William Harcourt was too diffident, as his brilliant speeches at +Oxford and elsewhere, full of epigrams, had more effect on the electorate +than any others--not even excepting Mr. Gladstone's speeches in his +Midlothian campaign. + +There is no suggestion in the correspondence of the ferment which was +working in Midlothian. Mr. Gladstone was apart from both Whigs and +Radicals in these days. + +So closed the last years of Sir Charles's second Parliament. He had played +in it a commanding part in debate upon matters of war and of foreign +policy without abating his activity in domestic politics, such as the +franchise, or flogging in the army, which he helped finally to abolish. No +man could well seem to have fewer enemies or more friends. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE FORMATION OF A MINISTRY + + +I. + +By the close of 1879 the Beaconsfield Administration was deeply +discredited. The year had opened with the disaster in the Zulu War at +Isandhlwana; in September came the tragedy at Kabul, when Sir Louis +Cavagnari and his staff were slain by a sudden uprising of the tribesmen; +and though Sir Frederick Roberts fought his way into the Afghan capital on +October 12th, it was only to be beleaguered within the fortifications of +Sherpur. + +The European situation Sir Charles described to his constituents before +the Session of 1880 opened: + + 'What, I asked, were they promised in the Treaty of Berlin? Turkey + restored to strength, reformed, and, if reformed, made secure for a + distant future; Greece contented; Russian influence excluded; and the + Balkans fortified as "an impregnable frontier" for Turkey. Very + different were the realities. Turkey had been partitioned; Greece had + not been satisfied; surrender of Turkish territory to Greece, though + it was the one form of surrender which might really have strengthened + Turkey, had been opposed rather than advocated by the British + delegates. Austria, gorged with Bosnia and Herzegovina, was alone + contented. + + 'Of the Asia Minor clandestine convention, it was beyond our power to + fulfil the terms. Russian intrigue would sooner or later create + insurrection in Armenia. The insurrection would be put down by the old + Turkish means, by the old savagery, and our guarantee would prove + useless in face of public opinion at home. The Government had allowed + Russia to gain exactly those things which in the excellent circular of + April 1st, 1878, they had declared that it would be fatal to our + country that she should possess. The Government had proclaimed British + interests in language which I had described as the gospel of + selfishness, but there was not a British interest which was not worse + off for their rule. In Egypt, their policy of joint action with France + was certain to lead to future trouble. Greece was dissatisfied, and + leant on France, and the rising nationalities of South-Eastern Europe + were all alienated from us. Russia was in possession, not only of + Bessarabia, not only of a firm hold over Turkey by the stipulations + with regard to the debt due to her, but of that fortress of Kars and + that port of Batoum which our Government had told us she could not + consistently with British interests be permitted to possess. To add + insult to injury, we were thought such silly children as to believe + that what was left of Turkey had been saved by our plenipotentiaries-- + saved in Asia by a bit of paper, and in Europe by an "impregnable + frontier" which was situated in the middle of the Bulgarian country, + and which the Sultan's troops would never be allowed to approach. + + 'This was a strong indictment, and, as is now seen, it was all true.' + +Sir Charles's "indictment" was strengthened by information he had received +as to England's treatment of M. Waddington's circular proposing mediation +between Turkey and Greece, and by the knowledge that the championship of +Greek interests was at this moment being left to France. + + 'On January 26th I reached Paris on my return from Toulon, and + breakfasted with Gambetta, stupid Spuller remaining with us all the + time. Barrère came to see me, and told me that the late ministerial + crisis in France had had for cause Waddington's refusal to accept + Gambetta's orders to turn out all the reactionaries from the Foreign + Office. "That lock has now been forced." [Footnote: The Waddington + Ministry had fallen in the last days of December, and M. de Freycinet + came into power. M. Camille Barrère was at this time Gambetta's chief + private secretary. Sir Charles had first met him in London during the + Commune. He has had a distinguished career, and is, in 1917, + Ambassador at Rome.] Tissot, French Minister at Athens, and known to + me as having been formerly the representative of the Government of + National Defence in London, when he occupied the Embassy and acted as + an unauthorized Minister, is to be Ambassador at Constantinople, and + Waddington will take the Embassy in London. Barrère has been made + French Commissioner on the European Commission of the Danube, which + enables him for nine months in the year to continue his newspaper work + in Paris. It is true, as stated in the French newspapers, that + Waddington's last circular proposing mediation between Turkey and + Greece was accepted by all the Continental Powers, but not answered by + England. + + 'On the 27th I breakfasted with Gambetta to meet General Billot, + commanding the Marseille _corps d'armée_, who, in the event of war + occurring between 1887 and 1890, would have been second in command of + the French armies. + + '"On the 28th Gambetta, at a private interview, confirmed what Barrère + had said about Greece, regretted that Waddington had proposed to leave + the town of Janina to Turkey, and thought that the French Government + ought to go back to the old position of 'Thessaly and Epirus.' He + added (most confidentially) that as soon as the trouble about 'Article + 7' was over Léon Say would come as Ambassador to London." [Footnote: + The double quotes here show that Sir Charles transcribed in his Memoir + a note of the conversation taken at the time.] Léon Say did come, but + Waddington came afterwards, though with some between. Article 7 was, + of course, the Ferry proposal with regard to unauthorized + congregations, which I opposed in conversations with Gambetta, who + supported it as strongly in private as in public. [Footnote: The + 'Article 7' referred to was in the Education Bill then under + discussion in the French Assembly. By this article it was proposed + that members of religious bodies which were not recognized by the law + should be forbidden to teach in public or in private schools.] Opinion + in France undoubtedly backed him in his opposition to "Clericalism," + but I myself continue to think that it was unwise to harry the Church, + although the position of the Government was in accordance with the + law. + + 'On the same morning I received a letter from Chamberlain inviting + himself to dine with me on February 4th "to discuss the situation." + Chamberlain was strongly opposed to taking Lord Derby in the next + Administration, and determined also, if he could, to shut out Goschen. + + 'On Wednesday, January 28th, I reached London, and on the 29th saw + Harcourt as to a request which had been made to him by A. M. Sullivan + on behalf of Lord Ramsay, who was standing at Liverpool as the Liberal + candidate, but who had pronounced in favour of Home Rule, to the great + scandal of the country. The Irish members were supposed to be doing + more harm than good by helping him, and were most anxious that someone + from the Liberal Front Bench should give them countenance. Hartington + was strongly opposed to Ramsay's action. Harcourt consented to go, and + went, which must have meant, I think, that he had decided to throw + over Hartington, seeing that Mr. G. was the only possible leader, and + that he did not think that Mr. Gladstone would feel strongly about the + Home Rule pledge. Harcourt told me that Lord Granville and Hartington + intended that Lord Derby should be in the next Government, but found + difficulties, inasmuch as they thought that the land question must be + dealt with, and he was too conservative for the party on it. The Duke + of Argyll was to be left out of the next Cabinet; no one would consent + to become Viceroy of Ireland or Irish Secretary; and there was a + difficulty about the Viceroyalty of India. I suggested Lansdowne for + India, if his wife would go, and it is curious that after many years + he was sent, although sent by the other party. Harcourt said that some + of the older men over whose heads I had passed were very jealous of + me. I said, half in jest: "I believe I am the only English politician + who is not jealous," at which Harcourt laughed very much, and replied: + "We all think that of ourselves." I said: "I mean it."' + +The sincerity of that assertion was to be proved within three months. But +he notes in his diary a decision in consequence of Harcourt's warning "to +keep in the background this Session." + + 'On February 4th Harcourt wrote to me to say that, if I would go to + his house that night, someone from Devonshire House should meet me to + show me the Queen's Speech, as he had to go to Liverpool; Hartington, + he said, was full of approval of my speech.' + +The dissolution came suddenly, hastened by the result of a by-election, +which encouraged the Government to believe that the country was with them. +On February 10th Sir Charles dined at Lady Ripon's, where were 'the Duke +of Argyll, Lord Granville, the Childers, and the Hayters.' + + 'The conversation of the evening turned upon the Southwark election, + where we all knew that the Conservative must win, Clarke (later Sir + Edward Clarke) being a popular Queen's Counsel, an excellent election + speaker, while the Liberals were divided between two bad + candidates.... When the numbers became known to me I wrote in my + diary: "Southwark not quite so bad as I expected, but quite bad + enough." Yet it was this election, which, to anyone who knew the + facts, should have meant nothing, which is supposed to have induced + the Tories to dissolve.' [Footnote: The Conservatives won both the + Liverpool and Southwark elections.] + +'Cross drowns the Government,' is Sir Charles's comment on the Return on +the Water Question, for which he now moved; 'the notice contained such a +mass of statistics as to make the return of a very searching character in +its bearing on the agreement that the Home Secretary had come to with the +water companies.' It did frighten Cross, as Mr. Trevelyan had prophesied, +'and the trouble between himself and his colleagues over this question was +the immediate cause of the dissolution.' [Footnote: Mr. Cross, Home +Secretary, had introduced a Bill to provide for the purchase of the +undertakings of the London Water Companies, which was supposed to offer +the companies too favourable terms. Sir Charles notes (July, 1879): +"Manning was getting up a meeting on the water question, and got me to +manage it for him." 'I fancy, indeed,' he adds in his Memoir, 'that it was +the Cardinal who was the indirect cause of the dissolution in the spring +of 1880, for he induced Cross to undertake the purchase of the +Metropolitan Water Supply, and so got him into tangled negotiations.'] + +Just before the electoral campaign began-- + + 'On March 4th I received a note from Lord Fife asking me to dine with + him on Friday, the 12th, to meet the Prince of Wales at the Prince's + wish. The note was of such a character that it left no choice. When + the dinner came off it turned out well. The Prince laid himself out to + be pleasant, and talked to me nearly all the evening--chiefly about + French politics and the Greek question. The other guests were + Lansdowne, Dunraven, Burnand of _Punch_, Bernal Osborne, and Colonel + Carington, brother of Lord Carrington, a very pleasant member of the + House.' [Footnote: Colonel Carington was M.P. for Wycombe, 1868-1883.] + +There was still among leading politicians 'much doubt as to the prospects +of the election,' which Sir Charles found expressed when he spent Sunday, +March 7th, 'at Aston Clinton with the Cyril Flowers, Lord Hartington being +there, and Charles Villiers (at eighty), and Wolff walking over from Tring +Park.' However, on March 15th, Sir William Harcourt wrote from Oxford: "I +have never wavered in my opinion that the Government will be beaten, +though I thought a fortnight ago it would only be a shave." + +In his own borough Sir Charles found that there were 580 publicans, and +that 500 of them were Conservative. + + 'My belief in the influence of the publicans made me hesitate with + regard to Chelsea, where I thought myself not unlikely to be beaten, + but I had a full belief in the success of the party generally. I was + triumphantly returned, bringing in Firth with me, by great majorities + over a clever Tory, Lord Inverurie (afterwards Earl of Kintore, and + Governor of South Australia), and a colonial sheep-farmer, who paid + the cost.' + +The result was declared on April 2nd, and Sir Charles, having stayed to +vote in two divisions of Surrey where he owned property, left England for +Toulon on the 7th--a proceeding which separated him from those who were +importunate for office. Before his departure he had dined with Sir William +Harcourt: + + 'I found his ambition to be to ... succeed Lord Selborne as Lord + Chancellor. In order to reach this goal, he would prefer to be + Attorney-General rather than Home Secretary. James, however, cannot + well be anything but Attorney-General. Harcourt would like James to be + Home Secretary, for which James is not fit, but which he would like to + be. If this combination should fail, then Harcourt would like to be + Chancellor of the Exchequer.... He asked me what I should like, and I + told him that I did not expect to be offered a great post, but that if + there were any such chance the Navy was the only one that I should + like.' [Footnote: Sir Charles's view that a Foreign Secretary had + better be in the House of Lords, so long as there is a House of Lords + to put him in, no doubt influenced his preference for the Admiralty.] + +In regard to the events which have now to be narrated, it must be +remembered that the Chamberlain of 1880 was not yet the author of any +"unauthorized programme" or any "gospel of ransom." He was admittedly the +controller of the Caucus. It was widely known that he, like Fawcett, had +professed republican principles. But Queen Victoria's objection to Sir +Charles Dilke--and it will be seen how strongly she maintained it--was +based not merely on his avowal of abstract Republican theories, but also +on his very concrete proposal to assert control over the Civil List. +Chamberlain upon this matter was not committed to a personal view, and it +had not yet been demonstrated that whatever position Dilke defended, +Chamberlain would defend also. + +A compact laying down the principle of mutual support between the two +Radicals was proposed in a letter written by Chamberlain to Dilke--then at +Toulon--immediately after the General Election had given the Liberals a +sweeping triumph. They came back 349 against 243 Conservatives. Irish +Nationalists were 60, of whom 35 followed Mr. Parnell. + +Chamberlain's proposal was in these words: + + "The time has come when we must have a full and frank explanation. + + "What I should like--what I hope for with you--is a thorough offensive + and defensive alliance, and in this case our position will be + immensely strong. + + "I am prepared to refuse all offers until and unless both of us are + satisfied. + + "Can you accept this position with perfect satisfaction? If you think + I am asking more than I can give, I rely upon your saying so--and in + this case you may depend on my loyalty and friendship--I shall support + your claim cordially and just as warmly as if I were personally + interested. + + "But my own feeling is that if you are stronger than I am in the + House, my influence is greater than yours out of it, and therefore + that, together, we are much more powerful than separated; and that in + a short time, if not now, we may make our own terms. + + "To join a Government as subordinate members, to be silenced and to + have no real influence on the policy, would be fatal to both of us. If + we both remain outside, any Government will have to reckon with us, + and, on the whole, this would be the position which on many grounds I + should prefer. + + "I am ready to make all allowances for the difficulties in the way of + giving to both of us the only kind of places which it would be worth + our while to accept. If these are insuperable, I will give a hearty + support to any Government which is thoroughly liberal in its measures; + but I am not going to play the part of a Radical Minnow among Whig + Tritons. + + "The victory which has just been won is the victory of the Radicals. + Gladstone and the Caucus have triumphed all along the line, and it is + the strong, definite, decided policy which has commended itself, and + not the halting, half-hearted, armchair business.... The country feels + it, and we should be mad to efface ourselves and disappoint the + expectations of all our strongest supporters. + +[Illustration: THE RT. HON. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, M.P. +From the painting by F. Holl, R.A., in the National Portrait Gallery.] + + "You see that my proposed condition is--both of us to be satisfied. + + "As to what ought to satisfy us, if you agree to the principle, we + will consult when the time comes, but my present impression is all or + nothing." + + 'In other words, Chamberlain's view was that we should insist on both + being in the Cabinet. My own view was that we should insist on one + being in the Cabinet, and the other having a place of influence, + giving him the opportunity of frequent speech in the House of Commons, + pleasant to himself; and my view prevailed. + + 'On April 19th, Chamberlain wrote again that he had heard from Mr. + Bright that "Mr. Gladstone will take the Premiership if pressed."' + + '"I am glad to see that all the papers speak of you as a certainty for + the Cabinet. For myself, I am absolutely indifferent to office, and + the only thing on which I am clear is that I will take no + responsibility which does not carry with it some real power. Another + point on which I have made up my mind is that I will not play second + to Fawcett, or to anyone of the same standing, except yourself."' + +On April 22nd, Sir Charles received at Toulon a telegram from Sir William +Harcourt insisting on his immediate return, and he started at once for +London, missing a second urgent telegram from Harcourt on his way. From +Mr. Frederic Harrison he received a letter strongly urging him to claim at +once a place in the Cabinet and 'to lead the new men.' He meant 'the +cultured Radicals; Mr. Bryce and the like.' He urged that the new Left +must have a full place in the Ministry, and that any Liberal Minister must +be pledged to deal with redistribution in the House. + +'Hill of the _Daily News_ had written to me that with the exception of +Harcourt everybody thought that Gladstone must be Prime Minister.' Sir +Charles goes on to note a breakfast with Lord Houghton, Renan, Professor +Henry Smith of Oxford, Henry Reeve of the _Edinburgh Review,_ Lord Arthur +Russell, and Lord Reay, at which they + + 'agreed that Gladstone must be Prime Minister, or would upset the + Government within a year. ... Hill advised that I should take the + Cabinet without Chamberlain if Gladstone was Prime Minister, but + refuse the Cabinet without Chamberlain--_i.e.,_ insist on both being + in the Cabinet--if Hartington was Prime Minister.' + +By the night of April 23rd, when Sir Charles reached London, the question +of Mr. Gladstone's primacy was settled, and Ministry-making had begun, +with the decision of Lord Granville to return to the Foreign Office, and +Lord Hartington's consent to act as Secretary of State for India. Mr. +Childers went to the War Office, Lord Northbrook to the Admiralty; Lord +Selborne, most conservative of Whigs, became Lord Chancellor; Lord Spencer +was President of the Council, Lord Kimberley took the Colonies, the Duke +of Argyll the Privy Seal. Sir William Harcourt, who had been called "a +Whig who talked Radicalism," was Home Secretary. Mr. Forster at the Irish +Office, with Lord Cowper as Lord-Lieutenant, did not commend himself +greatly to the advanced party, and Mr. Bright, in returning to the +Chancellorship of the Duchy, brought with him only a tradition of +Radicalism. When it is added that Mr. Dodson was President of the Local +Government Board, ground will be seen for a warning which Sir Charles +received that, although the victory had been forced upon them by the +Radicals almost against their will, the "incorrigible old place-hunters +would, if left to have their own way, appropriate the victory and the +prizes calmly enough to themselves." + +On Saturday, April 24th, Sir Charles had two interviews with Sir William +Harcourt, and communicated the result to Chamberlain: + + 'The position is that Gladstone is in the hands of Lord Wolverton, + [Footnote: As Mr. Glyn he had been Chief Whip.] the evil counsellor of + 1874, and that, while a Whig Premier must have had a Radical Cabinet, + Gladstone will say, "You have got me; that is what you asked for," and + will give us a Whig Cabinet. Stansfeld is likely to be in the Cabinet + owing to W. E. Forster's influence, of which I personally shall be + glad. Rosebery is likely to be put in, at which I shall not be + sorry.... Gladstone disapproves strongly of people being put straight + into the Cabinet who have not held office before. This is for + Chamberlain and for me. They are likely to offer me the Under- + Secretaryship for Foreign Affairs, which I suppose I shall be unable + to accept. Later in the evening I was informally offered the + Secretaryship of the Treasury, with management of the Government + business in the House. Harcourt at a second interview said that + Gladstone intended pedantically to follow Peel's rule that men should + not be put straight into the Cabinet without going through non-Cabinet + office; and that Chamberlain and I must both take non-Cabinet office; + [Footnote: It is worth noting that Sir Robert Peel himself had + violated this rule if it ever existed.] that he, Harcourt, strongly + advised us to take Under-Secretaryships of which the Secretary was in + the Upper House, or the Secretaryship of the Treasury. He then offered + me the Under-Secretaryship for the Colonies, to which I replied, + "Certainly not." He said, "Remember that with Mr. Gladstone Prime + Minister, the Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs will have no chance + to speak, because Gladstone will do all the talking." [Footnote: Sir + William Harcourt's prophecy received frequent confirmation. See + _infra_, pp. 384, 459, 535, and Vol. II., p. 51.] At the same time, + there was evidently another reason behind--namely, that Lord Granville + had sooner have anybody in his office than me; in other words, he + would like me in anybody's office except his own. Harcourt strongly + urged me to take office on personal grounds--namely, in order to get + over the Queen's prejudice, and so succeed naturally to the first + vacancy in the Cabinet. I replied that I had sooner keep my + independence than take office without power. He then said curtly, "It + will not be a pleasant opposition." I said it would not be an + opposition at all, as far as I could see, as I should support the + Government and lead a very quiet, humdrum Parliamentary existence. + Harcourt replied, "That is what is always said." "But I shall not be + cross," was my last word. I telegraphed at night for Chamberlain, who + replied that he would come up at five on Sunday afternoon and dine and + sleep. But I prepared him, and was prepared by him, for a double + refusal of office. In fact, we were decided on refusal of that which + alone was offered. + + 'On Sunday afternoon, 25th, before seeing Chamberlain, I saw James, + who went to Lord Granville and fully stated my views, reporting to me + afterwards that Lord Granville seemed inclined to come round a little. + James added of Harcourt: "Confound that Home Secretary! How discreet + he is even before kissing hands! I shall live at the Home Office." I + went to Euston to meet Chamberlain. We were fully agreed in our line, + and he remained at my house the next morning, when I was sent for by + Mr. Gladstone through Lord Granville, the note being simply to ask me + to call at four o'clock at Lord Granville's house, where Mr. Gladstone + was. The questions which I put to Chamberlain were--"Is your former + opinion changed by the fact that Mr. Gladstone can, if he likes, do + without us, whereas Hartington could not? Or is it changed by the fact + that Gladstone's Government will last six years, whereas Hartington's + would soon have been modified by Gladstone?" Chamberlain's view was my + own view, that, although we were much weaker, we could not change our + attitude as regards one of us being in the Cabinet. Before seeing Mr. + Gladstone I had calls from Fawcett and Lefevre. Nothing had been + offered to Fawcett; Lefevre had been sounded as to an Under- + Secretaryship, and would take it. He told me he was sure that + Stansfeld would have the Local Government Board again and be in the + Cabinet. Childers came three times to see me in the course of the day, + and said that he was most anxious that I should be in the Cabinet and + Chamberlain in a good place outside it; but that the Queen had made a + difficulty about my Republicanism, and he asked me to write him a + letter about it. I declined to say anything new, but ultimately we + agreed that I should write him a letter marked "Private," in which I + wrote to the effect that on March 13th I had been asked the question + at a meeting, and that my answer had been in the newspapers on March + 15th, that it was the same answer which I had made before the election + in 1874, and that I had nothing to alter in it.' [Footnote: The rest + of the letter gave a full account of the incident of Saturday, March + 13th, 1880: + + "The Tories sent the 'Reverend' W. Pepperell, an ex-dissenting + minister, to a meeting of mine, who asked me 'whether it was true that + I was a republican?' I replied to the effect that 'while as a matter + of speculative opinion I thought that a country starting afresh--as + France after Sedan--would in these days generally do better to adopt a + republican form of government than a limited monarchy, yet that in a + country possessing a constitutional monarchy it would be mere folly to + attempt to upturn it, and consequently folly even to try to disturb + it.' The answer was a very long one, and was nowhere _fully_ reported, + but everything in it was on these lines."] + +A copy of this letter was ultimately brought to the Queen, and on May 5th +returned by Sir Henry Ponsonby with the words, "Her Majesty accepts Sir +Charles Dilke's explanation." But Lord Granville, through whom it had been +sent, and who had by that time become Sir Charles's immediate chief, +softened the austerity of this formula by explaining that the Queen in a +private letter had said she was "quite ready to believe all I had told her +about you, having known you as a child." + +These preliminary conversations having occupied the morning, Sir Charles +set out after luncheon for the decisive interview. + + 'When I got to Lord Granville's I found Lord Granville, Lord + Wolverton, and Mr. Gladstone in the room, and Mr. Gladstone at once + offered me the Under-Secretaryship for Foreign Affairs. I asked who + was to be in the Cabinet. I was told Mr. Gladstone, Lord Granville, + Hartington, Harcourt, and Lord Spencer. Further than this, they said, + nothing was settled. I asked, "What about Chamberlain?" Mr. Gladstone + replied to the effect that Chamberlain was a very young member of the + House who had never held office, and that it was impossible to put him + straight into the Cabinet. I then said that this made it impossible + that I should accept the Under-Secretaryship for Foreign Affairs, or + any place. Mr. Gladstone said he would see whether anything could be + done, but that he feared not. I then asked whether, supposing that + anything could be done in my direction, I should be excluding Grant + Duff [Footnote: Sir M. Grant Duff had been spoken of for this office + in 1868, and had then in that Ministry become Under-Secretary of State + for India. In 1880 he was--much to Sir Charles's joy--made Under- + Secretary for the Colonies, his chief, Lord Kimberley, being in the + Lords.] from the Under-Secretaryship for Foreign Affairs, because I + said that I should be very sorry to do that, for both personal and + public reasons. He replied that if I refused it, it would not be + offered to Grant Duff; and I then left.... + + 'On Tuesday morning Chamberlain was sent for, and accepted a seat in + the Cabinet (with the Presidency of the Board of Trade), and at one + o'clock I accepted the Under-Secretaryship for Foreign Affairs. Just + about this time I received a message from James: "Do, for the sake of + our future comfort, take something. The Bench will be dreadfully dull. + Stansfeld _in_ office must be worse than Stansfeld out." But Stansfeld + was not in office. What had interfered at the last moment to prevent + an appointment which was resolved upon I never knew for certain. + [Footnote: Mr. Stansfeld is generally believed to have refused office + owing to his wish to devote himself entirely to the cause of a special + measure of social reform in which he was interested.] But, as they had + not intended to put Chamberlain in, and I forced him in, I suppose + that Stansfeld was the man who had to make way for Chamberlain.' + + +II. + +So ended the negotiations. The Radical wing had asserted itself, and +asserted itself successfully. It had been enabled to do so by Sir +Charles's action. To him the matter represented the mere carrying out of a +bargain; but friends were, as is natural in such a case, remonstrant, and +he was accused of "needless self-sacrifice," of "Quixotic conduct," of +"self-abnegation," of "your usual disinterestedness in politics," and the +bargain was much criticized. A letter from Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, +congratulating Sir Charles on the stand he had made, added: "Not that I am +altogether satisfied with the result. I had assumed that as a matter of +course you would be in the Cabinet. I share the universal feeling that of +the two you had the undoubted claim to priority." But this regret was +probably based on more than personal grounds, and may well be read with a +letter written many years afterwards, in July, 1914: + + "The real truth is that Dilke was too big a man to be an Under- + Secretary in 1880, and the whole position was a false one. I fancy + Lord Granville felt it to be so. One of his best points was his + readiness to recognize ability. I think he desired Dilke's sphere in + the Office to be as large as possible consistently with the general + arrangements of the Office, but it is always difficult to make special + arrangements work smoothly if they are based on a false principle. + + "Dilke ought to have insisted on being in the Cabinet. It was very + much to his honour that he did not do so." + +Lord Fitzmaurice goes on to say that in the making of the Cabinet public +opinion would have substituted Sir Charles Dilke for Mr. Dodson, who, in +spite of his work as Chairman of Committees from 1868 to 1873, and +afterwards as Secretary to the Treasury--("he would have made an excellent +Speaker")--had done but little in the House for the party in the long +period of Opposition from 1874 to 1880. + +A mistake had, in fact, been made. The strong man should be put where his +services can avowedly be best utilized. This statement is true of +Chamberlain. He was, as the _Times_ put it, "the Carnot of the moment, the +organizer of Liberal victory." [Footnote: Neither Sir Charles Dilke nor +Mr. Chamberlain would, however, have desired to underrate the great share +in organizing the victory of Mr. Adam, the principal Liberal Whip in the +House of Commons, whose services were generally considered to have been +very insufficiently recognized by Mr. Gladstone.] Moreover, the confidence +and friendship which led to constant consultations on every point between +the two men guaranteed an added power to Sir Charles behind the scenes, +and to him power, and not the appearance of power, was the essential +thing. But Dilke's position also as a Parliamentarian, his acknowledged +power and insight on questions both of Home and Foreign Affairs, his +following inside and outside the House of Commons, had created a claim of +long standing to Cabinet rank, and its abandonment made the "false +position" to which Lord Fitzmaurice alludes. Although Mr. Disraeli was +reported to have said, apropos of Sir Seymour Fitzgerald, that an Under- +Secretary for Foreign Affairs with his chief in the House of Lords holds +one of the most important positions in a Ministry, nevertheless the Under- +Secretary is the subordinate of his chief, and Lord Granville's reputation +as Foreign Minister was great. + +That personal difficulties at least were overcome is shown by a note of +Lord Granville, written when Sir Charles left the Foreign Office in 1882, +but the note is in itself a commentary on the "false position": + + "WALMER CASTLE, + "_December 27th_, '82. + + "MY DEAR DILKE, + + "As this is the day you expect to go to the Local Government Board, I + cannot help writing you one line. I will not dwell upon the immense + loss you are to me and to the Office. You are aware of it, and I have + no doubt will continue to help us both in the Cabinet and in the + House, and will be ready to advise the Under-Secretary and myself. I + must, however, say how deeply grateful I am for our pleasant + relations, which might easily have been a little strained from the + fact that it was a sort of fluke that you were my Under-Secretary + instead of being my colleague in the Cabinet. As it is, nothing could + be more satisfactory and more pleasant to me, and the knowledge we + have obtained of one another will strengthen and cement our + friendship. + + "Yours, + + "G." + + +III. + +Sir Charles's acknowledged authority in foreign affairs made his +appointment a matter of congratulation among foreign diplomatists. It was +welcomed on the ground that it would correct Mr. Gladstone's presumed +tenderness towards Russia, and, above all, would make a bond of union with +France through his personal relations with Gambetta, who wrote on April +28th: + + "CHER AMI, + + "Merci pour votre lettre de ce matin. Je trouve votre détermination + excellente, et si la dépêche de 4 heures qui annonce votre entrée dans + le Cabinet, en qualité de sous secrétaire d'état aux Affaires + Étrangères, est vraie, vous serez universellement approuvé. + + "Pour ma part, je vous félicite bien cordialement de la victoire que + vous venez de remporter, car je sais qu'avec des hommes tels que vous + on peut être assuré que c'est une victoire féconde en résultats pour + la civilisation occidentale et le droit européen. + + "Votre présence au Foreign Office est bien décisive pour dissiper les + dernières appréhensions et effacer jusqu'aux souvenirs les plus + persistents. + + "Mais vous devez avoir autre chose à faire qu'à lire des lettres + inutiles. + + "Je vous serre les mains, + + "LÉON GAMBETTA." + +The letter was 'couched in such terms as to make it desirable to answer +him with some statement of the views of the Government,' and Sir Charles +consulted Lord Granville about his reply, which would 'really be a +despatch,' and must 'say something about 1870' and the period of Lord +Granville's previous tenure of the Foreign Office. With recollections of +that time in their minds, and of England's entry upon the Black Sea +Conference without the presence of a French representative, French +politicians had commented very jealously upon some references to Gambetta +in a speech delivered by Lord Granville at Hanley in March of this year. +Lord Granville accordingly sent Dilke a memorandum in his own hand, +suggesting words for the reply. Gambetta was to be told that a speech +"made before the election" had been interpreted by some of his supporters +in the Press "as of a personal character against him," that Dilke knew +this to have been "the reverse of the speaker's intention," and that he +would be glad to have a talk with Gambetta on the subject of Lord +Granville's policy during the war when he next had the opportunity of +meeting him in Paris. + +'But it was indeed difficult for Lord Granville to say anything about his +policy during the war which would please the French.' Gambetta's official +reply was, however, that, having read Lord Granville's speech, he found it +"proper under the circumstances and impartial," and that, although "absurd +ideas with regard to our recent elections had been ascribed to himself," +he had "desired nothing in those elections" except Sir Charles's personal +triumph. To this Lord Granville rejoined: "Please thank M. Gambetta for +his friendly message. I presume you will not tell him that Lyons says his +assertion about the elections is a tremendous cracker." + +Sir Edward Malet, Resident at Cairo, [Footnote: Afterwards Ambassador at +Berlin.] wrote: + + "We have had one Under-Secretary after another" (at the Foreign + Office) "who knows nothing about these affairs, and who has therefore + never been able to exert the legitimate influence to which his + position entitled him. It will now be different, and I hope soon to + recognize the thread of your thought in the texture of the Government + policy." + +M. Gennadius, the Greek Chargé d'Affaires, while the matter was still +open, implored him not to decline. "All your Greek friends consider our +country's cause as dependent on your acceptance. You have done much for us +already. Make this further sacrifice." + +Sir Charles entered upon his functions on Thursday, April 29th, when his +colleague, the Permanent Under-Secretary, Lord Tenterden, took him round +to be introduced to the heads of the various departments. For his private +secretary he chose Mr. George Murray, [Footnote: Now the Right Hon. Sir G. +Murray, G.C.B.] "an extraordinarily able man." But in a few weeks Mr. +Murray was transferred to the Treasury, and afterwards became secretary to +Mr. Gladstone, and, later, to Lord Rosebery when Prime Minister. + + 'I found' (from Bourke, his predecessor, who had written to him with + great cordiality) 'that as Under-Secretary for the Foreign Office, I + had the Cabinet key--or most secret key that at that time there was: + another still more secret key being introduced after I was in the + Cabinet, and confined to the Cabinet itself. I found in the Foreign + Office that if I liked I might have got back the "Department" which + Lord Derby took away from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary in 1874, + leaving him only the Commercial Department. [Footnote: The + "Department" assigned to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary before 1874 + was 'control of' some branch of foreign affairs in its details. See + also below, p. 349.] But I at once decided that I would not have it, + as I wanted to concern myself with the Parliamentary business and with + the important business, instead of doing detailed work at the head of + one section of it.' + +On the evening of his first day in office Sir Charles gave a dinner at +Sloane Street to several of his colleagues. There were present + + 'Fawcett, just appointed Postmaster-General, Lord Northbrook, + Childers, Forster, Hartington, and Goschen.... Chamberlain was at my + dinner, having taken up his quarters with me for a week.... + + 'Hartington after dinner showed me Indian despatches which were very + startling. Mr. Goschen told us that he had refused the Governor- + Generalship of India and the Embassy at Constantinople, but he + afterwards took Constantinople. He appeared at this moment to have + made up his mind to stay in the House of Commons to oppose + equalization of the franchise and redistribution of seats.... + + 'Forster told us that he was starting for Ireland to see whether he + could avoid some renewal of coercion; and Chamberlain and I told him + that he _must_ avoid it. This was the cloud no bigger than a man's + hand.' + +Sir Charles goes on to tell how he stayed for a time its development: + + 'On the night of May 13th, between one and two o'clock in the morning, + I did a thing which many will say I ought not to have done--namely, + went down to a newspaper office to suggest an article against the + policy of another member of the Government. Under the circumstances, I + think that I was justified. I was not a member of the Privy Council or + of the Cabinet, and the interests of the party were at stake, as + subsequent events well showed. There was no shade of private or + personal interest in the matter. The effect of what I did was to stop + the policy of which I disapproved for the year, and might easily have + been to stop it for ever. I had found out in the course of the evening + that Forster was in favour of a Coercion Bill, and that the Cabinet + were likely to adopt it. I went down to the _Daily News_ office, and + told Hill, not even telling Chamberlain until two years afterwards + what I had done. The result of it was that the _Daily News_ had an + article the next morning which smashed Forster's plan.' + + +IV. + +Chamberlain had written on May 4th to Mrs. Pattison: "The charmed circle +has been broken and a new departure made, which is an event in English +political history." But although the circle was broken, only one man had +found his way to the innermost ring; and in the composition of the +Ministry the Radicals were overwhelmingly outnumbered. Such a situation +did not lead to the stability of the Government, and by his reluctance in +the admission of Radicalism to office Mr. Gladstone had created +difficulties for himself. In the House his personal authority was +overridden in a matter which came up at once. + + 'In the morning of May 3rd I received a note from Lord Frederick + Cavendish, the Secretary of the Treasury, asking me to be at the House + at two, as there would be trouble about Bradlaugh's application to + affirm instead of take the oath. It had been decided by the Cabinet + that "Freddy" Cavendish, [Footnote: Lord F. Cavendish was Financial + Secretary to the Treasury.] who was leader of the House in the absence + of the Ministers who had gone for re-election, should move for a + Committee, and I spoke in support of that view.' + +Sir Charles never took part again in any debate upon this once famous +struggle. He supported Mr. Gladstone's view in favour of allowing +affirmation, but he did so without heartiness, disliking 'the trade of +living on blatant atheism,' and finding in himself tendencies which led +him to fear that he was 'clerically minded.' He had always an extreme +dislike of talk or writing that offended legitimate susceptibilities. + +The completion of the Ministry inevitably left some personal claims +unsettled. + + 'On May 1st I had John Morley to dinner to meet Chamberlain, who was + still staying with me. We talked over the men who had been left out. + Edmond Fitzmaurice was one, but Mr. Gladstone did not care about + having brothers. [Footnote: Mr. Gladstone was believed in 1868 to have + declined to have Lord Clarendon and his brother, Mr. Charles Villiers, + both in the Cabinet. See _Life of Granville,_ vol. i., p. 537. In the + new Government Lord Lansdowne was Under-Secretary for India, but + resigned in the course of the year on the Irish Land Question.] At + Chamberlain's wish Courtney had been offered the Secretaryship of the + Board of Trade, which, however, he declined. He would have taken the + place of Judge Advocate General, but it was not offered to him. + Chamberlain told us that the Cabinet were unanimous for getting rid of + Layard, the Ambassador at Constantinople, but that the Queen was + trying hard to keep him. The result of this difference of opinion + ultimately was that Goschen went to Constantinople on a special + embassy, without salary, and keeping his place in the House of + Commons, and that Layard continued to draw the salary without doing + any work.' + +A large section of the Liberal Press was at this period very independent, +and helped to frustrate Mr. Gladstone's determination to exclude Radicals +from office. + +Sir Charles's relations with Mr. Hill, then editor of the _Daily News,_ +were close, as also was the alliance between the two Radical Ministers and +Mr. John Morley, who had just then become editor of the _Pall Mall +Gazette_. + + 'On May 14th John Morley asked me to see him to give him information + as to the general position of foreign affairs, and I consented to do + so. "It would be worth silver and gold and jewels," he said, "if I + could have ten minutes with you about three times a week."' + +Chamberlain gave him the same privilege concerning domestic policy--a +privilege 'which he used so well that no complaint ever arose in regard to +it.' Chamberlain was much in touch with 'Escott of the _Standard_ and the +_World_.' + +It was suggested at the dinner of May 1st that Mr. Courtney might succeed +Sir H. Drummond Wolff on the Commission for Reforms, appointed under +Article XXIII. of the Treaty of Berlin, for the European provinces of +Turkey and Crete; but this too Mr. Courtney declined, and the place was +eventually filled by Lord E. Fitzmaurice. Mr. Trevelyan was not included +in the Ministry. [Footnote: See the _Life of Goschen_, by the Hon. Arthur +Elliot, vol. i., pp. 215, 216; T. E. Holland, _The European Concert in the +Eastern Question_, pp. 291, 292; also _Turkey_, No. 15 (1880). Lord E. +Fitzmaurice was subsequently appointed British Plenipotentiary, under +Articles LIV. and LV. of the Treaty of Berlin, to the Conference in regard +to the navigation of the Danube. Both Mr. Courtney and Mr. Trevelyan +joined the Ministry later.] + +At the moment Conservative society was inclined to regard the new Ministry +with suspicious wonder, and Sir Charles tells how, on May 5th, a week +after taking office, when he and Chamberlain were dining with the Prince +of Wales-- + + 'most of the Cabinet were present with their wives; also the new + Viceroy of India (Lord Ripon), and Rosebery and his wife. When the + Duke of Cambridge came in, following the Prince and Princess, after + shaking hands with those he knew, he stood staring about, whereupon + Harcourt, nudging Chamberlain and myself, said, "He is looking for + Bradlaugh."' + +New men were coming to the front; a new political era had begun, and to +the Radicals the situation was summed up by the House of Commons' jest +which stated that B.C. now meant "Before Chamberlain," and A.D. "Anno +Dilke." + +The break with the past was real and important: 1880 is a marking date in +the political history of Great Britain, and the change was due to the +Radical combination. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +AT THE FOREIGN OFFICE + + +I. + +In "a memorandum of later years," quoted by his biographer, Mr. Gladstone +defined his own understanding of "the special commission under which the +Government had taken office" in 1880. "It related to the foreign policy of +the country, the whole spirit and effect of which we were to reconstruct." +Sir Charles's views as to the need for this had long been before the +public, and he threw all his energies into the task of helping to achieve +it. + + 'The Liberals, having come into office after violent denunciation of + the whole foreign and colonial policy of their predecessors, had a + general wish to reverse it in all parts of the world, and to dismiss + the agents by whom it had been carried out. They were especially + violent against Lytton in India, Layard at Constantinople, and Frere + in South Africa.' + +Questions of the Indian frontier and Africa lay outside the immediate +sphere of the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, yet he was constantly +consulted upon both of them, and had his full part in defending the +reversal of Lord Lytton's policy by the new Viceroy, Lord Ripon, who +restored, or perhaps established, the unity of Afghanistan. + +In the matter of South Africa, the Boer leaders wrote at once to express +their confidence that the new Government would consist of "men who look +out for the honour and glory of England, not by acts of injustice and +crushing force, but by the way of justice and good faith." They were +answered by promises of local self-government, but such promises had been +made to them before, and the retention of Sir Bartle Frere no doubt seemed +a bad omen. So, at all events, it was regarded by the Radical party. On +May 24th-- + + 'I found that Courtney and my brother, with Dr. Cameron and Jesse + Collings, were getting up an attempt to coerce the Colonial Office and + Mr. Gladstone by preparing a list of between one and two hundred + members who would vote with Wilfrid Lawson for a censure on the + Government for not recalling Frere. Childers had found that it would + be easy to recall him, for Frere had said that he would only go out + for two years, and the two years were over. No doubt Frere, while + blameworthy for the Zulu War, was not responsible for the Transvaal + business, which had been done by Shepstone and Lord Carnarvon before + he went out; but with our people he received the whole discredit for + all that went wrong in South Africa, and it was impossible to wonder + at this when one recalled the language that he habitually made use + of.... + + 'Frere was protected by Mr. Gladstone, and allowed to remain, a + mistake for which we very gravely suffered. As this matter became of + great importance in 1899, I ought to add that Lord Granville backed + Mr. Gladstone in abstaining from rescinding the annexation of the + Transvaal, on the ground that as we were retiring from Kandahar we had + better not also retire from Pretoria.' + +When, a few months later, the Boer rising followed, Dilke, with three +other Radical Ministers, Bright, Chamberlain, and Courtney, refused to +defend the Government's action even by a silent vote. 'Everything went as +badly as possible in South Africa, and Lord Kimberley' (the Colonial +Secretary) 'must share the blame with Mr. Gladstone.' + +The third instance in which the recall of a man was demanded by Liberal +opinion as essential to the reversal of a policy touched matters in whose +development Sir Charles had a considerable part to play: + + '_May 20th._--One of our first troubles in debate was with regard to + Layard's position at Constantinople, we being attacked by our own + people on May 20th, who were more Gladstonian than Mr. Gladstone, as + to the public insults which Layard had heaped upon him. Mr. Gladstone + discussed with me what he was to say, and I have his note which, in + addition to the statement about Layard, contains the curiously large + one, "Statements made in Opposition not to be taken too literally when + in office."' + +Next day Mr. Gladstone wrote: "Thank you for the wonderful despatch you +kindly made in obtaining for me the particulars about Layard's +appointment." + +The new Under-Secretary writes of these early days and first impressions: + + 'The general opinion of the party was that a Liberal policy was being + pursued in foreign affairs, and that we had in the Foreign Office + carried out that which the country intended us to do. We were able to + bring about joint action on the part of Europe, and by means of it to + settle the Greek and Montenegrin questions; and Goschen's presence at + Constantinople was useful, inasmuch as he fully shared the views of + the Liberal party upon foreign affairs, although he differed from them + in domestic matters. On the other hand, the party were frightened + about India, for, although Lord Lytton had been removed, the + Government refused to make any sign as to the immediate evacuation of + Kandahar, and, as a matter of fact, it was a long time before the + Queen's resistance upon this point could be overcome. She no doubt + felt more able to stand out against Hartington, whom she liked, than + against Lord Granville.' [Footnote: See _Life of Granville_, vol. ii., + p. 5.] + +Lord Lytton's policy is thus described: + + 'The _Allgemeine Zeitung_ for one of the last days of February + contained a remarkable disclosure of the Government scheme for the + settlement of Afghan affairs, which, so far as I know, did not appear + in the English newspapers. It was quoted from some Indian paper, and + revealed the fact that Persia was to occupy Herat, Kabul and Kandahar + being capitals of two separate States. I did not at the time believe + that it was possible that the Government should have absolutely + reversed the past British policy by proposing the cession of Herat to + Persia, but when I came into office at the end of April I made + immediate inquiry into the subject, and found that it was true, and + that they had done so. It was afterwards admitted.' + +This proposal, however, had been declined by Persia. Before the fall of +the Beaconsfield Ministry-- + + 'The Amir of Afghanistan had written to tell us that he must be the + friend of Russia, though he would be our friend too. We had replied + (that is to say, the outgoing Government had replied) that Russia had + sworn to us to have no dealings with Afghanistan, but that we should + in any case evacuate his country in October without conditions, + although he must respect our hold on Kandahar. Persia, it was clear + from Lytton's despatches, had acted under Russian influence when + declining Herat on our conditions.' + +Under Lord Ripon, the policy of breaking up Afghanistan disappeared. But +although there was a clear intention to abandon all claim to remain in +Kandahar, yet the difficulty which attends any retrogressive movement in +Central Asia was at this moment intensified, because Russia was +threatening to advance on Merv, only 250 miles from Herat; and it seemed +as if the Tsar's troops might occupy one Afghan stronghold at the moment +when the Queen's forces withdrew from another. + + 'Lord Granville showed me, 15th May, some notes of language which he + intended to hold to Russia as to Central Asia, very strong indeed upon + the question of Merv; but the Cabinet afterwards took all this out, + not a single man being found in the Cabinet to back up Lord Granville + upon this question.' + +In the succeeding months Sir Charles maintained a steady correspondence +with the new Viceroy, Lord Ripon, who described his task as a hard one. +"But I will do my best to perform it faithfully, and trust to you to back +me up." In it appears the reason for Lord Ripon's unwilling acceptance of +Abdurrahman, whom he called "the most Russian of the candidates" for the +Afghan throne, but also the inevitable choice. If Lord Ripon broke with +him, no hope appeared of establishing "even a semblance of order" before +the Indian Government withdrew the troops, "as," said the Viceroy, "we +_must_, because the service in Afghanistan, especially in winter, is so +unpopular with the native troops as to be a serious difficulty if it +should continue long. I hate the idea of leaving the Afghans a prey to +anarchy, created to some extent, at all events, by our policy, and I shall +do all I can to avoid it." + +The Eastern Question was still dominant. The Treaty of Berlin had left +three sources of discontent in the region affected by its provisions. In +Bulgaria, Turkey complained that the Bulgarians had not fulfilled their +promise to disarm and to raze fortifications. In Greece, evasive +negotiations concerning the promised 'rectification of the frontier' were +being deliberately spun out. On the Montenegrin border, territory +surrendered and evacuated by the Turks had immediately been occupied by +Mohammedan Albanians before the Montenegrin troops could reach it. + + 'On my first examination of the papers at the Foreign Office, I found + that the black spot was Montenegro; the Roman Catholic Albanians on + the frontier and the Mahomedan Albanians being equally determined not + to become Montenegrin, and the Montenegrins insisting either on the + line of the Treaty, which would give them some Mahomedan, or on the + lines of the "Corti compromise," which would give them some Roman + Catholic Albanian subjects.' [Footnote: The "Corti compromise" was so + named after the Italian Ambassador at Constantinople, who advocated a + frontier line more favourable to Turkey than those previously proposed + (Sir Edward Hertslet's _Map of Europe by Treaty_, vol. iv.).] + +Immediate steps were taken to remove the menace to European tranquillity +which arose from what the Austrian Ambassador called "the Porte's long +delays and tergiversation." + + '_May 1st._--Pressure at Constantinople had begun this day, the + Cabinet having on the previous day approved an excellent and firm + despatch from Lord Granville to Layard, really written from the first + word to the last by Tenterden, containing the phrase, "While Her + Majesty's Government wish to abstain from anything like menace, any + intimation they give will be adhered to to the letter." The weak point + about the despatch, however, was that the Russians had written us a + despatch in the same sense, and that it might have been made to appear + that we were only acting under Russian dictation. At the same time the + despatch returned to the position of the circular bearing Lord + Salisbury's name, which I have called the April 1st (1878) Circular, + and set up that Concert of Europe which was destined to be kept + together until the Greek and Montenegrin frontier questions had been + settled.... + + 'On May 3rd the Cabinet again considered our circular despatch + (calling on the Powers to address an identic and simultaneous note to + the Porte to fulfil its Treaty obligations as regards Greece, + Montenegro, and Armenia) in its final form.... On May 4th I lunched + with Lord Granville, and found that it was finally settled that + Goschen would go as Ambassador to Constantinople and Edmond + Fitzmaurice in Wolff's place.' + +Meanwhile France was vigorously backing the new policy. Lord Granville was +deeply engaged in trying to unite Germany with the Powers in carrying out +concerted action, which was constantly evaded by Bismarck. + + '_May 7th_.--On this day I had an opportunity of reading quietly a + curious despatch of Odo Russell, dated April 29th, recounting the + views of Prince Bismarck, who seemed to me to have been laughing at + him. The Prince "is even more willing to give his support to any + combined policy of England and France, as for instance in Egypt, + because he looks upon an Anglo-French alliance as the basis of peace + and order in Europe." [Footnote: This despatch is to be found in the + _Life of Granville_, vol. ii., p. 211, where the date is given as May + 1st.] + + 'On Sunday, May 9th, I had to dinner Léon Say, the new French + Ambassador; Montebello, his first secretary, afterwards Ambassador at + Constantinople; Lord Lyons and his secretary Sheffield; Lord + Tenterden, my colleague at the Foreign Office; my secretary Murray; + Harcourt, and C. E. D. Black, who the week afterwards became + Harcourt's secretary on my recommendation. Léon Say brought with him + from the French "bag" Gambetta's answer to my letter. Gambetta + informed me that the French Government were unanimous in throwing over + Waddington's compromise and giving Greece all that she had been + intended to have; and Gambetta was in favour, and said that his Prime + Minister' (M. de Freycinet) 'was in favour, of taking active steps to + prevent further delay on the part of Turkey.' [Footnote: + + "CHAMBRE DES DÉPUTÉS, + "PARIS, + "_le 7 Mai_, 1880. + + "CHER AMI, + + "Les dernières Élections Cantonales m'avaient si vivement absorbé que + je n'ai pu trouver la minute de liberté nécessaire pour répondre à vos + deux lettres. + + "Permettez-moi d'ailleurs, après m'être excusé du retard, de vous dire + que je ne partageais ni votre émotion ni votre point d'impatience. Je + crois fermement que la solution grecque sera prochainement obtenue, en + dépit des résistances et des tergiversations qui peuvent se produire + chez les Turcs ou ailleurs. L'important est de maintenir le concert de + l'Europe, de le manifester par l'action commune d'une démonstration + navale; et d'après tout ce que je sais, j'ai confiance que le + gouvernement de la République est resté dans la ligne de conduite et + qu'il y persévérera. + + "Quant à la Grèce, il convient qu'elle attende aussi, sans faire + mesure, l'effet de cette démonstration. Je suis peut-être optimiste, + mais je crois à une issue favorable. + + "En ce qui touche le traité de Commerce votre lettre m'a fort surpris, + et je ne peux m'expliquer une attitude si contraire aux préliminaires + pris par M. L. Say: je vous prie de ne pas trop vous hâter de la + porter à la connaissance du public. Je crois qu'il y a là quelque + malentendu que je serai bien aise de faire disparaître, si vous voulez + m'y donner le temps. + + "Je vais demain à Cherbourg, où je verrai vos amis qui sont invités + par la Ville, et au retour je vous manderai ce que j'aurai appris sur + les négociations du traité de Commerce qu'il serait si bon de voir + conclure. + + "Bien cordialement, + + "L. GAMBETTA." + + + "CHAMBRE DES DÉPUTÉS, + "PARIS, + "_le 8 Mai_, 1880. + + "MON CHER AMI, + + "Je profite de l'intermédiaire d'un jeune ami, M. Auguste Gérard, que + vous avez déjà rencontré, pour vous envoyer quelques lignes de réponse + a votre aimable dernière communication. + + "J'ai vu le Président de notre cabinet au sujet de la question + Grecque, et comme vous pensez, le gouvernement est unanime pour + reprendre la question de Janina intégralement, en écartant + définitivement la dernière proposition de Waddington; on accepte la + formation de la commission internationale, chargée de reprendre le + tracé au double point de vue diplomatique et technique. On y défendra + le tracé qui englobe Janina. Ce qui importerait aujourd'hui serait + d'agir promptement, et de concert. On commettrait une lourde faute en + laissant la Porte atermoyer plus longtemps et épuiser toutes les + forces des diverses nationalités auxquelles elle refuse de donner les + maigres satisfactions fixées par le traité de Berlin. + + "M. Léon Say doit avoir reçu d'ailleurs à ce sujet les instructions + les plus nettes, et vous l'avez probablement déjà vu. + + * * * * * * * + + "A bientôt, je l'espère, + "Votre dévoué, + + "LÉON GAMBETTA."] + +Such a step had already been taken by Great Britain on May 8th, when the +Cabinet-- + + 'wrote a despatch to the Courts proposing a Conference at Berlin or + Paris as to the Greek frontier, which led, in fact, to the Conference + summoned at Berlin to consider the fulfilment of the terms of the + Treaty.' + +On May 10th this activity was resented by the Sultan, who 'telegraphed his +unwillingness to receive Goschen, and great pressure had to be brought to +bear upon him during the next few days to induce him to consent.' + +There was another matter arising out of the Russo-Turkish War which had +occupied Sir Charles much while in Opposition--namely, the government of +Cyprus. He did not think that the Foreign Office was the proper department +to administer dependencies, and accordingly, within a few days of taking +office, he raised the question whether there was any ground for keeping +Cyprus under the Foreign Office, and suggested its transfer to the +Colonial Office. In this Lord Granville concurred. But-- + + 'Philip Currie, who as head of the Turkish department was managing the + affairs of Cyprus, did not want to lose it, and asked to be allowed to + prepare a memorandum in the opposite sense, and Lord Granville wrote, + "I do not expect to be converted by Currie's memorandum. Do you? If + not, the Colonial Office will have to bolt it." The Colonial Office + did have to bolt it, for the island was soon handed over to them!' + +By the close of the year, as has been seen, Sir Charles was able to report +to his constituents "that, acting under the instructions of Lord +Granville, he had secured a greatly improved administration for this +island." + +On May 21st-- + + 'Egypt began to trouble me, and I was not to be clear of the + embarrassment which it caused for several years. I wrote to Lord + Granville to say that I had been sounded through Rivers Wilson as to + how the Government would take the appointment of a Nubar Ministry with + an English Finance Minister,' and Sir Charles again warned Lord + Granville of dissensions between the English representatives in Egypt. + +It became the most serious of all the embarrassments which involved Mr. +Gladstone's Government. On May 8th-- + + 'I had to see Lord Ripon, who had appointed Colonel Gordon to be his + private secretary, and to inform him privately that the Foreign Office + feared that he would find him too excitable to be possible as a + secretary, which, indeed, very speedily proved to be the case.' + +Gordon resigned before Lord Ripon reached India, and on June 14th +telegraphed to Sir Charles-- + + 'to know whether we would let him take service again with the Chinese. + I saw a friend of his in London, one of the Chinese Commissioners of + Customs, and asked whether Gordon could be got to telegraph that he + would refuse any military command in the event of war between China + and Russia. He said he thought so, and I told Lord Granville, who + wrote back, "I have told the Duke of Cambridge that on these + conditions he might have leave."' + +Lord Ripon wrote on his arrival: + + "... So, you see, your warnings about Gordon came true. It is + fortunate that the arrangement came to an end before I got here. As it + is, there is no real harm done; we parted the best of friends, and I + learned to my astonishment, after I left him at Bombay, that he was + off for China." + +So passes out of sight for the moment, but only for the moment, this +fateful personality. + +An immediate trouble, however, arose out of the Anglo-Turkish Convention +of 1878, by which Great Britain had been pledged to defend Turkey's +possessions in Asia Minor on condition that necessary reforms in +government were introduced. This pledge made England indirectly +responsible for the character of Turkish rule in Armenia; and Sir Charles +had repeatedly expressed the view that England was committed to more than +she could perform, either as against Russia or on behalf of Armenia. On +May 14th the Cabinet left in the draft of instructions to Mr. Goschen 'a +passage of Tenterden's, in which we recognized the Asia Minor Convention +of our predecessors.... But I induced Lord Granville to strike it out +after the Cabinet on his own responsibility.' + +On the other hand, since the Convention existed, Sir Charles held that by +abrogating it they 'might appear to invite the Russians to invade Armenia, +which Russia might proceed to do in the name of humanity.' So far as +Turkey was concerned, it was considered likely that the Porte would wish +to see the Convention annulled, because it could then sell Cyprus to Great +Britain for cash instead of leasing it in return for the Asiatic +guarantee; and Turkish Pashas would be free from any interference about +reforms in Asia Minor. Ultimately the fear of letting Russia in outweighed +the other considerations, and the Convention was recognized, leaving +England with a heavy burden of moral responsibility for all that +subsequently occurred in Armenia under the protection of what Mr. +Gladstone himself had not unjustly called this "insane covenant." + +Meanwhile, Musurus Pasha, the Turkish Ambassador, was complaining to Lord +Granville that 'the Sultan had assented to the Convention under a false +impression, not knowing that a portion of his dominions would be given +over to Austrian control, an alienation not contemplated by the Treaty of +San Stefano.' He complained, moreover, that the arrangement went, in +reality, beyond temporary occupation of provinces. 'We (Lord Salisbury) +had given Bosnia and Herzegovina secretly to Austria without reserve.' + +The whole Eastern situation was ill-defined and full of difficulties. Mr. +Goschen, before he left England on his mission, came to Dilke to 'bewail +the unwillingness of Gladstone and of Lord Granville to make up their +minds how far they were going in the direction of coercion of Turkey.' On +May 26th-- + + 'Looking about to see how Turkey was to be coerced with regard to the + Greek and Montenegrin questions, I discovered that all reinforcements + and officials were sent, and all money received by the Constantinople + Government, by the sea route, so that a blockade of the Dardanelles + would cut their Empire in two until they came to terms.' + +Sir Charles's aim throughout all these frontier negotiations was to +support the claims of Greece, left indefinite by the Berlin Treaty. At +Great Britain's instance, the Greeks had refrained from attacking Turkey +when Turkey was engaged with Russia; but the Treaty of Berlin had only +promised to Greece in general terms "a rectification of frontier." On the +other hand, the Treaty had awarded to Montenegro certain districts of +Albania, which, as already stated; showed great repugnance to accept +Montenegrin rule. Sir Charles now conceived a plan-- + + "for combining Albanian autonomy with personal union with Greece, + finding that the Albanians were willing to accept the King of the + Hellenes, provided they succeeded in obtaining securities or + privileges for the Roman Catholic Church, to which great numbers of + them belonged." + +On May 28th he learnt from the Greek Chargé d'Affaires that proposals for +such a personal union had been made to the King of Greece, directly and +very secretly, "on the part of a Turkish statesman." The Southern +Albanians, wrote M. Gennadius, are to all intents and purposes Greeks. +But, the latter added, "the initiative ought to proceed from the +Albanians." A few days later Mr. Goschen wrote from Constantinople that +the proposed union would be a solution "very valuable for Europe," but +that the Turks would struggle hard to outbid the Greeks, and the Albanians +were very strong in the Palace, and were trusted all over the Empire. +Still, autonomy, Mr. Goschen thought, the Albanians "would and must have +in some shape." [Footnote: See also _Life of Goschen_, vol. ii., pp. 215, +216.] + +In their attempt to reverse the Beaconsfield policy there was one +influence steadily opposed to the Government. + + 'On June 11th there went out a despatch, which had been for several + days on the stocks, as to the Anglo-Turkish Convention. It had come + back on the 10th from the Queen, who had written by the side of our + words: "The acquisition of Cyprus is, in their view, of no advantage + to the country either in a military or political sense." "I do not in + the least agree in this.--V.R.I." But we sent it, all the same.' + +The King of Greece had come to London, and on June 4th Sir Charles went by +his wish to Marlborough House, and had an hour's conversation, 'chiefly +upon the question of personal union with Albania, but partly with regard +to the past, as to which I received his thanks.' 'I thought him a very +able man, an opinion which I have never changed.' All Europe confirmed +this judgment when the King of the Hellenes was struck down more than +thirty years later in the very achievement of his long-planned schemes. In +1880 the note of disparagement was widespread; but Sir Charles was not +alone in his estimate: + + 'Dizzy was once, after this date, talking to me and the Duchess of + Manchester about him, and the Duchess said to me: "How you Liberals + have deceived that poor little King!" Whereupon Dizzy replied: "It + would take a very clever Government to deceive that youth."' + +Elsewhere Sir Charles wrote that the King was a "good talker, but +academic," and, dining at Marlborough House on June 6th, he heard an +estimate of him as the too industrious apprentice: + + 'A big aide-de-camp of the King of Greece took more champagne than was + good for him, and was extremely funny. Pointing to his King, he said: + "Now, there is my King. He is a good little King; but he is not what I + call a fashionable King." And then, pointing to the Prince of Wales, + he said: "Now, that is what I call a fashionable Prince--_un Prince + vraiment 'chic.'_ He goes to bed late, it is true, but he gets up-- + well, never. That is what I call a really fashionable Prince. My King + gets up at six!"' + +Sir Charles met the King repeatedly during the next fortnight, to follow +out, with the maps, the military details of the proposed new frontier. As +soon as the French and Austrian Governments had accepted the British +proposal for a Conference at Berlin to settle the question of the +frontiers, and Bismarck had consented to call it, Lord Odo Russell wrote +that he would have to "act on the Greek Frontier Commission, in which +Dilke was better versed than anyone," and begged Sir Charles to "lend him +his lights," 'which,' says the Memoir, 'I had to proceed to do' by an +exhaustive letter. + +A naval demonstration in the Adriatic now followed, generally known as +'the Dulcigno demonstration,' carried out by ships of the concerted +Powers, under command of the senior Admiral present, and acting under a +_protocole de désintéressement_. It was imposing rather than formidable, +since France and Italy both instructed their officers in no case to fire a +shot. But it was powerfully reinforced by the threat of independent +British action, on the lines which Sir Charles Dilke suggested, and, so +helped, it did its work, so far as the Montenegrin question was concerned. +The Greek question still remained for settlement. + +Phases in the development of this situation are thus chronicled: + + 'On June 23rd I went to the State Ball, and had a good deal of talk + with Musurus, to try and find out about a curious business which I + noted in my diary as follows: "The Russians and Turks are working + together. The Russians came yesterday to propose to send 20,000 + Russian men in English ships to coerce Turkey, and the Turks tell us + to-day that they will yield to an occupation by a European force, but + not to a mere naval demonstration. Both want to raise the difficulties + which this will cause, and to fish in troubled waters." + + 'On Wednesday, June 30th, at three o'clock, an interview took place + between Lord Granville, Lord Northbrook' (First Lord of the + Admiralty), 'Childers' (Secretary of State for War), 'Sir John Adye' + (Childers' adviser), 'and myself at the Foreign Office as to the means + of coercing Turkey. The War Office wished to place an army corps in + Greece, which, if they were to send a full complement of guns, would + take a month. I suggested the far cheaper plan of a naval occupation + of the port of Smyrna, and the collection and stoppage of customs and + dues. Mr. Gladstone came in a little late, and took up my idea. But, + preferring his Montenegrins to my Greeks, he insisted that we should + first deal by the fleet with the Montenegrin question at Dulcigno. + Both ideas went forward. The Dulcigno demonstration took place, and + produced the cession of territory to the Montenegrins; and we + afterwards let out to the Turks our intentions with regard to Smyrna, + and produced by this means the cession of territory to Greece. + [Footnote: _Life of Granville_, vol. ii., p. 231.] + + 'On Thursday, July 1st, we had a further interview with the Admiralty + to arrange our naval demonstrations. On this day there came to see me + Professor Panariétoff, a secret agent of the Prince of Bulgaria. He + informed me that his Government intended to press on a union between + Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia. They did not see any reason why they + should wait. It might suit the English Liberal Cabinet that they + should wait; but from their point of view, why wait? At a party in the + evening I met Borthwick, who playfully assured me that he knew that + our policy was to send one army corps to Greece to support the Greeks + against the Turks, and another to Eastern Roumelia to support the + Turks in maintaining the Treaty of Berlin. The two, after each of them + had accomplished its mission, would probably, he thought, come into + hostilities with one another in Macedonia.' + +On July 5th the Austrian Ambassador, Count Karolyi, told Sir Charles that +the Turkish representative at Vienna had been solemnly warned to reckon no +longer upon the possibility of disagreement among the Powers, and to +consider 'the danger which would result if the Powers became convinced +that the Porte had no respect either for their pledges or its own.' This +Dilke hailed as 'a great step in advance on Austria's part,' and on July +7th he called at the Austrian Embassy, at the wish of the Ambassador, who +explained the views of his Government: + + 'It would send two ships to meet two ships of each Power that chose to + send any, to watch the Montenegro coast with a view to carrying out + the Dulcigno proposal if the Porte would not give effect to the Corti + compromise within three weeks.' Count Karolyi 'then went on to speak + warmly in favour of the future of Greece, and to say that as regarded + the Greek frontier Austria would be willing even to send troops.' + +Public feeling in Austria, it appeared, was willing to sanction much +stronger measures in support of Greece than it would tolerate on behalf of +Montenegro. The British Foreign Office now proceeded to utilize the +position of vantage which had been gained. + + 'On July 16th I noted that, Lord Granville having urged the Queen to + write an autograph letter to the Sultan of a nature to induce him to + give in, the Queen very naturally refused, on the ground that she + dissented from every proposition in the draft sent her. She offered to + write a mild word of advice or recommendation to him to yield without + bloodshed, and this proposal was accepted by the Government. A + telegram based on it was despatched on the 17th, and it asked in the + name of united Europe for a complete fulfilment of the conditions of + the Treaty of Berlin. The Sultan had at this moment despatched a + secret agent, a French advocate at Constantinople, to Gambetta, who + assured him that it was because France was interested in the + maintenance of the Ottoman Empire that it was absolutely necessary to + force Turkey to allow herself to be saved. + + 'The attitude of the French Government had begun to embarrass us a + good deal. On July 28th I wrote to Gambetta that we could not + understand the hesitations of the French Government, which was + continually putting in reserves. All this was known at Constantinople, + and augmented the resistance of the Porte; the Prime Minister's paper + was attacking us, and Gambetta's paper (the _République Française_) + giving us no support.... In his telegraphic reply Gambetta used words + of encouragement with regard to the attitude of his Government, as to + which, no doubt, he was himself finding a good deal of trouble. A + little later he sent over one of his private secretaries with a fuller + letter.' + +A conversation with Gambetta would have been valuable to Sir Charles at +this moment, and he regretted having to forgo an opportunity which +offered. He had procured invitations for-- + + 'the Brasseys and Samuelson to the Cherbourg banquet, [Footnote: This + banquet was the occasion of Gambetta's famous Cherbourg speech, a + passage from which is inscribed on his monument in Paris.] which was + to be given to the President of the Republic and the Presidents of the + two Chambers (that is, Grévy, Gambetta, and Léon Say). Brassey asked + me to go with him in the _Sunbeam_. Although I should like to have + gone, I was under engagements in London; and I spent the Sunday + dismally ... instead of at Cherbourg with Gambetta.' + +But he sent him messages by Mr. Bernhard Samuelson [Footnote: M.P. for +Banbury; afterwards Sir Bernhard Samuelson.] which were quickly effective. + +Also, although public opinion in Austria favoured Greece, Sir Charles had +ground for believing that Italian Ministers kept the Turks perfectly +informed, and that even while advising concession upon Montenegro, they +did so with the suggestion that the Greek claims might be the more easily +resisted. Austria's concern was, of course, with the northern part of the +Illyrian coast; Italy's with the southern. As he noted later in the year, +'the European Concert was about as easy to manage as six horses to drive +tandem.' Nevertheless, by the first week in August, 1880, he was able to +write: + + 'A collective note had now been presented by the Powers to the Porte, + so that we had carried the Powers with us as fully in our Montenegrin + policy, represented by the collective note, as in our Greek policy, + represented by the previous Identic note--a most considerable success, + contrasting strongly with the failure which our foreign policy met + with two or three years later.' + +These impressions were shared by Lord Ripon, who followed European and +domestic affairs keenly, from India. He wrote on August 17th: + + "I rejoice to see that the F.O. seems to be distancing all competitors + in the race of success, ... which" (he added) "in regard to some + parliamentary proceedings is not very high praise, you will be perhaps + inclined to say." + + +II. + +Even after the collective note had been presented, the European situation +remained delicate and difficult through the mutual distrust of the Powers. +On August 9th Lord Granville, who through all these negotiations was +exerting his greatest diplomatic skill in keeping Germany in the Concert, +expressed to Sir Charles his conviction that 'Bismarck had spies in the +Queen's household, and knew everything that went on.' On the side of +France matters improved. [Footnote: See _Life of Granville_, vol. ii., +chapter vi.] + + 'On the 8th I received, at last, a reply from Gambetta to my letters-- + a reply in which he showed that he fully agreed with me, but that he + was not as a fact all-powerful with the Prime Minister (Freycinet). + The same post, however, brought me a letter from Lord Houghton, who + was at Vichy, and who complained that it was an unhealthy state of + things that Gambetta (who had talked freely to him while in Paris) + "should exercise so much irresponsible power." ... The result of my + attempts to stir up Gambetta upon our side was seen in the report by + Bernhard Samuelson of Gambetta's conversation with him at Cherbourg on + Monday, August 9th, and in an article which appeared on Wednesday, + August 11th, and another on Friday, the 13th, in Gambetta's paper on + the coercion of the Turks. These articles were from the pen of + Barrère, who had been over in the previous week to see me, and were + written at the personal direction of Gambetta; and Adams (Secretary to + the Embassy) wrote from Paris on the 13th that the tone of the French + Government had correspondingly improved.' + +But even while France assisted in one direction, she introduced fresh +complications in another by her quickly maturing designs on Tunis--which +had been mentioned to Sir Charles by the French Ambassador, M. Léon Say, +as early as June 8th. French diplomatists claimed an authorization from +Lord Salisbury. [Footnote: See Crispi's _Memoirs_, vol. ii., pp. 98-109 +and 121; _Life of Granville_, vol. ii., pp. 215, 270, 436, as to Tunis and +Tripoli.] "How can you," he was reported to have said, during the +conversations which attended the Congress of Berlin, "leave Carthage to +the barbarians?" + + 'It was on this day (June 8th, 1880) that I became fully aware of the + terms of Lord Salisbury's offer of Tunis to France, as to which he + misled the public, Lord Salisbury having, when reminded of the + statement, said privately that it was "a private conversation," and + publicly that there was "no foundation for the statement."' + +Later Sir Charles made inquiries of M. Say, who gave the dates of the two +conversations as July 21st and 26th, 1878. + + 'Lord Salisbury made a denial which is on record at the Foreign Office + in his own handwriting in red ink, but this denial is dated July 16th + --_i.e._, before the conversations.' + +The trouble developed rapidly. By August 14th, 1880, Italy was threatening +to withdraw her Ambassador from Paris, 'on account of the receipt of +information showing that the French intended to occupy Tunis under Lord +Salisbury's permission.' + +At this moment Sir Charles's health broke down. Two notes from his chief, +Lord Granville, are preserved, the first evidently sent across in the +office: + + "MY DEAR DILKE, + + "Please don't be a d--d fool. Go home and do exactly what your doctor + tells you. + + "Yrs. G." + +And again on August 18th Lord Granville wrote: + + "I must formally request you not to leave the house till you send me + the doctor's written statement that he has advised you to do so. I + consider myself an honorary member of the gouty faction, and entitled + to speak with weight on the folly of trying to bully the disorder." + +To this friendly dictation the patient submitted till the 23rd, when he +insisted on going to the House to answer questions, but returned to bed, +and next morning underwent an operation. [Footnote: He worked hard during +his enforced confinement to the house, and one of his visitors was M. +Joseph Arnaud, one of Gambetta's secretaries, who was sent by his friend +to reassure him as to the pressure he was using in the Frontier Question. +It is of M. Arnaud that Sir Charles tells a Gambetta story: 'G. was jovial +to-day, November 12th, 1880. Arnaud having said that all the people to +whom tickets were given for the presidential tribune were grateful to +Gambetta, and all who were angry were angry with him--Arnaud--the reply +was: "Tu ne comprends donc pas que tu es institué pour ça?"'] In a few +days he was again in Parliament, where the peace party, headed by Sir +Wilfrid Lawson, had begun to denounce the naval demonstration against +Turkey. In this they were backed by the Fourth Party, who spoke of it as +"the combined filibustering." However, on September 7th, the general +question was raised on the motion for adjournment of the House, and Sir +Charles, 'replying to the peace party on the one hand, and on the other to +Cowen, who attacked them in the name of Albanian nationality,' drew from +Lord Granville this compliment: + + "My mother once said that Clarendon--with a slight headache--was the + pleasantest man she knew. I will not say that an operation makes you + speak better, but it certainly does not prevent your speaking as well + as usual." + +The Fourth Party [Footnote: Dilke dates the birth of the Fourth Party at +the beginning of the Gladstone Ministry, and says: 'Gorst was its real +brain, the other two members (for Arthur Balfour hardly belonged to it) +contributing "brass."'] were also busy in denunciation of the Government's +policy in Afghanistan, which had been finally determined on August 7th, +when-- + + 'the Cabinet directed Lord Hartington and Lord Ripon to retire from + Kandahar, although we had now heard of the intention of the Russians + to occupy Merv, a step on their part which was certain to make our + retirement from Kandahar unpopular with those who did not know its + necessity.' + +Another circumstance even more certain to add to the unpopularity of the +retirement was not then known to the Home Government. On July 26th, Lord +Ripon, writing to Sir Charles, complained of the "embarrassing +engagements" with which "Lytton's reckless proceedings" had hampered him. +One of these engagements bound him to maintain Shere Ali as Wali of +Kandahar; and on July 27th, Ayub Khan, Shere Ali's rival, defeated at +Maiwand the force under General Burrows which was supporting Great +Britains' nominee. The policy of evacuation met with resistance in a +quarter where such policies were always opposed. On September 7th Sir +Charles left London to stay with Lord Granville at Walmer Castle, and Lord +Hartington joined them on the 9th. + + 'The Queen had written for the second time to Hartington urging with + great warmth that we should retain Kandahar, although, as Hartington + said, this meant, to India, an expenditure of four millions sterling a + year, on local troops, for no military return.... The Queen ... at + this moment was not only protesting strongly with regard to Kandahar, + but also, in cipher telegrams, against the naval demonstration.... + + 'On September 20th Lord Granville, just starting for Balmoral, came to + see me. He told me that he thought of sending Dufferin to + Constantinople at the end of Goschen's special mission, and Paget to + Petersburg, and Layard to Rome if he could not get a pension out of + the Treasury for Layard.' + +The Queen conceived the interests of England as Lord Beaconsfield had +presented them. But Mr. Gladstone did not conceive of English interests as +bound up with Turkish success, and wrote on September 21st: + + "If Turkey befools Europe at Dulcigno, we may as well shut up shop + altogether." + +About the same time Chamberlain expressed his mind on questions of foreign +policy in their bearing on party politics: + + "Kandahar will have to be given up.... I only hope Hartington will + have the pluck to do it at once and before we get into some fresh + scrape. I observe the papers generally speak well of the session, the + Government, and especially of the Radicals. So far so good. We have + scored very well up to this time." + + 'In another letter Chamberlain added: + + '"What about the Concert of Europe? Will it last through a bombardment + of Dulcigno? I don't much like concerts. Our party of two, with + Dillwyn as chorus, was about as numerous as is consistent with + harmony, and I fear five great Powers are too many to make a happy + family."' + +In France the great ally of the Sultan's Fabian policy had fallen. M. de +Freycinet found himself forced to resign on September 19th: + + 'On September 9th I recorded that Gambetta means to turn out + Freycinet. He foretold all this when Freycinet took office, and said + to me at that time: "He will do well enough until he tries to fly. But + one of these days he will set off flying." Gambetta turned out + Freycinet on this occasion, but the day was to come when Freycinet + would turn out Gambetta.' + +On the 23rd Sir Charles 'heard from Paris that the fallen Minister "had +been discovered to have been negotiating with the Vatican for months, +without the knowledge even of his own colleagues."' + +In the new Ministry, with Jules Ferry as Prime Minister, the Foreign +Office fell to Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire, [Footnote: M. Barthélemy Saint- +Hilaire, born in 1805, the well-known philosophical writer and translator +of Aristotle, was now seventy-five years of age. He entered the Chamber of +Deputies in 1848 as a member of the Left, and became a member of the +Senate in 1876. He was the first Secrétaire-Général de la Présidence de la +République.] and Lord Houghton said: "Think of the old Aristotelian +Barthélemy having the F.O.! Without pretension, I think at my age I am +just as fit for the English one." This was a view in which Sir Charles +inclined to agree, although M. Barrère wrote: "Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire's +tendencies are excellent. He is in complete accord with _us_, and his +views are wholly ours." + +Lord Houghton also spoke of an interview with Moltke, who had told him +that 'Russia was the cause of the necessity for the immense arming of +Europe, not France, which at present might be trusted to keep quiet.' + + 'On September 28th I noted: "Cabinet suddenly and most unexpectedly + summoned for Thursday to sit on Parnell, the Sultan, and the Queen, + about Ireland, Dulcigno, and Kandahar respectively."... [Footnote: The + decisions as to the Irish difficulties are dealt with in the first + portion of Chapter XXII., pp. 343-348.] + + 'On September 30th Chamberlain, who was staying at Sloane Street, gave + me a note of what passed at the Cabinet. With regard to Kandahar, the + Generals whose names had been suggested by the Queen had been + consulted, and had, of course, pronounced against giving it up. So the + Queen had got her own way sufficiently for the matter to be left over + till after Christmas. The Cabinet were evidently sorry that they had + not more fully and more early adopted my suggestion of British + coercion of the Turks at Smyrna. And on this occasion they agreed to + try to induce the other Powers to agree upon (1) local action, or (2) + the seizure of a material guarantee: (1) meaning a demonstration at + the Dardanelles, and (2) meaning Crete.' + +But the Eastern, unlike the Irish, trouble was now nearing a close, +though-- + + 'On October 1st Lord Granville came to sit with me, and was very + gloomy. He thought that Mr. Gladstone was inclined to give in to the + Turks rather than resort to coercion. Harcourt came in also--at one + moment, "Whatever we do, we must not be snubbed," and the next, "After + all, it will be no worse than Palmerston and Denmark."' + +Sir Charles's plan for the seizure of Smyrna was now agreed to in +principle by the Ministers in London, but while it still remained +uncertain whether they could carry other Powers with them in this coup, +Lord Lyons, British Ambassador at Paris, had written expressing a wish to +see, Dilke concerning negotiations for a commercial treaty, 'and the +Foreign Office also desired that I should deal with the Danube question +later.' Sir Charles left London on October 11th. + + 'Before I left, Lord Granville showed me a letter from Hartington from + Balmoral saying that the Queen had not named Kandahar to him, and had + "agreed to the Smyrna seizure project," but was angry about Ireland. + Hartington added that he had pledged Forster to put down Parnell. As + to her not naming Kandahar, Lord Granville said that she never + attacked the policy of a department to its chief.' + +At Paris Sir Charles was warned by Lord Lyons that '"you will find the +French Foreign Office in some confusion, as the new Under-Secretary of +State is vigorously employed in 'purging' it of clericals and +reactionaries."' On October 12th he went with Lord Lyons to see Barthélemy +Saint-Hilaire, and also Jules Ferry, the Prime Minister, and Tirard, the +Minister of Commerce, with whom he would be principally brought into +touch. + +Lord Granville was in London with Mr. Gladstone, bewailing the unhappy +fate of those who have to wait for an Eastern Power to make up its mind. +But at last the Porte's decision to surrender Dulcigno was announced, and +Lord Granville wrote: + + "MY DEAR DILKE, + + "I accept your felicitations _d'avance_--the Turkish Note has got us + out of a great mess. My liver feels better already. I hope you will + improve the occasion by impressing upon all that it only requires firm + language from all, such as was used by them on Saturday, to make the + Turk yield. + + "I wonder whether they will be keen about Turkish finance. It is + rather in their line. + + "How are we to help our poor friends the Greeks?" + +The letter closed by a warning not to write by the post, "unless to say +something which it is desirable the French Government should know." +Caution as to danger of gossip about his frequent meetings with Gambetta +was also urged. [Footnote: Sir Charles notes on 11th November: 'Having had +a telegram from Lord Granville to caution me, I told Gambetta that I did +not want my visits talked about because of the German newspapers. The +result of it was that the _Agence Havas_ stated that I had not seen +Gambetta, and this was copied by Blowitz next day, so that the _Times_ +repeated the untrue statement!'] + +Acting on these suggestions, Sir Charles Dilke during the next four days +discussed with the French Foreign Office and with Gambetta (who had +written on September 28th to say, "Je reviendrai exprès de Suisse pour +vous vous en causer à fond"), not only commercial negotiations, but also +Turkish finance and the affairs of Greece. According to Lord Edmond +Fitzmaurice, the interests of Greece were at this time suffering because +Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire was anxious to reconcile the Porte to those +designs "which France was executing at Tunis and contemplating at +Tripoli"; [Footnote: _Life of Granville_, vol. ii., pp. 215, 436.] and in +Sir Charles's notes of these interviews there is repeated mention of +Gambetta's references to what Lord Salisbury had promised or suggested in +regard to Tunis. Gambetta himself was strongly Philhellene, but said to +his friend on October 17th: "Mr. Gladstone has spoilt our European affairs +by putting Montenegro first." He held, and M. de Courcel agreed with him, +that the Concert was for the moment "used up," and that Greece must wait +until it could be reinvigorated. The conclusion which Sir Charles drew and +conveyed to Lord Granville was that 'France waited on Germany, and Germany +on Austria, in regard to the Eastern Question, and consequently that, +Austria being absolutely mistress of the situation, a confidential +exchange of opinions at Vienna was essential.' + +The demonstration at Dulcigno was carried out in December, but no further +progress was made then towards helping their "poor friends the Greeks." + +Sir Charles's health was not at this time fully restored, but he was hard +at work. Even when he went for a short rest to his villa near Toulon he +was obliged to take a cipher with him, and, having no secretary at hand, +spent much of his time (most grudgingly) in ciphering and deciphering +telegrams. + + 'On October 25th Lord Granville wrote to me to Toulon, in cipher, to + the effect that Odo Russell thought that "Bismarck was jealous of the + leading part in Europe which we were now taking."' + +Later, in November, the Prince of Wales, just returned from Berlin, +confirmed this. At the German Court Sir Charles was regarded as a "most +dangerous man" and as "a French spy." "But," the Prince added, "they say +the same of me." On November 22nd Lord Odo Russell is quoted as saying +'that at the Court of Berlin I was considered a most dangerous man, but +that the Crown Princess fought my battles like a sound Liberal and a true +Briton as she is.' + +At the close of the year, addressing his constituents, Sir Charles +delivered a very effective general reply to Lord Salisbury's attacks on +the Government's European policy. It was a little hard to be blamed for +delay in settling difficulties which all sprang from Lord Salisbury's own +"harum-scarum hurry" when he was Foreign Minister and Second +Plenipotentiary of England. Lord Salisbury might say of the naval +demonstration that the Powers might as well have sent "six washing-tubs +with flags attached to them." The fact was that only to the concerted +action of the whole of the Powers had Turkey yielded. + + "The European Concert is the first real attempt in modern times to + arrive at such an understanding between the six Great Powers as might + gradually become a basis for partial disarmament, and for the adoption + of a policy which would cease to ruin nations in time of peace by + perpetual preparations for war. In arriving at the idea that when + territorial changes are to be made it is for Europe to arrange them, a + practical step has been taken in the direction of this policy." + +"Quite excellent," wrote Lord Granville. "I am delighted, and so, let us +hope, is Salisbury." [Footnote: The complicated story of the negotiations +relating to the Montenegrin and Greek frontier questions will be found in +detail in the _Life of Granville_, vol. ii., chap, vi., and the _Life of +Lord Goschen_, vol. ii., chap. vii. The principal documents, with +illustrative maps, are given in Sir Edward Hertslet's _Map of Europe by +Treaty_, vol. iv.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +HOME POLITICS--COMMERCIAL TREATY--PERSONAL MATTERS + + +I. + +The opening successes of British foreign policy under the Gladstone +Government were to a large extent neutralized by other difficulties in +which the new Administration found itself at once involved. Ireland +carried confusion into the very heart of Imperial authority, and discord +into the counsels of the Government. + +On October 30th, 1880, Lord Tenterden wrote: + + 'Odo Russell says there is a general opinion abroad that the Gladstone + Government will be in a minority when Parliament meets, ... and that + then the policy of England will have to be changed. There will be no + more demonstrations, or concerts, or inconvenient proposals. I told + him that such ideas were illegitimate offspring of Musurus and the + _Morning Post_.' + +These rumours of coming defeat sprang from the Irish situation. Captain +Boycott's case had given a new word to the language; agrarian murders were +frequent; and the decision to seek no powers outside the ordinary law, +which had been pressed on Mr. Forster, was vehemently challenged by the +Opposition. Radicals wished for a Bill offering compensation to tenants +evicted under harsh conditions; but this proposal bred dissension in a +Government largely composed of great landlords, two of whom, Lords +Hartington and Lansdowne, possessed wide domains in Ireland. On June 13th, +1880, Sir Charles, after dining with Lord Rosebery in company with Mr. +Gladstone, noted that there was disagreement in the Cabinet, 'all the +peers being opposed to an Irish Land Bill, and all the Commoners +supporting Forster in this branch of his proposals.' + + 'On July 2nd trouble broke out in the Cabinet with a letter from Lord + Hartington advising the withdrawal of Forster's Irish Land Bill. + [Footnote: The Compensation for Disturbance measure.] ... I placed my + conditional resignation in Chamberlain's hands, and he his and mine in + Forster's, in case the latter was inclined to nail his colours to the + mast. I noted in my diary: "I do not care in the least about the Bill, + but I must either go out with these men or climb into the Cabinet over + their bodies, to either become a Whig or to eventually suffer the same + fate, so I prefer to make common cause. I suppose there will be a + compromise once more;" and so, at the Cabinet of the next day, + Saturday, the 3rd, there was.' + +The compromise of July 3rd did not terminate dissension. Lord Lansdowne +retired from the Government, and in the first days of August the +Compensation for Disturbance Bill itself was rejected by the Lords, many +of Mr. Gladstone's nominal supporters voting against it. + +This was the first revolt of the Whigs. The old order was passing, and +shrewd eyes perceived it. Lord Houghton wrote to Sir Charles from Vichy on +August 8th: + + "I told Hugessen [Footnote: Mr. Knatchbull-Hugessen had been created + Lord Brabourne in this summer.] that a peer always voted with his + party the first Session as a matter of etiquette; but it seems he does + not think so. The Government will have to decide in the vacation + whether they can govern without the Whigs or not. I am glad that I + have not to decide this point, but I own I am glad that I have lived + in a Whig world. It has been a wonderful combination of public order + and personal liberty. I do not care much for future order, but I care + a good deal for individual liberty, which is slipping away from under + us." + +For the moment the House of Lords had given victory to the Whigs; but the +sequel was, in Mr. Gladstone's own words, "a rapid and vast extension of +agrarian disturbance," which grew all through the winter of that famine- +stricken year, presenting to the Chief Secretary the traditional Irish +problem, how to deal with a lawless demand for redress of grievances. +Towards the end of September Mr. Chamberlain wrote: + + "Next Session will settle Forster one way or the other. Either he will + pass a Land Bill and be a great statesman, or he will fail and be a + pricked bubble for the rest of his natural life." + +Mr. Forster wanted to pass a Land Bill, but he also wanted to deal with +lawlessness by coercive legislation, and, after the Cabinet hurriedly +called on September 28th, Mr. Chamberlain reported: + + '"With regard to Ireland, Forster made a strong case for a Coercion + Bill, but the Cabinet thought it best that the insufficiency of the + present law should be thoroughly proved before new powers were asked + for." + + 'Chamberlain went on: + + '"Probably a prosecution will be tried against Parnell and the Land + League for intimidating tenants and others. Even if it fails, it may + divert the attention of the Land League from its present agitation, + and so lead to a cessation of outrages."' + + 'I added in my diary: "I hope they will not commit the folly of + prosecuting Parnell, which they discussed to-day. I sent for Hill, and + got the _Daily News_ to damn the idea." But my intervention through + the _Daily News_ was not on this occasion sufficiently strong + ultimately to prevent this folly, for I had not, this time, any + following at my back.' + +Later in the year he told Mr. Chamberlain that "to try to stop Irish land +agitation by making arrests was like firing a rifle at a swarm of midges." + +Mr. Chamberlain replied from Birmingham on October 27th; + + "I do not half like the Irish prosecutions, but I fear there is no + alternative, except, indeed, the suspension of the Habeas Corpus, + which I should like still less. Parnell is doing his best to make + Irish legislation unpopular with English Radicals. The workmen here do + not like to see the law set at defiance, and a dissolution on the + 'Justice for Ireland' cry would under present circumstances be a + hazardous operation." + +Mr. Forster was eager to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, and wanted to have +Parliament specially summoned in order to carry through repressive +legislation. + + 'On Monday morning, November 15th, on my return to London, I saw + Harcourt, and told him that I should follow Chamberlain in resigning + if a special Irish Coercion Session without a Land Bill were to be + called. I saw Chamberlain immediately after the Cabinet which was held + this day. Bright and Chamberlain were as near splitting off at one end + as Lord Selborne at the other. Mr. Gladstone proposed at the Cabinet + the creation of English, Scotch, and Irish Grand Committees, but + obtained very little support.... + + 'It seemed probable that there would be a Coercion Bill and a Land + Bill, and that the Land Bill (although the resignation of the Lord + Chancellor was threatened) would give what was known as "the three + F's," and that the Government would insist on both Bills. [Footnote: + The "three F's" were "Fair Rent" (_i.e._, judicially fixed rent), + "Free Sale" (of tenant right), and "Fixity of Tenure."] The Lords + would probably throw out the Land Bill, and the Government would + resign.... + + 'Chamberlain had dined with me on November 17th, and had given me late + news of the condition of the Cabinet, which had been adjourned until + Friday, the 19th. + + 'The division was really a division between the Commons' members on + the one side (except Forster and Hartington, but with the support of + Lord Granville), and Forster and Hartington and the Peers upon the + other side; Lord Cowper, the Viceroy of Ireland' (who, although not a + member of the Cabinet, had been called in for the occasion), 'making + common cause, of course, with Forster.... + + 'On the 19th the adjourned Cabinet was held; Forster was isolated, and + all became calm. The Queen had telegraphed on the previous evening to + Lord Granville in a personal telegram, in which she said that Mr. + Gladstone had told her nothing about the dissensions in the Cabinet, + and that she "must request Lord Granville either to tell her what + truth there is in the statement as to dissensions or to induce Mr. + Gladstone to do so!" Mr. Gladstone always held that the Queen ought + not to be told about dissensions in the Cabinet; that Cabinets existed + for the purpose of differing--that is, for the purpose of enabling + Ministers who differed to thrash out their differences--and that the + Queen was only concerned with the results which were presented to her + by, or in the name of, the Cabinet as a whole. This seems reasonable, + and ought, I think, to be the constitutional view; but the Queen + naturally ... hates to have personal differences going on of which she + is not informed.... + + 'On November 23rd I noted in my diary that Hartington ... had grown + restive, and wanted to resign and get Forster to go with him, and that + Forster talked of it but did not mean it. Kimberley and Northbrook had + come over to Mr. Gladstone's side, and the other view was chiefly + represented by Lord Spencer and Lord Selborne; and I could not help + feeling that if, as I expected, the split with Whiggery had to come, + it had better be this split, so that we should have the great names of + Gladstone and Bright upon our side. One could not help feeling that we + had no men to officer our ranks, and that really, besides Mr. + Gladstone, who was an old man, there was only Chamberlain.... + Hartington was a real man, but a man on the wrong side, and with + little chance of his getting rid of his prejudices, which were those, + not of stupidity, but of ignorance; with his stables and his wealth it + was useless to expect him to do serious work. Bright was a great name, + and had a power of stringing together a series of sound commonplaces, + so put that they were as satisfactory to the ear as distinct + statements of policy would be; and had a lovely voice, but it was + rhetoric all the same--rhetoric very different from Disraeli's + rhetoric, but equally rhetoric, and not business.' + +By November 25th the severity of the crisis may be gathered from a letter +of Sir Charles's to Mrs. Pattison, which describes the grouping of forces. +On the one side were "Gladstone, Bright, Chamberlain, Granville, Harcourt, +Kimberley, Childers, Dodson, Northbrook; on the other Hartington, Forster, +Spencer, Argyll, the Chancellor." "Forster," he wrote, "talks about +resigning, but does not mean it. It is _meaning_ it which gives us so much +power." + +'"If Chamberlain and I should be driven to resign alone, we shall have a +great deal of disagreeable unpopularity and still more disagreeable +popularity to go through." His old kinsfolk who cared for him were "hard- +bitten Tories": Mr. Dilke of Chichester; his cousin, John Snook, of +Belmont Castle; and Mrs. Chatfield, if she were still able to follow +political events, would "badger him horribly." Worse still, he would have +to endure "patting on the back by Biggar," to which he would prefer stones +from "a Tory mob." + +The lull in Cabinet troubles was only momentary: + + 'On December 10th, Chamberlain, the stormy petrel, came to stay. When + we were at dinner there suddenly arrived a summons for a Cabinet to be + held on Monday, instead of Thursday for which it stood, and we went + off to Harcourt's. We found that he was not in the secret, and + therefore decided that the Cabinet must have been called at the demand + of the Queen on the suggestion of Dizzy, who was staying with her at + this moment; "but it may have been called on account of Forster's + renewed demand for coercion," as I noted. + + 'The next morning, December 11th, Lulu Harcourt came, and brought a + note: "Dear Dilke, L. will tell you what he heard from Brett. It is + odd that the Sawbones should know what we are trying to find out." + Lulu reported that Dr. Andrew Clarke had told Reggie Brett, + Hartington's secretary, that Parliament was, after all, to meet before + Christmas. When Lulu was gone, Chamberlain and I decided that if there + was only a pretended and not a real change we would resign, whatever + our unpopularity. In the afternoon of the same day Harcourt wrote to + Chamberlain that he had seen Hartington; that Forster had written to + Gladstone that he could not wait till January 6th' (for extended + powers of coercion). 'Harcourt said that the reports were not much + worse, and only of a general kind; that Hartington thought Forster + worried and ill. "In fact, I think he is like the Yankee General after + Bull Run--not just afraid, but dreadful demoralized. I have only one + counsel to give--let us all stick to the ship, keep her head to the + wind, and cram her through it. Yours ever, W. V. H." + + '_Monday, December 13th._--... called before the Cabinet to find out + whether the offer of Chamberlain's place would now tempt me to sell + him! We won, after all!' + +Mr. Forster had accordingly to wait till the New Year for the introduction +of his Coercion Bill. + + +II. + +A departmental change in the Foreign Office at this time greatly increased +the responsibilities of the Under-Secretary. Complaint had become frequent +in the House of Commons of an apparently insufficient representation of +the Government in regard to commercial questions, which belonged partly to +the sphere of the Board of Trade and partly to that of the Foreign Office, +with unsatisfactory results. Lord Granville determined, on returning to +office, to make a new distribution of duties, and to take advantage of the +Under-Secretaryship being occupied by a Member of Parliament whose +competence on commercial questions was universally recognized to place the +commercial business of the Office more completely under his control--as +supervising Under-Secretary. [Footnote: This arrangement continued in the +Under-Secretaryship of Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, Mr. James Bryce, Mr. +Robert Bourke, and Sir James Fergusson, but was subsequently altered. See +also above, p. 314.] + + 'On Sunday, May 2nd, Lord Granville asked me to take over general + supervision of the commercial department of the Foreign Office, and, + although I should have preferred to keep free of all departmental work + in order to attend to larger affairs of policy, I admitted that there + were strong reasons for my taking the Commercial Department, inasmuch + as the commercial members of the House of Commons were dissatisfied + with its management, and because also it was certain that I should + have to defend in the House of Commons treaty negotiations with + foreign Powers, which would in any case force me to give much time to + the consideration of commercial questions. When I first agreed to take + over the Commercial Department, it was only with the view of keeping + it for a short time, but I was unable to rid myself of it during the + whole time I was at the Foreign Office, and it gave me heavy work.' + +The first and chief instalment of this burden consisted in the +negotiations for a new commercial treaty with France. + +In January Dilke had learnt from Gambetta that M. Léon Say, late President +of the Finance Committee of the Senate, would come to London as Ambassador +'when the trouble about "Article 7" was ended.' [Footnote: See Chapter +XX., p. 300.] It was in the month of May (when the "trouble" about M. +Ferry's attack on the religious Orders was by no means ended) that M. Say +arrived, charged with an important mission, specially suited to his +qualifications as an ex-Minister of Finance. France was revising her +commercial policy; several commercial treaties, including that with Great +Britain, had been only provisionally prolonged up to June 30th; and M. Say +was instructed to try to secure England's acceptance of the new general +tariff, which had not yet passed the Senate. Gambetta and his friends +still held to the ideals of Free Trade. M. Tirard, the Minister of +Commerce, supported the same view, but there was a strong Protectionist +campaign on foot. + +M. Say arrived on May 5th, and on the 6th had his first interview with Sir +Charles: + + 'At this moment I was showing my disregard for the old Free-Trade + notions in which I had been brought up by my grandfather, and my + preference for reciprocitarian views, by carefully keeping back all + grievances with the countries with which we were negotiating upon + commercial matters, in order that they might be thrown in in the + course of the negotiations. On this ground I managed to cause the + Colonial Office to be directed to keep all Gibraltar grievances in + hand. + + 'Immediately on taking charge of the Commercial Department, I had sent + a memorandum on the wine duties to Mr. Gladstone, who replied, "I have + never yet seen my way to reduction below a shilling or to a uniform + rate. _At present, we have not a sixpence to give away._ I do not like + bargaining away revenue for treaties, or buying over again from France + what has been bought already.... In my view the treaty of 1860 was + exceptional; it was to form an accommodation to the exigencies of the + French Emperor's position. _We_ never professed to be exchanging + concessions, but only allowed him to say _he_ had done it. I am, of + course, open to argument, but must say, as at present advised, that I + see but very little room for what is called negotiating a commercial + treaty."' + +This was discouraging, since it came from the author of the treaty of +1860, who by lowering the duties on light wines had brought into general +popularity the "Gladstone clarets"; and Mr. Gladstone's expression of +opinion, renewed in a second letter of May 11th, caused M. Say to 'let me +clearly understand that as Mr. Gladstone was unwilling to lower the wine +duties, he should resign his Embassy and try to become President of the +Senate,' then vacant by the resignation of M. Martel. In this he +succeeded, much to the regret of Gambetta, who afterwards said to Dilke: + + '"People never know for what they are fit. There was Léon Say, the + best possible Ambassador at London, who insists on resigning the + Embassy in order to become a bad President of the Senate."' + +But M. Léon Say, even in the act of resigning, advanced the possibility of +a treaty. While visiting Paris in May, to promote his candidature, he +'attacked Mr. Gladstone so fiercely through the French Press for not +offering to lower our wine duties that the Prime Minister, afraid to face +our merchants, gave way.' In the supplementary Budget, proposed on June +9th, provision was made for a reduction from one shilling to sixpence of +the duty on some wines. This new scale, however, was not to take effect +unless compensating advantages were obtained from other countries. + +France, of course, was not the only country concerned; and the Portuguese +Minister, M. Dantas, wrote to Sir Charles holding out great prospects of +expansion for British trade if Portuguese wines were let into the English +market at a cheaper rate. + +The Prime Minister first demurred, but finally agreed that the Portuguese +might be asked-- + + '"whether, supposing fiscal conditions allowed us to give a great + advantage to their wines between 26 and 36 degrees of alcoholic + strength, they could engage for some considerable improvements in + their duties upon our manufactures, and what would be their general + character and effect? + + '"The Spaniards appear to have been much less unreasonable in their + demands. Please to consider whether the same question should be put to + them. Both probably should understand that _we have_ no money, and + should have to make it, so that their replies respectively would form + a serious factor in our deliberations." + + 'Here, at last, I had got all I wanted. I merely begged leave to put + the same questions at Rome and Vienna, and, obtaining his consent + ("Pray do as you think best about Rome and Vienna.--W. E. G."), I went + on fast.' + +Cipher telegrams were despatched on May 28th to Portugal, Spain, Italy, +and Austria--countries which produce strong wines more abundantly than +France--inquiring what corresponding advantages would be offered for a +change in the wine duties; and Sir Charles resumed his discussions with M. +Say, who had returned to London. + +For a time there seemed hope of a settlement, based on a new +classification of wines; but when the bases of agreement arrived at were +seen in France, there was violent opposition to the proposed +countervailing 'amelioration,' which was construed to mean 'a lowering of +duties upon the principal products of British industry.' Protectionist +feeling ran too high to accept this. + +While Lord Granville left commercial matters entirely to his junior +colleague, every detail of every proposal had to be thrashed out with the +Prime Minister, who was his own Chancellor of the Exchequer. In such a +correspondence there was much for a young Minister to learn; there was +also an opportunity for Mr. Gladstone to take the measure of a man whose +appetite for detail was equal to his own. + +One of the minor difficulties lay in the fact that the Portuguese and +Spaniards wanted changes in the wine scale, but not the same as those +which the French required. Owing to the accumulation of obstacles, Mr. +Gladstone, on going into Committee with his Budget, dropped the proposed +alteration in the wine duties for that year. But in October Sir Charles +was sent to Paris in order to open the matter afresh, and on November 11th +Gambetta 'promised commercial negotiations in January in London, and an +immediate declaration in the Senate.' Beyond this nothing could be done in +1880. The details of this first phase of these long-drawn-out transactions +will be found in a very full despatch written by Sir Charles on August +6th, 1880 (and published subsequently in the Blue Book 'Commercial +Relations with France, 1880-1882'), which placed on record the whole of +the dealings between himself and the two successive French Ambassadors. + + 'On Tuesday, June 1st, Léon Say called on me to settle the words which + he should use before a Commission of the Senate in answer to a + question as to the new treaty. What I think he had really come about + was as to his successor. Challemel-Lacour, a friend of Gambetta, had + forced himself upon his Government; ... and Say came to tell me that + Gambetta did not really want Challemel to come, but wanted Noailles, + if an anticipated difficulty with the Queen could be got over.' + +The difficulty was not got over, and so the appointment stood. The Memoir +gives another version of the story, which Sir Charles heard in 1896, when +he was staying with his friends the Franquevilles at Madame de Sévigné's +château, Bourbilly. + + 'Franqueville said that Lord Granville had told him that when the + Queen refused Noailles, the French Government had not meant to send + him, but that he had been proposed only in order that Challemel- + Lacour should be accepted. Lord G. had said: "The fact is that I told + them the Queen would not have Challemel. They said they must send him + or no one. Then said I, Propose Noailles.... She will refuse Noailles, + and, having done that, she will take Challemel! So it happened."' + +'Stories were at once set afloat that Challemel had shot a lot of monks, +and various other inventions about him were started.' [Footnote: He had +been in authority at Lyons during the war.] Matters went so far that the +Prince of Wales wrote through his secretary suggesting that Sir Charles +should use his personal influence with Gambetta to have the appointment +cancelled. Trouble broke out in Parliament, where one Irish member put on +the order paper a question specifying all the charges against the new +Ambassador. The question having been (not without hesitation) allowed by +the Speaker, Sir Charles gave a full reply, completely exonerating the new +Ambassador from all these accusations. This, however, did not satisfy Mr. +O'Donnell, who proposed to discuss the matter on a motion for the +adjournment of the House. The Speaker interposed, describing this as an +abuse of privilege, and when Mr. O'Donnell proceeded, Mr. Gladstone took +the extreme course of moving that he be not heard. So began a most +disorderly discussion, which ended after several hours in Mr. O'Donnell's +giving notice of the questions which at a future date he proposed to put +on the matter, but which were never put. + +Gambetta wrote to Dilke on June 18th: + + "Let me thank you from the bottom of my heart for the lofty manner in + which you picked up the glove thrown down by that mad Irish clerical. + In my double capacity of friend and Frenchman, I am happy to have seen + you at this work." + +A few days later the Prince of Wales's secretary wrote to say that the +Prince had received M. Challemel-Lacour, and found him very agreeable. On +this Dilke comments: + + 'Challemel was delightful when he pleased; but he did not always + please, except very late at night.' + +In November of this year Dilke met Rouher, the great Minister of the +fallen Empire. + + 'He told me that he had quite dropped out of politics, and was + becoming a philosopher, and that Gambetta was the only man in France, + and could do anything he pleased with it.' + +Sir Charles's own opinion of contemporary France was conveyed to Lord +Granville in one of several despatches, which have never been printed, +partly because the Queen raised objection to his writing officially from a +capital at which there was an Ambassador. It gives his impressions of the +state of things under "the Grévy régime," some years later exposed in +connection with the Wilson trial. + + "Paris, _October_ 17, 1880. + + "Your Lordship asked me to send you any general remarks that I might + have to offer upon the existing state of things in Paris, so that I + may perhaps be permitted to express the conviction which I feel that + at this moment there is an extraordinary contrast between the strength + and wealth of France and the incapacity of those who are responsible + for the administration of its Government. In addition, it is + impossible not to be struck with the atmosphere of jobbery which + surrounds the public offices. Transactions which in England would + destroy a Ministry, in Paris arouse at the most a whisper or a smile. + Something was heard in England of the terrible conversion of 'rentes' + scandal of last year, and there is reason to suppose that the + administration of Algeria by the persons who surround the brother of + the President of the Republic, its Governor-General (Albert Grévy), + constitutes a standing disgrace to France. The venality not only of + the Opposition, but also of the Ministerial Press, is admitted on all + sides, and the public offices are disorganised by the sudden dismissal + of well-trained public servants, who are replaced by the incompetent + favourites of those in power. The lightest suspicion of what is known + as clericalism, even when only a suspicion, based on anonymous and + calumnious denunciation, is sufficient to condemn a functionary. If it + be not trivial to give a simple example, I would quote one which will, + I think, remind your Lordship of the name of an old friend. Monsieur + Tresca, who was for more than thirty years the Assistant-Director of + the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, is a member of the Institute, + the most distinguished Civil Engineer in France, and not past work. + The Director having lately died, I expected to find that he had been + succeeded by Monsieur Tresca, but I discovered that this was not the + case. I took an opportunity while sitting next to the Prime Minister + at dinner at Her Majesty's Embassy to mention M. Tresca's name, in + order to see if I could discover the reason for his disgrace. 'Mais il + paraît qu'il est clérical,' was the phrase. Monsieur Tresca was a + moderate Orleanist who followed M. Thiers when the latter gave his + adhesion to the Republican form of government, and is certainly not a + man who could be properly described as clerical in his views. + + "Strange as it may seem, however, I am not inclined to see in the + existing and increasing degradation of French politics an actual + danger to the form of government which has been adopted in France. It + is, on the contrary, an undoubted fact that the Imperialist, + Legitimist, and Orleanist parties are continuing steadily to lose + ground. But if the Government is not only to last, but to succeed, + those who are responsible for its guidance will have at all hazards to + abandon their present policy of suspicion and exclusion, and to adopt + that of tolerance and comprehension, which, with magnificent effect + upon the power of France, was followed by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1801. + If they continue in their present course, the result must be fatal to + the reputation and to the influence of France." + + +III. + + 'I was rather given to interfering in the affairs of other offices, + which is not as a rule a wise thing to do; but then it must be + remembered that I was in the position of having to represent the + interests and opinions of the men below the gangway, and that they + used to come to Chamberlain and to me in order to put pressure upon + our colleagues through us, and that I was the person approached in all + Indian, Colonial, naval, and military questions, and Chamberlain in + domestic ones.' + +In the last week of May, 1880, + + 'I engaged in a struggle with Lord Northbrook over the proceedings of + some of his ships.... The town of Batanga, on the west coast of + Africa, had been bombarded, sacked, and burnt for a very trifling + outrage; and I succeeded in inducing Lord Northbrook to telegraph for + further information. Ultimately the First Lord reported that--"The + Commodore has only done what was forced upon him, but it is necessary + to look very sharply after our commercial and consular people in those + parts, who constantly want to use force."' + +At the beginning of July hostilities between Russia and China seemed +probable, and there was a rumour of a Russian defeat on the Kashgar +frontier. Serious apprehensions were entertained, especially in India, as +to the effect on British trade: + + 'I went to W. H. Smith, and asked him to ask me whether we would + strengthen the China squadron in view of a possible Russian blockade + of the Treaty ports. I strongly recommended this increase of force, + but had been unable to get our people to agree to it; and through + Smith's question the thing was done.... + + 'On May 31st I was asked to explain why I had taken the unusual course + for a member of the Government of walking out from a Government + division on the Secret Service money. I replied that I thought that + there was room for reduction in the sum, that I knew nothing about + what was spent in Ireland, but that what went abroad was chiefly spent + in America, "in buying Fenians to write reports about other Fenians, + probably at the wish of the latter, who divide the spoils." There was + a Consul at Philadelphia who was perpetually writing to us with plans + of infernal machines, models of bombs, specimens of new kinds of + dynamite, and so forth, and we had to forward all his letters to the + Home Office, and always received from Harcourt the same reply--that we + were very probably being imposed on, but that the matter was so + important that whether we were imposed on or not we must buy; so that + naturally there was a good deal of waste.' [Footnote: In 1881 Sir + Charles again abstained from voting on this question.] + +Another note shows how some Secret Service money was expended: + + 'On December 2nd Sir Henry Thring told me that a great number of the + Queen's telegrams had been sent to be pulped, and that the pulper had + taken them to America, whence they were recovered by a plentiful + expenditure of Secret Service money.' + +Dilke maintained his practice of seeing Gambetta every time he passed +through Paris to or from Toulon. But the British Embassy now gave him +another object in these visits, and he notes a pleasant story of the +Ambassador: + + 'As I was passing through Paris on my way to Toulon for Christmas, I + started with Lord Lyons negotiations for the renewal of representation + by England to the Mexican Republic, [Footnote: The Mexican + negotiations were not at this time successful, but in 1883 Lord Edmond + Fitzmaurice, who followed Sir Charles at the Foreign Office, again + raised the matter, and ultimately a representative was appointed. See + _Life of Granville_, vol. ii., p. 304.] which I thought important for + commercial reasons, and which was ultimately brought about. I said to + Lord Lyons as we were walking together across the bridge from the + Place de la Concorde to the Chamber: "If you bring about this renewal + of relations, you will have the popularity in the Service of making a + fresh place--for a Minister Plenipotentiary." "Yes," said he, "but if + I were to jump off this bridge I should be still more popular--as that + would make promotion _all the way down_."' + +At the beginning of December Sir Charles received an offer from the Greek +Government of the Grand Cross of the Saviour, which he was obliged, +according to the English custom, to decline. + + 'But as I afterwards, when out of Parliament, declined the Turkish + Grand Cross of the Medjidieh, I became one of the few persons, I + should think, who ever had the chance of declining those two +decorations.' + +His home anxieties in this year had been great. He tells very sadly of the +death of the grandmother who had kept house for him from his childhood. +Shortly after "her little old niece, Miss Folkard," who had always lived +with them, also passed away. + +His uncle, Mr. Dilke of Chichester, and Mr. Chamberlain came often to stay +with him, but he was anxious as to the care and education of his little +boy. Early in the new year Mr. Chamberlain proposed that Wentworth Dilke +should come and live with his own children. A year later the boy was +sending messages to his father to say that 'he had made up his mind not to +return to London, but proposed to reside permanently at Birmingham, and +thought that I had better go to live there too.' + +It was also for Sir Charles a year of change in one of the more intimate +relations of political life. Mr. George Murray, his secretary at the +Foreign Office, was taken 'by the Treasury, [Footnote: See mention of Mr. +George Murray, Chapter XX., p. 314.] and in his place was appointed Mr. +Henry Austin Lee, formerly a scholar and exhibitioner of Pembroke College, +Oxford.' Also his private secretary, Mr. H. G. Kennedy, who had been with +him for many years, was now in ill-health, and had been much away for two +years. On July 27th, 1880, his place was taken by 'a volunteer from +Oxford,' Mr. J. E. C. Bodley, the future author of _France_--one of the +few Englishmen who has attained to the distinction of writing himself +"Membre de l'Institut." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +COERCION--CLOSURE--MAJUBA + + +In November, 1880, Mr. Forster's "resignation" had only been staved off by +the Cabinet's promise to him of coercive powers in the new year, and it +was certain that such a Coercion Bill, when introduced, would be met by +the Irish members with obstruction outdoing all previous experience. The +Land Bill, which was to accompany coercion, went far enough in limitation +of the rights of property to be a grievous trial to the Whigs, and yet to +Radicals such as Dilke and Chamberlain seemed complicated, inconclusive, +and unsatisfactory. + +Bad as was the Irish trouble, South Africa was worse. Finding no attempt +made by Liberal statesmen to fulfil the expectations of free institutions +which had been held out even by the Tory Government, the Boers rose for +independence in December, 1880. War followed--a half-hearted war +accompanied by negotiations. All was in train for the day of Majuba. + +Sir Charles's Memoir shows this ferment working. By January 6th, 1881, he +was back in London from his Christmas at Toulon. + + 'The Radicals were angry with the weakness of the Land Bill, which, + however, was Mr. Gladstone's own. Oddly enough, both Hartington and + Forster would have gone further, and Hartington certainly even for the + "three F's," though he would have preferred to have had no Bill at + all; but then Hartington did not care about stepping in, and Gladstone + did, and feared the Lords. Chamberlain thought that the Land Bill was + sure to be vastly strengthened in passing through the House.... + + 'I noted on January 7th that I was very restive under Mr. Gladstone's + Irish policy, but I found that if I were to go I should have to go + alone, for Chamberlain at this moment was not in a resigning humour.' + +A second element of discord lay in the preparations for the struggle on +the Coercion Bill. + + 'On January 8th Chamberlain gave me a minute by Hartington, which I + still have (dated the 3rd), proposing a summary method of dealing with + Irish obstruction. Hartington thought that the Speaker, "by a stretch + of the rule against wilful obstruction, might, if assured of the + support of the great majority of the House, take upon himself the + responsibility of declaring that he would consider any member rising + to prolong the debate as guilty of wilful obstruction, and thus liable + to be silenced." If the Speaker exceeded his power, he would + (Hartington thought) only render himself liable to censure by the + House, and if previously assured of its support there was hardly any + limit to the authority which he might not assume. Chamberlain wrote + strongly to Hartington against this proposal. He was convinced that + with a stretch of authority the number of opponents would be + increased. He added: "I believe the time has passed when Ireland can + be ruled by force. If justice also fails, the position is hopeless, + but this is a remedy which has never yet been tried fairly." + Hartington wrote in reply, on January 10th: "If we cannot pass the + Coercion Bill without locking up fifty or sixty members, they must be + locked up." Hartington's view was accepted by the Speaker, and led to + the wholesale expulsion from the body of the House of the Irish + members.... + + 'On January 12th I somewhat unwillingly made up my mind that I must + remain in the Government, as Chamberlain insisted on remaining. I + feared that if I came out by myself I should be represented as + encouraging disorder, and to some extent should encourage it, and + should be driven to act with mere fanatics. In coming out with + Chamberlain I always felt safe that we could carry a large section of + the party with us. Coming out by myself, I feared that that was not + so. Chamberlain's position at this moment was that he personally did + not believe in coercion, but that the feeling in the country was such + that any Government would be forced to propose it, and he was not + sufficiently clear that it was certain to fail to be bound as an + honest man to necessarily oppose it. I received on this day a letter + from a constituent upon the point, and answered that, agreeing + generally as regarded pending Irish questions with Bright and + Chamberlain, I should follow them if they remained united. [Footnote: + The phrase 'pending Irish questions' is important. It excluded Home + Rule.] Should they at any point differ from Mr. Gladstone, or the one + with the other, as to the course to be adopted, I should have to + reconsider my position. + + 'On January 14th I had a full talk with Bright, trying to get him to + go with me. Bright told me that the outrages had got much worse in + Ireland since the middle of December, as for example that of firing + into houses. He had come round a great deal in the coercion direction. + He now distinctly favoured suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act--that + is to say, did not unwillingly yield to it, like Chamberlain, but + supported it almost willingly, and he evidently had been converted by + Forster to the view that things had grown to be very bad, and that by + locking up a small number of the chiefs the rule of law might be + restored. I did not agree, but his opinion showed me how completely I + was isolated. I seemed trying to put people a point beyond themselves + before they were naturally ready to go, and risked only being followed + by those who are always ready to run on any fresh scent and whose + support is but a hindrance. I felt myself face to face with the + necessity for self-sacrifice of the hardest kind, the sacrifice of my + own judgment as to the right course in the attempt to work with + others. It was clear that few men thought at this time that coercion + was so inexpedient that a single member of the Government would be + justified in venturing on a course which would weaken the hands of + Government itself, increase Mr. Gladstone's difficulties, and retard + or hamper the remedial legislation which I myself thought most + desirable. Moreover, we had weakened the Irish executive in past years + by continually teaching them to rely on unconstitutional expedients, + and it seemed very difficult to choose a moment of great outrage to + refuse them the support which we had long accustomed them to look for + in every similar stress of circumstances. + + 'The Cabinet of January 22nd dealt with the allied questions of + closure, coercion, and remedial legislation for Ireland. It was + decided to produce a scheme of closure as soon as it was certain that + Northcote was in favour of the principle, and it was left to Mr. + Gladstone to make sure of this, and I noted in my diary, "He had + better make _very_ sure." I was right in my doubt, and this question + of Parliamentary procedure led to such a breach between Mr. Gladstone + and his former private secretary that the Prime Minister told me he + should never in future believe a word that Northcote might say. The + apparent tortuousness of Northcote's conduct was caused by the + weakness of his position as leader of the Opposition in the House of + Commons. He was in favour of moderate courses, and always began by + agreeing with us in private, after which Randolph Churchill would send + a man to him with the message: "Go and tell the old goat that I won't + have it." And then the unfortunate Northcote, to avoid being denounced + in public, had to turn round and say that he could not answer for his + party.' + +Chronicling another talk with Gladstone, in which the latter spoke of +Northcote's "shiftiness," Sir Charles says: + + 'I had a high opinion of Sir Stafford, but in face of Churchill he was + not a free agent.... + + 'The Cabinet rejected Chamberlain's proposal to accompany coercion by + a provision against ejectments in the sense of the Compensation Bill + of 1880. In my diary I add: "By a majority they decided that there + should be no declaration of the nature of the Land Bill as yet; but, + as Gladstone was in the minority on this point, we shall probably not + wait long for the declaration. The Land Bill was finally settled. It + really gives the 'three F's,' applied by a Court, but so wrapped up + that nobody will find them."' + +Mr. Forster's Coercion Bill was introduced as the first business of the +Session, and was met by obstruction which more than realized the forecast. +From Monday, January 31st, through the whole of Tuesday, February 1st, the +debate was prolonged in a House possessing no recognized authority to +check it; and at nine on the Wednesday morning Speaker Brand adopted the +course which had been advocated by Lord Hartington. Acting in the exercise +of his own discretion, he ordered the question to be put. The Irish +members, having refused to submit, were removed one by one, technically by +force. In face of these circumstances the Cabinet met on the Wednesday +afternoon. + + 'The Cabinet decided not to have general closure in the form in which + Chamberlain had asked for it in my name as well as in his. Gladstone + wanted to have a special closure for Irish coercion, but Chamberlain + presented our ultimatum against that, and won. When Chamberlain and I + talked over the whole situation, I told him that I thought we had been + too popular up to now for it to last. We were now unpopular with our + own people in the constituencies on account of coercion, but, holding + their opinions, were not really trusted by the moderates. I thought + this position inevitable. The holding of strongly patriotic and + national opinions in foreign affairs combined with extreme Radical + opinions upon internal matters made it difficult to act with anybody + for long without being attacked by some section with which it was + necessary to act at other times, and made it difficult to form a solid + party.' + +When Dilke and Chamberlain, neither of whom was averse from the idea of +closure in itself, resisted a proposal which meant treating the Irish +members in a category apart from the rest of the House of Commons, they +took a course which now seems simple and inevitable. But there is some +difficulty in realizing to-day how Irishmen, and more especially Irish +members, were viewed in England through the early eighties. Something of +the public feeling towards them may be gathered from a string of extracts +dealing with another source of dissension in this Cabinet. Sir William +Harcourt, as Home Secretary, had adopted determined views of what may be +conceded to the exigencies or the demands of detectives. Sir Charles +writes on February 5th: + + 'It was at this moment that I first had to do with dynamite. Lord + Granville had instructed me to deal with such matters at once myself + without their passing through the Office; and receiving despatches + from Washington (containing despatches from our Consul at Philadelphia + offering information as to plots), and having missed Harcourt, I took + them to Mr. Gladstone. I said that I had no doubt a sharp Yankee was + trying to get a couple of hundred pounds out of us.' + +But Sir William Harcourt wished for the information, and Sir Charles adds: + + 'The result of this policy undoubtedly was the fabrication of plots, + as exposed by Michael Davitt in the _Labour World_ in 1890.' + +Later Harcourt modified his view, but 'this was like shutting the stable +door when the steed was stolen.' + + 'On February 16th I noted in my diary my dissatisfaction with regard + to the Secret Service money. In 1880 I had walked out instead of + voting for it, and I proposed this year to follow the same course. I + knew of nothing on which was spent the £15,000, except one sum of £40 + for a service not secret at all in its nature, "and £200 spent in + America on a ... panic of Harcourt's." I believe that as a fact most + of the money was spent in the United States, but as I was not trusted + with the information, I again walked out.' + +On February 12th 'there was a great row between Fawcett and Harcourt.' + + 'Harcourt and Fawcett had been opening the letters of the Irish + members, and when the Irishmen found it out Fawcett wanted to admit + it, and Harcourt insisted on a blank refusal of information. My + brother came to me with this question from the Radicals: "What is the + use of having a blind Postmaster-General if he reads our letters?"' + +The matter came up in the Cabinet along with a discussion on the Arms Act, +which prohibited the possession of firearms in Ireland without licence +from a Magistrate, and authorized the police to search. This Act had been +in force before, but had been dropped by the Government on coming into +office, and was now proposed as a supplement to Mr. Forster's "Protection +of Property" measure. + + 'On February 12th Mr. Gladstone, with Bright and Chamberlain, fought + hard against the Arms Bill. Harcourt, however, said that "coercion was + like caviare: unpleasant at first to the palate, it becomes agreeable + with use"; and, led by Harcourt, the majority insisted on having more + coercion, and it was settled that the second Bill should go on. At + dinner at Lord and Lady Cork's in the evening I was astonished to see + in what excellent spirits Mr. Gladstone was, although he had been + entirely overruled in his own Cabinet in the afternoon.' + +Meanwhile the Home Secretary's activity was making trouble for the Foreign +Office. + + 'It having been stated in the House of Commons by Parnell that he had + been watched and followed in Paris by persons connected with the + Embassy, Lord Lyons telegraphed to me to ask me to contradict the + statement. On February 19th he telegraphed again: "No one known to or + in communication with the Embassy followed Parnell or watched him in + any way in Paris, and nobody reported to the Embassy about him." I + wrote to Harcourt and told him that Lord Lyons wished a contradiction + made, and that Lord Granville wished me to make the contradiction "if + Harcourt sees no objection." I afterwards wrote to Harcourt, "From + what you said, I imagine that you do see objection; but if we can, it + is better to keep the Embassies out of police matters." Harcourt, + however, would not allow a contradiction to be given; and the fact was + that Parnell had been watched, but watched by the Home Office, through + the police, without the knowledge of the Embassy. Through this + watching of the Irish leaders, Parnell's relations with Mrs. O'Shea + were known to some of those who afterwards professed to be amazed by + the discovery.' + +Another subject produced open symptoms of a "split." On January 21st, +1881, during the debate on the Address, Mr. Rylands proposed a resolution +condemning the annexation of the Transvaal as impolitic and unjustifiable, +which was tantamount to declaring that the Boers had been justified in +their revolt. + + 'After my dinner party on the 21st, I went down to the House of + Commons and deliberately walked out on the Transvaal division, as did + three other members of the Government--Bright, Chamberlain, and + Courtney. We had all along been opposed to the annexation.' + +This was only the beginning. In South Africa difficulties accumulated for +the British Government. General Colley was repulsed at Laing's Nek on +January 28th, and on February 8th at the Ingogo River. But in this war +there was a real anxiety on both sides to negotiate, and President Kruger +despatched an offer to submit the whole dispute to an English Royal +Commission if troops were withdrawn from the Transvaal. On Wednesday, +February 16th, Sir Charles learnt from Mr. Chamberlain that there had been +a special Cabinet that afternoon 'to consider proposals from President +Kruger of the Transvaal, which Mr. Gladstone was most anxious to accept.' + +On the 18th 'the Transvaal question came up again on a Dutch petition +brought over by delegates, as to which Lord Granville wrote to me: "I +suppose it would not be right for you or me to see them. We shall probably +bear with fortitude the sacrifice."' But the Government were trying to +meet Kruger's advances in a reasonable spirit, and they instructed Colley +by telegram to suspend hostilities if the Boers abandoned armed +opposition. Colley telegraphed back for more precise instructions. The +Boers hold Laing's Nek, which was in Natal territory. Was he to insist on +their evacuating it--and thus opening the pass into the Transvaal--before +he suspended hostilities? The answer sent back on February 19th was that +he should forward to the Boers the British proposal, and fix a reasonable +time within which they must reply. During that time he was not to attempt +to occupy Laing's Nek. Sir Charles's Memoir makes it plain that the +decision to negotiate with the Boers was due to Mr. Gladstone and Mr. +Chamberlain: + + 'At the Cabinet of Saturday, February 19th, Mr. Gladstone and + Chamberlain, for a wonder, were in the majority, and it was decided to + drop the Arms Bill and to negotiate with the Boers; but at a further + Cabinet on the 26th, Mr. Gladstone being in bed... the decision of the + previous week was reversed, and it was decided to go forward with the + Arms Bill.' + +No reply came from the Boers within the time appointed, and on the night +of February 26th Colley seized the height of Majuba, which commanded +Laing's Nek. By noon on the 27th he was a dead man, and his force +defeated. The stated time had expired, and Colley did his duty as a +soldier. [Footnote: See an article in the _Nineteenth Century_ (March, +1904) by Lady Pomeroy Colley (Lady Allendale) in reply to some points in +the account of these events in the _Life of Gladstone_, iii., pp. 36-38.] +But it is none the less true that the Boers, even after the action, still +believed themselves to be in negotiation. On the 28th Kruger, ignorant of +what had befallen, was writing a grateful acknowledgment of the proposal +to suspend hostilities, and was suggesting a meeting of representatives +from both sides. + +It was urged, of course, that a disgrace to the British Army must be wiped +out before there could be any further talk of parleying. Yet in Mr. +Gladstone's Government there had been from the first an element which +plainly thought the war unjustified, and with that element Mr. Gladstone +had some sympathy. The Radicals now asserted themselves. + + 'On Wednesday, March 2nd, after a long interview between me and + Chamberlain on the state of affairs, Chamberlain had an hour and a + half with Bright, and got him to write a strong letter to Gladstone + about the Transvaal, which we put forward as the ground for a proposed + resignation, although of course the strength of the Coercion measures, + the weakness of the Land measures, and the predominance of the Whigs + in the Cabinet were the reasons which weighed chiefly with Chamberlain + and myself. In the Transvaal matter, however, we should not be two, + but four, for Bright and Courtney must go out with us, and Lefevre + might do so. On the other hand, we had reason to think that if the + Whigs yielded to us on the Transvaal, Kimberley would go. On the next + day, Thursday the 3rd, Bright was sent for by Mr. Gladstone on his + letter. Bright found him in entire harmony with our views. Kimberley + at once gave in, and telegraphed what he was told; so the difficulty + was over before the Cabinet was able to meet, and we as far from + resignation as ever. + + 'On March 5th, I noted in my diary that the Land Bill was + unsatisfactory. Chamberlain told me of a scene between Bright and + Dodson which amused me much. Says Bright to Dodson: "You were put into + the Cabinet to vote with Gladstone. Surely you ought not to oppose + him." Says Dodson indignantly, "A man may have an opinion." "But why + express it?" said the old Quaker.' + +In the middle of March + + 'Things looked bad again at this moment, for on the 14th I wrote a + draft address to the electors of Chelsea, prepared in view of my + resignation along with Bright and Chamberlain. I alluded in it to "the + non-reversal in the Transvaal of an act of high-handed aggression, + which at the time of its inception I had condemned by vote and + speech," and also condemned the resort to coercive measures for + Ireland.' + +So far as the Transvaal was concerned, the sympathies of Chamberlain and +Dilke with the Boers prevailed; negotiations proceeded, and a Commission +was named, which finally recommended a reversal of the annexation. The +selection of Chamberlain--whose department had no connection with South +Africa--to justify this step in debate indicated how strong was his +opinion in favour of the Boers. But the Duke of Argyll, who was leaving +the Government from disapproval of their Irish Land Bill, nevertheless on +this matter defended the action of his former colleagues. + +The situation was summed up by an observation of the Queen's to Lord +Spencer, which, says Sir Charles, amused the Cabinet on March 26th. The +Queen's Speech on January 7th had contained this curt phrase: "A rising in +the Transvaal has imposed upon me the duty of taking military measures +with a view to the prompt vindication of my authority." To this the Queen +replied: "I cannot see how my 'authority' has been 'vindicated' in the +Transvaal." "There was nothing else to be done, Ma'am," says Spencer. "I +quite understand that," says Her Majesty, "but still I do not see how my +'authority' has been 'vindicated.'" + +Mr. Gladstone was meanwhile doing the right thing in Ireland with his Land +Bill, but Mr. Forster, Sir Charles thought, was destroying the effect by +the free use of his new measure, which, having become law by the end of +February, enabled the Irish Government to put any man into gaol on a mere +suspicion and without form of trial. Members of Parliament were not at +first attacked, but the officials of the Land League were seized. Mr. +Davitt had been general manager; his ticket-of-leave, as an ex-Fenian +prisoner, was recalled by Sir William Harcourt, and he was re-arrested. +Mr. Dillon took Davitt's place. Sir Charles writes on Saturday, April +30th, 1881: + + 'At the Cabinet, which I think was on the previous night, but of which + I heard the details on this day, it was decided to arrest Dillon. + Spencer and Granville, who were both of them away, for it was not, I + think, a regular Cabinet, were both against it rather than for it; + Harcourt was really neutral, though Gladstone counted him for it; + Kimberley, Hartington, and the Chancellor alone supported Gladstone + and Forster. Bright, Chamberlain, Childers, and, wonderful to relate, + Carlingford (who was present, though the newspapers said he was + absent), Northbrook, and Dodson opposed the arrest. Gladstone declared + that it was six to six, and gave himself a casting vote. A few days + later Lord Granville spoke to me warmly against the decision of the + Cabinet. He said he never knew numbers counted in the Cabinet before, + and that it was absurd to count heads in assemblies in which there was + such a difference in the contents of the heads. This criticism, + however, goes too far, and strikes at the root of the decisions of + Parliament itself.' + +Meanwhile the Land Bill had reached its second reading. But the Irish +executive was constantly appealed to for constabulary to assist in +carrying out sentences of eviction, while, on the other hand, tenants were +fighting landlords by a general strike against rents. + + 'At the Cabinet on May 4th the chief topic discussed was the + possibility of checking evictions in Ireland without preventing the + payment of rent by tenants perfectly able to pay.' + +In addition to the Irish trouble in Ireland, there was the Irish trouble +in the House of Commons, in no way settled by the Speaker's one arbitrary +imposition of closure at his own discretion. That Mr. Gladstone's mind was +working towards another solution is evident from the following note: + + 'On June 8th I went to The Durdans to lunch with the Roseberys, and + walked with Mr. Gladstone. We marched round the Derby course, and Mr. + Gladstone said that the first business after the Irish Land Bill must + be procedure, and that this must be the business of next year. He + said, "there must no doubt be some repression by the closure, but + there must also be still more delegation."' + +The discussion of the Land Bill was long almost beyond precedent, but by +August it left the Commons, and Lord Salisbury, though furious in his +invective, declined to advise its total rejection. The Irish landlords had +their will of it in Committee, and sent it back unrecognizable. The Lords' +amendments were then reviewed by Mr. Gladstone, and, broadly speaking, +rejected. There was the usual threat of a collision between the Houses. +Sir Charles's first note, in his diary of August 12th, indicates how +completely Mr. Gladstone controlled this situation: + + '"Harcourt is very violent against the Lords, more so than either + Bright or Chamberlain, but the decision, whatever it may be, of the + Cabinet, will on this occasion be Mr. Gladstone's." + + 'On the 14th I noted, "The claim of Lord Salisbury to force us to + 'consult the country' is a claim for annual Parliaments when we are in + office, and septennial Parliaments when they are in office." I did + not, however, believe in this particular crisis. On the 14th Lord + Houghton wrote complaining that we did not meet so often as we used to + do. "This is a penalty one pays for having one's friends in power. I + fear there is no hope of their ceasing to be so by the instrumentality + of the House of Lords." On the 15th Lady Lytton's sister told me that + Lytton had "enjoyed the fighting attitude of the Lords. It seemed more + worthy than talking so much and doing so little." But she added: + "After it was all over they were in a most horrid fright."' + +Lord Ripon wrote from India of the proceedings in the House of Lords that +he thought Lord Salisbury "would succeed in blowing the institution to +pieces before long." + +With a Cabinet so divided, rumour of changes was certain to be rife. + + 'On August 17th there occurred the Ministerial fish dinner at + Greenwich, which was then a yearly institution. Rosebery was in the + chair--for on these occasions the Chairman is arbitrarily chosen, + generally from among the very youngest members of the Government, and + is a sort of lord of misrule. [Footnote: Lord Rosebery was Under- + Secretary at the Home Office.] + + 'Harcourt told Chamberlain at the dinner that Mr. Gladstone had made + up his mind to put Lord Frederick Cavendish into the Cabinet, as + Chancellor of the Exchequer, Chamberlain arguing that he ought not to + be put in over my head. + + 'On the way home Harcourt told me that there were other changes to be + made besides putting in Cavendish, and that one of them was that he + should become Lord Chancellor.... I did not myself believe any of + these reports, but confined myself to urging that Chamberlain should + be Chancellor of the Exchequer.' + +This assumed continuance in office, but a little later Mr. Chamberlain, +writing to Sir Charles, entered the domain of prophecy, with some hint of +the 'unauthorized programme.' He thought that the Liberals would be beaten +at the next election, and that their business was to try to get the +farmers over to their side. + + "What is the good of bothering about Bankruptcy or Local Government + when our real business is to outbid Chaplin and Co. with the farmers? + But, then, what will our Whig friends say to Radical proposals as to + tenant right, improvements, rating, etc.?" + +While Sir Charles was in Paris Mr. Chamberlain wrote on October 4th: + + "I am very uneasy about the Irish business. It does not look as if the + Land Bill would do much, and meanwhile 'outrages,' exaggerated + probably by the Press, are forming a large part of the information + supplied by the papers for the autumn season. It is the history of + last October over again, and I expect every day to hear of some + proposal for further coercion. I am clear that we were right in + resisting coercion last year, and I even wish we had gone further and + gone out upon it. But what is to be done now? Can we go on drifting + without a policy? We cannot go back. It is too late to release the + 'suspects,' and, if we were to do so, the experience of the past few + weeks shows that this would not make things smoother with Parnell and + Co., while it would bring down a storm of denunciation from the other + side. Then, can we go further in the direction of coercion? I doubt if + the House of Commons would stand it. To put down the Land League would + involve so many questions affecting public agitation in this country + that the Radicals would surely be up in arms. It is possible the + Tories might do it if they were in office, which I wish to God they + were. But can the Liberals do it, and, above all, can you and I be + parties to any more of such work? I should not have a moment's + hesitation in saying 'No,' if I could find any alternative, but it is + evident that Parnell has now got beyond us. He asks for 'No Rent,' and + Separation, and I am not prepared to say that the refusal of such + terms as these constitutes an Irish grievance. I should like to stand + aside and let the Coercionists and Parnell fight it out together, but + I fear this is not now possible. Altogether it is a horrible + imbroglio, and for the moment I do not see my way out of the fog. I + wish I could talk it all over with you." + +A little later, however, he wrote: + + "'The resources of civilization'--see Mr. G.'s speech--will mean + immediate and greatly extended use of the Protection Act. There will + be a miraculous draught of fishes directly. In for a penny, in for a + pound. I hope it will be a clean sweep. The electors will better stand + a crushing blow than coercion by driblets. There is no other + alternative except new legislation--and from that may Heaven defend + us." + +On October 12th, 1881, Mr. Parnell was arrested and put into gaol. On +October 17th, Sir Charles, then in the South of France, wrote to Sir M. +Grant Duff--who had become Governor of Madras--that "Bright and +Chamberlain supported the proposed general _razzia_ on the Land League +leaders in order to avoid fresh coercive legislation." Fresh legislation +would have meant trouble in the House of Commons. But the arrest of Mr. +Parnell, which "folly" Sir Charles had tried to prevent, led to greater +trouble. + +The British Government now endeavoured to back up the policy of force by +dividing the opposition. Ever since the trouble generated by the rejection +of the Compensation for Disturbance Bill, Dublin Castle had been (not for +the first time) seeking to enlist on its side the spiritual power of Rome. +There were two lines of approach, of which the first is indicated in a +note under November 22nd, 1880: + + 'Lord Granville was engaged at this moment in trying, through Cardinal + Newman, to induce the Pope to bully the Irish Bishops; but the Irish + Bishops told the Pope, in reply to his remonstrances, that if he + adopted a policy of compromise in Italy which was unpopular with the + Church, he must leave them alone with Irish affairs.' + +The "policy of compromise" was not likely to be adopted. Cardinal Manning, +talking to Sir Charles on July 15th, 1880, on his return from Rome, +expressed his belief that the Vatican was badly advised in its hostile +attitude towards the Italian Monarchy, which he personally would be +prepared to support against the Revolutionary Party, since its fall would +probably bring about an anti-clerical republic. + +Far more continuous were the negotiations, with a view to influencing the +Irish Church, carried on through Mr. George Errington, a gentleman of old +Roman Catholic family, who had sat since 1874 as a moderate Home Rule +member for County Longford. [Footnote: The historic difficulties in the +way of an Embassy to the Vatican, fully given by Lord Fitzmaurice in the +_Life of Lord Granville_, vol. ii., chap, viii., pp. 281-282, had been +surmounted "by the practice of allowing a Secretary of Legation, nominally +appointed to the Grand Ducal court of Tuscany, to reside at Rome, where he +was regarded as _de facto_ Minister to the Vatican." Lord Derby had, +however, withdrawn Mr. Jervoise, the last representative, and no other +appointment had been made.] + +The following notes show the points at which Sir Charles came into touch +with the development of Mr. Errington's 'Mission' to the Vatican. On +December 1st, 1880, Mr. Errington wrote--in pursuance of a conversation of +the previous day--to solicit Sir Charles's offices with the French +Government towards mitigating the severity with which expropriation of the +unauthorized congregations might be carried out under M. Ferry's Article +7. The letter dealt also with the matter on which his 'Mission' was +afterwards based: + + "I am constantly receiving news from Ireland of the evil effects + already produced by the temporary success at Rome of Archbishop + Croke"--who represented advanced Nationalism--"and his party. This + would have been quite impossible had any diplomatic relations existed. + Cardinal Jacobini will take care, I am sure, that such a thing does + not occur again. Whether he can undo or counteract the mischief + already done is, I am afraid, doubtful.... + + "I suppose it would be desirable in the interests of government and + order in Ireland that the Vatican should do all in its power to keep + the clergy from going with or countenancing the Land League." + +On December 6th, 1880: + + 'Errington came to me in Paris, nominally on behalf of the Vatican, + with a view of having negotiations entered upon, and I believe this + was the time at which he obtained, at Lord Spencer's request, some + sort of private commission from Lord Granville. The commission was + afterwards made more definite.' + +October 28th, 1881: + + 'I saw Errington, who was in Paris on his way to Rome with letters + from Lord Granville, based on the request of Spencer and Forster that + he, Errington, should represent the Irish Government at Rome during + its great struggle with Parnell, matters in Ireland being too serious + to make roundabout dealing through Lord Emly [Footnote: An Irish Roman + Catholic M.P. who, after being Postmaster-general, was raised to the + Peerage.] and Cardinal Howard safe; and Errington was to be tried from + October until Easter.... + + 'In the evening of November 10th, at dinner at the Harcourts', Mr. + Gladstone, taking me aside about Errington's mission, told me that he + was bitterly opposed to the notion of reopening relations with the + Papal Court; and there can be no doubt that he assented most + unwillingly to the views of Spencer, Forster, and Harcourt in favour + of the Errington "Mission." He deceived the House of Commons about it, + because he always closed his own eyes to the facts. [Footnote: The + line taken by the Government in the House of Commons was that Mr. + Errington had no formal appointment, and that his communications were + not officially dealt with by the Foreign Office. These diplomatic + explanations only increased the suspicion of the followers of Parnell + and of the Ultra-Protestants led by Sir H. Drummond Wolff.] + + 'On December 24th, 1881, Lord O'Hagan passed through Paris, despatched + on a secret mission to Rome about Ireland by Forster, who was not + satisfied with the results up to then of the Errington Mission.' + + 'On December 31st I received a letter from Forster, in which he said + that Lord O'Hagan had returned, and that no notice had been taken by + the papers of his visit to Rome, which was a good thing.' + +To the principle of such intermediation Sir Charles had no objection. What +he disliked was that the thing should be done and denied. He himself in +the previous year had written by the Government's request to Cardinal +Manning at Rome for assurance that the future Bishop of a new See in +Canada would be a British subject. Manning also had written to him +concerning the establishment of a new See for Catholics of the Levant, +with its seat in Cyprus, guaranteeing that "the influence of our Bishop +and all about him would be ... strictly in support of the Government," and +asking therefore that, "when the seat of Government for Cyprus had been +fixed, Rome might be informed, as it would be desirable for the Bishop to +be in the same place." + +Manning was quite content with the influence that he could wield, and, as +a letter from him in 1885 shows, was strongly against diplomatic relations +between England and the Vatican. Sir Charles, however, did not take that +view: + + 'Such perpetual applications have to be made to the Court of Rome, not + only (as the public thinks) with regard to Irish affairs, but with + regard to Roman Catholic interests in all parts of the world, that I + have always been favourable to taking the public into our confidence + in the matter and appointing a representative at the Court of Rome. At + one time we used to carry on our affairs with the Papal Court through + Cardinal Howard, an English Cardinal; but the Pope is so anxious to + obtain official representation that he throws difficulties in the way + of ecclesiastics acting as informal representatives. Then Lord O'Hagan + used to go to Rome, at the expense of Irish Secret Service money, as a + private traveller, and he used to carry on negotiations with the + Vatican.' + +Sir Charles resented 'the complications that are caused by our having to +do that in fact which we refuse to do in form.' The Errington "Mission, +which was no mission," was an instance. + +Though the year drew to its close there was still no decision as to the +means of dealing with obstruction. But approach was being made to a +settled policy. + + 'On my return to London I found that a Cabinet had been called for + Thursday, November 10th, to deal with the forms of the House, as the + Speaker and Erskine May had been concocting a new code, which, I + added, "is certain to be perfectly useless, as the Speaker is + generally, and May invariably, wrong.... Direct closure is the only + thing of any use. That would be one fight and no more; but the + Speaker-May code would probably take a whole Session to get, and be + useless when we have got it.' + +'When Chamberlain came to dinner on November 11th, he left with me till +the next day the "secret" paper printed for the Cabinet as to the forms of +the House, which was written by May and annotated by the Speaker, and I +was glad to find that it included closure.' + +In a Parliamentary Session marked by so much that was inconclusive, Sir +Charles had the satisfaction of recording in his diary one piece of +progressive legislation which was his own. By April, 1881, he had got +ready his Bill for putting an end to the Unreformed Municipal +Corporations, and so carrying out the policy which he had recommended +while in Opposition, and it became law. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +EUROPEAN POLITICS + + +In 1881 the general European situation was still critical. The Greeks had +seen Montenegro's claim made good while their own pretensions remained +unsatisfied, and at the beginning of the year war between Greece and +Turkey seemed so probable that Lord Houghton was writing anxiously to ask +Sir Charles by what means the antiquities of Athens could be guaranteed +against bombardment. + +Sir Charles notes, on January 18th and 21st, conversations between himself +and Mr. Goschen, who had temporarily returned from his mission at +Constantinople, 'as to helping Greece by a naval force, which he and I +both desired.' But Mr. Gladstone refused his sanction to this project, and +Sir Charles for the moment took a very grave view, noting in his diary on +February 1st: + + "Lord Granville has now to decide (in two days), before Goschen starts + for Constantinople via Berlin, whether he will disgracefully abandon + Greece or break up the Concert of Europe." + +The Concert was kept together, but only upon condition of limiting Greece +to a frontier with which Sir Charles was extremely discontented. + + 'On March 27th I was in a resigning humour about Greece, but could not + get anybody to agree with me, and Chamberlain said that not even + Liberal public opinion in England would now support isolated action or + Anglo-Italian intervention. Chamberlain thought that in the interest + of Greece herself it was desirable that she should be made to take the + last Turkish offer, which gave her all the revenue-producing country, + and kept from her the costly and the dangerous country.' + +A week later he wrote a minute for Lord Granville and Mr. Gladstone, +proposing that autonomy should be given to those portions of Epirote +territory which were being withheld from Greece; but this plan was +negatived, and a final settlement was reached on May 17th. + +The settlement of 1881 was not a settlement which contented Greece and the +friends of Greece; and it was only a provisional settlement. + +But new complications were developing elsewhere. + + 'On February 1st I wrote to Gambetta by our "bag" to tell him that + Sheffield' (Lord Lyons's secretary) 'would call on him from me to tell + him a secret. This secret was that the Three Emperors' League was + again revived and France once more isolated. But this was such a dead + secret that even our Cabinet were not to know for fear some of them + might talk.' [Footnote: The murder of the Emperor Alexander II. on + March 13th terminated these plans for the time. But out of them + subsequently grew the meeting of the three Emperors at Skierniewice on + September 15th and 16th, 1884; and indirectly Prince Bismarck's + "reinsurance" treaty with Russia, which his successor, Caprivi, + refused to renew in 1890.] + +France, though 'isolated,' was beginning to take action which threatened +far-spreading trouble. Mention has been made of her pretension to Tunis, +and of the support to that pretension afforded by a hint of Lord +Salisbury's in 1878. In the early spring of 1881 the first serious step +was taken to threaten the independence or quasi-independence of Tunis. +This development was the more serious because an important dispute was in +progress concerning a Tunisian estate called the Enfida, to which rival +claims were put forward by M. Lévy, a British subject, and by a French +company, the Société Marseillaise. On January 12th M. Lévy's +representative, himself also a British subject, was expelled from the +property by agents of the French Consulate. + + 'On February 3rd there came to me at ten o'clock in my Foreign Office + boxes a telegram from Lord Lyons, which told us that the French had + sent the _Friedland_ from Toulon to Tunis to bully the Bey. I wrote + off by special messenger to Lord Granville that we ought at once to + send the fleet to Tunis unless the _Friedland_ were withdrawn, and + Lord Granville accepted this view, and telegraphed to Lord Lyons to + that effect at noon. [Footnote: 'On February 5th, the Cabinet having + approved our suggestion, we telegraphed for the _Thunderer_ and a + despatch-boat to sail at once for Tunis.'] + + 'Our difficulty was in this matter to avoid acting with Italy. We did + not want to keep the French out of Tunis, but we could not have + ironclads used to force Tunisian law courts into giving decisions + hostile to British subjects. Barrère wrote to me from Paris at + Gambetta's wish saying that I was labouring under a grievous mistake + in thinking that the _Friedland_ was sent to settle the Enfida case + against the English. The ship was sent because the Bey "declines to + sign a treaty of alliance with us." At the same time he went on to say + that the present policy of France would not last longer than six + months, which meant, of course, that Gambetta intended to form a + Government at that time (which as a fact he did), and that "our friend + deplores the present policy of the Government and declines all + responsibility."' + +On August 25th Gambetta expressed to Dilke "profound disapprobation of all +that has been done in Tunis," on which is noted: 'Possibly he would have +done the same, but he is very wise after the event.' + + 'On May 6th Lord Granville, against Tenterden's opinion and my own, + sketched drafts to Germany and Austria as to the position of the + French in Tunis, with a view to raise the Concert of Europe in their + path. We pointed out to him that Germany and Austria would snub us, + and succeeded at last in stopping this precious scheme. The wily + Russian got up the trouble by hinting verbally to Lord Granville that + Russia would act with England and Italy in this matter. A curious + league: England, Russia, and Italy against France; and a queer + Concert. The proposal led to trouble three days later, for, of course, + the Russians told the French in such a way as to make them believe + that the idea was ours.' + +On the evening of May eth Sir Charles met Laffitte, "the Comtist Pope," at +the Political Economy Club. + + 'Frederic Harrison treated him as an old lady of the Faubourg would + treat the Pope or the Comte de Chambord, or both rolled into one. But + Laffitte happening to say that he approved of the French expedition to + Tunis, Harrison's feelings became too much even for his reverence and + his religion. Laffitte's remark, from Laffitte, showed, however, how + unanimous was the French feeling.... + + 'On the 9th the trouble which I had expected broke out. The French + Ambassador (Challemel-Lacour) came to see me in a great rage, and told + me that his Government had heard that we had tried to raise Germany + against France on the Tunis question by an alliance offered at Berlin, + though not through our Ambassador. This particular story was untrue. I + denied it, and I then went to Lord Granville, who denied it.... I then + wrote to Challemel to ask him to give up names; but he declined.' + +France was in conflict with the Kroumirs on her Algerian frontier, the +expeditionary force penetrated the interior, and by the middle of June the +Bey had appointed M. Roustan, the French Consul, to represent him in all +matters. + +Justifications were put forward, and there was much discussion as to what +Lord Salisbury had said or not said at Berlin in 1878. + + 'Lord Salisbury had made Wolff withdraw the question, of which + (foolishly from the Conservative point of view) he had given notice, + but the matter having been raised, the Cabinet, on Friday, 13th, + decided to publish a portion of Lord Salisbury's despatches, though + not the worst.... [Footnote: A letter from Lord Granville to Sir + Charles, of May 15th, 1881, shows the difficulty. "I sent, according + to custom, the Salisbury Tunis papers to the Marquis. You will be + surprised to hear that he does not like them. He objects to all, but + principally to the extracts from Lord Lyons' despatch." Lord Granville + goes on to suggest alternative courses, the first being "to consent at + his request to leave out the extracts, with a warning that it is not + likely it will be possible to refuse them later."] + + 'I wrote to Lord Granville to say that I was sorry there had not been + included in the papers a despatch of July 16th, 1878, giving the + conversation between Lord Lyons and Waddington on Waddington's return + to Paris' (from the Congress of Berlin). 'On the 9th, on the 11th, and + on the 13th July, 1878, Lord Lyons had reported the irritation in + France at the Cyprus Convention. On July 16th Waddington returned to + Paris, and the row in the French Press suddenly ceased. In his + despatch Lord Lyons says that Waddington told him that Lord Salisbury + "had assured him" that "H. M. G. would make no objection if it suited + France to take possession of Tunis." [Footnote: The Life of Lord + Lyons, by Lord Newton, gives, on July 20th, 1878, a letter from Lord + Salisbury which evidently refers to the despatch. In this letter Lord + Salisbury says: "What M. Waddington said to you is very much what he + said to me at Berlin...." A further passage in the letter is: "If + France occupied Tunis tomorrow, we should not remonstrate." See _Life + of Lord Lyons_, vol. ii., p. 152.] Waddington said that he-- + Waddington--had pointed out to Lord Salisbury that Italy would object, + and that Lord Salisbury had replied that she must "seek compensation + in Tripoli." Corti had also assured me that Lord Salisbury had said + this to him at the time. I strongly urged the publication of Lord + Lyons' despatch in justice to ourselves, if anything was to be + published. Lord Salisbury undoubtedly, and even by his own admission, + had used most impolitic language, giving up that which was contrary to + British interests to give up and which was not ours to give. (He was + fated to do the same thing in the case of Madagascar.) He had + afterwards denied that he had done anything of the kind. He also had + denied that France had minded our occupation of Cyprus, and doubly + concealed the fact that after making the foolish mistake of taking + Cyprus, he had got out of the difficulty in a still more foolish + fashion.' + +This led to correspondence between Count Corti, then Italian Ambassador at +Constantinople, and Sir Charles--a discussion which was renewed later in +conversation: + + 'He in fact admitted the truth of what I had said, but added that he + disapproved of the Berlin conversations. "At that time everybody was + telling everybody else to take something which belonged to somebody + else. One more powerful than Lord Salisbury, more powerful than Lord + Beaconsfield, advised me to take Tunis. [Footnote: _Life of Lord + Lyons_, vol. ii., p. 224; letter from Lord Lyons to Lord Granville, + May 13th, 1881: "They got Bismarck's leave for this."] Lord Salisbury + advised me to take an island, and Lord Salisbury may have advised me + to take Tripoli." At the State ball in the evening, I told Odo Russell + this. He told me that Lord Salisbury had disgusted Corti by forgetting + him on the occasion when he told the great men at the Congress of + Berlin about the occupation of Cyprus, and that Corti had never + forgiven him.' + +Egypt also was now a growing anxiety, made graver by the events in Tunis, +which excited apprehensions of like proceedings elsewhere. In such a +condition of feeling even trifling incidents--as, for example, that of the +Smyrna Quays, where the Porte had violated some rights of an English +company--grew delicate and critical. All such matters and many others had +to be dealt with in the House of Commons by question and answer--a task of +no small difficulty, since the susceptibilities of foreign Powers had to +be considered, while British interests, no less sensitive, could not be +ignored. + +The fulfilment of the Treaty of Berlin was meanwhile an enormous addition +to the work of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary, especially as it was at +first complicated by the ill will of Russia, which had hoped that the +change of Government might bring about some modifications. It was also +complicated by the Porte's unlimited capacity for wasting time. The topics +regulated by the treaty and its supplementary conventions, when taken in +connection with the Treaties of Paris and London, which it partly +superseded, fell under at least seventeen separate heads; each of these +branched off into numerous divisions and subdivisions, most of which +admitted of possible controversy, while many required executive action by +Commissioners on the spot, [Footnote: Thomas Erskine Holland, _The +European Concert in the Eastern Question_, pp. 222-225.] such as the +delimitation of the boundaries of the new States. Nearly every question +involved communications with the signatory Powers, and each of them had a +long diplomatic history which had to be studied. M. de Courcel told Sir +Charles that in his dreams he always saw a second river flowing by the +side of the Danube, as large and as swift, but black--the river of ink +which had been shed over the Danube question! Sir Julian Pauncefote, the +Permanent Under-Secretary, was credited by Sir Charles with being the only +man in England who then understood it; and the question of the Danube, +after all, was only one of many. + +Questions were continually being asked in the House of Commons, where the +expert in foreign affairs was not so rare as he became in a subsequent +period; but the inquiries of inexpert persons were the most troublesome of +all. + +Sir Charles's power of terse and guarded reply was universally considered +supreme, and was all the more valuable at a time when the practice had +grown up, then comparatively new and since gradually limited, of asking +questions on foreign and colonial affairs, with the object of embarrassing +Ministers, and without regard to the consequences abroad. It gradually +became a dangerous growth, greatly facilitated by the lax procedure, as it +then existed, of the House of Commons in regard to supplementary +questions. This procedure often allowed question time to degenerate into a +sort of ill-regulated debate. Mr. Gladstone's habit of allowing himself +very frequently to be drawn into giving a further answer, after the +carefully prepared official answer had already been given by the Under- +Secretary, was another complication. The brunt of all these troubles had +to be borne by the representative of the Foreign Office. [Footnote: Sir +Henry Lucy, writing "From the Cross Benches" in this year, discussed +critically the various styles of answering questions: + +"Sir Charles Dilke's answers are perfect, whether in regard of manner, +matter, or style. A small grant of public money might be much worse +expended than in reprinting his answer to two questions put last night on +the subject of Anglo-French commercial relations, having them framed and +glazed, and hung up in the bedroom of every Minister. A good test of the +perhaps unconscious skill and natural art with which the answer is drawn +up would be for anyone to take the verbatim report which appears in this +morning's papers and attempt to make it shorter. There is not a word too +much in it. It occupies just twenty-eight lines of print, and it contains +a clear and full account of an exceedingly intricate negotiation. The +majority of the answers given by Ministers in their places in Parliament +appear much better in print than when spoken, redundancies being cut out, +parentheses put straight, and hesitancy of manner not appearing. But to +the orderly mind and clear intelligence which instinctively brings +uppermost and in due sequence the principal points of a question, Sir +Charles Dilke adds a frank manner, a clear voice, and an easy delivery."] + +Sir Charles was always a close student of Indian government, and many +notes on it are scattered through his diary. On January 9th, meeting +Mallet at York House with the Grant Duffs, he says: 'I had always held a +strong opinion against the India Council, and Mallet confirmed me in my +view that the existing constitution was bad. He ought to know.' The +Government turned to Dilke for assistance in debates on foreign affairs, +even in a case where the Government of India rather than the Foreign +Office was involved. + +By the beginning of 1881 England's policy in Afghanistan had been finally +determined. The evacuation of Kandahar was now definitive, in spite of +opposition from a high quarter. On January 18th 'the Queen telegraphed to +Mr. Gladstone at length in a tone of severe rebuke that all her warnings +as to Kandahar had been disregarded.' On March 8th Sir Charles received a +preliminary warning from Lord Hartington to read up his Central Asian +papers, and-- + + 'the Cabinet of March 19th wrote to me to follow Edward Stanhope as to + Kandahar debate' (who had been Lord Beaconsfield's Under-Secretary of + State for India in 1878, and now naturally led the Tory attack). 'I + had to move the direct negative on behalf of the Government. This was + a great compliment, as the matter was not in my department, and the + only three members of the Government who were to speak were Mr. + Gladstone and Lord Hartington and myself.' + +After the debate on March 24th, Lord Granville, having first sent his own +congratulations, wrote to say: "Gladstone expressed himself almost +poetically about the excellence of your speech." [Footnote: "The speech of +the debate was that of Sir Charles Dilke. It was close, cogent, and to the +point throughout. His facts were admirably marshalled, so as to strengthen +without obscuring his arguments. There was no fencing, no rhetoric, no +fighting the air. + +He came at once to close quarters with his adversary, and demolished his +arguments one after another by a series of cut-and-thrust rejoinders, +which left but little to be added by those who followed him on the same +side. Mr. Stanhope's attack on the Ministry has been of conspicuous +service to at least one Minister" (_Pall Mall Gazette_, edited by Mr. John +Morley).] + +In the course of this year, Sir Charles, once more diverging from Radical +preconceptions, helped Sir Robert Sandeman, who was + + 'sent over by the Viceroy to state his views. I was able to give him + such assistance with my colleagues as to save the districts (the + Pishin districts and the Khojak frontier) to the Indian Government.' + +In this Sir Charles was with Lord Ripon, but a draft treaty of Lord +Ripon's, which proposed to surrender Merv ('not ours to give'), roused his +fierce opposition, and was rejected by the Cabinet. He was always resolute +for a strong frontier policy in Central Asia. + +The assassination of the Emperor of Russia on March 13th in this year +roused all the Home Offices into activity, and England was as usual taxed +with being the asylum of every desperado. Sir William Harcourt inclined +strongly to the demands of the police, including the prosecution of +Socialist publications, and he carried the Cabinet with him. + + 'On March 26th I noted in my diary: "...At to-day's Cabinet Bright was + the only Minister who opposed the prosecution of the _Freiheit_, and + Chamberlain positively supported it."' + +It may be added that Sir Charles was charged by a certain Mr. Maltman +Barry with having subscribed to the funds of the _Freiheit_, which was an +anarchist publication. The charge was met by an absolute denial, and was +supported by no evidence. It was, however, fathered in the House by Lord +Randolph Churchill, and this led to a breach of friendly relations with +the latter, which lasted for some time. + + 'On April 9th I was in Paris, and breakfasted with Gambetta, who told + me that Bismarck was about to propose a Conference, which was insisted + on by Russia, concerning the right of asylum, and we agreed that + England and France should refuse together to take part in it.' + +A fortnight later Sir Charles, returning from Toulon, was able to offer +his congratulations to Gambetta, because France had declined to attend the +Conference. But the matter was still open as regarded England, and + + 'on April 30th, and again on May 3rd, I noted that Sir William was + "wrongheaded about the right of asylum," but that I hoped he would not + be allowed by his colleagues to offer to legislate on extradition to + please the Russians.' + +At the Cabinet on May 4th + + 'there was a long debate upon nihilism. Lord Granville some time + before had told the Russians that legislation was intended. That was + so, for a Bill had been prepared. But it was clear that it would be + foolish to introduce it. Kimberley and Chamberlain were against all + proposals to meet the Russians. Then came before the Cabinet the + question of Harcourt's reply to Cowen's question to be put on the next + day, whether information was given by the English police to the + Austrian police as to Socialist addresses in Vienna, which had led to + arrests. Our police say that they only told the Austrians of a place + where dynamite was stored. This seemed to me a cock and bull of Howard + Vincent's. Harcourt had drafted a reply about Napoleon Bonaparte, + which the Cabinet wanted him to alter, but when he is pleased with an + answer it is not easy to make him alter it, as I noted. As our police + virtually denied the charge, Harcourt might have given their denial, + as theirs, in their own words, but nothing would induce him to do + this.' + +As regarded Russia, Lord Granville based himself on the fact that a +similar arrangement existed between England and Germany, and he questioned +whether political offenders would be much safer in a German than in a +Russian court of law. To the promise of backing from France, he objected +that M. Saint-Hilaire had already pledged himself to an extradition treaty +with Russia. On the latter point Sir Charles answered that for this +amongst other reasons M. Saint-Hilaire was about to be removed from the +French Foreign Office. In the end of October, 1881, Sir Charles was seeing +Gambetta frequently, and observes that he was + + 'much excited about the question of the extradition treaty with + Russia.... + + 'Curious though it seems to us (in 1890-1895), when we know how + intensely pro-Russian Gambetta's friends now are, Gambetta was + intensely anti-Russian and pro-Turk.... + + 'There is the same difference of opinion in the French Cabinet as to + the making of an extradition treaty with Russia as there is in ours, + where Harcourt wants it and his colleagues do not. This was the only + subject discussed at the interview of the Russian and German Emperors + at Danzig' (September, 1881), 'and England and France are in their + black books.' + +Lord Granville constantly referred to Sir Charles for advice as to the +temper of the House of Commons, though in this case he supported Sir +William Harcourt, and might be excused for failing to see what was plain +to Sir Charles as a practical House of Commons politician, that, apart +from principles, a Liberal Ministry would be sadly embarrassed if it had +to defend the handing over of political refugees to the Russian police, +and that the Tories would probably support the Radical wing in a vote of +censure. + +The combination at the Foreign Office of the two Ministers, the old and +the young, the Whig and the democrat, worked excellently, and Lord +Granville, in telling Sir Charles that in his absence in France during the +Session Hartington must answer his questions, said that 'picking out any +of those who are not in the Cabinet is an indication of what would be done +when that terrible moment may come to me of your leaving the P.O.' One +matter had, however, caused Sir Charles uneasiness. + +In the close of the year 1880 there was a proposal to give a charter to +the North Borneo Company. No ordinary politician knew anything of this +Company, but Sir Charles, while in Opposition, had grounds for asking +questions hostile to it, and had stirred up Mr. Rylands to do the same. +This fact Dilke mentioned to Lord Granville. But, finding Foreign Office +opinion in favour of the concession, he promised that + + 'I would not take an active part in opposition to the Charter scheme + if and providing the Cabinet approved of it.... On November 19th, + 1880, the box, which had been round the Cabinet on the North Borneo + business, having returned without any comment by Mr. Gladstone, I got + it sent again to Mr. Gladstone, who finally decided, I was informed by + Lord Granville, against Herbert of the Colonial Office, Harcourt, + Chamberlain, Bright, Childers, and myself, and with Lord Kimberley, + the Chancellor, and Lord Granville. So it was settled that the Charter + was to be granted; but a little later Mr. Gladstone forgot the + decision which he had given, insisted that he had never heard of the + matter at all, went the other way and would have stopped the Charter, + but for the fact that it was too late.' + +This made Sir Charles exceedingly indisposed to undertake the defence of +it in a House of Commons where his own questions asked in Opposition would +assuredly be quoted against him by Sir John Gorst, who, when the Charter +was published in December, tabled a motion against it. 'It was not so much +to the thing itself I was opposed as to the manner in which it was done.' +He therefore wrote to Lord Granville that he had made full search for +precedents, 'the first thing which occurs to a Radical in distress,' and +that finding no modern precedent, he simply could not undertake to defend +the Charter, his objections being that to make such a grant without the +knowledge of Parliament strained the prerogative of the Crown, and, +further, that the Foreign Office was not the fit department to control a +colony (as had been urged in the case of Cyprus). He notes: 'Gambetta +tells me that he has at once had an application from a similar French +Company--for the New Hebrides.' Lord Granville made official reply, with +some asperity. But he sent a separate unofficial letter, in which, after +treating of other matters, he smoothed over his more formal communication. +These letters were received by Sir Charles on December 27th, 1881, on his +return to Paris from Toulon.[Footnote: Later Sir Charles notes: 'My own +objections (besides those to the form in which the matter had been +considered) were to the absence of sufficient provisions with regard to +domestic slavery and opium, but as regards these two latter points I +succeeded in getting the gap filled in.'] The unofficial letter ran: + + "I have sent you an answer on a separate piece of paper to your rather + blowing-up letter about Borneo. You have been misled by Spencer's + ignorance and Gladstone's very natural forgetfulness of the + particulars. It was more inexcusable of me to have forgotten what it + appears you told me about your and Rylands' previous action. When my + liver does not act and official work becomes unusually irksome, I + sometimes ask myself upon what question I should like to be beaten and + turned out. The first would be fair trade. The second, which the _St. + James's_ and Raikes, the late Chairman of Committees, seem to + anticipate, is failure to reform the procedure of the Commons owing to + Tory and Home Rule obstruction. I should not think Borneo a fatal + question for this purpose.... There is a great run upon us now as to + Ireland, but do you remember a December when it was not generally + supposed that the Government of the day was going to the dogs?" + +The matter passed over, but was serious enough for Mr. Chamberlain to say +in January of the following year: + + "If, what I do not expect, the affair should proceed to extremities, I + shall stand or fall with you." + +One other matter of this period is interesting as showing Sir Charles and +his chief at work. A draft was on its way to the Colonial Office, 'laying +down the law for dealing with fugitive slaves who escaped into the British +sphere of influence'--a case of constant occurrence at Zanzibar. Sir +Charles's views on this and kindred subjects were strong, and he worked +then, as always, with the Aborigines Protection Society. He stopped it-- + + 'and Lord Granville wrote upon my views a characteristic minute': "I + think our proposed draft is right and defensible in argument. I also + am of opinion that your condemnation of it is right, because the fact + is that the national sentiment is so strongly opposed to what is + enjoined by international law that it is better not to wake the cat as + long as she is asleep!"' + +At the end of July, 1881, Lord Granville's health seemed seriously +affected, and Sir Charles noted that, apart from his own personal feeling, +his chief's enforced retirement would be 'a great misfortune.' The choice +would be between Lords Derby, Hartington, Kimberley, and Northbrook. Lord +Derby seemed to him 'undecided and weak,' Lord Northbrook still weaker, +while Lord Hartington 'knew no French and nothing of foreign affairs.' Of +Lord Kimberley's ability he had not then formed a high estimate; but he +adds that, having afterwards sat with him in the Cabinet, he changed that +opinion, finding him 'a wise man,' who never did himself justice in +conversation. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH FRANCE + + +Although in the course of 1881 Sir Charles had refused to defend in the +House of Commons a special grant for defraying the Prince of Wales's +expenses on a Garter Mission to St. Petersburg, and Lord Frederick +Cavendish, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, had to undertake this +task, which more properly belonged to the Foreign Office, the Prince's +relations with him were cordial. The Prince was increasingly inclined to +interest himself in foreign politics, but received very little +encouragement from the Court. In June, 1880 (when the rumours as to +Challemel-Lacour were being set afloat [Footnote: For an account of these +rumours see Chapter XXII., p. 353.]), Sir Charles noted that, as far as he +could ascertain, the Prince of Wales, + + 'being not at this time admitted by the Queen to "official knowledge," + got the whole of his modern history from the _Figaro_.... + + 'On the evening of February 19th, 1881, I dined with Lord and Lady + Spencer to meet the Prince and Princess of Wales. The Prince spoke to + me about his anxiety to be kept informed of foreign affairs, and the + Princess spoke to me in the same sense, telling me how fond she was of + her brother the "King of Greece," and how anxious therefore about his + business. The Prince asked me whether he could, while in Paris, do + anything to help on the negotiation of a new treaty of commerce, and I + wrote to him next morning to suggest the language that he should hold. + Ferry, the Prime Minister, I pointed out, was a Protectionist, and I + suggested that the Prince should say to Ferry how important for the + good understanding of the two countries it would be to conclude a fair + treaty at once.... + + 'On the 18th I had written to Gambetta to tell him that I should be in + Paris on April 9th and on April 24th, and that I was to see him, but + that no one was to know; and on March 20th I received his answer + accepting my conditions. The Prince of Wales had carried out the + suggestion which I had made, having taken my letter with him, and read + it over immediately before seeing Jules Ferry, upon whom he seemed to + have made some impression.' + +This Sir Charles learnt from a letter of Gambetta's of March 30th, which +ended: "Je vous attends le 9 avril au matin, incognito strict +impénétrable, ou le 24 au retour Á votre choix." At this meeting Sir +Charles received from Gambetta the assurance that delegates would be sent +to London to attempt the negotiation of a treaty. + +Sir Charles did not believe that a treaty would be concluded. In his +judgment England would not consent to accept a treaty unless it were an +improvement on the existing position, and such a treaty France was not +likely to give. But he believed that by negotiating better terms could be +obtained, not indeed by treaty, but under the tariff which the French +legislature would introduce by Bill. [Footnote: Gambetta kept in touch +with Sir Charles throughout on this matter, writing April 16th: "Nous +causerons de toutes ces sottes affaires, que je ne peux m'imaginer aussi +mal conduites, mais il y a encore de l'espoir, croyez-moi."] + +A joint Commission was nominated to sit in London, with Challemel- +Lacour and Dilke for its respective heads. The other English Commissioners +were Sir C. Rivers Wilson, who was a Treasury official before he became +Finance Minister in Egypt; Mr. C. M. Kennedy, head of the Commercial +Department of the Foreign Office; and Mr. W. E. Baxter, the member for +Dundee. Sir Charles says of the preliminary meetings, which were concerned +with a wrangle between him and Challemel-Lacour as to the extent to which +M. Léon Say had committed his Government: + + 'We got no further, but we were both very much pleased with ourselves + for the manner in which we argued. Challemel, being an orator and + having the use of his own tongue, was at an advantage, but I managed + to hold my own, I think, pretty well.' + + 'At the second meeting, May 30th, I began a course of speeches on pig + iron and such matters which was destined to continue for many months. + I used to get up my technical terms in the morning (the "jargon," as + the French call it), and to forget them immediately after. I believe + that on this day I forgot the French for "steel blooms" within five + minutes after being most learned in regard to them.' + +The sittings went on throughout June, 1881, with results in some respects +favourable. But the matter had now a political as well as a commercial +aspect. It was probable that Gambetta was about to form a Government, +though it was unlikely to come into being before the late autumn, after +the French general election. On both sides there was a desire to have +friendly relations, but public feeling was extremely sensitive in both +countries. The occupation of Tunis had produced a certain tension with the +Foreign Office; and in France the growing Protectionist movement made it +certain that if England, which from 1860 onward had enjoyed special terms +in her commerce with France, was again to have a special treaty, it would +not be so favourable. + +The position in July was that a treaty giving certain advantages to +England could be secured at once from M. Ferry's Ministry, and that a +total failure of the negotiations was in itself to be deprecated. Lord +Lyons was for concluding the treaty which might be made at once, fearing +lest England should be put under the general tariff. Here Sir Charles's +familiarity with Parliament made him invaluable. He perceived that any +treaty which could be made at this moment would leave certain leading +British industries--notably cottons and woollens--worse off than they had +been under the expiring arrangement, and therefore would probably be upset +by a vote in the House of Commons. This would be disastrous. It seemed to +him better to wait till Gambetta came in, and to do the best he could with +the new Government. This decision prevailed, Sir Charles persuading Mr. +Chamberlain to support his view in the Cabinet. + +It was decided, however, to insist on prolongation of the existing treaty +as a condition of continuing the negotiations, and Sir Charles now +proposed to strengthen his hand by a threat of retaliation. He was invited +by the Prime Minister to attend a meeting of the Cabinet in regard to +commercial treaties on August 6th. + + 'The result was a despatch from myself to Mr. Adams [Footnote: + Afterwards Sir Francis Adams. He was then Chargé d'Affaires in Paris, + and later Minister in Switzerland. He was at this moment in charge of + the Embassy during Lord Lyons's absence.] which was not included in + the Blue-Book afterwards laid before Parliament. It ended by relating + a conversation with the French Ambassador on the previous day, in + which I threatened (and this was the reason for not placing the + despatch before Parliament) that if we did not come to a satisfactory + understanding with France, we should make treaties with Spain, + Portugal, and Italy, in which we should reduce the rate of duty on the + dear wines produced by those countries, and raise the rate of duty on + the less strong wines produced by France. I have always been a + reciprocitarian to this extent, and was always backed in using such + arguments by Chamberlain, who held the same view in a still stronger + form. Mr. Gladstone and Lord Granville always prevented any public + reference to such matters, but they allowed me to put them in + despatches, although not to lay them before Parliament.' + +On August 17th Gambetta again suggested a private interview, and it was +decided that Dilke should cross, ostensibly on a visit to La Bourboule, +and hold the interview on his way. [Footnote: Gambetta wrote: "Nons serons +strictement seuls. Si! les choses électorales ont fort bien tourné, non +sans peine, mais pas de guerre sans blessures." (22 août, 1881).] On +August 22nd Mr. Adams reported that-- + + 'Gambetta was determined that Tirard' (Minister of Commerce in M. + Ferry's Cabinet) 'should fail, in order that his Government should + have the glory of succeeding in our negotiations.... + + 'On Thursday, August 25th, I breakfasted with Gambetta, and then went + on to La Bourboule. He told me that he was prepared to take office + without portfolio, "in order to be able to watch all the others."' + + "Tuesday, August 30th, '81.--As to the treaty, Gambetta said that M. + Tirard would not be got rid of in time; some mode must be found of + turning the difficulty which he had created. He would see him, and + Tirard would probably propose some plan to me when I called on + Tuesday" (this might be Thursday). "_I suggested... a treaty with some + small country, and the most-favoured-nation clause with us--we giving + nothing...._ This was the excellent ultimate outcome." [Footnote: This + paragraph is from a note made at the time.] + +On September 5th, on his way back from La Bourboule, 'I was officially in +Paris, and saw the Ministers, Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire, Jules Ferry, and +Tirard; and on the next day, Tuesday the 6th, saw Gambetta privately +without their knowledge.' + +At this moment prolongation of the existing treaty had not been accorded, +and negotiations were in suspense. Sir Charles frankly "told the Ministers +that I did not expect we should be able to agree," and suggested a plan +which, without a special commercial treaty, should secure what had up till +then been settled in negotiation. France was obliged to renew her treaties +with Switzerland and Belgium, and might concede to these countries in +detail 'those things which up to this point we had obtained in +negotiation.' + +Prolongation of the existing treaty was, however, at last accorded, and +conferences were resumed on September 19th in Paris-a change of scene +greatly to the Commission's advantage. + + 'We now continued to sit day by day in state at the French Foreign + Office, which contrasted with the simplicity of Downing Street under + the rule of a parsimonious Treasury. The French certainly know how to + spend their money, and I fancy that the United Kingdom must suffer in + negotiations both from the superior style in which foreign Governments + treat negotiators and from our abstention from the practice pursued by + foreign Governments of showering decorations upon negotiators. At the + French Foreign Office, outside the magnificent room in which the + conferences are held, was a great buffet covered with the most costly + luxuries, behind which stood tall footmen dressed in the national + livery of red and blue, and I think that our manufacturers who came in + to give evidence were in some cases not altogether insensible to the + attractions offered them. Some of our witnesses, however, were really + first-class men, and it was a pleasure to hear Mr. Joseph Lee of + Manchester, who was afterwards knighted on my suggestion, hammering + the French.... When I called the name of Wedgwood as that of my + witness upon pottery I noticed the sensation that ran round the French + Commission, who were under the impression that "Wedgwood" was a + contemporary of Michael Angelo; but, of course, my Wedgwood was not + the original, though he was a descendant.... + + 'During my first long visit to Paris the French Government gave me + every night the official box at either the Opera or one of the great + theatres, and I used to go, not that I cared about the theatre, but + because I was able to give hospitality in this way to our leading + manufacturers, who were over as our witnesses. We used, indeed, to do + a good deal of our business at the theatre. The official boxes having + drawing-rooms at the back, we retired into these, and discussed what + we were going to say at the Conference the next morning.' + +But after many sittings negotiations did not seem likely to lead to any +settlement, and Sir Charles was anxious to break them off. The French +opposed this, urging that prolongation of the treaty would then have been +gained for nothing; and they made a good many small concessions on the +numerous articles subject to their tariff. + +During the sittings Sir Charles Dilke kept Lord Granville posted in a mass +of detail: Ivory and pearl buttons reduced to half; vulcanite goods, an +improvement on the _status quo_; great and wholly unexpected reduction on +biscuits; but starch very bad (this was on "an excellent day for the small +things"). Other reports dealt with steel scrap, phosphorus, faience, and +so forth, and by tabulated figures set off the total of losses and gains. +Lord Granville, thanking him for these constant reports, remarked with +serene detachment that they were "as interesting as lists of the betting +in the newspapers just before the Derby. I hope you will win the race." He +added that in his opinion "Tirard and the Temps were only playing a game +of brag." + + 'At my conference on October 24th I had found Tirard very cross, he + apparently having made up his mind that Gambetta intended to turn him + out, and having therefore resolved to make the conclusion of a treaty + impossible in order to attack his successor and to destroy the treaty + if one were made. He suddenly asked for a vast reduction in the + English wine duties, and on my refusing to discuss the matter, he + replied that after the "enormous concessions" which had been made to + us, any French Minister who did not obtain similar concessions from us + would be worthy of impeachment. He was very rude to me, and evidently + wanted to provoke an immediate rupture.' + +On this Sir Charles wrote to Mr. Gladstone: + + "The Commissioners are in the singular position of trying to arrange + the terms of a treaty with a Minister who, if the treaty is made, is + likely to become the private member to move its rejection." + + 'I was not much hampered from London at this time. Mr. Gladstone + wrote: "I have nothing to do but commend and concur."' + + 'On October 28th I determined not to break off negotiations, but + simply to finish--that is to say, to go clean through the tariff, and + stop when we had no more to say. We then could leave matters open, and + begin again in the following month with the new Government which + Gambetta was about to form.' + +Already Sir Charles was being introduced to the future members of what +came to be called the "Grand Ministère," and was not favourably impressed: + + 'On November 2nd, Gambetta having informed me that Rouvier would be + his Minister of Commerce, and having asked me to meet him, we dined + together at the Café Anglais, but I was greatly disappointed in him.' + +On November 5th Sir Charles left Paris for London, nominally for purposes +of consultation; but this was only a pretext to suspend operations till +Gambetta came into office, which he did on November 10th. Sir Charles, +being then in London, found the British Government of his own opinion, +that they could hope for no more than most-favoured-nation treatment; but +opinions differed as to how this should be obtained. Mr. Gladstone wanted +to give a pledge that the low duty on the lighter wines--which favoured +France, since no other country could produce them-should not be raised. +Sir Charles, on the other hand, wanted to threaten the French with a +change in the duties, which would favour Italy by letting in the slightly +stronger Italian wines at the same rate as "Gladstone" clarets. + +On November 19th he was back in Paris, seeing Rouvier and Gambetta, both +of whom asked for time to prepare the way for a final meeting of the +Commission, and Sir Charles went to his house near Toulon. On December +28th the detail of the French proposals was known, and they were held to +be unsatisfactory. Gambetta still insisted that an agreement could and +must be reached, but Dilke was of another opinion, and at the thirty- +seventh sitting, held on the last day of the year, negotiations were +really broken off. The last sitting, held on January 2nd, 1882, was merely +formal, and that evening Sir Charles left for London. He had not expected +to succeed in concluding a treaty, and he had not concluded one, but he +had earned high credit from experts. Lord Granville wrote: "From all sides +I hear praises of your knowledge, tact, and judgment." His secretary, Mr. +Austin Lee, [Footnote: Now Sir Henry Austin Lee, K.C.M.G., C.B., +Commercial attaché for France, Belgium, and Switzerland at the British +Embassy in Paris.] showed him a letter from one of the Under-Secretaries +of State in the Foreign Office, who + + 'said that it was a blessing to have had me at Paris, because any + other negotiator would have sent yards of cipher telegram to the + Office asking to be allowed to give the French all that they demanded + from us, and proving that we must take whatever we could get from + them.' + +The British members of the Commission were unanimous in support of their +chairman, and when Gambetta fell and M. de Freycinet became Prime +Minister, they refused to hold any further sittings. Lord Lyons was +uneasy, and in February, 1882, wrote that the most-favoured-nation treaty +was a very forlorn hope." Mr. Gladstone thereupon wished to give his +pledge against any raising of the duties. + + 'I succeeded in stopping this, for I felt sure that we should get it + for nothing, as, in fact, we did. + + 'That we obtained most-favoured-nation treatment without giving way + upon our wine duties and sacrificing revenue was a triumph, as we got + all the reductions (which on yarns were very large) which we had + obtained in the course of the negotiations. These had, after being won + by us, been given to the Swiss and Belgians--who were "behind" us, and + signed treaties. The result was that there was an increase, not a + falling off, in our trade with France.' [Footnote: Full information + with regard to the negotiations of a new commercial treaty between + France and Great Britain, will be found in Commercial No. 37, 1881, + and Commercial No. 9, 1882.] + +"The foresight shown by Sir Charles Dilke in proposing this arrangement is +brought out by the fact that it has been maintained, and given entire +satisfaction, during the thirty years and more which have elapsed from its +conclusion," says Sir Henry Austin Lee. + +M. Hanotaux, in his _France Contemporaine_, observes that Dilke was often +a _précurseur_. He certainly was so in an important matter of Imperial +policy which connects itself with these negotiations. Leave was granted, +through Sir Charles at the Foreign Office, to the Canadian High +Commissioner, Sir A. Galt, 'to negotiate upon his own account, provided +that he concluded no stipulations unfavourable to the mother country. In +this, I made a precedent which has been followed,' and which was not made +without opposition. The Colonial Office, while unable to prevent Canada +from acting for herself, prevented Sir Charles at the Foreign Office from +acting conjointly with Canada. The matter developed in 'the following +spring': + + 'On March 1st (1882) Sir A. Galt asked me to let Kennedy' (Sir C. M. + Kennedy) 'of the Foreign Office go to Paris as Second Commissioner for + Canada to help make a Franco-Canadian treaty. On the 2nd I agreed, and + got Lord Granville's consent, and the Foreign Office officially asked + the Colonial Office, when Lord Kimberley refused. I pressed the matter + in angry, but as I think conclusive, minutest Lord Kimberley, however, + set his teeth, and refused point blank, and Lord Granville then backed + him up, saying that "on a Colonial matter it was impossible to fly in + the face of the Colonial Secretary of State." I wrote, 2nd March, + 1882: + + '"I think Lord Kimberley's decision a great misfortune to British + trade and to friendly relations with the Colonies, and wish this + minute and opinion to that effect placed on record with the despatch + which he wishes to withdraw. We could have stipulated that the mother + country should have been entitled to all reductions made to France, a + further advantage which, if Canada is angry at the refusal, may be + needed but not obtained."' + + 'April 20th, 1882: At this moment I called attention to the bearing of + our most-favoured-nation-clause treaties on the commercial condition + of the British Empire generally, and pointed out that the bearing of + the matter on the Colonies would become very important some day; and I + found even too much support from the head of the Trade Department, who + was a Protectionist, or at least a strong Reciprocitarian, and who at + once grasped my idea by arguing that there was a chance that some day + there would be formed a British Zollverein, raising discriminating + duties upon foreign produce as against that of the British Empire. I + had only pointed out the possibility. The representation of Canada by + Sir A. Galt at Paris also provoked minutes by me on this question + later in the year.' + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +GAMBETTA, DISRAELI, ROYAL PERSONAGES, MORIER + + +I. + +The New Year of 1881 had opened for Sir Charles with Gambetta's greetings: + + "Chambre des Députés. + + "CHER AMI," + + "Je vous envoie mes voeux les plus ardents pour tous les succès que + vous pouvez désirer dans cette année qui s'ouvre, et pour la + réalisation desquels j'ai confiance que votre bon génie continuera à + vous sourire. + + "Quand vous passerez a Paris le 4 ou autre jour venez me voir. Je ne + bouge d'ici jusqu'au 20. + + "Je vous embrasse et vous aime, + "Paris, 1 _Janvier_, 1881." + + "L. GAMBETTA. + +When they met, the Ferry Ministry was in office. Sir Charles met 'General +Farre, the Minister of War, who has left no name except for having +abolished drums, which were shortly afterwards reintroduced, and who, so +far as I could see, did not deserve to leave one,' and also Ranc, one of +Gambetta's satellites, who 'was entertaining with a description of the +various anarchical parties in Paris then engaged in sitting "on each +other's ruins."' A story which Sir Charles tells of his crossing to Paris +(in the end of August, 1881) illustrates the vehemence of prejudice +against Gambetta: + + 'I had made the journey alone in a compartment with the young Comte de + FitzJames, who was a Lieutenant in the army. He did not know me, and + assured me that, it being Gambetta's custom while President of the + Chamber to ask to breakfast each day the officer of the guard, if he + ever happened to be on duty at the Palais Bourbon, and, consequently, + were asked, and had to go, he should utter not one word.' + +Gambetta, who heard the story, was greatly amused by it. + +During part of September and part of October, 1881, the friends did not +meet, because Gambetta was away from Paris. 'It was rumoured he had been +to see Bismarck, which was untrue,' says Dilke. "But," he adds in a letter +to Lord Granville on October 24th, "Gambetta visited Memel and Kiel, and +saw the German fleet, of which he does not think much." + +The Prince and Princess of Wales were in Paris when Sir Charles returned +there to resume commercial negotiations. On October 24th he breakfasted +with them at their hotel, and met them again on the 28th, when they +lunched with the Austrian Ambassador: + + 'Beust is a man that I never saw without marvelling how he should have + played so great a part in the affairs of Europe. He always reminded me + of Lord Granville with the brains left out. The same little jokes, + though less good, the same smile, the same courteous manner; but an + affectation and a real stupidity which were all his own.' + + 'I went in the afternoon with the Prince and Princess of Wales to see + Munkacsy's "Christ," an enormously overrated picture, in which the + chief figure was that of an Austrian village idiot, not a Christ, but + the half-revolutionist, half-idiot that Christ was to the Jews who + crucified Him, and who formed the crowd in the picture. If that was + what the man wanted to paint, he had succeeded, but that probably was + not what he wanted.' + + 'The Prince was most anxious to meet Gambetta again; Gambetta not at + all anxious to meet him. But the Prince having distinctly asked me to + ask him to breakfast, and to ask Gambetta to meet him, the latter was + obliged to come. The Prince, however, having asked me to invite + Galliffet as one of the guests, Gambetta, who liked Galliffet + personally, but was afraid of being attacked in the Press, absolutely + refused to come, so Galliffet had to be knocked off the list again. + Galliffet has misrepresented this in his Memoirs.' + +This breakfast took place on Sunday, October 30th, and made much talk, +though the Prince was officially travelling as a private gentleman, an +incognito which the waiters had difficulty in remembering. Mr. Austin Lee +had been invited to take the place of General Galliffet in the party of +six, which was completed by Mr. Knollys and Colonel Stanley Clarke. The +place was known as the Moulin Rouge Restaurant, soon to disappear in the +rebuilding of the Avenue d'Antin. It is said to have been kept open for +some days beyond the date originally fixed, to furnish a _déjeûner_ worthy +of these guests. In spite of the privacy observed, Rumour was busy, and +_Punch_ of November 12th appeared with an amusing "Monologue du Garçon," +giving at great length the supposed conversation and the menu of the +breakfast. + + 'Gambetta said a great many good things. He called Blowitz a "crapaud + de Bohème," which Escott afterwards quoted from me in the _World_, I + think. He said, apropos of the then French Government: "To change a + policy you must have a policy, just as to change a shirt you must have + a shirt." Gambetta told me that he wished to make Tissot Foreign + Minister, and that as he intended to take Chanzy from St. Petersburg, + he should have three Ambassadors to find. Gambetta was satirical about + Ireland. He said, referring to Mr. Gladstone's speech: "Everything is + going on admirably in Ireland, it seems. You have thirty thousand + lawsuits under your new Land Act. Excellent!"' + +The Prince returned to London next day, and sent to Sir Charles through +Mr. Knollys an expression of thanks and a request that Gambetta would send +him a signed photograph. The request was duly transmitted, and Gambetta +replied: + + "CHER AMI," + + "Pensez-vous que ceci soit acceptable? Si oui, pas de réponse; si non, + dites-moi s'il suffit d'une simple signature comme autographe. + + "À vous, + + "L. GAMBETTA." + +The inscription was: "Au plus aimable des princes--un ami de +l'Angleterre." + +Four months later the Prince of Wales wrote to Dilke expressing his +personal regrets for Gambetta's fall from power, and Gambetta's letter in +reply was sent to Sir Charles for transmission on March 6th, 1882. + +The Ferry Ministry fell on November 10th, 1881, and the thought of +Gambetta in power acted, said Bismarck, on the nerves of Europe "like a +drum in a sick man's room." + +On November 1st + + 'I heard from Lord Lyons, and gathered from confidential telegrams, + that the idea of disarmament was in the air again in Europe. This, of + course, really meant a disarmament to be imposed by the Empires and + Italy upon France. But it was stopped again, as it had often been + stopped before, by Russia. + + 'I had told Lord Granville that I thought Gambetta would offer the + Embassy in London to Ferry, and that I did not know if the Queen would + like his marriage being only a civil one, and that the Roman Catholics + in England would certainly make it disagreeable for him. Lord + Granville wrote on this: "I am glad to be rid of Challemel-Lacour. He + must be a clumsy fellow to have got on such bad terms with both Saint- + Hilaire and Gambetta." In the following week, however, Gambetta made + up his mind that J. Casimir-Périer should become his Ambassador in + London. But Gambetta fell before he had been able to give him the + place. + + 'On the night before I left I dined with Pouyer-Quertier, who had been + Finance Minister of France under Thiers at the time of the Frankfort + Treaty. He told me a wonderful story about how, when the negotiations + had been all but broken off, he went to bed in despair. But in the + morning before light there was a knock at his door. He got up in his + nightshirt, and there was Bismarck in full uniform, who made him get + back into bed, saying he would catch cold. Then, drawing a chair to + the bedside, Bismarck spread out the treaty on the night-table and + wrangled on, till after a while he said that it was dry work, and got + up and rang and asked for beer. After the beer had been brought by a + sleepy waiter, he rang again and asked for kirsch, and poured a + quantity of the liqueur into the beer. Then he made the poker red-hot + in the fire which he had relighted, stirred up the mixture, and + invited Pouyer-Quertier to drink. Pouyer-Quertier said: "I drank it + thinking of my country, and Bismarck clapped me on the back, and said + that I was such a good fellow that the evacuation should take place at + once, and this is how the final article was signed; it was signed on + the table at my bedside." I did not believe the story, but when I + asked Bismarck years later he said that it was true.' + +Returning to London on November 5th + + 'I left Paris at a moment of great excitement over the financial + situation, there having been a kind of Roman Catholic financial union + which had beaten a Jewish ring, and which afterwards itself collapsed. + It was said that James de Rothschild had lost his money in this + business; but his brother-in-law told me that ... it was not true that + he had lost a sixpence.' + +On November 19th Sir Charles left London, and saw Rouvier and Gambetta +late that evening in Paris. 'The Gambetta Ministry had been formed, and it +was thought important that I should see Rouvier at once.' Next day, Sunday +the 20th, he 'breakfasted with Gambetta, meeting Spuller and General +Billot.' To the latter he had been introduced by Gambetta in January, +1880, when Billot was 'commanding the Marseille Corps d'Armée: an +intriguer who, in the event of war occurring between 1887 and 1890, would +have been second-in-command of the armies of France.' [Footnote: "A letter +to a friend of this date shows that Sir Charles did not think Gambetta's +Ministry was likely to be in a strong position when it came into power: + + "FOREIGN OFFICE, + "PARIS, + "21st November, 1881. + + "Gambetta is, according to the papers, at war with the Senate and with + the Church. I think that he is at war with the Senate, and that this + is foolish of him. I don't think he is at war with the Church. It is + the Senate, more than the Church, which is offended by the appointment + of a rampant atheist and vivisector as Minister of Religion. The + Church has probably less to fear from Bert than from less known men. + Gambetta is to see the Nuncio to-day, and I don't think that the + Nuncio, who has long been his warm personal friend, is likely to + express much alarm. + + "The Senate is more serious. The monstrous folly of Bert's + appointment, the dismissal of the senator de Normandie, governor of + the Bank, and the putting only one senator into the Cabinet, have + irritated it beyond all bearing. Gambetta may gain twenty seats in + January, but even supposing that he is supposed to have a majority in + the Senate, it is a majority in which you have to count semi- + Conservative rivals such as Leon Say and de Freycinet, foes like + Challemel-Lacour, and men of the extreme Left like Victor Hugo, who + are more likely to follow Clémenceau than Gambetta. And yet he needs + the Senate to keep the other House in order by the threat of a + dissolution, which requires the consent of the Senate."] + +Gambetta had taken the Foreign Office himself: + + 'He seemed to me solid, strong, and prudent. Indeed, I never saw him + appear to so much advantage. We walked from his "den" to the dining- + room, where the guests were waiting for breakfast, through his + bedroom. A fine Louis XVI. bed from the _garde-meuble_ was in the + alcove. I pointed, and asked: "Le lit de Talleyrand?" "Le lit de + Dagobert!" At our meeting on the 20th we discussed fully the Danube + question, and also that of Newfoundland, in which I always took a deep + interest, but with regard to which I was far from agreement with the + French. [Footnote: The Danube question was left unsettled by the + Treaty of Berlin. The question of the navigation and outlets gave rise + to constant trouble, owing to the claims of Russia and Austria- + Hungary. After prolonged negotiations the Conference of 1883 arrived + at a compromise. See _Life of Granville._ vol. ii., chap, vii., Lord + Granville's despatch, March 14th, Turkey, No. 3, 1883.] + + 'During the whole of this visit to Paris I deeply admired Gambetta, + with whom I spent almost the whole of my three days. He showed to + great advantage, sobered by power, rapid in his acquisition and + mastery of new subjects. He had grasped the Danube difficulties and + those of Newfoundland in a moment. How different from those about him, + of whom Spuller, of all men in the world, was one day to be his + successor--a heavy fellow, who, as long as Gambetta lived, used only + to open his mouth for the purpose of "thee-and-thouing" Gambetta in + asking for the salt, just to show that he dared to "thee" and "thou" + him. + + 'On December 28th I breakfasted with Gambetta, when he told me that he + would himself have given Jules Simon any Embassy or any place in his + Government, for he was fit for any ("the cleverest man in France"), + had he not known that Simon was too bitter, and would think that he + was being bought, and would refuse. Freycinet was at Gambetta's, and + also Spuller, Rouvier, Ranc, Pallain, Reinach, and Gerard. They were + much excited as to the selection by Gambetta of Weiss of the _Figaro_ + as Secretary in the Foreign Office' (in place of Baron de Courcel), + 'as Weiss was said to have made the anti-Republican Government of May + 16th; but Gambetta merely answered that he could not see why he should + not be allowed to employ as a despatch writer "the first pen of + France." The same difficulty had arisen about the army, Gambetta + wishing to make Miribel Chief of the Staff, although he was a + reactionary. This appointment was afterwards made by Freycinet in + 1890, amid public applause, although the suggestion had been one of + the causes of Gambetta's overthrow.... + + 'Gambetta says that the American despatches to us about Panama raise a + monstrous pretension--that they might as well claim the Straits of + Magellan and Cape Horn'. [Footnote: The Americans had announced that + in the event of the completion of the Canal they intended to keep it + in their own hands.] + +On December 29th Sir Charles dined with Lord Lyons to meet Gambetta and +some of the new Ministers: + + 'On this evening I heard Gambetta for the first time say "If I can," + for he was beginning to feel how sharply limited by the hostility of + the Chamber was his power. He was speaking of revision of the + constitution for the purpose of the adoption of _scrutin de liste_.' + [Footnote: Sir Henry Brackenbury, in _Some Memories of My Spare Time_, + observes that in 1881 he dined at the Embassy, when "Gambetta and M. + Spullor, his _fidus Achates_, were also present, as well as Sir + Charles Dilke." He thought Dilke "by far the best talker of the + party."] + +On January 2nd, 1882, he again breakfasted with Gambetta. + + 'Gambetta told me that the Chamber would never forgive him for having + suggested _scrutin de liste_, and hated him. At the same time he + informed me of his intention of again proposing it, although he + expected to be beaten, and seemed to have made up his mind to go out.' + +Writing to Grant Duff of this coming conflict, Dilke said: + + "Gambetta means to put _scrutin de liste_ into the constitution at the + revision--_if he can_. That will be a warm day! I never heard him say + 'If I can' before. I wonder if his great exemplar ever said 'If I + can'? Sala and Rosebery, who are the two best Napoleonists I know, can + tell us." + + +II. + +Sir Charles, as representing the Foreign Office in the House of Commons, +was naturally in close touch with Mr. Gladstone; in addition, the +commercial negotiations necessitated frequent interviews. The admiration +which Sir Charles felt for his chief was, however, frequently crossed by +differences of opinion, especially as to his method of approaching foreign +affairs. + + 'Writing to express his concurrence in my action with regard to the + commercial negotiations, Mr. Gladstone went on to say: "I am glad + Gambetta says that he is in the same boat as us as to Panama. Our + safety there will be in acting as charged with the interests of the + world minus America." This was a curious example of the world of + illusions in which Mr. Gladstone lives. The Americans had informed us + that they did not intend to be any longer bound by the Clayton-Bulwer + Treaty, and that in the event of the completion of the Panama Canal + they intended virtually to keep it in their own hands. Mr. Gladstone + called in France in joint protest with us against this view, although + he might have foreseen the utter impossibility in the long-run of + resisting American pretensions on such a point, and although he + himself would have been the first, when the Americans threatened war + (as they would have done later on), to yield to threats that which he + would not yield to argument. It amused Harcourt, however, to concoct + with the Chancellor and the Foreign Office portentous despatches to + Mr. Blaine, in which we lectured the Americans on the permanency of + their obligations. How childish it all was! Moreover, the Monroe + doctrine suits our interests.' + +Sir Charles's letters to Mr. Gladstone, even when short and business-like, +are marked by a deference which he used to no one else; and the deference +at times has the accent of affection. Sir Charles always enjoyed Mr. +Gladstone's old-world courtesy, and especially his playfulness. + + "It would be impossible," he said, "to give a true account of Mr. + Gladstone without recalling the manner in which, however absorbed he + might be in his subject, he would break off to discuss some amusing + triviality. When we were talking once of the real and inner views of + French statesmen with regard to our occupation of Egypt, some chance + expression suddenly diverted Mr. Gladstone's mind to the subject of + rowing; and he began recalling in the most amusing way incidents of + his own Eton days of some sixty-eight or sixty-nine years previously, + shivering at the thought of his sculling in cold weather against + strong stretches of the stream near Monkey Island." + +But the elder statesman who fascinated Sir Charles's imagination was the +great Tory chief; and in 1881 came at last the realization of a wish long +entertained by him for a meeting with Lord Beaconsfield. More than once he +had been balked of the opportunity by his punctilio of holding rigidly to +even the most ordinary social engagements. After one of these +disappointments he wrote: + + 'I should like to talk to the most romantic character of our time, but + I fear it is only vulgar curiosity, for I really know a great deal + more already about him than I could find out in conversation.' + +The curiosity had been sharpened by the publication of _Endymion_, for Sir +Charles thought that in devising the story of Endymion Ferrars Lord +Beaconsfield had taken a general suggestion from the career of the Radical +who, like Endymion, had made his debut as Under-Secretary for Foreign +Affairs; and the novelist admitted the debt. + +The meeting took place on Sunday, January 30th, at Lady Lonsdale's house. + + 'Wolff, Chaplin and Lady Florence, Hartington, the Duchess of + Manchester, Lord and Lady Hamilton, and Captain and Lady Rosamond + Fellowes (Randolph Churchill's sister) were there. Arthur Balfour and + the Randolph Churchills came in after dinner. Lord Beaconsfield told + me that he had been very anxious to meet me, since he had taken the + liberty of writing about me without my leave in his novel _Endymion_, + and that he thought we wore never destined to meet, for he had twice + asked Alfred de Rothschild to invite me, and that I had not "been" on + those two or on a third occasion which he had made. He was, as usual, + over-complimentary and over-anxious to captivate, but was certainly + most pleasant. He praised my grandfather, a sure way to my heart, and + said that my grandfather and his own father were "the last two men in + England who had a thorough knowledge of English letters." The talk at + dinner was dull, in spite of Wolff's attempts to enliven it, but + Arthur Balfour and the Randolph Churchills brightened it afterwards, + and Dizzy said a good many rather good things--as, for example, that + he should like to get married again for the purpose of comparing the + presents that he would get from his friends with the beggarly ones + that he had got when he had married. Also that he "objects to the + rigid bounds of honeymoons as an arbitrary attempt to limit + illimitable happiness." I thought him very polite and pretty in all + his ways and in all he said.' + +On Sunday evening, February 20th, Sir Charles dined with Mr. Alfred de +Rothschild to meet the Prince of Wales; + + 'but was more pleased with again meeting Lord Beaconsfield.'... + + 'After dinner I was next him. When he was offered a cigar, he said: + "You English once had a great man who discovered tobacco, on which you + English now live, and potatoes, on which your Irish live, and you cut + off his head." This foreign point of view of Sir Walter Raleigh was + extremely comical, I think.' + +Finally there is this entry: + + 'Having made no note in my diary, I cannot tell if it was on Sunday, + April 3rd, or on Sunday, March 27th, that Lord Barrington met Edmond + Fitzmaurice and me in Curzon Street, where Lord Beaconsfield's house + was, and said: "Come in and see him; he's ill, but would like to see + you." He was on a couch in the back drawing-room, in which he died, I + think, on April 19th. There was a bronchitis kettle on the hob, and + his breathing was difficult, but he was still the old Disraeli, and, + though I think that he knew that he was dying, yet his pleasant + spitefulness about "Mr. G." was not abated. He meant to die game.' + +Lord Beaconsfield made no secret of his liking for Sir Charles, but is +said to have doubted the permanency of his Radicalism. "The sort of man +who will die a Conservative peer," is said to have been his commentary +after their first meeting, echoing an idea then widespread in the +fashionable world, that of the two men so often compared, Sir Charles +would gravitate towards the opinions of the _Times_, leaving his colleague +'to the unassisted championship of democratic rights.' + +To the greatest of all European statesmen Dilke did not at this time +become known; but Bismarck watched his career, and in the early part of +this year, after the Prince of Wales's visit to Berlin, + + 'On March 16th Arthur Ellis, who had been with the Prince at Berlin, + came to me from the Prince to say that the Prince had had much talk + with Lord Ampthill (Odo Russell) about me. Our Ambassador was most + anxious that I should visit Berlin, and thought that I could do much + then with Bismarck, and usefully remove prejudices about myself at the + Court. Ellis was the bearer of an invitation from the Embassy for me + to stay there, and of a message that Bismarck much wished to make my + acquaintance.' + +There was no doubt as to the attractiveness of the invitation, but it was +at once ruled out on public grounds. + + 'The visit, however, would give rise to much speculation in the Press, + and would also make the Queen angry and Mr. Gladstone most uneasy. + "But," I added in my diary, "if we want to stop the French from going + to Tunis, there is a safe and easy way to do it--_i.e.,_ let me go to + Berlin for one day and see Bismarck and talk about the weather, and + then to Rome for one hour and see, no one, merely to let the fact get + into the newspapers."' + +In December + + 'Dufferin wrote to me from Paris: "The Sultan is besotted with the + notion of a German alliance against France, and of obtaining the + assistance of Germany in freeing himself from foreign control in + Asia."' + +On New Year's Day, 1882, Sir Charles, while accompanying Lord Lyons on his +round of official New Year visits, saw a despatch from Lord Odo Russell. +[Footnote: Ambassador at Berlin.] In it Bismarck described his attitude +towards the Turks, who had "asked him for protection against their +protectors, who, with the sole exception of Germany, in their opinion, +wanted 'to cut slices out of their skin.'" Bismarck had assured the Turks +that he should never attack France unless seriously threatened by France, +and would never in any circumstances "fire a cartridge for Turkey." + +In the course of the summer of 1881 Sir Charles had become acquainted with +a great personage in whom Bismarck always saw an enemy of his policy, and +in so far as it was hostile to France the Memoir bears out his judgment. + + 'On July 13th the Prince of Wales introduced me to his sister, the + Crown Princess of Germany. [Footnote: Though this was Sir Charles's + first meeting with the Crown Princess, she had at the time of his + father's death 'telegraphed her condolences to me at St. Petersburg, + and to the Embassy, asking them to call on me and help me in the + matter.'] She talked to me at length in the most friendly way with + regard to France and Gambetta. She told me that she had been secretly + to Cherbourg to hear Gambetta's famous speech, which he himself called + "the first glass of wine administered to the convalescent." But she + added that she stood absolutely alone in Germany in her pro-French + opinions. + + 'The Crown Princess seemed very able, but inclined to sacrifice + anything in order to produce an effect. I was afterwards sent for by + them, and had a long talk in what are called the Belgian Rooms at the + back of Buckingham Palace, on the gardens. + + 'On Monday, August 22nd, I called at Buckingham Palace by the wish of + the Crown Prince, and saw him and the Crown Princess together. I + thought him a dull, heavy German, and noted in my diary: "He dare not + speak before he sees that she approves of his speaking." But he was a + nice-minded, kind, and even pleasant man in his way.' + +Sir Charles's formal summing-up of his impressions is to be found in his +work on _The Present Position of European Politics_ (1887): + + "It is no secret that at times the Crown Princess has been unfriendly + to Prince Bismarck. They are perhaps two personalities too strong to + coexist easily in the same Court.... The Crown Prince, it must be + admitted, intellectually speaking, is, largely by his own will, the + Crown Princess. But that most able lady, when she shares the German + throne, must inevitably have for her policy the Bismarck policy--the + strength and glory of the German Empire." + +Sir Charles notes that, although he was hard-worked in Parliament and in +the Office, the peculiar nature of the Foreign Office work brought him +necessarily a good deal into contact with royal personages and foreigners +of distinction visiting London, and forced him 'to go out a good deal and +burn the candle at both ends.' Of these official gaieties he gives no very +grateful impression: + + 'Some of the parties to which the Prince of Wales virtually insisted + that I should go were curious; the oddest of them a supper which he + directed to be given on July 1st, 1881, for Sarah Bernhardt, at the + wish of the Duc d'Aumale, and at which all the other ladies present + were English ladies who had been invited at the distinct request of + the Prince of Wales. It was one thing to get them to go, and another + thing to get them to talk when they were there; and the result was + that, as they would not talk to Sarah Bernhardt and she would not talk + to them, and as the Duc d'Aumale was deaf and disinclined to make + conversation on his own account, nobody talked at all, and an absolute + reign of the most dismal silence ensued.... + + 'On March 13th we had received news of the murder of the Emperor of + Russia; and when Lord Granville came to dinner with me (for he dined + with me that night to meet the French Ambassador), he told me that I + must attend in the morning at a Mass at the Russian Chapel, and attend + in uniform. I had two of these Masses at the Russian Chapel in a short + time, one for the Emperor and one for the Empress, and painful + ceremonies they were, as we had to stand packed like herrings in a + small room, stifled with incense, wearing heavy uniform, and carrying + lighted tapers in our hands. On this occasion I saw the Prince of + Wales go to sleep standing, his taper gradually turn round and gutter + on the floor.' + +Two months later, Friday, May 27th, + + 'I dined with Lord and Lady Spencer to meet the King of Sweden and the + Gladstones.... + + 'The King talked to me after dinner about the murder of the Emperor of + Russia.... It was clear that the Swedish loathing for Russia on + account of the loss of Finland was not over. The King might, however, + have reflected upon his own popularity in Norway, a country which had + been given to his grandfather because the people used to hate the + Danes. They now hated the Swedes still more.' + +A royalty known to Sir Charles by correspondence was King Mtsa of Uganda, +'who had been presented by us in 1880, at the request of the Queen and the +Church Missionary Society, with a Court suit, a trombone, and an Arabic +Bible,' but who relapsed early in 1881, and became again the chief pillar +of the slave trade in his district. Another strange monarch played his +part that year in London society. + + 'On Sunday, July 10th, Lord Granville wrote to me to ask me to lunch + with him the next day to meet "the King of the Cannibal Islands + [Footnote: Sandwich Islands, in reality.] at 12.55, an admirable + arrangement, as he must go away to Windsor at 1.20." I went, but + unfortunately was not able to clear myself of all responsibility for + Kalakaua so rapidly, for I was directed to show him the House of + Commons; and when he parted from me in the evening in St. Stephen's + Hall he asked me for a cigar, and on my offering him my case he put + the whole of its contents into his pocket. The Crown Prince of Germany + and the Crown Princess (Princess Royal of England) were in London at + the same time, and at all the parties the three met. The German + Embassy were most indignant that the Prince of Wales had decided that + Kalakaua must go before the Crown Prince. At a party given by Lady + Spencer at the South Kensington Museum, Kalakaua marched along with + the Princess of Wales, the Crown Prince of Germany following humbly + behind; and at the Marlborough House Ball Kalakaua opened the first + quadrille with the Princess of Wales. When the Germans remonstrated + with the Prince, he replied, "Either the brute is a King or else he is + an ordinary black nigger, and if he is not a King, why is he here at + all?" which made further discussion impossible. Kalakaua, however, + having only about 40,000 nominal subjects, most of them American + citizens who got up a revolution every time he went away, his kingship + was very slight.' + +May 20th: + + 'At this Cabinet a curious matter came up, though not for decision. + The Cabinet had been intending to give the commission for the public + statue of Lord Beaconsfield to a British sculptor, and I had been + trying hard to get it for Nelson Maclean; but a communication from the + Queen settled the matter, she absolutely insisting that Boehm should + do the statue. Everybody felt that it was wrong that she should + interfere, but nobody, of course, resisted.' + +On May 27th we hear that the Queen, having received + + 'warning in an anonymous letter of threats against her life by + "persons of rank," wrote to Harcourt to say she did not see who could + be meant "unless it were Lord Randolph Churchill"!' + +Elsewhere Sir Charles noted: + + 'The only subjects upon which the Prince of Wales agreed with any + Liberals were (1) detestation of Randolph Churchill; (2) the + government of London. But then, as I personally, although assailed by + Randolph Churchill and not then on speaking terms in consequence, did + not dislike him, there remained only the government of London, and the + topic became well worn between us, for we had found by experience that + it was the only one upon which we could safely talk.' + + +III. + +One correspondent, the length of whose letters was 'fabulous,' was Sir +Robert Morier, then Minister at Lisbon, 'an old friend.' + + 'He had more brains than all the other Foreign Office servants put + together (excepting Lord Lyons and 'old White' and Lord Odo Russell), + but, although "impossible" in a small place, he was afterwards a + success at St. Petersburg.... He used to send ultimatums to any weak + Government to which he was despatched, and he used to treat the + Foreign Office almost as badly, for he was the only Minister given to + swearing at the Office in despatches.' + +Comment on this is afforded by a note of Lord Granville's to Sir Charles +in 1884, when the Embassy at Constantinople was vacant: "The Turks had +been behaving so badly, we should send Morier, to pay them out." Sir +Charles's respect for his friend's 'immense ability' led to his taking +great trouble in dealing with Sir Robert Morier's difficulties, put before +him in a voluminous correspondence, both private and public, and in return +he received 'a veritable testimonial on February 22nd, 1881: "You have +done the right thing at exactly the right moment, and this is to me so +utterly new a phenomenon in official life that it fills me with admiration +and delight."' He had previously noted a letter in which, describing +himself as "a shipwrecked diplomat on the rocks of Lisbon," Morier wrote: + + "To have for once in my life received help, co-operation, and + encouragement in a public work from a man _in the Office_, instead of + the cuffs and snubs I am used to, is so altogether new a sensation + that you must excuse my being gushing." + +In an earlier letter of the same year there is complaint of the "utter +absence of co-operation" between the Foreign Office at home and its +servants abroad: + + "You who are still a human being and able to see things from the + general home point of view, will be over-weighted by two such + bureaucrats as ---- and ---- ." + +Morier's plea for reorganization which should ensure "intercommunion and +intercommunication" was emphasized a few weeks later by + + 'a letter from White, then our Minister at Bucharest (afterwards our + Ambassador at Constantinople), which concluded with a general grumble + against the Foreign Office: + + '"... Servants kept in the dark--thorough darkness--as to proceedings + in the next-door house cannot be profitable servants, and such is, + alas! + + '"Yours ever truly, + + '"W. A. White.'" + +The idea bore fruit in Dilke's mind to this extent, that in + + '1890 I was able to give evidence before a Royal Commission in favour + of amalgamating the two services, and the Ridley Commission accepted + my view and recommended the amalgamation. It was not carried out.' + +Sir Robert Morier suffered, in his own judgment, more than anyone else +from this lack of intercommunication, and this is probably true because he +was restlessly fertile in suggestions, and when these raised opposition he +turned to Sir Charles for help. Having just concluded the negotiation of a +treaty respecting Goa, he was now pressing hard for another respecting +Lorenço Marques and Delagoa Bay, in which he discerned the future gate of +the Transvaal, and was projecting arrangements with regard to Portuguese +West Africa. In these projects Sir Charles helped him indirectly, as he +did in a larger proposal which the Minister at Lisbon was making. + + 'Morier's letter contained the draft of a proposed Congo treaty, which + was afterwards put into shape, which I strongly favoured, and which in + 1883, after I had left the Foreign Office, was virtually stopped by + the House of Commons. The House and country were wrong, and the + Foreign Office right.' [Footnote: This treaty would have associated + Great Britain with Portugal in maintaining the freedom of the Congo + River and in policing its waters, while it would have established a + joint control of the whole Congo basin by the European Powers which + had subjects settled in that region. Such an agreement would have + altered the course of history in tropical Africa, and the Congo State + would never have come into being. See _Life of Lord Granville_, vol. + ii., pp. 341-354.] + +Lord Ripon was Sir Charles's regular Indian correspondent, and a letter +from the Viceroy in this year begs him not to intermit his communications +whenever he could make time to write. To Lord Ripon another correspondent +was now added: + + 'Grant Duff, having accepted the Governorship of Madras, asked me to + write to him regularly in India, which I promised to do, and did, and + in thanking me he said that my opinions would have interest for him, + since among other things I knew was "that strange wild beast--the + House of Commons." This saying was pathetic from him, for there never + was a man who more utterly failed to understand the House of Commons + than Grant Duff....' + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +DIFFICULTIES OF THE LIBERAL GOVERNMENT + + +I. + +The close of 1881 virtually terminated the protracted negotiations with +France which had occupied most of Sir Charles Dilke's time, and had kept +him for long periods absent from London. In the new year he was more +closely concerned with the general business of the Government, and +especially with its attempts at legislation. + +Two important subjects mentioned in the Queen's Speech of 1882 were the +reform of local government in the counties, [Footnote: This was +foreshadowed in a note of November 11th, 1881: 'Local Government (Boards +in all the three kingdoms on a tax-paying basis) will be the chief +measure.'] and the proposed recasting of London's system of government, +which appealed to Sir Charles both as a municipal reformer and as a +metropolitan member. In the previous summer Mr. Gladstone had shown +himself to Dilke as 'very keen' on this latter measure, and proposals to +undertake it were actually put before the Cabinet on Lord Mayor's Day, +1881. The choice of a date seemed + + 'dramatic and courageous.... We all dined with the Lord Mayor, and as + the men came in I felt that, knowing what I did as to Harcourt's + resolution, we were there under false pretences.' + +This project began to take shape when Ministers reassembled after +Christmas. + + 'On the morning of January 3rd, 1882, I saw Harcourt about his London + Government scheme, of which he had sent me a rough sketch asking for + my criticisms. I found that he had adopted all the ideas of Beal and + Firth and of myself. [Footnote: Mr. Firth was Sir Charles Dilke's + fellow-member for Chelsea. Mr. James Beal, a Chelsea man and a veteran + reformer, was Honorary Secretary of the Metropolitan Municipal + Association, which existed to advocate the creation of a general + municipality for London.] We formed a committee, consisting of the + four, which met daily at Harcourt's house for some time. + + 'On the 6th regular Cabinets began, and Chamberlain came to stay with + me, although he offered to go to the hotel, "as there is no crisis on + hand just now." Hartington, who had a shooting party at Hardwick, ... + scandalized his colleagues by declaring that he was too lazy to come + up for the first Cabinet, although it had been fixed for between a + fortnight and three weeks.... + + 'On January 7th a Committee of the Cabinet on the London Government + scheme was appointed, but it met only once, for the informal committee + of Harcourt, Beal, Firth, and myself did the whole work.... + + 'On January 11th the single meeting of the London Government Committee + took place, Harcourt, Spencer, Childers, Chamberlain, and myself being + present. But instead of discussing London Government, we discussed the + Borneo Charter, to which all present were opposed.' + +Over and above this work of preparation on another Minister's Bill, Sir +Charles had a variety of occupations outside his own official duties. +Thus, he notes on February 12th that he 'had a quarrel with Dodson' (then +President of the Local Government Board) 'as to a rating question'; and a +few weeks later, on April 28th: + + 'I was very busy at this moment because I had the Corrupt Practices + Bill and the Ballot Bill on hand in the House, as well as Foreign + Affairs debates.' [Footnote: In these measures he was helping Sir + Henry James, Attorney-General.] + +The main difficulties immediately in hand were those caused by +Parliamentary procedure, and Mr. Bradlaugh, who had been re-elected during +the Recess, and now proposed to take the oath; but the House was unwilling +to let him do so, thus bringing itself into sharp conflict with the +constituency. + + 'It was reported by the Prime Minister to the Cabinet of January eth + that the Queen refused to open Parliament on the ground of health.... + The Queen and Prince Leopold (who was about to marry) had urged that + an additional allowance to the Prince should be voted before the + discussions on the forms of the House began; but Mr. Gladstone + insisted, and the Cabinet decided, that it was to come only after the + Address, after the Bradlaugh business (upon which the Cabinet felt + certain that we should be beaten), and after the reform of the + procedure of the House--that is to say, at Easter at the earliest.' + +When Mr. Bradlaugh presented himself to be sworn, Sir Stafford Northcote +moved to prohibit his taking the oath. To this motion the Government +opposed a motion for the 'previous question,' and were beaten. Feeling ran +high, and the House of Commons as a whole would have endorsed a saying of +Lord Winchilsea's. Having been asked to subscribe to the Northampton +Horticultural Show, he replied: + + '"A town which enjoys the flowers of Mr. Labouchere's oratory and the + fruits of Mr. Bradlaugh's philosophy can need no further horticultural + exhibition."... + +No one quite knew how to deal with the situation which was now created by +Mr. Bradlaugh's hurried advance up the floor of the House, when he +administered the oath to himself. + + 'On February 22nd there was a Cabinet at one o'clock, at which there + was a tremendous disturbance about Bradlaugh, Chamberlain and Mr. + Gladstone standing alone against all their colleagues, most of whom, + under Hartington's lead, had proposed expulsion, and wanted Mr. + Gladstone himself to move it. While Mr. Gladstone was addressing the + Cabinet, Harcourt wrote a paper, and got Hartington, Childers, and + Dodson to sign it. Forster was in Ireland, and Bright was away with a + cold. Harcourt did not ask Chamberlain to sign his paper, which, + Chamberlain thought, probably suggested that Mr. Gladstone should + himself propose some middle course, but Mr. Gladstone turned round + angrily and hissed through his teeth at Harcourt "I cannot!" When the + time came, even Northcote did not dare to move expulsion, which showed + how foolish our people must be to long to go further in an anti- + popular sense than the Tories themselves.' + +There was also the other question of reform of Parliamentary procedure. + + 'On January 7th the Cabinet discussed the Closure, which was warmly + supported (in the strongest form) by Harcourt and Chamberlain. + Hartington walked in in the middle of the afternoon. + + 'On February 1st I had a chat with Manning, who says the Church + applied the Closure at the Vatican Council to put down the minority + against the Promulgation of the Doctrine of Infallibility, and that it + must therefore be a good thing. + + 'On February 9th I was consulted by Harcourt and Chamberlain as to + what I thought about sticking to Closure in the face of the great + probability of defeat. I advised making it a question of life and + death, but advised that if beaten we should immediately prepare for + dissolution by bringing in the County Franchise Bill, and if the Lords + threw it out, stop in to carry it. On a vote of confidence the Tories + could not turn us out, so that we could play the game with them as + long as necessary to carry County Franchise. + + 'On March 26th we learnt our majority on the power to close debate was + far from certain, and that on Sir John Lubbock's amendment we very + probably should be beaten. Mr. Gladstone began to wish to bow before + the storm, but Chamberlain and others were for holding to our + proposals at all risks. + + 'On March 31st there was a Cabinet, at which Mr. Gladstone, thinking + with the Whips that we should be beaten on the Closure, again wished + to give way. It was decided to make no fresh declaration of standing + or falling by our rule.' + +The question of Procedure remained till the Autumn Session, a constant +embarrassment to the Government. But a difficulty, personal to Sir +Charles, and affecting the Government only through him, arose on the Civil +List. + + 'On this day (March 31st) the Queen wrote to Lord Granville to + complain of my having walked out on the division on the annuity to + Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, and Sir Henry Ponsonby also wrote. I + refused to give any further explanation, and on April 1st Lord + Granville wrote: + + '"HOLMBURY, DORKING. + + '"MY DEAR DILKE,--I thought Chamberlain had voted in the majority. The + Queen appears to me to have a _prima facie_ right to complain of any + of her servants refusing to support a Government measure which she and + the administration think necessary for her comfort and position. But + if you stated to the Prime Minister on taking office that you did not + intend to vote for these grants, your responsibility ceases. + Resignation is not in question either with the Queen, yourself, or + Gladstone. The thing to consider is how to put the matter best in + answer to Ponsonby's letter. I do not mind the bother in the least. + + '"Yours sincerely, + + '"Granville."' + +A reply from Sir Charles explained to Lord Granville why Mr. Chamberlain's +name had come in. Although he had voted for the grant + +"neither he nor I would ever be likely to let the other resign alone. Our +relations are so close that I should resign with him if he were to resign +because he thought Forster did not have his hair cut sufficiently often." + +This explanation was promptly endorsed by Mr. Chamberlain. + + 'Chamberlain wrote on April 2nd two letters, one for me and one for me + to show to Lord Granville.... In the latter he said: + + '"I am very sorry to hear that any notice has been taken of the + absentees in the vote for Prince Leopold's grant. Considering the + strong views held on this subject by the Radical party in the country, + I think their representatives in the Government made great sacrifices + in order to maintain unity of action as far as possible. You and + Fawcett and Trevelyan have on previous occasions, both by speech and + vote, and on strictly constitutional grounds, opposed these grants, + and you could not have supported the present one without loss of self- + respect and of public reputation. For myself, I agree in your + opposition, but having never taken any public part in reference to the + question, and having never voted against the grant itself, I felt + myself free to yield my opinion to that of the majority, and to vote + with the rest of my colleagues in the Cabinet. In your case such a + course was impossible, having regard to the prominence which, through + no fault or desire of your own, has been given to your past action in + the matter, and which has made you in some sort the chief + Parliamentary representative of objections which are widely felt to + the present mode of providing for members of the Royal Family. When + the Government was formed I mentioned this point to Mr. Gladstone, and + told him you could not vote for any grant of the kind. He asked me if + I was equally pledged, and I replied that this was not the case. Mr. + Gladstone then said that, of course, a divergence of opinion in a + member of the Cabinet would be more serious than in a Minister outside + the Cabinet, and I took it for granted that under the circumstances + you, at least, would not be expected to vote at all. I assume that + although the subject has now been referred to, there is not the + slightest intention or suggestion from any quarter that you should + resign on such a matter. If there were, I have not the least + hesitation in saying that I should make common cause with you; and I + cannot conceive that any Radical would consent to hold office in a + Government which had expelled one of its most popular members, and one + of the few representatives of the most numerous section of the Liberal + party, for such a cause. But I cannot believe in the possibility of + any such intention. If I did I might end with Lord Hartington's + celebrated postscript, and 'Thank God we should soon be out of this + d--d Government.' + + '"Yours ever, + + '"J. Chamberlain." + + 'I received further letters about the matter from Lord Granville, who + ultimately replied on April 4th that "Gladstone does not admit your + contention." But he said, "The case is not likely to arise again for + some time.... In the meantime he approves my writing to the Queen off + my own bat," and this was done accordingly, the letter not being shown + to me, so that I do not know what was in it. But the whole matter came + up again in the autumn, when it was proposed to put me in the + Cabinet.' + +Sir Charles wished on public grounds to get rid of questions as to these +grants, the recurrence of which must always lead to trouble, and to do +this by settling them on a principle. But also he was desirous to forward +the wishes of the Prince of Wales, and in the month of May he devised a +method for meeting the difficulty, which might be proposed by the Prince +himself. + + 'On Friday Mr. Gladstone talked for an hour to me about the Royal + Grants question, and the conversation was satisfactory on both sides, + for he told the Cabinet yesterday that it had been satisfactory to + him. In the course of it he said that many years ago a memorandum on + the provision for the younger branches of the Royal Family had been + agreed upon by the Cabinet, and shown to the chiefs of the Opposition. + He added that this was a course perhaps not so wise as would have been + the appointment of a Select Committee of the House of Commons. I at + once told him that the consideration of the subject, which had not + been discussed by the Civil List Committee at the beginning of the + reign, by a later Select Committee, would in my opinion have prevented + all but most unreasonable opposition to the various grants. There are + many years to spare, and I only write because the matter is fresh in + my mind.... My suggestion is that when provision is proposed for the + establishment of the eldest son of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, for + whom a liberal provision would be made without reasonable opposition, + as he is in the direct line of succession, it should (at the same + time) be stated by the Government of the day that the question of the + extent of the provision for the younger children of the Prince and + Princess of Wales should be, on the motion of the Government, + considered by a Select Committee. On that Committee all shades of + opinion ought in prudence to be represented, and to it as much + information be given as is given to the Civil List Committee at the + beginning of the reign. Its decisions would be respected by all who + value Parliamentary methods, and much unseemly wrangling would be + prevented for many years. The fate of this plan, however prudent it + may be, would be certain if it came from anyone except His Royal + Highness himself or the Prime Minister of the day.' + +Sir Charles embodied this suggestion in a letter to Mr. Knollys of May +9th. The proposal was agreed to in principle by Mr. Gladstone's Government +in 1885, and it was adopted later on. + + 'On May 3rd I had heard from Knollys that the Prince, who had + frequently been restive about not getting Foreign Office information, + which Lord Granville would not allow him to have for fear he should + let it out, had made Knollys write to Sir Henry Ponsonby to ask him to + beg the Queen to direct Lord Granville to send the Prince the + confidential telegrams.... On the 7th Knollys sent me Sir Henry + Ponsonby's "not very satisfactory reply," and a copy of his answer.' + +In the reply Mr. Knollys pointed out that the Prince was under the +impression that the Queen would have wished him to know as much of what +was going on as possible. The question whether telegrams were to be shown +to the Prince depended entirely on Her Majesty, as Lord Granville would +not be likely to raise difficulties in the matter if the Prince put his +wishes before him. The fact that the private secretaries of Cabinet +Ministers had Cabinet keys, and therefore had access to all confidential +documents, was quoted as showing the curious position of the Prince. + +The Queen persisted in her objection, and Sir Charles supplied the lack of +official access to the papers by keeping the Prince privately informed +from day to day in critical moments. He spent the first Sunday in February +of this year at Sandringham, + + 'where the company was chiefly sporting, even the clergyman who + performed the service being the famous "Jack" Russell, eighty-seven + years of age, known in Devonshire as "the hunting parson".... + + 'On March 21st the Prince of Wales invited me to go with him to see + the Channel Tunnel works, and to bring the map of Central Asia, and to + explain to him the matters that we were discussing with the Russians. + But I was unable or unwilling to go--probably unwilling because of + overwork, and dislike to commit myself to the Channel Tunnel project. + I was one of those who thought that the Channel Tunnel was far less + important in a commercial sense than was generally believed, and, on + the other hand, I feared that the creation of it might lead to + panic....' + +Later: 'I converted the Prince of Wales to oppose the Channel Tunnel.' + +The one matter which, Sir Charles notes, still caused serious friction +between himself and his Chief came up in this Session. On February 12th + + 'I was still fighting about Borneo and about a Garter Mission to the + King of Saxony, which I thought a waste of public money, and I was in + a difficulty with the Cabinet as to Errington's mission--of the + details of which I was not kept informed. + + 'Wolff, who evidently had been told something by Errington himself, + gave notice of a question to ask Hartington whether communications had + taken place with the Papal See as to prelates in India, and Lord + Granville directed me to answer that no such communications had been + made by Her Majesty's Government. As, however, I thought that + communications had been made by Errington, I felt that this would be a + virtual lie, and wrote to Hartington to ask him. Hartington then took + the answer upon himself, and in his reply to me he said that there had + been some discussions on a closely connected matter, but not exactly + on that mentioned in the question, and that nothing had been done by + him in the matter. Who, then, instructed Errington?... The Errington + mission led for a moment to strained relations between Lord Granville + and myself, and one of my letters he said was evidently intended to be + "wholesome in Lent." "The tone of it is hardly that of two members of + the same Government, more particularly when they are excellent + friends."' + +Sir Charles apologized frankly and cordially for the tone of his certainly +peremptory letter, but + + 'I had to stick to my text.... + + 'It was evidently monstrous that I should be made to answer questions + about negotiations of which I knew nothing, thus leading the House of + Commons to believe that I was in some sense responsible to them for + what passed, when as a matter of fact I was not informed, except + privately, and in strict confidence, by Errington himself. One result + of the concealment as to the whole Errington business was that Mr. + Gladstone on one occasion gave an answer in the House of Commons which + was untrue, although he did not know that it was untrue, and that on + another occasion the same thing happened to Courtney, who as Under- + Secretary of State for the Colonies denied that a Roman Catholic + question affecting the Colonies' (the proposal for a cathedral at + Gibraltar) 'had been discussed, when Errington himself told me that it + had. The Colonial Office did not know.' + +Later: + + 'There never was a more discreditable piece of business than the whole + of this Errington matter. Errington himself is an excellent fellow. I + have not a word to say against him. It is the Government and not + Errington that must be blamed. + + 'At this time I received a pamphlet from Auberon Herbert on the title- + page of which he had drawn a picture of Gladstone in the fiery pit + beckoning me, and I, winged and crowned as an archangel, falling from + heaven to him, with the inscription: "Lapsus e coelo; or how C.D. + accepted an invitation."' + + +II. + +Notwithstanding his attention to domestic politics, Sir Charles was first +and foremost the representative of the Foreign Office, and during the +spring of 1882 he was ceaselessly concerned in the negotiations which were +in progress between the Russian Government and the British India Office, +over which Lord Hartington then presided. + + 'I had received from the India Office on January 6th a private + communication suggesting arrangement with Russia as to the + delimitation of the new Russo-Persian frontier. The India Office were + inclined to hand over Merv nominally to Persia, regardless of the fact + that the Russians would not consent to any proposal of the kind. I + wrote to Lord Granville on the 9th, "I must say I don't like it at + all," and he answered: "It appears to me that some of the permanent + Jingoes in the I.0. want to establish that they are always pressing + the F.O. to do spirited things, and constantly thwarted. I rather + agree with you that it is better to do nothing than to do that which + is not really effective, but Hartington is very anxious not to be + altogether quiet.--G." + + 'On January 17th I had the first of a series of important interviews + with Brett, Hartington's secretary, with regard to Central Asian + affairs. He gave up Merv, and in return I agreed with him that the + Foreign Office should propose to the India Office to ask Russia to + define the Persian frontier by an English-Russian-Persian Commission, + and the Afghan frontier by an English-Russian-Afghan Commission. Lord + Granville was unfavourable, Lord Hartington favourable to this view, + which after a great number of meetings at the Foreign Office + prevailed, the Russians ultimately accepting the Afghan delimitation, + a matter to which I shall have to return. The policy to which I have + always adhered was on this occasion stated in a paper which we drew + up--a secret "Memorandum on the question of the undefined frontiers + between Persia, Afghanistan, and Russia"--in words which, referring to + the probability that without an agreement Russia would establish + herself at Herat, went on: + + '"Peace might be maintained for a time, but it would always be a + precarious peace, for the direct influence of Russia, backed by her + show of military force, would in time overawe the Afghans, and give + her a preponderance of which we should feel the effects, either in the + necessity for costly defensive preparations and a large increase of + the garrison of India, or in the danger to the tranquillity and + permanence of our rule.... Secure on a strong line, flanked at one end + by Balkh and at the other by Herat, covered towards Kabul by a zone of + friendly Hazara tribes ... and connected by rail and steam with her + bases in the Caucasus and on the Volga, she could afford to laugh at + threats from India, and might deal at leisure with Afghan tribes and + leaders."' + +Two later jottings on the manuscript follow: + + '"This is still true in 1906." + + '"In 1908 I approved the main lines of an agreement with Russia." + + 'On February 20th (1882) a conference took place between Lord + Granville, Lord Hartington, Tenterden, and myself as to Central Asia. + Hartington wanted to pay Persia to hold the Turcoman oasis--a most + monstrous proposition. + + 'On the next day, the 21st, a telegram was written to go to India, + which was so drawn by Hartington as to make the Foreign Office approve + his absurd Merv scheme. I got it altered, and Merv left out, and + guarding words put in. + + 'On February 22nd the Russian Ambassador promised Lord Granville that + we should be allowed to carry out my idea of a joint commission for + the Afghan frontier. + + 'On March 10th there was a meeting between Lord Hartington and Lord + Granville and myself as to Central Asia.' + +Lord Ripon wrote from Simla on May 15th to condemn Lord Hartington's +policy of + + '"trying to interpose Persia as a buffer between Russia and the + Afghans.... I do not believe either in the strength or in the good + faith of Persia," said Lord Ripon. "...I am afraid that the India + Office have by no means got rid of the notions which were afloat in + Salisbury's time." On the other hand, Lord Ripon was in favour of a + treaty with the Afghans, to which I was opposed except in the form of + a mere frontier delimitation.' + +The India Office, however, never caused Dilke so many heart-burnings as +sprang from his concern with those African and Australasian matters on +which the Foreign Office was obliged to secure co-operation from the +Colonial Office. + + 'On January 13th, in addition to further trouble about Borneo, a new + controversy sprang up between me and the Colonial Office. It was, I + think, on January 6th, 1882, that I received from Mr. Gladstone the + letter which began: "Cameroon River, West Africa. Mr. Gladstone. Dear + Sir, We both your servants have meet this afternoon to write to you + these few lines of writing, trusting it may find you in a good state + of life, as it leaves us at present. As we heard here that you are the + chief man in the House of Commons, so we write to you to tell you that + we want to be under Her Majesty's control." It ended: "Please to send + us an answer as quick as you can. With kind regards, we are, dear sir, + your obedient servants, King Bell and King Akua." + +'Lord Kimberley had absolutely refused; but I, holding that this spot was +after all the best on the West Coast of Africa, and the only one where a +health station could be established, urged acceptance, without being able +to get my own way. Lord Granville wrote concerning Lord Kimberley' (not +without a retrospective glance at his own Under-Secretary): '"Perhaps he +fears Cameroon cold water too much in consequence of the scalding water +from Borneo." Being entirely unable to get my way, I proposed that the +letter of the Kings should be "made official," and sent to Lord Granville; +that he should officially invite the opinion of the Colonial Office on it, +and that if the Colonial Office wrote a despatch against it we should +refuse, but not refuse without the Colonial Office opinion being on +official record. The offer of the cession of the Cameroons having been +renewed later, and I having again most strongly urged acceptance, a consul +was sent to the country to investigate the matter, when the Germans +suddenly interfered; snapped it up, and made it a new colony. Kimberley +was entirely responsible, as I had persuaded Lord Granville to agree with +me.' + + +III. + +Among the passages which carry on the Parliamentary narrative come sundry +jottings and observations. Those for the first session of 1882 concern +themselves mainly with two names--Bismarck and Gambetta. + + 'On January 14th I heard from Germany that the Crown Prince had + suddenly broken away from Bismarck on the issue of the last rescript, + and that he had sent his secretary to the Liberal leaders to tell them + that he had first heard of the rescript when he read it in the paper. + Writing to Grant Duff, I added that the Crown Prince "swears that + nothing will induce him to employ Bismarck when he ascends the + throne." This was but a passing feeling caused by Bismarck's attacks + on the Princess.' + + + "Herbert Bismarck is coming to see me in Paris at his father's + wish.... + + "_18th_.--He is confined to his bed in London; I am to see him there + instead of here." + + + 'On January 20th Herbert Bismarck dined with me--a man to whom I took + a liking. I had not seen much of him before this date, but from this + time forward we had continual meetings--a man of far stronger ability + than that for which the public gives him credit. He had a special + aversion to being called "Herbert," and insisted on being called the + Count of Bismarck-Schoenhausen. + + 'On Sunday, January 22nd, I dined with the German Councillor of + Embassy... and met again Count Bismarck. I wrote in my diary on this + day: "Bismarck is a chip of the old block: not a bad sort of brute, + with a great deal of humour of a rough kind. He saw through ----, an + Austrian, who is a toad-eater, in a moment, and stopped a pompous + story of his about ----. As soon as we were told by the narrator, with + a proper British shake of the head, that he 'drank,' Bismarck shouted + at the top of his voice: 'Well, that is _one_ point in his favour.' + ----, disconcerted, went on and said: 'He fell from the landing and + was killed.' 'Ah,' cried Bismarck, 'what a wretched constitution he + must have had!'" In an aside to me Bismarck violently attacked + Papists, and broke out against the Confessional in the tone of + Newdegate, or of Whalley, or of General Grant. To the whole table he + stoutly maintained that it was right that no Jew should be admitted + into the Prussian Guards or into clubs. One man at table said: "But + you had a Jew in the Guards"; to which Bismarck replied: "We precious + soon hunted him out." The man hunted out was the son of Prince + Bismarck's banker, the Rothschilds' agent, British Consul at Berlin, + and Bismarck's confidential adviser at the time of the treaty of + Versailles. I added in my diary of young Bismarck: "He is only 'sham' + mad." + + 'On March 29th I received a letter from Crowe [Footnote: Of Sir Joseph + Crowe, British Commercial Attaché, Sir Charles says: + + "Joseph Archer Crowe had been known to me as _Daily News_ + correspondent in Paris when I was six years old in 1849, and when my + grandfather was managing the _Daily News_. Many years afterwards I got + to know of a Crowe, a great authority on Italian Painters, but I had + not the least idea that this Crowe was the same person as the other + Crowe. When I entered the Foreign Office I became aware of the + diplomatic and consular work that had been done by J. A. Crowe, but I + was not aware of his identity with either of the others till we sat + together on the Royal Commission. After ceasing to be a young painter + in Paris, Crowe became _Illustrated London News_ correspondent in the + Crimea, and then accepted an art appointment in India. He was at + Bombay during the Mutiny. Subsequently he went through the Franco- + Italian campaign of 1859 as the war-correspondent of the _Times_, + being present at the battle of Solferino. He was appointed in 1860 + Consul-General for Saxony. Few men wrote four languages so well, and + while I never heard him speak German I'm told that it was as good as + his English, and his French was as good as either."] from Berlin, + saying that the Chancellor was weak in health and prophesying ultimate + war. In sending it to Lord Granville, I wrote: "I obstinately refuse + to believe that the Russian Emperor will go to his destruction at the + behest of his revolutionists." And Lord Granville wrote back: "I + agree. Herbert Bismarck confirms the account of his father's weakness. + Cannot walk eighty yards without sitting down."' + +In France, the greatest of French statesmen had been turned out of office +on January 26th. [Footnote: The Gambetta Ministry fell by a vote on +Scrutin de Liste on January 26th. The Freycinet Ministry succeeded to +office on January 31st. On January 31st, 1882, Sir Charles wrote to Mr. +Frank Hill: "No member of the new French Government is taken from the +majority that overthrew Gambetta. All who are deputies voted in the +Minority. All who are senators would have so voted."] But already people +were saying that Gambetta must be President, and that by 1886, the date of +the next Presidential election, he would have recovered all his +popularity--or lost it for ever. 'The alternative of death,' says Dilke, +'had not occurred to them; yet it was death, coupled with popularity, that +came.' + +The friends had not met since Gambetta's fall, but + + 'Gambetta found time to write and thank me for my speech, as well as + for what I had said to him about his fall. He again promised a visit + to London in one of these letters.' + + "PARIS, + "_Le 31 Janvier_, 1882. + + "MON CHER AMI, + + "Je vous remercie de votre bonne et forte parole. Elle me plaît par- + dessus tout venant de vous, qui êtes bon juge en fait de dignité et + d'autorité politique. + + "Je ne regrette en partant qu'une seule chose--de n'avoir pu terminer + le traité. Mais j'ai grand espoir d'avoir porté les choses assez loin + pour empêcher les successeurs de reculer. + + "Quand vous reverrai-je? Je compte bien que ce sera ê Londres, qui + sera toujours en beau quand vous y serez. + + "Bien cordialement, + + "LÉON GAMBETTA." + +'But the visit was destined never to take place,' though for years it had +been continually talked of between them. About August, 1876, when it was +almost settled, Sir Charles had noted: + + 'Gambetta never came to England in his life but once (about 1869), and + that was on a curious mission, considering what the future was to + bring forth; for he came under the Empire as the representative of the + Republicans to enter into consultation with the Orleans Princes for + the overthrow of Louis Napoleon. This interview would no doubt be + denied if mentioned by many of Gambetta's friends, but he told me of + it himself.' + +On April 16th, 1882, Sir Charles, on his way back from spending the Easter +recess at Toulon, breakfasted with Gambetta, who told his friend 'that he +was "unique among fallen Ministers, for others, once fallen, are +forgiven," whereas he was "worse hated and more attacked than when in +power."' + +He was none the less witty. There was talk of reforms in Russia--reforms +that had been suddenly obliterated by the murder of the reforming Tsar. +"What did Russia want with a 'Parlement'?" (Gambetta asked). "She has two +Generals who provide her with it. Skobelef, _Parle_; et Ignatief, _Ment._" + + 'On the 21st January, 1882, Alfred de Rothschild came to see me to + tell me that Bontoux had been to "Alphonse" [Footnote: The head of the + Paris house.] to ask him to help the Union Générale, which had been a + Catholic alliance against the Jews, and was now on its last legs. On + the next day Alphonse de Rothschild decided that he would not, as was + indeed to be expected, unless he had very strong, purely financial, + reasons the other way. He ultimately helped enough to save the + brokers, but not enough to save Bontoux or the rest. I found that, + ever since the Battle of Waterloo, the Rothschilds in London and in + Paris have been in the habit of writing to one another long letters + every day, and from time to time I saw these letters from Alphonse + when they bore upon political affairs.' + +Sir Charles was not impressed by the political insight of those documents, +which seemed to him 'extraordinarily uninteresting,' expressing old- +fashioned Conservative ideas, though 'the Rothschilds all think they are +Liberals.' + +The jottings end with a definition of diplomacy: + +'On the 24th January, 1882, I dined at the French Embassy, where Baron +Solvyns, the Belgian Minister, amused me with the saying that diplomacy +meant "to pass one's life à expliquer les choses sans les comprendre."' +[Footnote: Adapted from Beaumarchais, who thus describes "la politique" in +'Le Mariage de Figaro,' Act III., Scene ii.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE PHOENIX PARK MURDERS + + +I. + +Ireland and Egypt fill the most important places in the history of 1882. +That was the year, in Ireland, of the Kilmainham Treaty, the resignation +of Mr. Forster, and the Phoenix Park murders; in Egypt, of the riots in +Alexandria, followed by the bombardment, which caused Mr. Bright's +resignation, and the battle of Tel-el-Kebir. + +They had their roots far back in preceding years. But the abrupt +development of the trouble in Egypt was due to an accident; that of the +Irish question was of no sudden or casual growth. The Parliamentary +difficulty as to procedure of the House was only part of Parnell's +deliberate design to paralyze legislature and executive alike. [Footnote: +Sir Charles notes: 'In 1890, when I wrote out these diaries, I showed them +to Chamberlain, and gave him a copy of some part, notably that relating to +the Kilmainham Treaty and that relating to Egypt (1882). His remembrance +of events agreed with the notes made by me at the time.'] + +Government, for the moment, was trying to suppress Parnell and his +associates. The Irish leader himself had been in gaol since October 12th, +1881; Mr. Dillon, Mr. Sexton, Mr. Davitt, and many hundreds of lesser men, +had been imprisoned without sentence or form of trial. Sir Charles Dilke, +whom nobody believed to be an adviser of coercion, experienced as a member +of the Government manifestations of Irish displeasure. + + 'On January 31st I addressed my constituents. The Irish attacked the + meeting, and one East-Ender came at my private secretary with a chair, + howling Mr. Bright's phrase: "Force is no remedy!" As a very violent + breach of the peace had been committed, the police came in and cleared + the room, and after that our people came back again, and I was able to + make my speech quietly.... Congratulations upon my speech on all hands + were warm, especially those of Chamberlain and Lord Granville. + Chamberlain had written to me before the meeting to recommend a free + resort to "chuckers-out," and on my informing him of the use made of + Bright's maxim, he amused himself by communicating it to Bright, who + was only grim upon the subject.' + +Irish discontent could count on sympathy and support from the rulers of +America. On March 31st, 1882, the Memoir notes: 'It was settled to tell +the Americans that those suspects who would leave the United Kingdom and +engage not to return might go.' + + 'On April 20th I had to point out to Lord Granville the fact that the + Irish had shown on the previous day that they had got hold of the + condition which we had attempted to make with the Americans as to the + liberation of American suspects, a condition which the Americans had + indignantly refused.' + +All these things affected public opinion in Great Britain. At this moment +the Radical wing was demanding a change of policy in Ireland, while Mr. +Forster was pressing hard for renewal of the Coercion Act, which, having +been passed in 1881 for a year only, was now expiring. The Radicals won, +and the change of policy was inaugurated by the so-called Kilmainham +Treaty. + + 'At this moment' (April, 1882) 'Parnell was let out of prison, at Mr. + Gladstone's wish, to go to Paris to attend a funeral, but he was away + from prison, also at Mr. Gladstone's wish, unnecessarily long, and, + staying in London with Captain and Mrs. O'Shea, was seen by + Chamberlain at the wish of Mr. Gladstone (expressed on April 20th), + with the view that Chamberlain should offer him leave of absence from + prison with the view of concocting some arrangement (for his release + and for the pacification of Ireland) between him and the Government. + On the 21st Chamberlain and I met and decided that we would resign if + it was proposed to renew the Coercion Act, or the power of arbitrary + arrest in its then naked form. + + 'On April 22nd, 1882, Chamberlain obtained from the Cabinet, by a + majority, Mr. Gladstone being strongly with him, his own way in the + Irish Question, with full leave to enter into negotiations with + Parnell through O'Shea, but to be disavowed if he failed. Mr. + Gladstone reported the Cabinet of the 22nd to the Queen, stating that + the decision of the Cabinet was to the effect that it was wise "to + strengthen the law in Ireland." This was one way of putting it. What + the Cabinet really decided on April 22nd was to let out Parnell and + his friends, and to drop arbitrary arrest, although they did decide to + have a new Coercion Bill on minor points, to which Coercion Bill + Parnell himself was favourable. The statement that Parnell was + favourable would be denied, but O'Shea showed me a draft Bill, which + was, so he said, in Parnell's writing. I knew the hand, and it seemed + to be so. + + 'On April 25th Chamberlain reported to the Cabinet the result of his + interviews. Lord Cowper had already resigned the Lord-Lieutenancy, but + Forster's resignation (for some reason which I have never understood) + was kept back for a little. It is a curious fact that the Duchess of + Manchester told me in the middle of March that Lord Spencer was to + succeed Lord Cowper; but the first the Cabinet heard of it was on + April 25th. + + 'On April 26th, Parnell having returned to gaol, leave was given to + Captain O'Shea to go and see him at Kilmainham with full powers, but + nothing in writing. On the same day a letter, which was sent me by + Chamberlain, after Forster had seen it and sent it on to him, shows + that Forster was still acting, or at all events being treated by Mr. + Gladstone as though he was going forward with his policy. But on the + 28th Chamberlain told me that Forster would resign. In my diary I say: + "The Chancellor and Lord Kimberley may go with him. In this case the + Irish Secretaryship would be offered to Shaw" (member for Limerick, + Mr. Butt's successor as leader of the moderate Home Rulers), "but he + would refuse because he could not get his county to return him. Then + it must come either to Chamberlain or to myself. I said I should wish + in this event that he should take it and I succeed him at the Board of + Trade. He said that my appointment would make less row than his. I + admitted this, but said that his would be the best for the public + service. Besides, my opinion in favour of Home Rule would form a grave + difficulty in my way." It will be seen that it never occurred for a + moment to either Chamberlain or myself that the Irish Secretaryship + would be offered without a seat in the Cabinet; but we counted without + remembering Mr. Gladstone's affection for Lord Spencer.... It will + also be seen that I did not count Chamberlain as being a Home Ruler + like myself. + + 'On the 29th Forster told Harcourt at the banquet of the Royal Academy + that he should resign "if it is decided to let out the men." It is + necessary to be careful about one's history of this moment, for no + authorities are to be trusted. My diary was written at the time from + information chiefly supplied by Chamberlain, and Chamberlain has since + seen and agreed to this record (1906). On Sunday, April 30th, the + _Observer_ gave an account of what had passed at a Cabinet of the + previous day; but no such Cabinet was held, and on May 1st the _Times_ + also gave an account of what passed at "Saturday's Cabinet"! + + 'On May 1st I saw Chamberlain before the Cabinet. Parnell had written + to Justin McCarthy to promise that if let out he was ready to advise + payment of rent and cessation of outrages, but McCarthy would not + allow the letters to be made public. Forster insisted that he should + give a public promise. I suggested to Chamberlain that to call on + Parnell to give a public promise was to recognize Parnell as the + Government of Ireland. Chamberlain agreed to argue that the promise + should be a private one so far as Parnell was concerned, but that the + Government should state that such a promise had been made. After the + Cabinet Chamberlain told me that at the Cabinet of the next day + Forster would resign; but he thought that the Chancellor, who was + restive about the remedial legislation proposed in the shape of an + Arrears Bill, would "go" too. I fancy the Chancellor had promised to + resign, but he didn't.' + +This reference to Lord Selborne is supplemented by the Memoir for 1893, +where Sir Charles has a detached note: + + 'Our former Chancellor at eighty-two is "not less" prosy in the Lords + than he used to be, for he was always "slow." When W. E. Forster + resigned in 1882, Lord Granville left the Cabinet room to go down to + tell the Queen. Then, and then only, Lord Selborne said: "But I agree + with him, and must resign also." "It is too late," said Harcourt, "it + would not now be respectful to the Queen as Granville has started." So + the Chancellor did not resign.' + + The Memoir continues: 'On May 3rd Chamberlain, who had decided to take + the Irish Secretaryship if offered to him, was astonished at having + received no offer. At 11.30 p.m. on the same day, the 3rd, I found + that the appointment had been offered to and declined by Hartington; + but the offer to, and acceptance by, his brother, Lord Frederick + Cavendish, came as a complete surprise both to me and to Chamberlain. + + 'In the night between May 4th and 5th the Queen telegraphed to + Harcourt: "I can scarcely believe that Davitt, one of the most + dangerous traitors, has been released without my having been + consulted, as I was in the case of the three members." The fact was + that Harcourt had so impressed upon the Queen the wickedness of + Davitt, at the time when he withdrew Davitt's ticket-of-leave, that it + was rather difficult for him to explain to the Queen his very sudden + change of front. + + 'On the 5th I had an interview with Mr. Gladstone as to royal grants. + I carefully abstained from giving any pledge as to future action, and + at the Cabinet of the 8th' (after Lord Frederick Cavendish's murder), + 'when the question of my being offered the Chief Secretaryship with + the Cabinet came up, Mr. Gladstone stated to the Cabinet that I + remained unpledged. + + 'On May 6th I heard from Brett and from the Duchess of Manchester that + Hartington had proposed me in the Cabinet for Chief Secretary, with a + seat in the Cabinet, and that both Mr. Gladstone and Lord Granville + had said: "Dilke won't do." The Duchess asked me what this meant, and + I said that it was the Queen's objection on account of the Leopold + grant, which it was; but Mr. Gladstone was glad to give Spencer his + own way without a Chief Secretary in the Cabinet.' + +At half-past six that afternoon, May 6th, Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. +Burke, the permanent Under-Secretary, were murdered in the Phoenix Park, +within sight of the Viceregal Lodge. + + 'On the night of May 6th the scene at the party at the Admiralty was + most dramatic. Mrs. Gladstone had come there from a dinner party at + the Austrian Embassy, not knowing of the murder, while everybody else + in the room knew. At last she was sent for suddenly to Downing Street + to be told, and went away under the impression that the Queen had been + shot, for she was assured that it was very dreadful, but "nothing + about Mr. Gladstone." + + 'Early on Sunday morning, the 7th, Parnell came to see me with Justin + McCarthy. He was white and apparently terror-stricken. He thought the + blow was aimed at him, and that if people kept their heads, and the + new policy prevailed, he himself would be the next victim of the + secret societies. [Footnote: In the letters of Justin McCarthy to Mrs. + Campbell Praed (_Our Book of Memoirs_, p. 97) there is an account of + what happened in London on that Sunday. There was a gathering of Irish + leaders at Parnell's rooms. + + "Then Parnell and I talked together, and we thought the best thing for + us--we two--was to go and consult some of our English friends. We + started out, and went first to see Sir Charles Dilke. Our impression + was that either Dilke or Chamberlain would be asked to take the post + of Irish Secretary. Indeed, the general impression was that either one + man or the other would have been asked at the time when Lord Frederick + Cavendish was appointed.... We saw Dilke. He was perfectly composed + and cool. He said that if Gladstone offered him the post of Irish + Secretary, nothing that had happened lately would in the least deter + him from accepting it.... + + "He went on to say that he was a Home Ruler _quand même_; that he + would be inclined to press Home Rule on the Irish people, even if they + were not wholly inclined for it, because he so fully believed in the + principle, whereas Chamberlain would only give Home Rule if the Irish + people refused to accept anything less. But on the other hand, + Chamberlain was an optimist in the matter, and thought he could do + great good as Irish Secretary; and he (Dilke) was not so certain, + seeing the difficulty of dealing with the Castle and the permanent + officials, and therefore they agreed that as far as they were + concerned it was better Chamberlain should go. + + "He said, 'If Chamberlain goes, he'll go to smash things'--meaning the + Dublin Castle system. + + "Then we went to Chamberlain and had a long talk with him. We found + him perfectly willing to go to Ireland, but he said he must have his + own way there and he would either make or mar--by which we understood + the Castle system...."] + + 'On this day, May 8th, I noted that I thought it most unlikely that + Mr. Gladstone would send Chamberlain to Ireland, inasmuch as to do so + would be to admit that he had been wrong in not sending him in the + previous week. To Grant Duff I sent the reason for Mr. G.'s decision: + "Spencer wishes the policy to be _his_ policy, and does not want his + Chief Secretary in the Cabinet." At three o'clock Chamberlain sent a + note across to me from the Cabinet: "Prepare for an offer." I was + somewhat surprised at this, because Chamberlain knew that I would not + take it without the Cabinet, and that I would take it with the + Cabinet, whereas his note seemed to imply a doubt. At four he came + across himself, and the first difference that had ever occurred + between us took place, because although he knew that I would not + accept, he urged acceptance of the post without the Cabinet. He argued + that it carried with it the Privy Council, that it established great + personal claims upon the party, and that it afforded a means of + getting over the difficulty with the Queen. I declined, however, + without hesitation and with some anger. It was obvious that I could + not consent to be "a mere mouthpiece." Mr. Gladstone and Lord + Carlingford then sent back to say, personally from each of them, that + I was to be present at the Cabinet at every discussion of Irish + affairs; and I then asked: "Why, then, should I not be in the + Cabinet?" Carlingford came back to the Foreign Office again and again, + and cried over it to me; and Lord Granville came in twice, and + threatened me with loss of prestige by my refusal, by which I + certainly felt that I had lost Mr. Gladstone's confidence. I was angry + with Chamberlain at having placed me in this position.... Had he acted + on this occasion with the steadiness with which he acted on every + other, he would have told the Cabinet that the offer would be an + insult, because he knew that this was my view. The ground on which the + refusal of the Cabinet was put to me was the impossibility of having + both myself and Spencer in the Cabinet. Lord Granville came in + finally, and said in his sweetest manner (which is a very disagreeable + one) that he had vast experience, and had "never known a man stand on + his extreme rights and gain by it." This I felt to be a monstrous + perversion of the case, and I was glad on the morning of the 9th to + find that my reasons were very fairly stated in the _Standard_, the + _Telegraph_, and the _Daily News_. Chamberlain had seen Escott of the + _Standard_, and Lawson of the _Telegraph_, and I had seen Hill of the + _Daily News_. + + 'That the Cabinet position towards me was dishonest is shown by the + fact that they had given Lord Spencer Cowper's place when they had + still reason to suppose that Forster was going to continue in the + Irish Secretaryship and in the Cabinet, and had afterwards asked + Hartington to take the Chief Secretaryship. + + 'An honourable (I trust) defence of myself is in a letter in the + possession of Grant Duff under date "May 5th, closed on 11th." + +The letter to Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff, which has separate brief +jottings on May 5th, 6th, and 7th, has so far been reproduced almost +textually from Sir Charles's Memoir. The rest runs as follows: + + "_8th_.--Mr. Gladstone is determined not to send Chamberlain to + Ireland, and does not want a Chief Secretary in the Cabinet, and to + send Chamberlain and so have a Chief Secretary in the Cabinet would be + to admit that the decision of last week was wrong. I, of course, + refused to go. I should have had to defend any policy that Spencer + chose to adopt without having a voice in it. Acceptance would not have + been only a personal mistake; it would have been a political blunder. + Outside the Cabinet I should not have had the public confidence, and + rightly so, because I could not have had a strong hand. I should have + inherited accumulated blunders, and I was under no kind of obligation + to do so, for I have never touched the Irish Question. Never have I + spoken of it from first to last. Many of the measures rendered + necessary by the situation are condemned by my whole past attitude; + but they have really been made inevitable by blunders for which I had + no responsibility and which I should not have been allowed to condemn. + + "Yours ever," + + "CHS. W. D." + + "Closed on 11th." + +He wrote also this month in a letter to Mrs. Pattison: + + "In a matter of this sort it is essential to have the look of the + thing in view, when a question of personal courage is involved. Of + course, I know that I have personal courage, but the public can only + judge from the look of things. The reason why Chamberlain even doubted + if I ought not after the murder to go--though I was not to have gone + before it--lay in the doubt as to how the public would take the look + of it. It has turned out right, but it might have turned out wrong. If + the public had gone the other way, I should have said I ought to have + taken it, and resigned." + +But, as Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff pointed out when replying to the letter +of May 11th, in the state of things then existing in Ireland a Minister +could hardly have resigned without the gravest embarrassment to the +Government, and he cordially approved Sir Charles's refusal: "You could +not have accepted the Secretaryship without a seat in the Cabinet." That +refusal was also approved and understood by the heir to the Throne: + + 'On the 8th the Prince of Wales wrote to me through Knollys to ask me + as to the Chief Secretaryship, and on my informing him how matters + stood, replied: "If you had accepted the post without a seat in the + Cabinet, your position, especially at the present moment, would be a + very unsatisfactory one. If the policy, whatever it is, prove a + success, I doubt whether _you_ would have obtained much credit for it; + and if it turned out a failure, you may be quite sure that a great + deal of the blame would fall upon you without your having been + responsible for the initiation of the steps that were adopted."' + +The Phoenix Park murders having immediately followed the appointment of +Lord Frederick Cavendish, those who had always pressed for further powers +of police now asserted themselves with vehemence. Sir William Harcourt +spoke strongly on Ireland and the necessity for coercion in the House of +Commons. Mr. Gladstone, in whom the Radicals had always found a mainstay +against these tendencies, was broken in spirit and suddenly aged. All +relations in the Cabinet were jarred and embittered, as the successive +entries in this Memoir show: + + 'In the night between May 11th and 12th the Irish, although angry at + Harcourt's coercion speech, sent O'Shea to Chamberlain at 3 a.m. with + the olive-branch again. + + 'On May 13th Mr. Gladstone again stated privately that he intended to + give up the Exchequer on account of his advancing years. + + 'On this day the Cabinet unanimously decided to give an extradition + treaty to Russia--to my mind a most foolish proposal. + + 'On Monday, May 15th, Mr. Gladstone sent Chamberlain to O'Shea to see + if Parnell could be got to support the new Coercion Bill with some + changes. When Harcourt heard of this, which was done behind his back, + he was furious, and went so far as to tell me: "When I resign I shall + not become a discontented Right Honourable on a back bench, but shall + go abroad for some months, and when I come back rat boldly to the + other side." This reminds me of Randolph Churchill on Lord Derby, "A + man may rat once, but not rat and re-rat." + + 'On Tuesday, May 16th, Mr. Gladstone wrote, on Chamberlain's + suggestion, to Harcourt to try to smooth him over, and proposed a + Cabinet on the matter for the next day, Wednesday, May 17th, at which + Harcourt declared that if any change was made in the principle of his + Coercion Bill he would resign; but then nobody knew what was the + principle of the Bill. At this Cabinet Harcourt ... told the Cabinet + that the Kilmainham Treaty would not be popular when the public + discovered that it had been negotiated by Captain O'Shea, "the husband + of Parnell's mistress." He informed the Cabinet that ... after this it + would hardly "do for the public" "for us to use O'Shea as a + negotiator." I wrote to Grant Duff on this day (closed 18th) as to + Parnell's relations to Mrs. O'Shea as disclosed in Cabinet. + + 'On Friday, May 19th, Lord Derby said to me: "You were right to refuse + the Chief Secretaryship; still Mr. Gladstone must say to himself: + 'Surely I am about to die, for I am not obeyed.'" On Monday, the 22nd, + Mr. Gladstone was very strongly in favour of accepting Parnell's + privately suggested amendments to the new Coercion Bill, obtained + through O'Shea, but Hartington going with Harcourt against touching + the Bill, Mr. Gladstone got no support except from Chamberlain. + + 'On May 25th Chamberlain was anxious to resign on account of + Harcourt's position as to coercion; but the fit passed off again. + + 'On June 5th I noted in my diary that I heard that Goschen was soon to + be asked to become Chancellor of the Exchequer. + + 'On the 9th Lord Granville told me that the hatred of Mr. Gladstone + for Goschen was such that he had point blank refused to make him + Chancellor of the Exchequer; but this proved to be untrue, for an + offer was as a fact made to him, although perhaps very privately. + + 'At this time I received a letter from Lord Ripon in India as to the + Kilmainham Treaty, in which he said that he was convinced that + Forster's policy had completely broken down, and went on: "But between + ourselves is not the Government still ... on a wrong track in its + coercive measures? I do not like the suspension of trial by jury.... + Again, if Reuter is right, it is proposed to take a power to expel + dangerous foreigners. I am too much of a Foxite to like an Alien Bill, + and, besides, if you are not very careful, the expulsion of foreigners + will land you in a very disagreeable state of relations with the + United States." These, I noted, were exactly the arguments which + Chamberlain was using against Harcourt without avail.' + + +II. + +On June 11th Mr. Chamberlain wrote that the Cabinet had decided on some +important changes in the Prevention of Crimes Bill, and that things looked +better. + +But on that day the Alexandria riots took place, and opinion was sharply +divided as to the measures which should be taken. Here Sir Charles Dilke, +and with him Mr. Chamberlain, were strongly for forcible action, while Mr. +Bright, who in the matter of Ireland had come round towards the side of +coercion, opposed the use of force in Egypt. On July 5th there was a +stormy meeting of the Cabinet, which two days later had its echo in +public. + + 'Mr. Gladstone, mixing Ireland and Egypt together, broke out in the + House of Commons on July 7th, and afterwards privately told his + colleagues that he intended to resign!' + +The occasion of this outbreak was a debate on the Prevention of Crimes +Bill, which the Tories were seeking to render more drastic. The Prime +Minister declared with emphasis that if coercive powers which he did not +seek were to be thrust upon him, he must "consider his personal position." +The words were at once in debate construed as a threat of retirement, and +there was a critical position in the Cabinet. + + 'Bright would follow Mr. Gladstone; and Chamberlain and I decided that + if this were so, although we were against him about Egypt, which would + be one of the causes of his resignation, we must go with him all the + same and refuse to join the new administration. Although I concurred + in this view, after discussion, it was not mine. On this occasion I + thought it was our duty to stay. But after discussion, as I have + stated, I came round to Chamberlain's view so far as this--that we + decided that we would not join the new Government if Mr. Gladstone + were outside it in the House of Commons; although the case might be + different if he quitted political life or went to the Lords, and if we + were satisfied with the new bill of fare. + + 'At this moment Chamberlain and I were anxious to get Courtney into + the Cabinet, and Mr. Gladstone having asked us, after Playfair's worst + mess, if we thought Courtney would take the place of Chairman of Ways + and Means, we told him that we thought he would only if it was + understood that it was not to lessen his chances of obtaining Cabinet + office. [Footnote: Sir Lyon Playfair, Chairman of Committees, had + suspended eighteen Irish members on July 1st.] + + 'When the House met at nine o'clock [Footnote: This means after the + dinner interval, for which at this time the House used to adjourn.] on + Friday, July 7th, I sounded Trevelyan' (then Chief Secretary for + Ireland) 'as to his course, and found him most anxious to stop in at + all hazards. I then saw Childers, who had walked home with Hartington + at seven. He said that he had urged Hartington not to form a weak Whig + Administration, and had told him that if Chamberlain would stay he, + Childers, would go on, but that he thought that to go on without + Chamberlain would be fatal, and that it would be far better to let the + Tories come in, and help them through with Egypt, and then make them + go to their constituents. At ten o'clock Grosvenor came and told me + that he thought that Mr. Gladstone would stay on. Chamberlain, who + still thought that Mr. Gladstone would resign, told Hartington that in + the event of the formation of a new Liberal Ministry he should insist + that Goschen should not be put in, and that the vacancies should be + filled up by myself, Courtney, and Trevelyan. At midnight the storm + had blown over.' + +A Bill to prevent eviction for arrears of excessive rents had been +demanded by the Nationalist party as a necessary amendment to the Land Act +of 1881, and it had been introduced by the Government, and was carried +through _pari passu_ with the new measure of coercion. It was furiously +opposed by the high Tories, and a new crisis seemed imminent. + + 'On Monday, July 10th, it again seemed probable that Mr. Gladstone + would resign. The intention of the Lords to throw out the Arrears + Bill, at Lord Salisbury's dictation, was loudly proclaimed, and it was + said by Mr. Gladstone's friends that Mr. Gladstone would at once + resign, and that if Lord Salisbury refused to form a Government, Mr. + Gladstone would retire from public life. Chamberlain was determined + then to insist with either Lord Granville or Lord Hartington for + myself, Courtney, and Trevelyan, on the ground that a Liberal + Government with a Whig Prime Minister must be Radical.' + +It was the apprehension of such an increase of power to the Radicals that +made the threat of Mr. Gladstone's resignation formidable both to Whigs +and Tories. + +Mr. Gladstone, however, did not resign, though Mr. Bright did, after the +bombardment of Alexandria had taken place. On the contrary, by July 12th, + + 'so belligerent was the Prime Minister that he had now decided, in + face of the prospect of Lord Salisbury throwing out the Arrears Bill, + unless Lord Waterford on behalf of the Irish landlords begged him not + to do so, to prorogue, have another Session a week after, and pass the + Bill again.' + +This quarrel between the Houses remained open till August 8th, when Lord +Salisbury, under pressure from the Irish landlords, was forced to content +himself with acquiescence under angry protest. But in the meanwhile the +Government were in other difficulties. After the bombardment of Alexandria +it was still necessary to deal with the rebellion against the Khedive, +whose authority England was seeking to support; and the Tories, allied +with a section of the peace party, offered strong resistance to any +military expedition. + + 'On Wednesday, August 2nd, I had a conversation with Mr. Gladstone, + who agreed in my view that if beaten we should force the county + franchise, and dissolve only if the Lords would carry that. It began + to look as if we should sit till Christmas. + + 'On Monday, August 7th, I had an interesting talk with Brett. Knowing + his great influence with Hartington, I complained to him of his + chief's folly in always acting as the leader of a Whig section instead + of as deputy-leader of the whole party. Brett agreed that it was + foolish in the particular case of franchise, "as he must give in at + last." I replied: "But he has given in already, and gone back again." + Brett answered: "He declares he never voted for it." This is a curious + example of Hartington's complete detachment from politics and want of + interest in them, for he had not only voted, but had made a long, + strong, and elaborate speech, explaining his reasons for so doing, and + then absolutely forgotten the whole thing, and thought that he was + still committed to opposition. At the Cabinet of the 5th he had + declared against a Franchise Bill.' + +When the Session ended on August 27th the question of Sir Charles Dilke's +personal position came up. Neither his refusal of the Chief Secretaryship +nor his attitude of opposition to Mr. Gladstone's own wishes as to Egypt +had in the least impaired his standing, and promotion was felt to be his +due. The old difficulties, however, were still in the way, and Sir Charles +refused to buy his way into the Cabinet by a sham recantation. The matter +accordingly stood over, as appears from this entry: + + 'At this moment there were fresh discussions as to my saying something + to the Queen to get over her difficulty about receiving me into the + Cabinet. Lord Granville, in congratulating me upon the way in which I + had done the Foreign Office work, said that Mr. Gladstone had been + unable to say anything to the Queen because I had hot given him enough + upon which to go. Mr. Gladstone then wrote to me a long letter in + favour of my making some statement to my constituents, but he went on + to admit in writing what he had previously admitted in conversation-- + namely, that a Committee' (to inquire into the Civil List) 'would be + wise. Therefore I at once insisted that I should have the distinct + promise of this Committee before I said anything. Mr. Gladstone's + letter came very near a promise, as he said that when any new set of + cases came forward the question of a Committee would naturally come + up, and would, he hoped, be favourably entertained. I again called in + Chamberlain, and acting with him, declined to make any statement, as I + had in no way changed my opinion, but I pressed the appointment of the + Committee, or at least the promise of one. Mr. Gladstone again + promised to communicate with the Queen.' + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +EGYPT +JANUARY TO SEPTEMBER, 1882 + + +I. + +At the beginning of 1881 the form of government which Europe had set up in +Egypt was but young. Tewfik, the Khedive chosen by the French and British +Governments to replace Ismail, had occupied his position for less than two +years. Riaz Pasha, head of the Ministry after the fall of his predecessor +Nubar, [Footnote: There is a note of October 13th, 1880: 'I saw Nubar +Pasha about Egypt, and I had received an extremely able long letter from +Rivers Wilson asking me to interfere to restore Nubar to power, but I did +not as a fact discuss Egypt with the French.'] had brought about a mutiny +of officers early in 1879, and was carrying on public affairs with +difficulty. He had been forced to sacrifice his War Minister to the second +mutiny (of February, 1881) which followed on the arrest and secured the +release of Arabi. In the spring of the year the smouldering discontent of +the army was fanned into flame by the advance of the French to Tunis. + + 'On May 12th' (1881--the very date on which the French Expeditionary + Force constrained the Bey of Tunis to accept French suzerainty) 'steps + were taken on behalf of Lord Hartington, Lord Granville, and myself to + see whether, now that France had knocked another bit out of the bottom + of the Ottoman Empire by her attack on Tunis, we ought to try to get + any compensation in Egypt for ourselves. Hartington was to consult the + India Office upon the question, and I wrote to Sir Edward Hertslet, + asking him to consider how we stood with reference to the despatch of + troops through Egypt in the event of (1) a rising in India, (2) an + invasion of India by Russia.' + +On July 28th, 1881, there took place at the Foreign Office the first +meeting of a Committee 'to consider the affairs of Egypt, consisting of +Tenterden, myself, Pauncefote, Malet, Scott the Judge, young Maine, and +Reilly.' Sir Charles Rivers Wilson, who had been Finance Minister under +Ismail, was called in from time to time. + + 'My own endeavours on this Committee were directed against increasing + internationally in Egypt, as I thought the Governments of England and + France would be driven sooner or later to occupy the country with a + joint force, and that internationality (which would mean German + influence) would then be a great difficulty in the way.' + +The need for intervention soon grew urgent. On September 9th, 1881, a +large body of troops, headed by Arabi, threatened the Khedive's palace, +demanding the dismissal of all the Ministers, the convocation of a +parliament, and a great increase of the army. Again the mutiny succeeded, +and this time, in Sir Edward Malet's words, "it was more than a mutiny, it +was a revolution." Riaz Pasha was replaced by Cherif, but all real power +was in the hands of the soldiery. + +The question now came to be, Who should step in to establish order? The +Sultan of Turkey, who saw a chance of making his nominal suzerainty real, +proposed to despatch troops, but confined himself to sending envoys. As a +counter-demonstration, France and England each sent a warship to +Alexandria; and Gambetta's accession to power in November meant a great +reinforcement to the policy of joint intervention. + +Sir Charles was then in Paris engaged in the commercial negotiations +already described, and he chronicled in his diary a sporting suggestion: + + "_September 19th_, 1881.--After the seventeenth sitting of the Treaty + Joint Commission I had an interview with Delia Sala, the Italian who + is an Egyptian General, and governs the Soudan. He is a great fencer, + and has killed his man before now. He declares himself willing to put + down insubordination in the Egyptian Army by calling out three of the + Colonels in succession. A more practical but hardly less bold + suggestion of his is that he should be allowed to increase his anti- + slavery regiment of 600 men, and then to use it as a bodyguard for + Malet instead of the putting down of slavery." + + 'On December 27th, 1881, Lord Granville asked me by letter to discuss + with Gambetta all the possible alternatives, and especially joint + occupation (to which Lord Granville saw objection), and a Turkish + intervention under the control of England and France (to which French + opinion was opposed): "The more you can get out of Gambetta without + committing us the more grateful we shall be." I have no recollection + of having discussed Egypt with Gambetta.' + +Shortly afterwards + + 'Malet wrote from Cairo to Paris, telling me that he still had + confidence in the moderation of the progressist party represented by + Arabi and the Colonels, and that he was managing them through Wilfrid + Blunt, who was acting as a go-between; but a little later on the + relations between Blunt and Malet became such as to show that each had + thought he was using the other as a tool.' + +"Moderation" is an ambiguous term. When the Chamber of Notables met at the +end of December, 1881, the army put forward through the Minister for War a +demand for an increase of 18,000 men. This increase the European +controllers refused to sanction, on the ground that the country could not +afford it. Thus came to pass a conflict between the national movement and +the joint European control upon an issue which united the interests of the +military party with the aspirations of the parliamentarian Nationalists +for the power of the purse. Gambetta, however, was now dominant in France, +and Gambetta had no tolerance for the pretensions of what he called a +"sham assembly." A Joint Note, dated January 6th, 1882, was issued by the +two Powers, in which England and France declared their intention to "guard +by their united efforts against all cause of complication, internal or +external, which might menace the order of things established in Egypt." +Another phrase in the Note attributed the exchange of views between the +Powers to "recent circumstances, especially the meeting of the Chamber of +Notables convoked by the Khedive," and this was naturally construed by +Nationalists to mean that parliamentary institutions were internal causes +of complication. + +The issue of this Note is one of the marking-points of modern Egyptian +history. It asserted the determination of the joint Powers to make their +will obeyed in Egypt, by force if necessary. According to general +admission, its issue was due to the overmastering influence of Gambetta. +Dilke, whom everyone knew to be Gambetta's intimate, was in France almost +continuously from the time when Gambetta became Prime Minister on November +10th, 1881, till the eve of the issue of the Joint Note. In 1878, while in +Opposition, he had publicly advocated a policy of annexation in Egypt, and +it was inevitable that critics should fasten upon him a special +responsibility for the course pursued. + +Yet, as the Memoir makes clear, in 'this weighty affair' Dilke had +virtually no voice. He was not in the Cabinet, and he was absent from +Paris for nearly the whole of December, taking a holiday in Provence from +commercial negotiations. Only on his return, on December 27th, did he +receive Lord Granville's letter--which was dated December 21st--asking him +to discuss with Gambetta the possible alternatives. But although the two +men met repeatedly between December 27th and January 2nd, when Dilke left +Paris, Gambetta refrained from discussing Egypt. The Memoir says, under +date January 7th, 1882: + + 'The Cabinet had before it the state of affairs in Egypt, and resolved + upon agreeing on Gambetta's policy of a Joint Note on the part of + England and of France in support of the Khedive against the + revolutionary party. Mr. Ashmead Bartlett, misled by the dates of + interviews, has asserted from that time to this (1890) that the Joint + Note was arranged in Paris between Gambetta and myself. I have + repeatedly denied that statement, for curiously enough it so happens + that the Joint Note was the only important matter relating to Foreign + Affairs which happened while I was at the Foreign Office in which I + was not consulted. Gambetta never broached the subject with me, and I + knew nothing of it until it was done. As we talked a little about + Egypt, I suppose that he had reasons for not wishing to speak of the + Joint Note to me, but I do not know what they were.' + + +II. + +Sir Charles Dilke's policy for Egypt differed from that of his chief, who +always inclined to leave Turkey to undertake the necessary coercion, under +the surveillance of England and France. Dilke, with Gambetta, desired +joint intervention. [Footnote: Lord Cromer wrote to Sir Charles Dilke +asking him about a letter of M. Joseph Reinach's of July 28th, 1909, in +which the latter spoke of his doubts as to the complete sincerity of the +English Government at the time of the Gambetta Ministry. At that moment +Dilke, in whose company he had breakfasted at Gambetta's with MM. Rouvier, +Spuller, and other guests, did not, in spite of his great friendship for +Gambetta, believe in the duration of his Ministry, any more than the +English Government did. M. Reinach thought that Sir Charles Dilke's Diary +would throw an interesting light on the point as to whether, foreseeing +Gambetta's fall, the English Government did not foresee the probability of +their sole intervention in Egypt. + +Sir Charles's comment was as follows: + + "My diary (agreed to by Chamberlain after he had changed the opinions + he held at the time described) shows that permanent occupation was not + thought consistent with British interests by any who took a leading + part in the Cabinet action. I was not in the Cabinet until after Tel- + el-Kebir, but, as you know, I was--from the time of the riots at + Alexandria--of the 'inner Cabinet' for such purposes. Of course, all + men knew that the Gambetta Cabinet was dead before its birth. Hanotaux + ... is right on this. But we wanted the Turk to go for us, and, + failing the Turk (under our lead), then Italy in place of France, + after France backed out.... + + "There was no moment up to '96--or perhaps '98--when if France had + known her mind and meant business she could not have had her way-- + 'reasonably.' + + "Gambetta's policy was dominated by hatred of Russia. 'I will seek my + alliances--n'importe où, même à Berlin'--meant anywhere except at St. + Petersburg.... Say to Reinach that I tell you that I don't mind + _showing_ him the governing passages in my diaries if he wants to + _see_ them, but that they are dead against him."] + + 'On January 15th, 1882, I started the idea that England and France + should not act as England and France only, but should ask Europe for a + mandate, and on the 16th Lord Granville took it up, and wrote to Lord + Lyons in its favour on the 17th. I sent to Lord Granville notes of + what I proposed to say in a speech on Egypt. I pointed out that I had + been one of those who had opposed the creation of the Anglo-French + control, but that it was the invention of our predecessors. Lord Derby + had created, when Conservative Foreign Secretary, a mild form of + control, which had been raised into the sharper form of control by + Lord Salisbury, who had refused successively to Germany, to Austria, + and to Italy, any share in the control. Lord Salisbury was wholly + responsible for it; but, however great its political dangers, from the + Egyptian and the economical point of view it had worked well, and, + being there, must be maintained, as it was the only thing between us + and anarchy. It was due to the controllers that the country had been + relieved from arbitrary rule. The co-operation with France + deliberately created by Lord Salisbury must be loyally maintained. + + 'Lord Granville wrote back praising the proposed statement, but + suggesting that I should not run down the control so much, and not + initiate an attack upon our predecessors. Although I slightly toned + down my observations upon this occasion, when we were afterwards + attacked on the matter in the House of Commons I more than once said + everything that I had proposed to say against the control and our + responsibility for its existence.' + + 'On January 18th Sheffield' (Lord Lyons's secretary) 'came to see me. + He said that Gambetta was angry with Malet, as Malet was under the + influence of Wilfrid Blunt, which meant that of Arabi Bey. I wrote a + minute of our conversation upon this point, and Lord Granville + replied: "Gambetta must not drag us into too arbitrary a way of + dealing with the Egyptians. He is _très autoritaire_." On the 20th + Lord Granville received a private letter from Lord Lyons, who would + not hear of the mandatories of Europe plan for Egypt, which, however, + Mr. Gladstone had approved. It was from Lord Lyons's reply that I + discovered that Lord Granville had given the credit of the scheme to + Malet. I had never heard Malet mention any such idea; but on the next + day, January 21st, Malet did telegraph the plan, and I could not help + wondering who had sent it to him. + + 'On the 26th Lord Granville informed me that at the Cabinet of the + previous day my Egyptian "Mandatories" proposal had been considered, + and had been opposed by Lord Kimberley, but had received pretty + general support.' + +On January 26th an event happened which destroyed the chances of joint +intervention. Gambetta fell. The policy of joint intervention in support +of any menace to the established order in Egypt, to which both Powers were +committed by the Joint Note of January 6th, now passed into the hands of +Lord Granville and of M. de Freycinet, concerning whom Sir Charles wrote +on March 9th, 1882: + + 'I noted that Freycinet had begun his official career by doing what he + had done when in office before--namely, asking Bismarck's consent to + every act. He was so anxious to stop the Turks from going to Egypt + that he was willing at this moment to agree even to Italian + intervention in the name of Europe; and he was personally anxious for + reconciliation with Italy.' + +Meanwhile in Egypt there had been a new ministerial crisis. Cherif Pasha +was deposed from the Presidency of the Council, and Arabi was made the +Minister for War. The control, according to Sir Edward Malet, "existed +only in name." In the provinces there was anarchy. Either the order of +things established in Egypt must disappear, or intervention in some shape +was inevitable. + + 'On February 1st there was a Cabinet upon the Egyptian Question. Lord + Granville wrote to me before it met to say that the Cabinet had + complained that we had not told them anything about Egypt, to which he + had replied that they had received the telegrams if they had not read + them.... At this day's Cabinet Hartington alone was in favour of + Anglo-French intervention, and he fell out with Lord Granville over + it, and they were on bad terms for some time. Some of the Cabinet + wanted English intervention, and some wanted Anglo-French-Turkish + intervention.... + + 'On March 4th there was a Cabinet, at which Hartington made a great + fight against all his colleagues, who were unanimous against him upon + the question of Anglo-French intervention in Egypt. + + 'On March 20th the new French Ambassador Tissot came. I had previously + known him when he was the Agent of the Government of National Defence + inhabiting the London Embassy, virtually as Ambassador but without a + staff. On this occasion he immediately startled us out of our senses + by proposing that we should depose the Khedive and set up Prince + Halim. He had converted Freycinet to this madcap view.' + +Halim, the heir by Mohammedan law, was Arabi's candidate for sovereignty. +During Sir Charles's visit to France in the middle of April this +suggestion became fully official, as he learnt on returning. + + 'France had proposed to us to depose the Khedive and set up Halim, and + we had refused on the ground of breach of faith. On April 20th the + Cabinet decided absolutely and unanimously against any suggestion with + regard to Halim.' + +Since the policy of united intervention in the name of Europe, to which +Sir Charles had sought to fix the Powers, had no longer any support in +France, and since the French proposal of a new Khedive had been rejected, +the plan of Turkish intervention which Lord Granville had always +preferred, as being the least bad, was now formally put forward. + + 'On April 23rd Lord Granville invented a plan of sending three + Generals to Egypt, because the French had told him that we had refused + their plan without having one of our own. The idea was that a Turkish + General should go with full powers, and accompanied by a French and an + English General, the full powers not to be used by the Turk unless his + French and English colleagues should agree. + + 'On Friday, May 12th, I noted in my diary that the French had suddenly + "caved in" to us about Egypt, and declared that a Turkish intervention + at the request of England and France would not be Turkish + intervention; and on Saturday, May 13th, I found Lord Granville ten + years younger than on the 12th in consequence. But the French + afterwards not only got out of this, but pretended that they had never + done anything of the kind.' + +The decision to call in Turkey was not publicly announced, and the +situation at Cairo grew daily more threatening. Sir Edward Malet +telegraphed that a fanatical feeling against foreigners was being +sedulously fostered. The Governments then, says Lord Cromer, "authorized +their Consuls-General to take whatever steps they considered possible to +insure the departure from Egypt of Arabi and his principal partisans, and +the nomination of Cherif Pasha to be President of the Council." [Footnote: +Lord Cromer's _Modern Egypt_, vol. i., chap, xv., p. 273.] Acting on this +instruction, Sir Edward Malet and his French colleague, on May 25th, 1882, +handed in an official Note to the President of the Council, which +demanded, first, the temporary withdrawal of Arabi from Egypt, and, +secondly, the resignation of the Ministry. On May 26th the Egyptian +Ministry resigned. Thereupon the French Government decided that the need +for Turkish intervention had passed. + + 'Late on Tuesday afternoon, May 23rd, Lord Granville was in such a + hurry to adjourn the House of Lords, and bolt out of town for + Whitsuntide, that he let the French send off our Identic Note to the + Powers in a form in which it would do much harm, although this was + afterwards slightly altered. On the next day, Wednesday, the 24th, Mr. + Gladstone brought Lord Granville up to town again, and stopped his + going to the Derby, and at 1.30 p.m. they decided to call for + immediate Turkish intervention in Egypt. The necessity for it had been + caused by the childish folly of the French in trying to conceal the + fact that they had proposed in writing to us, through Tissot on the + 12th, to send six ships to Alexandria, and that if in addition troops + must be employed on shore, they should be Turkish. The agreement + between England and France was useless unless it was to be known, but + if known, would have prevented the need for intervention. The most + foolish course possible was that adopted by the French in first + agreeing, and then concealing. On May 24th, at night, we proposed to + the French to call in the Turks at once, and Freycinet went to bed to + avoid answering. + + 'On Friday, the 26th, Tissot wrote to Lord Granville, "M. de Freycinet + telegraphs to me that he is better, and will call the Cabinet together + for to-morrow to submit to it your proposal"; and on Saturday, May + 27th, accordingly, the French completely sold us, and we once more + realized the fact that they are not pleasant people to go tiger- + hunting with.' + +He quotes from his diary of the moment the comment: + + '"The French tried to throw us (and themselves) over as to Turkish + intervention. I wanted to say so in the House. Lord Granville + agreed."' + + 'On May 30th I strongly urged that we should tell the truth and say + so, and a Cabinet was called for the next day, and on the 31st decided + that we were not to say so; but Hartington agreed with me, and made + himself very disagreeable to Lord Granville and Mr. Gladstone, who + held the opposite opinion.' + +Sir Charles's entry of the moment was--"Lord G. and Hartington fell out +even rather more than usual." + + 'On June 1st, in the House of Commons, I half said what I meant, but + Mr. Gladstone spoilt the whole debate. I noted in my diary: "When Mr. + Gladstone begins to talk on foreign affairs it is impossible to tell + what he will say--witness his revelations of a cock-and-bull telegram + of Malet's to-day as to the immediate proclamation of Prince Halim by + Arabi." On the same day, it having been decided on the previous day + that we should send ships to Egypt, Tenterden and I sent off a + telegram _en clair_ to Lord Lyons about it in order that the French + should know what we were doing.... + + 'The Parliamentary difficulties of the Government upon the Egyptian + Question at this moment were considerable, as the Opposition were + taking with much vigour two inconsistent lines; Wolff and Chaplin + violently attacking us upon Jingo grounds because we did not intervene + by force in Egypt, and Bourke threatening us at every sign of + intervention.' + +Meanwhile the Khedive had failed to form another Ministry, and on May 28th +Arabi had been reinstated, with the result that his supporters redoubled +their confidence and that panic was general among the European residents. + + 'On June 13th we received full information with regard to the riots + which had happened in Alexandria on the 11th' (there being a British + and a French fleet there), 'in which several British subjects had been + assaulted and our Consul severely beaten. I formed a clear opinion + that it was impossible for us not to take active steps in intervention + after this, [Footnote: A private letter of this date gives the + estimate that "there is an overwhelming public opinion here for very + strong measures; that the great majority of the Cabinet share that + view; that France is most unpopular; and that Lord Granville, Mr. + Gladstone, and Mr. Bright will apparently bow to the storm."] as we + had been acting strictly within our rights along with France and + representing joint control. If the French would not go with us in + restoring order or allow the Turks to do so, I felt that we must do it + for ourselves, but I was clearly of opinion, and have always remained + so, that it was undesirable to embark upon a prolonged occupation of + Egypt. I thought, and still think, that anarchy could have been put + down, and a fairly stable state of things set up, without any + necessity for a British occupation. The riots, however, were the cause + on my part of a considerable error. I believed on the information + furnished me from Alexandria and Cairo that they were the work of the + revolutionary leaders in the capital. A long time afterwards I + gradually came to think that this had not been so, and that they had + been purely local and spontaneous. This does not, however, affect my + judgment upon the need for intervention. + + 'On Wednesday, June 14th ... brought me a telegram from Wilfrid Blunt + to Arabi ... "Praise God for victory." This abominable telegram + naturally had much to do with exciting the suspicions that I have just + mentioned as to Arabi having organized the riots. But I now believe + that the English sympathizer was more extreme than the Egyptian + revolutionist. In my diaries I wrote: "Our side in the Commons are + very Jingo about Egypt. They badly want to kill somebody. They don't + know who. Mr. G., who does not like the Stock Exchange, sent 'Egypts' + up 3 1/2 per cent. by a word in his speech." [Footnote: Mr. Gladstone + on June 14th: "... The ends we have in view ... are well known to + consist in the general maintenance of all established rights in Egypt, + whether they be those of the Sultan, those of the Khedive, those of + the people of Egypt, or _those of the foreign bondholders_."] At 6.30 + in the afternoon there was a Cabinet on Egypt, Chamberlain and + Hartington pressing for action, and I being most anxious that action + should take place. As there was now to be a conference at + Constantinople upon Egyptian affairs, I urged without success that + Rivers Wilson should be sent out to assist Lord Dufferin, on account + of his incomparable knowledge of Egyptian affairs, Lord Granville + refusing on the ground that "there's great jealousy of him among the + Egyptian English. He is under the charm of that arch-intriguer Nubar." + But we needed Nubar to get us out of our difficulties, and had + ultimately to call him in as Prime Minister. + + 'On June 15th the French Ambassador came to fence at my house at ten, + and I reported to Lord Granville: "He volunteered the statement that + Freycinet was 'an old woman'; in fact, talked in the sort of way in + which Bourke used to talk of Lord Derby in '77-'78." + + 'In the evening I met Musurus Bey at the French Embassy, and had a + conversation with him, which I reported and he afterwards denied, but + I don't think much importance was attached to his denial. I need not + discuss the matter, as the despatches were laid before Parliament. + + 'On the next day I wrote to Lord Granville: "The one thing we have to + fear is the murder of Malet or of the Khedive. If the Khedive obeys + the Sultan and returns to Cairo, it is very difficult to keep Malet at + Alexandria. I think we ought to tell the Sultan that we are sorry to + hear of the direction given to the Khedive to return to Cairo, and + tell the Khedive and Malet that we have said so. Also privately tell + the Khedive not to move." This I think was done. + + 'On June 17th I decided that I would resign if no steps were taken + with regard to the Alexandria massacre; but in the evening Lord + Granville telegraphed to Lord Ampthill: [Footnote: Lord Odo Russell + had become Lord Ampthill, and was still Ambassador at Berlin.] "No. + 130 ... it is impossible that the present state of things should be + allowed to continue, and if the Sultan is unwilling to do anything, + some other means must be found." On the 18th, after much pressure and + a threat of resignation from me, Lord Granville telegraphed to Lord + Ampthill: "No. 131. Intimate to Prince Bismarck ... that sharing as he + does the strong wish of H. M. G. to avoid unnecessary complications, + he must feel that, even if H. M. G. did not object, as they do, public + opinion would prevent them permanently acquiescing in any arrangements + in Egypt, especially after the late massacres at Alexandria, which + would destroy not only the prestige of this country, but also of + Europe, in the East...." + + 'The French having, according to Count Hatzfeldt, stated to the + Germans, as reported by Lord Ampthill in his No. 214, "that to + sanction Turkish intervention in Egypt would be to commit suicide," I + proposed that we should direct Lord Ampthill to read to him Tissot's + communication of May 12th. in which the French had agreed to the use + of Turkish troops. Lord Granville assented. On June 19th Lord + Granville repeated, through Lord Ampthill, to Prince Bismarck, "the + strong warning contained in my 131 of yesterday." I afterwards found + out, however, that at the last moment, on June 17th, Lord Granville + had telegraphed withdrawing the word "must" in his No. 130, and + substituting the word "should." He afterwards telegraphed again, + resubstituting "must," and wrote to me: "I have let the word stand, as + Hartington and you attached importance to it, and as it had been + already sent." There was great trouble about this change afterwards, + for Lord Granville was not exact in saying that he had let the word + "stand." What he had done was, as I say, first to withdraw it, and + then to resubstitute it upon our strong pressure. + + 'On June 19th there were two meetings of the Cabinet about Egypt, to + which I was called in; one at two, and another at six o'clock. I + simply said, like the servants when they fall out: "Either Arabi must + go or I will." + + 'On June 20th another meeting of the Cabinet took place at half-past + three. Lord Hartington called attention to the fact that Lord + Granville had altered "must" into "should" in No. 130, for the + telegram had after all been printed for the Cabinet and the Embassies + with the word "should." The Cabinet sat for four hours, and then + adjourned to the next day, on a proposal by Northbrook and Childers to + ask the French whether they would go halves with us in sending 15,000 + men to guard the Canal. On June 21st I came down a little from my + position of the previous day, and stated that I would go out with + Hartington if he liked, but that if he would not, and I stood alone, + then I would swallow Arabi on the ground that the oath to take him out + was sworn by England and France together, and that if France would not + do her half, we could not do both halves, provided that they gave me + (1) protection of the Canal, (2) a startling reparation for the + murders and the insult to our Consul at Alexandria. + + 'At two o'clock the Cabinet met again. Lord Granville had in the + meantime written me a letter ... as to the leaving out of "must" and + inserting "should." He said that if we changed our minds or had to + adopt palliatives, such as the defence of the Canal and reparation at + Alexandria, "our nose would be rubbed in 'must.'" I wrote back that + our position was not the same, inasmuch as he was evidently looking + forward to having to defend in Parliament a complete surrender, which + I was determined I would not do. On the same day, however, we + exchanged very pleasant letters about an accident to Lady Granville, + of which Lord Granville wrote: "It frightened me out of my wits." + + 'The Cabinet decided on the instructions to Dufferin for the + Conference, adopting proposals with regard to them which were made by + Chamberlain, and which were, in fact, mine. Lord Granville refused to + take them from Chamberlain, but Mr. Gladstone, with some slight + changes, made them his own, and then Lord Granville took them + directly. Northbrook went off delighted to continue his transport + preparations. Hartington warned Indian troops without consulting his + colleagues, but escaped censure. On June 23rd I suggested that + somebody should be appointed to assess damages to property at + Alexandria by the riots, as a ground for a claim against the + revolutionary Government, and suggested Lord Charles Beresford for the + work; but Lord Granville refused the man though he accepted the thing. + I obtained his consent to telegraph that we should insist on payment + of money to the relatives of the eight British subjects killed, of + money for the men hurt, of damages for the destruction of property, on + the execution of the murderers, on a salute to our flag at Alexandria, + and a salute to our flag at Cairo. + + 'On Saturday, June 24th, as I was only getting my way from day to day + upon these points by continually threatening resignation, Lord + Granville wrote to me in solemn reproof: "Nothing should be so sacred + as a threat of resignation." But I cannot see, and never could, why if + one intends to resign if one does not get one's way about a point + which one thinks vital, one should not say frankly exactly what one + means. I never blustered, and never threatened resignation except when + I fully meant it. + + 'On Sunday, June 25th, there came a curious telegram from Dufferin, + stating that the Sultan was "quite prepared to hand over to us the + exclusive control and administration of Egypt, reserving to himself + only those rights of suzerainty which he now possessed. In fact, what + he offered was an Egyptian convention on the lines of the Cyprus + convention." Lord Granville and Mr. Gladstone took upon themselves to + decline this offer without laying it before the Cabinet, and on + Tuesday, the 27th, the Queen sent to Hartington to express her anger + that the Sultan's offer of Sunday should have been declined without + consultation with her. I certainly think that a Cabinet ought to have + been called, but the Cabinet would have backed the refusal, though + they afterwards regretted it. + + 'On June 28th I was again sent for to the Cabinet, which discussed a + proposal from the Sultan to send troops. + + 'On June 30th I dined with the German Ambassador, who told me that + Musurus had said to him exactly what he had said to me at the French + Embassy, and that he had placed the conversation upon record. On the + same day two additional British gunboats were ordered to the Canal. + + 'On July 1st I had one of the most difficult tasks to perform that + were ever laid upon me. I had wanted to get off the Cobden Club dinner + fixed for that day; but, Lesseps having come over as a flaming Arabist + for the express purpose of making a ferocious Arabi speech at this + banquet, I had to go in order to propose his health, to sit next him + at the dinner, to frighten him out of making his speech, and to make + such a speech myself that he could not without provoking his audience + mention Egypt at all. In all this I succeeded. I told him privately + that, after the massacre of eight British subjects at Alexandria and + the promise by England and France that they would jointly keep order + in Egypt, if he introduced the subject I would speak again after him + and raise the audience against him. The old gentleman was very angry, + but he made a different speech, and the matter passed off + successfully. Lord Derby was in the chair, and gave me great + assistance, because, through Lord Granville, he allowed me to inform + Lesseps that if he began to deliver the speech which he had in his + pocket, he should rise and tell him that it was contrary to the rule + of the Club to introduce controversial topics likely to lead to + violent discussion, and, in fact, make him sit down. Lesseps brought + me a telegram from his son, who was at Ismailia, stating that there + could be no danger in Egypt unless there were an armed intervention, + and threatening us with the destruction of the Canal if intervention + should take place. + + 'On July 3rd there was a Cabinet on a proposal by Italy for the free + navigation of the Canal. This was most unnecessary, as a virtual + neutralization in practice existed, but the Italians wanted to do + something, and after an enormous deal of discussion they ultimately + got their way upon this unimportant point. + + 'On Monday, July 3rd, I received from Bourke, my predecessor, the + first warning of strong Tory opposition to British intervention in + Egypt. + + 'On the 4th Mr. Gladstone, Hartington, and Childers met to decide + whether the reserves should be called out and the troops sent forward, + but just before their meeting I saw Lesseps come past my door and go + to Mr. Gladstone's room at the House of Commons, which was next to + mine, and going in afterwards to Mr. Gladstone I saw the effect that + Lesseps had produced. Lesseps had a promise from Arabi to let him make + a fresh-water irrigation canal without payment for the concession, as + I afterwards discovered. + + 'On this day I wrote a memorandum on the subject of intervention (I + have an impression that it was based on Chamberlain's views, but I am + not sure). I pointed out that many Liberals thought that intervention + was only contemplated on account of financial interests--that if we + intervened to protect the Canal and to exact reparation due to us for + the Alexandria outrages, this feeling need not be taken into account; + but that if we were going to Cairo, we ought to make our position + clear. As far as Arabi personally was concerned, his use of the phrase + "national party" was a mere prostitution of the term. But there was in + Egypt a very real desire to see Egyptians in office, and a certain + amount of real national sentiment, and that sentiment we might + conciliate. I thought that if we intervened by ourselves the control + might be considered dead. The intervention must be placed on the + ground either of the need for settled government at Cairo, in order to + make the Canal safe and our route to India free, or else on that of + the probable complicity of the revolutionary party in the Alexandria + massacres, or on both. But in the event of such an intervention I was + of opinion that we should say that the recommendations of the Notables + for the revision of existing institutions would be favourably + considered, with the proviso, however, that the army should be either + disbanded or diminished, the only military force necessary in Egypt + being one for the Soudan and a bodyguard for the Khedive. To these + views I have always adhered, and while I strongly supported an + intervention of this kind, I was always opposed to an intervention + which made us in the least responsible for Egyptian finance, or to an + intervention followed by an occupation. + + 'Late on this afternoon of July 4th I secretly informed the Khedive, + through Rivers Wilson, of the instructions that had been given to + Beauchamp Seymour to bombard the Alexandria forts if the construction + of new earthworks erected against our ships were not discontinued; for + I felt that the man's life was in danger. I had been refused leave to + tell him, and I did it without leave. When I saw Wilson he told me + that Lesseps had officially informed him--Wilson being one of the + British directors of the Suez Canal, and Lesseps Chairman of the + Company--that we by our action were endangering the Canal. This was + evidently a French menace on behalf of Arabi, and I took upon myself + not to report it, as it would have only further weakened the minds of + men already weak. Lesseps was not truthful. He told Mr. Gladstone that + the Khedive had informed him that he was satisfied with the existing + situation. We immediately telegraphed to the Khedive, through + Sinadino, his Greek banker, who was representing him in London, to + ask him whether this was true, and the Khedive answered by sending us + all that had passed between him and Lesseps, from which it was quite + clear that it was not true.... + + 'On July 5th there was a Cabinet as to the sending forward of troops, + at which it was decided to somewhat "strengthen our garrisons in the + Mediterranean." Chamberlain afterwards told me that before this + Cabinet Lord Granville had begged his colleagues to remember who Mr. + Gladstone was, and not push him too hard. On this day, however, Mr. + Bright, Lord Granville, and Mr. Gladstone stood alone against the rest + of the Cabinet in supporting a let-alone policy.' + +On the 7th, as has been told in the last chapter, Mr. Gladstone, under the +combined irritation of Irish and Egyptian difficulties, used words in +debate which indicated his intention to resign, and "the two +representative Radicals," Dilke and Chamberlain, had to consider what +their course would be if he went out. + +They agreed, as has been seen, to go with Mr. Gladstone and Bright; to +refuse to join a new Administration should Mr. Gladstone be outside it; to +reconsider their position if--Mr. Gladstone going to the Lords or quitting +political life--they were satisfied with the new Government's programme; +but the storm blew over. [Footnote: The full diary dealing with the +difficulties of this moment has been given in the chapter on Ireland of +this date (see supra. Chapter XXVIII., pp. 446, 447).] + +'On Monday, the 10th, it again seemed probable that Mr. Gladstone would +resign,' but this time it was in consequence of the loudly expressed +intention of the Lords to throw out the Arrears Bill. + +Mr. Gladstone, however, decided not to go; the majority prevailed, and Sir +Charles was able to write on Monday, July 10th: + + 'I had now given the reply which informed the House exactly of the + steps which would be taken. Guns having been again mounted on the 9th, + the Admiral told the Commander of the troops at daylight on July 10th + of his intention to open fire on the forts at daylight on July 11th. + Exactly one month after the Alexandria riots reparation for those + riots was tardily exacted at the same spot.' + +Sir Charles's personal attitude cost him some friends in France. His +brother Ashton wrote to him from La Bourboule a letter (received on July +9th), in which he said: "To judge by the French newspapers, you are as +popular in France as Pitt at the height of the great war." A note from the +Memoir renders this state of feeling explicable: [Footnote: A very +different current in French opinion from that of the newspapers found +outlet in this letter from M. Émile Ollivier: + + "SAINT TROPEZ, + "_4 Août_, 1882. + + "MON CHER MONSIEUR, + + "Vous avez été si aimable lorsque j'ai eu la bonne fortune de faire + votre connaissance, que vous ne pouvez douter de l'intérêt sympathique + avec lequel j'ai suivi le brillant développement de votre carrière + politique. Aujourd'hui je tiens à sortir de mon adhésion muette et à + vous exprimer combien j'admire et combien j'approuve la politique + actuelle de votre gouvernement en Égypte. Commissaire du gouvernement + égyptien auprès de la compagnie de Suez depuis près de vingt ans, j'ai + étudié de près ce qui se passait sur le Nil, et je ne crois pas céder + à un mouvement d'amitié pour le Khédive, en pensant que c'est de son + côté que se trouvent le Droit, la justice, la civilisation. Après + l'avoir intronisé, lui avoir promis de l'appui; l'avoir poussé contre + Arabi, le laisser entre les mains d'une grossière soldatesque, ce + serait une félonie doublée d'une sottise, car on perdrait ainsi ce qui + a été gagné sur la barbarie par les efforts de plusieurs générations. + Aucune paix ne vaut qu'on l'achète aussi cher. Votre pays s'honore et + se grandit en le comprenant, et sa victoire sera celle de la + civilisation autant que la sienne propre. En se séparant de vous, nos + seuls amis, en ce moment, en abandonnant le Khédive malgré tant + d'engagements répétés, les personnages qui nous gouvernent consomment + la première des conséquences qu'il était dans la logique de leurs + idées d'attirer sur nous--l'anéantissement à l'extérieur. Les autres + suivront. Nous ferons une fois de plus la triste expérience qu'on ne + supprime pas impunément de l'âme d'une nation l'idée de sacrifice, de + dévouement, d'héroïsme, pour réduire son idéal aux jouissances de la + vie matérielle et à l'amour bestial des gras pâturages. Vous êtes bien + heureux de n'en être pas là. + + "Je vous félicite chaleureusement de la part que vous avez prise aux + mâles résolutions de votre gouvernement, et je vous prie de croire à + mes sentiments les plus sincèrement cordiaux. + + "Émile Ollivier."] + + 'The French Government having ordered their ships to leave Alexandria + in the event of a bombardment of the forts, I suggested that our + sailors ought to pursue them with ironical cheers, such as those with + which in the House of Commons we were given to pursue those who walked + out to avoid a division.' + + +III. + +From July 11th it was clear that France had decided to do nothing. +England's course of action was still undecided. + + 'Although reparation at Alexandria was being virtually exacted by the + bombardment, in spite of this having been put only on the safety of + the fleet and the defiance of Beauchamp Seymour's orders, yet it had + not, on account of Mr. Gladstone's opposition, up to this time been + settled that we should land troops. There was now no hope that the + threat which the French had proposed to us, and which we had accepted + in January, declaring that "the dangers to which the Government of the + Khedive might be exposed ... would certainly find England and France + united to oppose them," would be acted upon; but there was still some + idea that Turkish troops might be landed under strict safeguards for + supervision. On July 11th Chamberlain suggested to Lord Granville that + Lord Ampthill should be sent to Varzin to see Bismarck, and ask him + what intervention would be best if Turkish failed. This suggestion was + not accepted, but Lord Granville wrote to the German Ambassador to the + same effect. + + 'Mr. Gladstone was in a fighting humour on the next day, July 12th. I + have the notes on which he made his speech, which give all the heads, + and are interesting to compare with the speech as it stands in + Hansard. He put our defence upon "the safety of the fleet" and "safety + of Europeans throughout the East." He was indignant, in reply to + Gourley, about the bondholders, and, in reply to Lawson, about our + "drifting into war," and he certainly believed, as I believed at that + moment, that the Alexandria massacres had been the work of Arabi, for + one of his notes is: "International atrocity. Wholesale massacre of + the people, to overrule the people of that country." [Footnote: Sir + Charles, as has been said, did not adhere to his view concerning + Arabi's responsibility.] + + 'On July 13th the Foreign Office prepared a most elaborate despatch + from Lord Granville to Lord Dufferin, explaining the whole position of + affairs in Egypt. The despatch was much knocked about by Chamberlain + and myself. It had recited how an officer and two men of our fleet had + been killed, another officer wounded, the British Consul dragged out + of his carriage and severely injured; six British-born subjects + killed, and the Greek Consul-General beaten; but it had omitted the + important fact that a French Consular-Dragoman, and one, if not two + men of the French fleet, and several other French subjects had been + killed. The chief alterations, however, which we made, or tried to + make, in the despatch were in the direction of omitting all reference + to the financial engagements of Egypt, which we were most unwilling to + take upon ourselves in any manner. I actively pursued the question of + the outrages upon British subjects at Alexandria and of compensation. + We went into the case of Marshal Haynau, that of Don Pacifico, + [Footnote: Both cases furnished precedents for dealing with an + instance in which foreigners had been maltreated when visiting or + residing in another country. Marshal Haynau, the Austrian General + infamous for his brutalities in Italy (especially at Brescia) and in + Hungary in 1848, came to England on a private visit in 1850, went to + see Barclay and Perkins' brewery in Southwark, and was mobbed by the + employees. The Queen, in response to indignant remonstrance by the + Austrian Government, pressed the sending of a note of apology and + regret for this maltreatment of "a distinguished foreigner." Lord + Palmerston, then Foreign Minister in Lord John Russell's Ministry, + sent the Note, but added a paragraph which indicated that, in his + personal opinion, the brewery men were justified in their action, and + that Haynau had acted improperly in coming to this country at all, + knowing the feeling against him here. + + Don Pacifico, a Portuguese Jew who had settled in Athens, was, as a + native of Gibraltar, a British subject. Having had his house pillaged + by a Greek mob, he appealed to the Home Government, and Lord + Palmerston sent the Fleet to the Piraeus to enforce his demand for + settlement of the claim put in. Greece appealed to Russia and France, + and part of Don Pacifico's claim was referred to arbitration by a + Convention of the Powers signed in London. Our Minister at Athens + continued to take measures which resulted in the Greek Government + giving way, and, in consequence, the French Ambassador was recalled, + while Russia threatened to recall Baron Brunnow. It was in the Don + Pacifico debate that Lord Palmerston made his great speech of five + hours, containing the famous _Civis Romanus sum_, which turned the + House of Commons in his favour, and saved him from defeat by a + majority of forty-six.] and others mentioned in a memorandum printed + for the use of the Foreign Office in August, 1877; but the inquiry + afterwards held broke down our case. + + 'On July 14th the Admiralty and War Office fell out; the Admiralty + maintaining that they could put down all the trouble in Egypt by the + employment of a few marines commanded by an Admiral, whereas the War + Office had set their hearts upon a great expedition under Wolseley. + + 'On July 16th the German Ambassador complained of my having stated in + the House of Commons that Germany approved our action, not denying the + fact that she did, but saying that such "announcements made + confidential communications impossible," and I had to reply that, + while Austria had approved and Germany not disapproved, I was not + justified in stating that Germany had approved, although there had + been "circumstances calculated to make me believe that such had been + the case." On July 16th Wolff wrote to me from the country: "I suppose + Bright has resigned. _Si sic omnes_ except yourself." Bright had + resigned, and there were some who were anxious that I should be put + into the Cabinet in his place, but I was not one of them. On July 17th + Wilfrid Blunt was at the window of the St. James's Club in Piccadilly, + and, seeing me pass, cried out to Lord Blandford and others who were + with him: "There's Dilke that has done it all." That seemed to me to + be an answer to those who wanted me put in in the place of Bright. + "The great peace man goes out, and they want-Mr. Gladstone to put in a + man who is looked upon as a war man, although he thinks he is not and + thinks he is right." ... + + 'On July 18th I received a letter from Labouchere which was + characteristic: "Dear Dilke,--I am one of those who regretted that the + late Government did not seize Egypt.... Many on our side--being fools + --regret that we ever interfered in Egypt.... Personally I think ... + unless you seize upon the opportunity ... to establish yourselves + permanently in Egypt, you all deserve to be turned out of office. + Success is everything. This is the 'moral law' as understood by the + English nation. Bombard any place, but show a _quid pro quo_." There + was, however, no member of the Government, unless it was Lord + Hartington, who held these views, and not one who at this moment even + contemplated a permanent occupation, though I was fearful that unless + the matter was fairly faced, in advance, upon the lines which I had + suggested, a permanent occupation would be set on foot. + + 'Late on July 18th there was a Cabinet to discuss a proposal from me + to tell Dufferin in a "personal" telegram that we should not object to + Italy being third with England and France; which was afterwards + expanded into a direct invitation, upon my suggestion, for Italy to go + with us without France, which Italy declined. [Footnote: The reason + for Italy's refusal will be found explained in the Appendix to this + chapter (p. 477) in a letter from Baron Blanc, who was Italian + Ambassador at Constantinople.] + + 'After the sitting Lord Granville told me that Mr. Gladstone's letter + to Bright about his resignation was far from pleasant in tone, and had + put an end to a very long friendship. Morley, in his _Life of + Gladstone_, states the contrary, but he is wrong. [Footnote: _Life of + Gladstone_, iii. 83-90.] + + 'On July 19th I suggested that Arabi had probably told the people in + Cairo that he had defeated us at Alexandria, and that it would be well + to inform the Khedive, and through him the Governor of Cairo, that + intervention was about to take place on a scale which would make + resistance ridiculous, and Lord Granville asked Sinadino to do this. + + 'On July 20th the German first secretary came to me about Bismarck's + complaint of my speech, and Lord Granville wrote back in reply to my + report of the conversation: "I do not think much of Stumm's + observations.... There is something in Bob Lowe's maxim, never to + admit anything; but if you do, I have always found it better to shut + the admission against any rejoinder." After all, Count Münster + admitted that we had the "moral support" of Germany, and I could not + myself see much difference between "moral support" and "approval." + Lord Granville even reported in writing that we had Bismarck's "good + wishes, good will, and moral support," and I certainly could not see + that I was wrong. The last position of all of Bismarck was that we + were not justified in saying even "moral support," but that we had his + "best wishes," I think he must have had a touch of gout at the moment + when he read my speech. + + 'A Cabinet was to have been held early on July 20th to decide to send + out an army corps; Mr. Gladstone forgot to call it, and it had to be + brought together suddenly (some members being absent), and agreed to + the proposal for a vote of credit. Mr. Gladstone informed his + colleagues that he should not meet Parliament again in February, but + should leave the House of Commons after the Autumn Session, if not + before it. Late at night there came the news that Arabi had turned the + salt water from the Lake into the great fresh--water canal, and I had + to go to inform Mr. Gladstone and Childers in their rooms. Their + replies were full of character. Mr. Gladstone dramatically shivered, + and said with a grimace: "What a wicked wretch!" Childers said: "How + clever!" + + 'Early in the afternoon of Saturday, July 22nd, when the House of + Commons sat, I was two hours in Mr. Gladstone's room with Lord + Granville, Northbrook, and Childers. There had been a mistake in the + vote of credit, really a blunder of £1,300,000; not of £1,000,000 + only, as was afterwards pretended, for the estimate had been cut down + in the meantime. It was entirely Northbrook's fault, ... but Childers, + like a good-natured fellow, in spite of their many quarrels, let it + rest upon his shoulders, where the public put it. In the course of our + conversation it came out that Childers was in hot water with the + Queen, and had sent her a letter of apology on the Friday night, Mr. + Gladstone writing at the same time that he himself had nothing to add + to what Childers said. Childers broke out against the Duke of + Cambridge, who "went chattering about the place, refused to behave as + a subordinate, and wrote direct to the Queen." I guessed that the + trouble had been either about the employment of the Duke of Connaught + or about the sending of the Household Cavalry; both of which had been + decided. The Queen likes the Duke of Connaught to be employed, but + never to run the slightest risk; and in dealing with soldiers this is + a little awkward. The Duke of Cambridge was always a great source of + trouble to Governments, Liberal or Conservative, for even Conservative + Governments have, from the necessity of the case, to desire military + reform. He is essentially not a grandson, as history tells us, but a + son of King George III., just such a man as the royal Dukes whose + oaths and jollity fill the memoirs of the time of the great war. But + the Duke of Cambridge ... knows how to stop all army reform without + incurring personal responsibility or personal unpopularity with the + public. A distinguished General once said to me: "When we are invaded + and the mob storm the War Office, the Duke of Cambridge will address + them from the balcony, and, amid tumultuous cheering, shout, 'This is + what those clever chaps who have always been talking about army reform + and brains have brought us to,' and lead them on to hang the Secretary + of State for War." + + 'On Monday, July 24th, there was a Cabinet to consider the obstruction + of the French, who were trying to prevent our intervention. I was not + called in, but I believe that my suggestion as to Italy was again + mentioned, for on Tuesday, the 25th, Lord Granville told me that he + had been intending to ask the Italians to go with us, but that the + Queen had objected and caused the loss of a day, and that he thought + he should be able to ask them on the morrow. + + 'On July 25th I made a speech which was much liked by the House, and + Northcote congratulated me quite as warmly as did our own people. When + Mr. Gladstone was finishing his letter to the Queen late at night, + Chamberlain asked him to let him look at it, which I never had the + "cheek" to do. The phrase about me was "answered the hostile + criticisms with marked ability and with the general assent of the + House," and there was no praise of Chamberlain's own speech, which had + been spoilt by mine. On this occasion, as in the great Zulu debate in + the previous Parliament, when he had been my seconder, it so happened + that I took all Chamberlain's points beforehand, and in almost the + very words in which he had meant to take them. On the other hand, on + occasions when he spoke before me and I had to follow, as, for + example, in the famous debate with Randolph Churchill about the Aston + riots, [Footnote: At the height of Mr. Chamberlain's influence in + Birmingham Lord Randolph Churchill proposed to stand against him, and + held a meeting at Aston. Lord Randolph accused Mr. Chamberlain in the + House of Commons of having hired roughs to break up this meeting.] the + converse occurred. This was, of course, the inevitable result of our + habit of very free and continual conversation. + + 'When we sounded Paget in advance as to our invitation to the Italians + on this evening, he replied that "if we pressed her, swearing she + would ne'er consent, she _would_ consent." But, although I afterwards + thought and said that I had been amazed at her refusal, my notes of + the moment show that I had anticipated it. + + 'On July 27th a new element of disturbance was introduced by the + Prince of Wales applying to the Government for leave to take a + military command in Egypt. The Queen at once interfered to stop it; + some members of the Cabinet consulted together at a sudden meeting in + the Cabinet room at Downing Street, to which I was called in, + Childers, Northbrook, and Mr. Gladstone being present, and it was + decided to back the Queen's refusal. It was agreed between Lord + Northbrook, Childers, and myself that for the future I should see all + the Admiralty and War Office telegrams. + + 'At 5.30 there was a regular Cabinet to consider the tardy consent of + the Turks to send troops at once. They were informed that + circumstances had changed, and that we must go on with our + intervention; but that they would be allowed to occupy forts not at + Alexandria. + + 'One of the first Admiralty telegrams that were brought to me was one + which directed the Admiral to inform the Khedive that we were going to + restore his authority, which was the most emphatic thing which I had + seen.' + +On July 29th M. de Freycinet's Government was defeated on a vote of credit +for money to send ships to protect the Suez Canal, [Footnote: A new +Ministry was formed under M. Duclerc.] and so terminated all possibility +of France's partnership in the enterprise. On the same day General +Menabrea politely refused an invitation that Italy should co-operate. + +But the Turks were still disposed to assist, on their own terms, and these +did not yet make it clear what, if they landed, would be their attitude +towards Arabi and his partisans. Accordingly, + + 'On Monday, July 31st, we had to tell the Turks that if they insisted + on going to Alexandria we should sink them, and matters began to look + like a second Navarino. + + 'On Thursday, August 3rd, the Cabinet approved our previous proposals + to send instructions to the Admiral not to allow the Turks to land in + Egypt until they agreed to all our terms. + + 'On Tuesday, August 8th, Childers insisted that if Turks landed in + Egypt they should not be treated as allied forces, but as a portion of + our forces under our General. Lord Granville, Hartington, and + Northbrook thought this too strong, and it was left to the Cabinet to + decide, and on the next day, Wednesday, the 9th, Harcourt expressed + his concurrence with the majority.' + + 'About this time I had a letter from Dufferin, describing how he had + tried to frighten the Sultan by the bogey of an Arab caliph. But + Dufferin was at this moment in despair; the face of politics changed + too rapidly for Turkish diplomacy, and just as he had succeeded in + getting the Turks to send troops to Egypt, as he had been told to do, + it was so much too late that we had to tell them that we should sink + them if they went--so doubtless the Turks were a little confused in + their minds as to what we really wanted.' + +The Memoir now carries the story down to the close of the expedition by +which Sir Garnet Wolseley destroyed Arabi's power in the Battle of Tel-el- +Kebir. + + '_August 10th_.--At this moment the Prince of Wales being most anxious + as to what was going on in Egypt, and having again failed to obtain + the telegrams, I promised that I would write to him daily, or whenever + there was anything of importance, and keep him informed, and this I + did. + + 'On August 16th there was a debate in which we defended the general + policy of the expedition, and I again have Mr. Gladstone's notes for + his reply to Sir Wilfrid Lawson, in which he again asserted that the + supporters of Arabi Pasha were not only rebels, but criminals as well, + accusing them of misuse of a flag of truce, and of deliberately + setting fire to the town of Alexandria. + + 'On August 17th I had a visit from a brother of the Khedive, Ibrahim + Pasha, who said: "I want to go to Egypt. I should be very glad to go + as a Sub-Lieutenant, although there may be a little difficulty, for I + am a Field-Marshal in the Turkish Army." This modest youth, who looked + like the full moon, had been trained at Woolwich, spoke English well, + and was a devout Mohammedan, thought that he would be of use to us, + but his brother would no more let him land in Egypt than he would any + of the other and abler brothers.' + +Parliament was prorogued on August 27th. + + 'On August 28th Mr. Gladstone thought that we should refuse to make a + Convention with the Turks, which they had now agreed to. But Lord + Granville and I thought that we had better make it for the sake of the + effect in Egypt, and Mr. Gladstone half yielding, our willingness was + telegraphed. On September 5th, however, Lord Granville told me at + Walmer that the Queen was strongly opposed to the Convention, and I + noted that this was the first time when I had ever known the Queen and + Mr. Gladstone to be agreed upon any subject. + + 'We took time by the forelock as a Government with regard to the + preparation in advance, and, even before our landing in Egypt, for + that which was to happen after the revolutionary movement was put + down. Sir A. Colvin thought that 4,000 men in addition to the military + police would be ample for the security of the country, and Sir E. + Malet appeared to agree. Mr. Gladstone wrote a minute himself upon the + future of the country, in which he proposed to act upon all my ideas. + He suggested the banishment of Arabi, a minimum military force + '(Egyptian),' a large police force, in which Indian Mohammedans were + to be allowed to enlist; but he wished a small British force to remain + temporarily in the country--a point to which I was much opposed, + inasmuch as I felt certain that if we stayed there at all we should + never be able to come away. + + 'A good deal of Cabinet work fell upon me at this moment because + Harcourt buried himself in the New Forest, and Chamberlain went away + to Sweden, asking me for a full table of instructions as to what he + was to do as to calling upon Kings, inasmuch as, he declared in his + letter, I was his _arbiter elegantiarum_. I went down to Birmingham in + his absence to see my son' (who was living at Mr. Chamberlain's + house). 'Hartington came up to town now and then, but apparently was + soon tired of it, as in the middle of September he wrote to me to ask + what was the meaning of the Cabinet on the 13th which he meant "to + shirk." There were two Governments at this moment--the one consisting + of Childers and Northbrook in London, carrying on operations in Egypt; + and the other consisting of Lord Granville at Walmer and Mr. Gladstone + at Hawarden, connected by the telegraph, explaining them to the + Powers. + + 'During the period of the invasion of Egypt by us I used to meet + Childers, Northbrook, and Hartington at the War Office almost every + day, when Hartington was in town, and the other two when Hartington + was away. Tel-el-Kebir was on September 13th, and we met on that day + as well as the days before and immediately after. + + 'Immediately after Tel-el-Kebir I had from Auberon Herbert a letter, + which began: "My dear successful Jingo, whom Heaven confound, though + it does not appear to have the least intention of doing so.... How I + hate you all! But am bound to admit you have managed your affair up to + this point skilfully and well. The gods, however, do not love, says + Horace, people who have three stories to their houses."' + + + + +APPENDIX + +'The refusal of the Italian Cabinet was afterwards explained to me in a +most interesting letter from Baron Blanc, at that time (March, 1888) +Italian Ambassador at Constantinople, and afterwards (December, 1893) +Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs: + +'"The refusal of the Cabinet of Rome in 1882 to intervene, with England +only, as allies in Egypt was a success of French diplomacy, but at the +same time a result of the past policy of England. + +'"Nothing on the part of England had prepared the Italian Government to +believe it possible that England would cease to gravitate towards France +in Mediterranean questions, especially when Mr. Gladstone was in power. +The hope that England would join the Italian-German understanding, +concluded in principle in 1882, had remained in these early days merely +theoretic. The Mancini Cabinet, in doing that which Minghetti, Visconti, +Bonghi--the old Right, in short--had not dared to do--that is, in drawing +towards the Central Powers--did not go so far as to understand that the +rupture of the English-French condominium in Egypt--brought about in 1881- +82 by the appearance on the scene of the Arabi party, secretly pushed from +Berlin--offered Italy the chance of leading Gladstone himself to lean on +Italy and her allies, and no longer upon Paris and Petersburg; or, if it +was understood, faith and courage were wanting. + +'"It was an axiom with Menabrea, with Nigra, with Corti, that Italy and +England herself could do nothing in the Mediterranean without France, +still less do anything against France. The last conversation of Corti with +Crispi shows plainly his conviction that a real alliance of Italy and +England was a Utopia. How many times after 1870 had not Italy been +disappointed in attempts to obtain from England a share of influence in +Egypt! How many times had not Italy been sacrificed to the private +arrangements of England with France in Egyptian affairs! How could the +idea that Germany was to replace France in the Eastern policy of Italy and +England have entered into the mind of the Cabinet of Rome when it had not +entered into the mind of the Cabinet of St. James's! + +'"A thousand financial, journalistic, parliamentary connections attached +to France both the Gladstone Cabinet and the Ministry of Mancini--the +legal counsel of M. de Lesseps. The dream of treble condominium in Egypt +was strong in Mancini and Depretis, as in Minghetti, Visconti, and +Cairoli. This dream was encouraged by the Cabinet of Paris, which kept +Italy in tow by this vain hope, and also by the fear of fresh French +enterprises in Africa, for the French threatened Italy with renewing in +Tripoli the precedent of Tunis if Italy broke towards French policy in the +East the bonds contracted between them in the Crimean War and the treaties +of 1856. + +'"The reserve, the abstention of Germany and Austria, which Powers +pretended to disinterest themselves from the Egyptian question, and opened +to France in Africa a chance of compensation for the loss of Alsace, +helped to keep Mancini and Depretis, tied also by party connections to the +French democracy, in the absurd idea that Italy could keep herself in +stable equilibrium between two alliances--an alliance with Germany in +Continental affairs, and with France in Mediterranean questions. This idea +had for its result to render unintelligible for the Italian public the +alliance of Italy with the Central Powers, sterilized and perverted +through not being boldly applied by Italy to the affairs of the +Mediterranean and of the Levant. But once again Italy did not believe +herself strong enough to overcome the indifference which England showed +for Mediterranean questions--more and more thrown into the background in +English minds by the interests of the British colonial empire in distant +seas. Australia seemed looked upon at London as more important than Turkey +or Egypt itself, and the idea that the first line of defence of India is +at Constantinople, the seat of the Khalifat, seemed forgotten by the +successors of Disraeli. It took seven years for the idea, born in 1881, of +making Italy a connecting link in an Anglo-German alliance, to become a +practical one at Home, as it did under Crispi. + +'"To return to the question of the refusal of Italy to intervene alone +with England in Egypt in 1882, it is necessary to know that when the +French Government was informed of the drawing together of Italy and of the +Central Powers, France hastened at the end of 1881 to exercise pressure +upon the Mancini-Depretis Cabinet by threatening it, not only with fresh +enterprise in Tripoli, but with direct hostility if Italy took sides +against France in those Egyptian affairs which were at that moment +becoming complicated. The Radical Committees of France and Italy were +threatening armed movements in the former Papal States, and French money +was spent in the Italian elections of 1881. The greater part of the +Italian Press was bought up by a Gambetta-Wilson group in such a way that +Italian opinion was directed from Paris by the Italian newspapers, as it +had already been by the Stefani-Havas Agency. The effect of this +preparation was seen when the bombardment of Alexandria was taken as the +text for a general opening of fire on the part of the Italian and French +Press against England. When Freycinet refused the English proposal for +treble intervention, he caused it to be known at Rome that France would +look upon it as an act of hostility on the part of Italy if that Power +should take in Egypt the position which belonged to France, and occupy, +without France, any portion of Egyptian territory. + +'"He also used as a bait to Mancini the idea of a treble condominium, by +making him believe that Italy and Russia could, by procuring for a treble +intervention the adhesion of the whole concert of European Powers, prevent +it becoming dangerous from the point of view of the two-faced policy of +which Germany was suspected at Rome. To act so that France could, without +the fear of a snare on the part of Germany, intervene in Egypt with Italy +and England--such was the part which France proposed to Mancini that he +should play, and which he accepted and did play in the Constantinople +conference. The outward and visible sign of this programme was that +wonderful patrol of the Canal which was adopted in principle on the motion +of Corti, and was intended to lead up to the treble condominium by the +treble occupation of the Suez Canal with a mandate of Europe. 'Success +seemed certain,' funnily declared the Mancini telegrams of the moment, +when came the British invitation to Italy for a double intervention. +Neither Menabrea, nor Mancini, nor Corti, took this invitation seriously, +and they saw in it only the hesitation of England, a Power which they +supposed entirely incapable of such boldness as isolated action. They +never believed for a moment but that the refusal by Italy of a double +intervention would have for effect a treble occupation. You know how this +illusion of a treble occupation died a wretched death in the ridiculous +appearance of Italian and French ships in the neighbourhood of the Canal +just at the moment when Wolseley seized it before Tel-el-Kebir. + +'"The same idea of becoming the binding link in Mediterranean affairs, not +between Berlin and London, but between Paris and London, continued to +animate Mancini and Depretis even after England had become the sole power +in occupation of Egypt. The expedition to Massowah in 1885 was an +expression of this tendency. From the beginning of 1884, in face of the +Hicks disaster, of the prolongation of the British occupation, of the +return to power of Nubar, France considered a plan for disembarking at +Massowah troops recalled from Tonquin, where she was supposed to be safe +after the success of Sontay. In order not to leave without some +counterweight in the Red Sea the consolidation of British domination in +Egypt, France would have returned to Egypt by Massowah and the Soudan. +When she decided to suspend this operation, she advised it to Italy as a +means of giving expression to the Franco-Italian view of the +internationality of the Canal and Red Sea. Mancini, whom the Italian +Chamber blamed for having not taken part in the colonial fever which had +affected Germany herself in 1884-85, adopted the idea of an expedition to +Massowah at the moment when Wolseley seemed likely to enter Khartoum.' + +'"We have not as yet been able to get out of this trap in which we are +caught, and in which the Russians and French try to keep us paralyzed. +Capital and disastrous blunders, evident contradictions with the idea of +the alliance of Italy with the Central Powers, completed by the +understanding with England! But England herself, is she without fault? Is +her Egyptian policy more clear and more strong? Is she not herself in +Egypt also taken in the toils of Franco-Levantine influences, as dominant +at Cairo as they are at Constantinople? It is not on the national and +Mohammedan spirit that England in Egypt leans, but on Franco-Levantine +cliques and Graeco-Armenian cliques sold to French finance. Hence the +decline of British influence in the Levant. The memorandum which I have +sent shows what a different line Italy and England may follow if they do +not wish the Mediterranean to become a Franco-Russian lake, and the +Khalif, in the character of a new Bey of Tunis, lending the flag of the +Prophet to Russia for the conquest of India and to France to complete her +African Empire." + +'The memorandum enclosed by him to which he refers was sent by him for the +purpose that it should be communicated by us to friends in Rome who were +likely to bring it before Crispi, whose Foreign Minister in 1893 Blanc +became.' + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +ENTRY INTO THE CABINET +SEPTEMBER TO DECEMBER, 1882 + + +I. + +Part of Sir Charles's routine was his morning bout of fencing. [Footnote: +Sir Charles's fencing seems to have dated from 1874, during his stay in +Paris after his first wife's death. Fuller reference to fencing at 76, +Sloane Street and to his antagonists will be found in Chapter XLVII. (Vol. +II., pp. 233, 234). ] This was the relaxation which he managed to fit into +his crowded daily life, but his weekly holiday he spent upon the river. He +notes, just before the Parliamentary crisis due to the bombardment of +Alexandria: + + 'At this time I had given up the practice of going out of town to stay + with friends for Sundays, and I did not resume it, for I found it + better for me to get my work done on the Saturday night and my Foreign + Office boxes early on the Sunday morning, to go to the Abbey on the + Sunday morning at ten, and after this service to go on the river, and + go to bed at eight o'clock at least this one night in the week, and I + bought a piece of land at Dumsey Deep, near Chertsey, with the view of + building a cottage there.' + +It was not here, however, that he built his riverside house, but close by, +at Dockett Eddy, which he bought in the following summer. [Footnote: A +fuller account of life in his riverside home is to be found in Chapter LI. +(Vol. II., pp. 317-324).] The two pieces of ground were connected by a +long strip of frontage which he acquired, thereby saving the willows and +alders which then sheltered that reach, and made it a windless course for +sculling. Even more perfect was it, by reason of its gravelly bottom, for +another form of watermanship. On Sunday, October 22nd, 1882, + + 'after Westminster Abbey I went down to Teddington, and took a lesson + in punting from Kemp, the Teddington fisherman, and from this time + forward became devoted to the art, for which I gave up my canoeing.' + +His resolve to spend his Sundays in retreat on the river did not pass +without protest from his friends, as is shown by a characteristic letter +from Sir William Harcourt: + + "CUFFNELLS, LYNDHURST, + "_August 28_, 1882." + + "DEAR DILKE," + + "Don't be an odious solitary snipe in the ooze of the Thames, but come + down here at once and nurse Bobby. + + "Yours ever, W. V. H." + +"Bobby" was Mr. Robert Harcourt, now M.P. for the Montrose Burghs. + +He replied: + + "LALEHAM FERRY (_for this night only. + I shall be at the P.O. every day this week_). + "_August 29th._ + + "MY DEAR HARCOURT, + + "I went to bed on Saty. night at dark and on Sunday night at dark. + Last night I was late from London, and sat up till nearly 9! Bobby + himself can hardly beat that, can he? On the other hand, he does not + get a swim in the Thames at 5 a.m., or breakfast at 6, as I do. + + "It is very good of you--and like old times--for you to press me to + come down, and, believe me, I should like my company. But when, as + now, I am splendidly well, and only want to make up arrears of sleep, + the river is the best place for me. I shall go to Walmer next week, + but then that is sea, and sea is sleepy too; and I have all my work + there with the telegraph in the House, and messengers four times a day + as if I was in the F.O., so I can be away--and yet be on duty--as I + promised to be till 19th or 20th Septr.... + + "... This is the longest letter that I was ever known to write in all + my life, except perhaps once or twice to you in the old days." + +It had now been decided that Wentworth Dilke, being eight years old, +should go to school and leave Mr. Chamberlain's house, of which he had +been an inmate for some eighteen months. + + 'On the day of Tel-el-Kebir I received a very pleasing letter from + Chamberlain, thanking me for what I had said to him about his + reception for so long a period at Highbury of my son. It was a + touching letter, which showed both delicacy and warmth of affection.' + +On September 21st Sir Charles Dilke went to Birmingham to take his boy to +Mrs. Maclaren's school at Summerfields, near Oxford. 'Then crossing to +Waterford, spent five days in the South of Ireland--and afterwards went +straight to St. Tropez to stay with M. Émile Ollivier.' "Il faut fermer la +boutique et alors on se trouve tout de suite bien," is his comment as he +started on one such journey. + + 'During my visit to Ollivier I explored the south coast of the + mountains of the Moors, along which there was no road, and bought some + land at Cavalaire, against the possible chance of a boulevard being + made through my land at Toulon in such a way as to cut me off from the + sea. I walked from Bormes to the Lavandou upon the coast, and fancied + I found the path by which St. Francis journeyed when he landed to save + Provence from the plague. It is hollowed out by feet, in some places + to three feet deep through the hard quartz and schist, and everywhere + at least six inches, so its age is evidently great, and it must have + been a path in the days of Saracen domination, if not even in or + before the Roman times, for the two villages were ever small. + + 'At Ste. Claire, the first bay eastward from the Lavandou, I had seen + a funeral in which all the crucifixes were borne before the corpse by + women, and the coffin carried by women. Ollivier's father was still + living--Démosthène, born under the First Republic, and a deputy under + the Second: an old Jacobin of an almost extinct type. Ollivier's house + is as pretty as the whole coast. It stands on a peninsula with perfect + sands, one or other of which is sheltered for bathing in any wind, and + instead of the usual parched sterility of Provence, springs rise all + round the house, which is lost in a dense forest of young palms. The + views are not from the house, but from the various shores of the + peninsula, all these, however, being close at hand. I had for escort + in my trips about the coast the famous Félix Martin, founder and Mayor + of St. Raphael and of Valescure, a railway engineer who was known as + the American of Provence, and who, in fact, is the most desperate and + the most interesting and pleasant speculator of France. Speaking to me + of Fréjus, my favourite town, and its surroundings, Martin called it + "the Roman Campagna on the Bay of Naples," a very pretty phrase, + absolutely true of it, for the scenery is that of the plain between + Naples and Capua, but the ruins and the solemnity of the foreground + were those of the outskirts of Rome till Martin spoilt it. At the spot + where I bought my land eighty boats of Spanish and Italian coral + fishers were at anchor. I picked up Roman tiles upon my ground, and + found a Roman tomb in the centre of my plot.' + + 'I was struck with some of the old châteaux in the woods as I returned + along the coast to Toulon. Near Bormettes there are two which were + nationalized at the Revolution, and the families of the buyers, having + turned Legitimist and put stained glass into the chapel windows, are + now becoming nobles in their turn, at all events in their own + estimation, and thriving upon cork and American vines.[Footnote: The + piece of land at Cavalaire was never built on by Sir Charles, but he + remained owner of it till 1905, when it was sold by him. His + friendship with the Ollivier household continued till the end of his + life.] + + 'It was during this visit that Ollivier made use of a phrase which I + have repeated: "When one looks at the Republic one says: 'It can't + last a week--it is dead.' But when one looks at what is opposed to it, + one says: 'It is eternal.'"' + +The true inner history and genesis of the Franco-Prussian War formed +matter for talk with Ollivier, who was among the half-dozen men in Europe +best able to inform Sir Charles on the question. The Memoir records a +reminiscence told by M. Ollivier. + + 'When the war broke out, he naturally asked the Emperor about his + alliances. The Emperor, who was singularly sweet and winning in his + ways, smiled his best smile but said nothing, walked to a table, + unlocked a drawer, and took out two letters-one from the Emperor of + Austria, and the other from the King of Italy, both promising their + alliance. But, although this was Ollivier's story, the Italian letter + must have been conditional. Ollivier set down the defeat to this + slowness of action, and supineness, due first to the Emperor's firm + belief that Austria would move, and then to his stone in the bladder + and refusal to let anyone else command. At a later date I became aware + of the true story, which was that afterwards told by me in + _Cosmopolis_. [Footnote: "The Origin of the War of 1870," by Sir + Charles Dilke, _Cosmopolis_, January, 1896.] Austria had declined to + join in a war begun in the middle of the summer. It had been fixed for + May, 1871. Bismarck found this out from the Magyars, and made the war + in 1870.' + +To the detail thus gained at first hand Sir Charles Dilke added another in +the next year. On February 1st, 1883, he met at Sir William Harcourt's +house the Italian Ambassador Count Nigra, who had been in 1870 Minister in +Paris: + + 'He told me that in 1866 the Italians had sent to Paris to ask whether + they should join Prussia or Austria, both of whom had promised to give + them Venice, and how the Emperor had told them that Italy was to join + Prussia as the weaker side, and that when the combatants were + exhausted he intended to take the Rhine. Nigra also told me that in + 1870 the Emperor had told him that he meant peace, and that it was + Gramont on his own account who had told Benedetti to get from the King + of Prussia the promise for the future. This was all superficial, as we + now know that Nigra was, as the Empress Eugénie said in 1907, a "false + friend." Nigra said that Bismarck had made the war by telegraphing his + own highly coloured account of the interview; for the French official + account, which had only reached Paris (according to Nigra) after war + had been declared, had shown that the King had been very civil to + Benedetti, although the French Ambassador had persisted in raising the + question no less than three several times.... [Footnote: The famous + interview at Ems between the King of Prussia and M. Benedetti, the + French Ambassador at Berlin, is referred to. See Benedetti, _Ma + Mission en Prusse_, chap. vi.; _Bismarck, His Reflections and + Reminiscences_, translated from the German under the supervision of A. + J. Butler, vol. ii., chap, xxii.; _Life of Granville_, vol. ii., chap. + ii.] + + 'On my return through Paris in September, 1882, I had interviews with + Duclerc, the French Prime Minister, and with Nubar, as well as with + Gambetta. Duclerc I found a cross old man, who was furious because I + mentioned Madagascar. On the Tunis capitulations I found the French + willing to come to an agreement; but Egypt, the Suez Canal, the Congo, + the Pacific Islands, and Newfoundland were all of them difficult + questions at this time.... + + 'In a talk with Gambetta on October 19th he said to me that it was his + intention, "whether _I_ liked Duclerc or not," to keep him in power, + whether he does what he ought, does nothing, or does what is + ridiculous. The curse of France is instability. Duclerc is an honest + man.' Gambetta was 'aged and in bad spirits.' + +Sir Charles communicated this expression through Mr. Plunkett, the British +Chargé d'Affaires, to M. Duclerc. "I gave him the third alternative in +more diplomatic language," Mr. Plunkett wrote, "but he understood me, and +we laughed over the idea." + +A general reflection of this year is that 'Gambetta hates fools in theory, +and loves them, I think, in practice.' + +In London during the autumn session Sir Charles records some interesting +gossip, to which may be added this first entry of earlier date: + + 'Lord Granville was a most able man, who did not, in my opinion, + decline in intellectual vigour during the many years in which he took + a great part in public affairs. He always had the habit of + substitution of words, and I have known him carry on a long + conversation with me at the Foreign Office about the proceedings of + two Ambassadors who were engaged on opposite sides in a great + negotiation, and call "A" B, and "B" A through the whole of it, which + was, to say the least of it, confusing. He also sometimes entirely + forgot the principal name in connection with the subject--as, for + example, that of Mr. Gladstone when Prime Minister--and had to resort + to the most extraordinary forms of language in order to convey his + meaning. The only other person in whom I have ever seen this + peculiarity carried to such a point was the Khedive Ismail, who sent + for me when I was in office and he in London, and when the Dervishes + were advancing upon Egypt, to say that he had an important piece of + information to give the Government, which was the name of a spot at + which the Dervishes might easily be checked, owing to the narrowness + of the valley. He kept working up to the name, and each time failing + to give it, so that I ultimately went away without having been able to + get from him the one thing which would have made the information + useful. Each time he closed his speech by saying, "Le nom de ce point + important est--chose--machine--chose," and so on... + + 'On Thursday, November 2nd, I breakfasted with Mr. Gladstone to meet + the Duc de Broglie. We discussed the question of the authorship of the + pretty definition of Liberal-Conservatives as men who sometimes think + right, but always vote wrong. But even Arthur Russell, who was at the + breakfast with his wife, could throw no light upon the matter. Madame + Olga Novikof was also present, and, of course, the Duc de Broglie took + me into a corner to ask me if it was true that Mr. Gladstone was + absolutely under her influence. She announced her intention of going + the next day to Birmingham, and Mr. Gladstone asked Chamberlain to go + with her, although he did not know her and although there was a + Cabinet; but Chamberlain refused. + + 'In the evening of November 15th there dined with me John Morley, Lord + Arthur Russell, and Gibson, afterwards Lord Ashbourne, Huxley, the + Rector of Lincoln, and some others; and, thanks to Gibson, who was + very lively, the conversation was better than such things often are. + He was deep in the secrets of Randolph Churchill... + + 'I was asked from 24th to 27th to stay with the Duke and Duchess of + Edinburgh at Eastwell Park, but was also asked to Sandringham. + + 'The Princess of Wales told me a story of the Shah which had amused + her. Walking with her at the State Ball, he had clutched her arm, and + with much excitement asked about the Highland costume which he had + seen for the first time. Having thus got the word "Écossais" into his + head, and afterwards seeing Beust with his legs in pink silk + stockings, he again clutched her, and exclaimed: "Trop nu--plus nu + qu'Écossais."' + + +II. + +The business of the autumn Session was limited, by agreement, to +determining the new "Rules of Procedure." + + 'On Friday, October 20th, there was a Cabinet which decided to stick + to our first resolution on procedure--that is on the closure--without + change; or, in other words, to closure by a bare majority.' + +When the matter came to a vote in the House, the Government were saved +from defeat by the support of Mr. Parnell and his adherents, who were +determined not to have closure by a two-thirds majority, which could in +practice be used only against a small group. + + 'On Monday, October 23rd, the Cabinet considered the principle of + delegation of duties from Parliament itself to Grand Committees, to be + proposed in the procedure resolutions.' + +This was the beginning of what is now the ordinary procedure in all Bills, +except those of the first importance. It was introduced expressly as an +experiment on six months' trial; and it appears that it was not adopted +without much opposition in the Cabinet, for the Memoir records: + + 'On November 21st Hartington and Harcourt tried hard to induce Mr. + Gladstone to drop his idea of Grand Committees, and I noted in my + diary: "If they are dropped now they are dead for ever--that is, for a + year at least. 'Ever' in politics means one year."' + +On November 13th Lord Randolph Churchill, in a discourse upon the right to +make motions for adjournment, contrived, by way of happy illustration, to +refer to the "Kilmainham Treaty." The phrase in itself was a red rag to +Mr. Gladstone, but Lord Randolph added to the provocation by describing it +as "a most disgraceful transaction, so obnoxious that its precise terms +had never been made known." Mr. Gladstone charged fiercely at the lure, +denied that there had been any "treaty," and challenged the Opposition to +move for a Committee of Inquiry. + +On November 14th, between two meetings at Lord Granville's house, at which +'Kimberley, Northbrook, Carlingford, and Childers were present with +myself, there was a discussion at lunch as to Mr. Gladstone's promise of a +Committee on the Kilmainham Treaty, at which all his colleagues of the +Cabinet were furious.' + +On November 16th: + + 'a Cabinet was suddenly called for this afternoon to consider Mr. + Gladstone's extraordinary blunder in granting a Committee on the + Treaty of Kilmainham. The whole of his colleagues had been against him + when he had previously wished to do it, and now he had done it without + asking one of them. Grosvenor, the Whip, thought it would upset the + Government. Mr. Gladstone expressed his regret to his colleagues that + he had been carried away by his temper. Harcourt said that no two of + the witnesses would give the same account of the transaction, and that + while Mr. Gladstone might force Chamberlain, as his subordinate, to + make a clean breast of it, it was hard on Parnell. + + 'There was later in the day a private conversation between Chamberlain + and Harcourt and Grosvenor as to the Kilmainham Committee, Chamberlain + declaring that if called before a Committee he must read all the + letters, and Harcourt saying that if they were read he should resign.' + +When the Session opened on October 27th, the Memoir indicates that the +Prime Minister's retirement was expected. + +On November 4th there was a dinner at 76, Sloane Street, at which Mr. +Gladstone, Lord Granville, the Dean of Westminster, Mr. Balfour, and +others, came to meet the Duc de Broglie. In the course of the evening, + + 'Mr. Gladstone told me that he had finally decided not to meet + Parliament again in February. The gossip was that Hartington was to be + Prime Minister, that Fawcett would resign if not put into the Cabinet, + and Chamberlain and I had agreed to insist on county franchise '(which + meant a very large extension of the suffrage),' and to withdraw our + opposition to Goschen, it being understood that he gave way on county + franchise. It was far from certain that Mr. Gladstone meant Hartington + to be leader on his retirement. The Duchess of Manchester had told me + just before my dinner on Saturday, November 4th, that Mr. Gladstone + had written to Lord Granville to tell him he should not meet + Parliament again, saying that he wrote to him as he had been leader + when the party had been in Opposition. The letter had been shown to + Hartington, who was much irritated at the phrase. The letter was also + sent on to the Queen, and the Duchess thought that the Queen had said + in reply that if Mr. Gladstone resigned she should send not for Lord + Granville, but for Hartington. + + 'On Monday, November 6th, I heard more about the proposed resignation + of Mr. Gladstone. He had declared that he would not take a peerage, + but had promised not to attend the House of Commons, and I thought + that Hartington would make his going to the Lords, or at least leaving + the Commons, a condition. I pressed for the inclusion of Courtney in + the Cabinet in the event of any change.' + +Although one of Mr. Gladstone's junior colleagues from 1880 onwards, Sir +Charles Dilke had been frequently in disagreement with him, and in 1882 +had refused to accept the Irish Secretaryship. Yet it was to Sir Charles +that Mr. Gladstone in 1882 was beginning to look as his ultimate successor +in the lead of the House of Commons. A passage in Lord Acton's +correspondence shows how Mr. Gladstone's mind was working at this time. A +breakfast-table discussion between Miss Gladstone and her father is noted +by her, at which, on the assumption of Mr. Gladstone's retirement and the +removal of Lord Hartington to the House of Lords, the names of possible +successors to the leadership of the House of Commons were discussed. The +Chief's estimate of Dilke was thus given: + + "The future leader of H. of C. was a great puzzle and difficulty. Sir + Charles Dilke would probably be the man best fitted for it; he had + shown much capacity for learning and unlearning, but he would require + Cabinet training first." [Footnote: _Letters of Lord Acton_, p. 90.] + +It followed, then, that if Mr. Gladstone seriously contemplated +resignation, he was bound to insure that Sir Charles got without more +delay the "Cabinet training." It was absurd that the Minister in whom Mr. +Gladstone saw the likeliest future leader of the House of Commons should +be kept technically, and to some extent really, outside the inner circle +of confidence and responsibility. + +By the middle of November the hint of Mr. Gladstone's retirement had +leaked out, and conjecture was busy with reconstruction of the Cabinet. +Apart from the question of the Prime Minister's position, speculation was +kept active by the fact that since Mr. Bright's retirement in June no +appointment had been made to the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster, +that office having no very urgent or definite duties. There was also the +widespread feeling that Sir Charles Dilke's admission to the Cabinet was +overdue, and men guessed rightly at the cause of the delay. Meanwhile the +leaders of the party were considering how far these causes still operated. +On November 16th Sir Charles was approached by the Chief Whip. + + 'Lord R. Grosvenor, after the Cabinet, came to me, and asked me if I + thought that the Queen was now willing to have me in the Cabinet. I + said that so far as I knew the trouble was at an end. He replied that + he had had two accounts of it. Harcourt told him that both the Prince + of Wales and Prince Leopold had said that she had made up her mind to + take me; but Hartington said that she had told him a different story. + I said I did not know which was right; but that she could take me or + leave me, for not another word would I say. + + 'Sunday, November 19th, I spent at Cuffnells, Lyndhurst--the home of + "Alice in Wonderland," Mrs. Hargreaves, Dean Liddel's daughter--with + the Harcourts, and Harcourt told me that he believed in Mr. + Gladstone's retirement.' + +In the last days of November Sir Charles was at Sandringham with Mr. +Chamberlain. + + 'Chamberlain told me that Lord Hartington and Lord Granville were + going to insist with Mr. Gladstone that he should stay as nominal + Prime Minister, Hartington taking the Exchequer and dividing the lead + of the House with him, and Rosebery and I being put into the Cabinet. + + 'On December 1st there was a Cabinet, before which Lord Granville told + me that I was to be put into the Cabinet at once if the Queen + consented. When they met at two o'clock the Cabinet were told of this + and strict secrecy sworn, but two of them immediately came and told me + that it was settled I was to be Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.' + +The Chancellorship of the Duchy presented itself to Sir Charles Dilke as a +kind of roving commission to help other Ministers with the detail of +measures. But the Queen took the view that this place was a "peculiarly +personal one," and should be held by someone whom she considered a +"moderate" politician, and who need not be in the Cabinet. On December 4th + + 'the Queen, who had been informed that she was still a free agent with + regard to me, had hesitated with regard to the Duchy of Lancaster, + which had, of course, been conditionally accepted by me on the + understanding that I was to be man-of-all-work in the Cabinet. It was + understood on this day that Childers was to be Chancellor of the + Exchequer if his health allowed it, and a delay was granted for his + decision or that of his doctors; and it was understood that Lord Derby + was to come in in Childers' place. Evelyn Ashley was suggested for my + place; and Edmond Fitzmaurice, Henry Brand, or Brett for Ashley's' + (that of Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade). + +On December 7th it was settled that + + 'Hartington was to go to the War Office if the doctors pronounced + Childers well enough to take the Exchequer, and this would leave the + Under-Secretaryships for the Colonies and India, as well as for + Foreign Affairs, open between Fitzmaurice, Ashley, Brand, and Brett. + + 'Harcourt wrote on the 7th about Mr. Gladstone: "The resignation + project is for the present adjourned _sine die_." + + 'On Saturday, December 9th, Childers came to me from Mr. Gladstone to + ask if I objected (as we had settled that it would be improper for me + to invite a contest in Chelsea on the old register in the last month + of the year) to letting my appointment be known before it was made, + and I consented, although this would have had the effect, in the event + of opposition, of giving me a twenty days' fight instead of one of + only seventeen.' + +Mr. Gladstone now put forward a different proposal: + + 'On Monday, the 11th, I saw the Prince of Wales with regard to my + appointment. On the same day Mr. Gladstone had some trouble with the + Queen about the Primacy, as he told me on December 12th.... On the + 12th I wrote to Chamberlain that Austin Lee had told me that the Queen + had some days earlier told our friend Prince Leopold that she was + willing that I should be in the Cabinet, but not in the Duchy, and it + was this that she had said to Mr. Gladstone on the 11th about which he + sent for me on the 12th. He said that he thought it would be possible + to get over this objection in time, but that there was another + possibility about which he asked me to write to Chamberlain, but not + as from him. I wrote: "Would you take the Duchy and let me go to the + Board of Trade, you keeping your Bills? This would be unpleasant to + you personally, I feel sure, unless for my sake, though the Duchy is + of superior rank. It would, of course, be a temporary stopgap, as + there must be other changes soon. It is not necessary that you should + do it, else I know that you would do it for me. So that please feel + you are really free. I told Mr. Gladstone that I could only put it to + you in such a way as to leave you free. You had better perhaps write + your answer so that I can show it him, though I suppose he will + suppose himself not to have seen it!"' + +On December 13th the Prince of Wales sent for Sir Charles to advise his +pressing this course on Mr. Chamberlain. But on that same day Mr. +Chamberlain replied from Highbury: + + "MY DEAR DILKE, + + "Your letter has spoilt my breakfast. The change will be loathsome to + me for more than one reason, and will give rise to all sorts of + disagreeable commentaries. But if it is the only way out of the + difficulty, I will do what I am sure you would have done in my place-- + accept the transfer. I enclose a note to this effect which you can + show to Mr. G. Consider, however, if there is any alternative. I + regard your _immediate_ admission to the Cabinet as imperative, and + therefore if this can only be secured by my taking the Duchy, _cadit + quaestio_, and I shall never say another word on the subject. Two + other courses are possible, though I fear unlikely to be accepted: (1) + Mr. Gladstone might tell the Queen that I share the opinions you have + expressed with regard to the dowries, and intend to make common cause + with you--that if your appointment is refused I shall leave the + Government, and that the effect will be to alienate the Radical Party + from the Ministry and the Crown, and to give prominence to a question + which it would be more prudent to allow to slumber. I think the Queen + would give way. If not we should both go out. We should stand very + well with our party, and in a year or two we could make our own terms. + Personally I would rather go out than take the Duchy.... (2) Has the + matter been mentioned to Dodson? He _might_ like an office with less + work, [Footnote: Mr. Dodson was President of the Local Government + Board.] and he _might_ be influenced by the nominally superior + rank.... Now you have my whole mind. I would gladly avoid the + sacrifice, but if your inclusion in the Cabinet depends upon it, I + will make it freely and with pleasure for your sake." + + 'The result was that Dodson "put himself in Mr. Gladstone's hands." + There was, however, an interval of ten days, during which things went + backwards and forwards much.' + +The probability of the Queen's refusal to accept Mr. Chamberlain for the +Duchy made his threat of resignation more serious, and a letter came to +Sir Charles from Mr. Francis Knollys deprecating this vehemently on behalf +of the Prince of Wales. Its last sentence is worth quoting, as it endorsed +what was known to be Dilke's own special wish: + + "What he would like to see would be Lord Northbrook at the India + Office and you at the Admiralty." + + 'On December 14th I saw Mr. Gladstone, but a new opening had arisen, + for Fawcett was very ill, and supposed to be dying, and Mr. Gladstone + determined to wait for a few days to see whether he got better.... + + 'On December 16th Mr. Gladstone pledged himself to me in writing with + regard to putting me immediately into the Cabinet in some place, and + on December 17th the Queen agreed that a paragraph to that effect + should be sent to the newspapers. On the 18th, however, she declined + to entertain the question of taking Chamberlain for the Duchy. On + December 20th Mr. Gladstone wrote that he was "between the devil and + the deep sea." I do not know which of the two meant the Queen, and + whether the other was myself or Chamberlain. On December 21st + Chamberlain came up to town to see me. On the 22nd the Dodson plan + went forward in letters from Mr. Gladstone to Sir Henry Ponsonby, the + Queen's Secretary, and from Lord Hartington, to the Queen. On the 22nd + at night Dodson accepted it, and on the 23rd I was formally so + informed, and virtually accepted the Presidency of the Local + Government Board, which I nominally accepted on December 26th.' + +Before Sir Charles vacated the seat by his letter of acceptance, the +Tories in Chelsea had met and decided not to oppose him. Among the letters +of congratulation none gratified the new Minister more than one from Lord +Barrington, Lord Beaconsfield's former private secretary, who wrote, even +before the appointment was officially confirmed: + + "I like watching your political career as, besides personal feeling, + it makes me think of what my dear old chief used to say about you-- + that you were _the_ rising man on the other side." + +On December 27th Lord Granville sent from Walmer Castle a letter of +characteristic courtesy and charm.[Footnote: The letter given in Chapter +XX., p. 311.] It crossed an expression of gratitude already despatched by +his junior: + + "MY DEAR LORD GRANVILLE, + + "Having received Mr. Gladstone's letter with the Queen's approval, I + write to thank you for all your many kindnesses to me while I have + been under your orders. I shall continue to attend the office until + the Council, but I cannot let the day close without trying to express + in one word all that I owe to you as regards the last thirty-two + months. + + "Sincerely yours, + + "CHARLES W. DILKE." + +But it was much later, when the Government had fallen, that this "one +word" came to be developed. + + "76, SLOANE STREET, S.W. + "_Tuesday, July 14th_, 1885. + + "MY DEAR LORD GRANVILLE, + + "I am glad you feel as you do about me. Malicious people and foolish + people have both so long said that I wanted to be S. of S. for For. + Affs. myself that I never expect to be believed when I say the simple + truth--that in my opinion it ought to be in the Lords as long as there + are Lords, and that my only wish was to be of any help I could. I can + only think of the Errington-Walsh business when I think over points on + which we have differed, and I cannot help scoring that down to Forster + and the silly Irish Government, and not to you, though you are so + loyal a colleague that when you have accepted you always actively + support. + + "I do not suppose I shall ever, if again in office, have such pleasant + official days as those I spent in the F.O. under you, but the next + best thing would be at the Admiralty--the office to which all my life + has always inclined me--to obey your orders from the F.O. + + "I am sure you will believe this even if no one else will, and believe + me also ever + + "Yours very affectionately and sincerely, + + "CHARLES W. DILKE." + +'Trevelyan, in sending his congratulations from the Chief Secretary's +Office at Dublin, asked me for the earliest possible draft of heads of my +Local Government Bill for England: "in case it is settled that we are to +bring one in--a move which I have come to think is necessary. They need +not run on all fours, but there are points on which it would not do to +adopt a different policy."' + +To the Secretary of State's congratulations, Sir Julian Pauncefote, +permanent head of the Foreign Office staff, added his tribute: + + "How we all deplore your departure, _none so much as myself_. You will + leave behind you a lasting memory of your kindness and geniality, and + of your great talents." + +Other friends, among them Mr. Knollys, assumed as a matter of course that +the promotion would bring a change from congenial to uncongenial work. +They were right. "I shall be in the Local Government Board by Wednesday, +as I shan't, after Chamberlain's kindness, put him in a place which he +will like less than the Board of Trade. Shan't I hate it after this +place!" Sir Charles Dilke wrote. "But," he added, "it will 'knock the +nonsense out of me.'" That was the view put to him, for instance, by Lord +Barrington. "In the end it is well that a Minister should go through the +comparative drudgery of other offices. It gets him 'out of a groove.'" + +Mr. Gladstone, on making what Sir Charles Dilke calls 'the formal +announcement' on December 23rd, wrote: + + "Notwithstanding the rubs of the past, I am sanguine as to your future + relations with the Queen. There are undoubtedly many difficulties in + that quarter, but they are in the main confined to three or four + departments. Your office will not touch them, while you will have in + common with all your colleagues the benefit of two great modifying + circumstances which never fail--the first her high good manners, and + the second her love of truth.... + + "I have entered on these explanations, because it is my fervent + desire, on every ground, to reduce difficulties in such high and + delicate matters to their minimum; and because, with the long years + which I hope you have before you, I also earnestly desire that your + start should be favourable in your relations with the Sovereign." + +This was written only a few weeks after the Prime Minister had spoken to +his intimates of Dilke as some day his probable successor in the +leadership of the House of Commons. Mr. Gladstone did not omit to urge +that the new Minister should do his best to conciliate good-will. The +Queen, he said, "looked with some interest or even keenness to the words +of explanation as to the distant past," which Sir Charles himself had-- +"not in any way as a matter of bargain, but as a free tender"--proposed to +use. + +They were guarded. In an address delivered at Kensington before his re- +election, he dwelt almost exclusively on questions of Local Government, +and coming to the Government of London, he said: + + "There were very many subjects upon which one might modify one's + opinions as one grew older; there were opinions of political infancy + which, as one grew older, one might regard as unwise, or might prefer + not to have uttered; but upon the Government of London--the opinions + he expressed in 1867 were his personal opinions at the present time." + +This and the closing admission that when he first came before the electors +of Chelsea, he "was only between three-and four-and-twenty years of age, +and was perhaps at that time rather scatter-brained," are all the +allusions to the remote past which the speech contains; but there is every +reason to believe that it was taken as satisfactory. Mr. Gladstone wrote +that the comments of the Conservative press, which were pretty certain to +be read at Osborne, would be useful. Finally, "to integrate their +correspondence," he added this reference to Sir Charles's known wish for +the Admiralty: + + "I passed over the suggestion about clearing the Admiralty (_a_) from + reluctance to start Northbrook's removal to any less efficient place; + (_b_) on account of Parliamentary displacements; not at all because it + was too big a place to vacate and offer." + +'All the same,' the Memoir adds, 'I liked the L.G.B.' + +The change of office did not mean any severance from foreign policy, which +Sir Charles could now approach in his proper sphere, with the authority of +a Cabinet Minister. He was succeeded by Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, who had +returned from his mission to Constantinople. Dilke wrote on December 23rd +to Lord Granville: "I should suggest that no time be lost in getting +Fitzmaurice here. He likes work, and will go at these matters like a +lion." + + 'On the last day of the old year Lord Granville, writing from Walmer + to thank me for what I had said about him to my constituents, added: + "I have given the sack to ---- at the end of the five years' limit + which now expires. He would like to keep the appointment on leave for + six months, and might be very useful in advising the office. But would + there be any House of Commons objection to this prolongation?" This + was a specimen of the way in which, after I had left the Foreign + Office, all Foreign Office questions were still thrown on to me; and + as a matter of fact I did almost as much Foreign Office work during + the year 1883 as I had done from 1880 to 1882. Fitzmaurice, however, + was able, and worked very hard, and he gradually acquired an enormous + mastery of the detail of the questions.' [Footnote: Sir Charles notes + how glad he was to induce Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice to continue Mr. + Austin Lee in the post of official private secretary.] + +His unopposed return for Chelsea did not take place till January 8th, +1883. Before this he had been formally admitted to the Privy Council. + + 'I had left the Foreign Office on December 27th, having been there + exactly two years and eight months, and on Thursday, the 28th, I went + down to a Council at Osborne to be sworn; and on the 29th addressed + the principal meeting held in my constituency with regard to my re- + election, and advocated a policy of decentralization in Local + Government affairs. I was rather amused at Osborne by the + punctiliousness with which, after I had kissed hands on being sworn a + member of the Council, the Queen pointed out to the Clerk of the + Council that it was necessary for me again to immediately go through + precisely the same ceremony on appointment as President of the Local + Government Board--a curious point of strict etiquette. I could not but + think that the portion of the Privy Councillor's oath which concerns + keeping secret matters treated of secretly in Council is more honoured + in the breach than in the observance; but when Mr. Gladstone chose, + which was not always, he used to maintain the view that the clause is + governed by the first part of the oath, so as to make it secret only + in respect of the interests of the country and the position of other + members of Council. There is nothing in the oath about any limit of + time, but it has always been held in practice that a time comes when + all political importance has departed from the proceedings of the + Council, and when the obligation of secrecy may be held to lapse. + There is nothing, however, more delicate than the question of where + the line is drawn. Chamberlain was directed by the Cabinet, for + example, at the time of the Kilmainham Treaty, to carry on + negotiations with Parnell which were absolutely impossible except by a + partial revelation of matters discussed secretly in Council; but as + the Prime Minister was a party to this, I suppose that the Queen's + consent to the removal of the obligation would be in such a case + assumed, though it was not in this case real. Another difficulty about + the oath is that it in no way provides for the position towards their + chiefs of members of the Government not members of the Privy Council. + + 'It is difficult, therefore, to say that the oath in practice imposes + any obligation other than that which any man of honour would feel laid + upon him by the ordinary observances of gentlemen.' + +Sir Charles was only thirty-nine when he entered the Cabinet, yet the +general feeling was that his admission was overdue rather than early, and +no one had shown more anxiety for it than the future King. + + 'During the whole month while my position in the Cabinet was under hot + discussion, I saw a great deal of the Prince of Wales, who wished to + know from day to day how matters stood, and I was able to form a more + accurate opinion both of himself and of the Princess, and of all about + them, than I had formed before. The Prince is, of course, in fact, a + strong Conservative, and a still stronger Jingo, really agreeing in + the Queen's politics, and wanting to take everything everywhere in the + world and to keep everything if possible, but a good deal under the + influence of the last person who talks to him, so that he would + sometimes reflect the Queen and sometimes reflect me or Chamberlain, + or some other Liberal who had been shaking his head at him. He has + more sense and more usage of the modern world than his mother, whose + long retirement has cut her off from that world, but less real brain + power. He is very sharp in a way, the Queen not sharp at all; but she + carries heavy metal, for her obstinacy constitutes power of a kind. + The strongest man in Marlborough House is Holzmann, the Princess's + Secretary and the Prince's Librarian. He is a man of character and + solidity, but then he is a Continental Liberal, and looks at all + English questions as a foreigner! The Princess never talks + politics.... It is worth talking seriously to the Prince. One seems to + make no impression at the time ... but he does listen all the same, + and afterwards, when he is talking to somebody else, brings out + everything that you have said.' + +Some letters of this date show how strongly the personal friendship of Sir +Charles Dilke and Mr. Chamberlain had developed during their political +alliance. + +In September, 1881, Mr. Chamberlain writes that he has been "reading over +again a book called _Greater Britain_, written, I believe, by a young +fellow of twenty-five, and a very bright, clever, and instructive book it +is." He petitions for a copy "properly inscribed to your devoted friend +and admirer, J. C." Sir Charles, in acknowledging this, protested against +the word "instructive," and his friend apologized. "But it is instructive +for all that. When you next come to Birmingham you shall inscribe my +copy.... Let me add that in all my political life the pleasantest and the +most satisfactory incident is your friendship." + +These expressions were further emphasized by another letter of this date. +Sir Charles, hurrying into Mr. Chamberlain's room in the House of Commons, +had found him busy and preoccupied, and so followed up his visit with a +letter. Mr. Chamberlain replied: + + "_December 6th._ + + "I am not sorry to have the opportunity of saying how much I + appreciate and how cordially I reciprocate all your kind words. + + "The fact is that you are by nature such a reserved fellow that all + _demonstration_ of affection is difficult, but you may believe me when + I say that I feel it--none the less. I suppose I am reserved myself. + The great trouble we have both been through has had a hardening effect + in my case, and since then I have never worn my heart on my sleeve. + + "But if I were in trouble I should come to you at once--and that is + the best proof of friendship and confidence that I know of." + +About that same time Lord Granville was writing to Sir Charles on foreign +affairs, and diverged into general politics, remarking on the Free Trade +speeches then being delivered. "With what ability Chamberlain has been +speaking! I doubt whether going on the stump suits the Tory party." To +this Sir Charles replied with an enthusiasm rare in his utterances: + + "Chamberlain's speech was admirable, I thought. I, as you know, + delight in his triumphs more than he does himself. It is absurd that + this should be so between politicians, but so it is. Our friendship + only grows closer and my admiration for him stronger day by day." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +AT THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD + + +I. + +Under the pressure of the excitements of 1882 caused by foreign affairs, +business legislation for the needs of the British community had been +crushed out, but there was agreement that in the New Year time must be +given for Mr. Chamberlain's Bankruptcy Bill to become law; also that the +electioneering question of Corrupt Practices should be dealt with. Beyond +this immediate programme lay two matters of the first importance--reform +of local government in town and in country, and reform of the electorate. +In regard to these, the year was chiefly consumed by Government +dissensions, partly as to the character of the measures, but principally +as to their order of precedence. + +As administrator in his new office, Sir Charles turned at once to the +position of the civil servants under his control: + + 'On New Year's Day I had begun to be bothered about what was called my + patronage at the Local Government Board, which was considerable. At + the Foreign Office I had none at all, and had had the greatest + possible difficulty in getting Lord Granville to give a consulate to + Henry George Kennedy, who had been my secretary for many years, and + who had considerable claims--as he had lost his health in the consular + service before he first came to me, and then recovered his health + after a serious illness. At the Local Government Board I was my own + master, and all the patronage of the office was absolutely at my + disposal, and the first post or two that fell vacant I gave to persons + suggested by Hartington, James, and other colleagues. But I very soon + formed a strong opinion that the patronage of the Local Government + Board ought to be used in a different way from that which had + prevailed ever since the end of Stansfeld's term of office' (1871- + 1874). 'Stansfeld had made excellent use of his patronage, but + Sclater-Booth' [Footnote: Mr. George Sclater-Booth, created Lord + Basing in 1887.] (1874-1880) 'and Dodson' (1880-1882), 'and even + Goschen' (1868-1871), 'had used it less well, and had put in men of + the kind that colleagues often force upon one--political partisans or + supporters, not always the best men. I talked the matter over, and + decided to make the service during my term of office a close service, + and to promote men already in the service to all vacancies as they + occurred, making inspectors of auditors or clerks, and giving the good + auditorships to the best men in the inferior ones. As regarded new + appointments to auditorships at the lowest scale, I had a list of men + who were working with auditors without pay on the chance of my giving + them appointments later on, and I brought in several of this kind on + good reports from auditors. Bodley, my Private Secretary, managed the + whole of my patronage for me, and did it extremely well, and after I + had started the system I was able to leave it absolutely in his + hands.' + +He notes later on that one of his colleagues was 'furious' with him +because he would not do a job for the family solicitor, who was also +Parliamentary agent of the colleague's son. A previous President had +'jobbed in a Tory agent,' and the colleague expected that Sir Charles +should follow with the Whig agent. 'I refused, as I intended to promote +one of our best and worst-paid men.' + +An illustration of the same principle is the case of Mr. Walter Sendall: + + 'It was at this time' (November, 1883) 'that I had taken up, as + against Lord Kimberley and Lord Derby, the case of Sendall--an + Assistant Secretary in the Local Government Board, who had been + previously appointed Governor of Natal, and then withdrawn on account + of Natal feeling that he would be too much under the control of Sir + Hercules Robinson, the Governor of the Cape. There being nothing + against Sendall, I thought that we were bound to find him another + Governorship, and Horace Seymour, Mr. Gladstone's secretary, was in + strong agreement with me. The matter was brought to a point at this + moment by the selection of Blake for a Governorship in preference to + Sendall. A strong letter from Seymour pointed out that "heaps of + deserving men in the Colonial service were passed by to make this + appointment, and Sendall, who has a _real_ claim on the Government, is + put on one side. In my opinion an appointment of this kind is most + mischievous, and I sincerely trust that the Healys and the Biggars + will make the most of it, and for once they will have at least my + hearty sympathy...." Seymour was Lady Spencer's brother, and he on his + side and I on mine made the lives of Lord Derby and Lord Kimberley' + (Ministers responsible in regard to the withdrawal) 'so uncomfortable + that we finally got Sendall an appointment. Blake turned out a success + as a Colonial Governor.' + +Mr. H. Preston Thomas, C.B., in his _Work and Play of a Government +Inspector_, written after fifty years' experience of the Civil Service, +bears testimony to Sir Charles's work as an administrator, especially by +the introduction of the principle of competition: + + "It was during the presidency of Sir Charles Dilke that the staff of + the Local Government Board was reorganized, and for the first time + placed on a more or less satisfactory footing.... A leaven of highly + educated men was much wanted in the junior ranks, and this was secured + by the reorganization of 1884, when eight clerkships of the Higher + Division were thrown open to public competition.... Every one of the + successful candidates had graduated in honours at Oxford or Cambridge, + while two or three were Fellows of their Colleges. The infusion of new + blood acted most beneficially, and the heads of the department were + able to delegate to subordinates some of the duties of which the + enormous mass had fairly overwhelmed them." [Footnote: P. 195.] + +The new President threw himself with energy into the administrative work +of his department: the Memoir abounds in references to visits of +inspection to workhouse infirmaries, sewage farms, schools, and training- +ships. One instance in which he personally intervened was that of Nazareth +House at Hammersmith, a Roman Catholic establishment at which there had +been an outbreak of typhus. There were reasons which made Sir Charles +think, after a visit to the house, that the local Medical Officer had been +unjustly severe. Instructions were given as to changes to be made, and a +letter of warm gratitude came from Cardinal Manning, April 27th, 1883, who +spoke of himself as "disabled and shut up, and therefore doubly grateful." +This was endorsed by the action of the Sisters, and Sir Charles's own +phrase, 'I have always continued on intimate terms with the Sisters of +Nazareth House until this day,' gives but a slight idea of the homage +rendered to him and his wife by this community until the end. + +When he was standing for re-election in January, his speeches contained +strong protests against over-centralization. Even where he was most +zealous for reform, Sir Charles bore in mind that local bodies are liable +to make mistakes, but that public interest is often best served by +allowing such errors to correct themselves. Here is an instance: + + 'On August 31st, 1883, I inspected Westminster Union Workhouse, in + consequence of the serious misconduct of the master, who had been + bitterly attacked in the House of Commons, and with regard to whom I + had laid down the principle that it was for the Guardians and not for + me to dismiss him. This was a test case with regard to centralization. + Feeling in the Press was strong against the master, and his acts were + entirely indefensible, but he had the support of the majority of his + Guardians. I made public my opinion, but did nothing else, and + ultimately the Guardians who supported him lost their seats, and the + master was removed by the new Board.' + +At this time the unravelling of the conspiracy which had led to the +Phoenix Park murders and dynamite outrages was causing a panic in London +itself. Sir William Harcourt at the Home Office, while he threw himself +into the task of fighting these menaces with energy, demanded exemption +from less engrossing cares. On March 17th + + 'he told the Cabinet that he was so overburdened with work that he + must hand all the ordinary business over to the Local Government + Board.... I noted that Harcourt thought himself a Fouché, and wanted + to have the whole police work of the country, and nothing but police. + The matter was finally completed during the Easter recess by letter on + a scheme drawn up by Hibbert' (Parliamentary Secretary to the Local + Government Board), 'who knew both offices. It was even proposed at one + moment that a Bill should be brought in to give the Local Government + Board for ever the inspections, such as mines, factories, etc., and + the Artisans' Dwellings Acts and other matters not connected with + Police and Justice; but no legislation took place, as the idea was + hotly opposed by the Home Office, and we went on from hand to mouth by + a mere personal arrangement between Harcourt and myself. [Footnote: + The Diary of this time deals with the Ministry of Agriculture; it was + decided to create an Agricultural Vice-President of the Council, so as + to separate Agriculture from Education, and to appoint 'Dodson as + Vice-President, under Carlingford as Lord President.' 'Some had asked + for the creation of a Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, as in + France, a wonderful combination.' Sir Charles reported to the Cabinet + the fact that a new Ministry had been unanimously agreed to by the + House of Commons some years before (though no notice had been taken of + the resolution)--a Ministry of Justice. + + Sir Charles Dilke was always opposed to the increase of Ministers + Ministries. See "Labour," Chapter LII. (Vol. II., pp. 342-367).] + + 'On Monday, April 2nd, there came up the question of whether Harcourt + would himself deal with the matter of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, + which was raised by a debate in the House, and which the Home Office + insisted on his taking. To their disgust, however, Harcourt would not + look at the documents, and sent them all to me in a box for me to deal + with.' + +Home Office duties, as Sir Charles discovered, are 'highly miscellaneous,' +and at the end of May an item in the 'curious mixture of subjects' that he +had before him was a letter from the Primate, giving the views of a +meeting of Bishops about cemeteries. + +The transference of so much business to the Minister of another department +was not pleasing to the Home Office permanent officials. When Lord +Rosebery resigned in the beginning of June, Sir Charles secured the +promotion of Mr. Hibbert, Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government +Board, to the Under-Secretaryship of the Home Office; [Footnote: Mr. J. +Tomlinson Hibbert, afterwards for many years Chairman of the Lancashire +County Council and of the County Councils Association.] and out of several +names submitted to him by Mr. Gladstone for Mr. Hibbert's place he +selected that of Mr. G. W. E. Russell, who, a short time before this, had +published in one of the reviews an article vehemently attacking the Whig +tradition. Sir Charles notes that Mr. Russell was congratulated by his +kinsman, that great Whig, the Duke of Bedford, as follows: + + 'After singing Russell's praises, he concluded: "As, my dear George, + you have now not only an official _but also a literary income_, it + will, perhaps, no longer be necessary that I should offer to continue + to pay your election expenses." This story has been denied, but is + true. + + 'All through the autumn I felt myself in considerable difficulties in + dealing with the important questions which Harcourt had handed over to + me from the Home Office, but as to which in many cases new departure + was evidently needed which I had no authority to take. One such + question was factory inspection. The current work was thrown on me, + and I had to defend what the factory branch of the Home Office did. On + the other hand, although I had the strongest opinion that the + Inspectorate should be increased, and women inspectors appointed for + factories where women were employed, Harcourt would not agree to this, + and kept the patronage in his private secretary's hands, so that I had + no real control.' + +It was, however, in Sir Charles's power to appoint women inspectors at the +Local Government Board, and he did so, thus leading the way in the +movement for associating women with public work. + + 'The same was the case at first with regard to what were known as + Cross's Acts, or the larger scheme affecting artisans' dwellings, as + to which I had at the end of October some correspondence with Cardinal + Manning, who was in Italy. Manning had written, in a letter which I + received on November 2nd: "Without a high-handed executive nothing + will be done till another generation has been morally destroyed, but + construction must keep pace with destruction. Some of my parishes are + so crowded owing to destruction without construction as to reproduce + the same mischiefs in new places. You know I am no narrow politician, + but I am impatient at political conflicts while these social plagues + are destroying our people." + + 'The matter was brought to a head on the next day by the receipt of a + letter from Mr. Gladstone sending me a letter from the Queen on the + dwellings of the people, with copy of what he had said in reply. The + letter was: + + '"BALMORAL CASTLE, + '"_October 30th_, '83. + + '"The Queen has been much distressed by all she has heard and read + lately of the deplorable condition of the homes of the poor in our + great towns.... The Queen will be glad to hear Mr. Gladstone's + opinion ... and to learn whether the Government contemplate the + introduction of any measures, or propose to take any steps to obtain + more precise information as to the _true_ state of affairs in these + overcrowded, unhealthy, and squalid bodies. She cannot but think that + there are questions of less importance than these which are under + discussion, and which might wait till one involving the _very_ + existence of thousands, nay, millions, had been fully considered by + the Government." + + 'Mr. Gladstone, in reply, said: "Mr. Gladstone will not fail to + communicate with Sir Charles Dilke ... on the subject of your + Majesty's letter. He himself does not doubt that improvements in local + government which he trusts are near at hand will lead to a sensible + progress...." + + 'In consequence of this communication from the Queen, I decided to + examine all the worst parts of London for myself, and on November 9th + I wrote to Lyulph Stanley and to Miss Maude Stanley and others for a + list of what they considered the worst places in London, "as we want + to test our administrative powers under the present law. As we have to + show that the Local Authority have 'made default,' it would be best to + take cases as to which the Medical Officers have reported to the + Vestry in the past, and nothing has been done." During the remainder + of the year I met all the Medical Officers of London with the District + Surveyors of the parishes, each man in his own district, and visited + with them all those places on which they had reported without success; + and, making my own notes, I picked out the very worst cases, and when + I was certain that I was on firm ground took occasion to mention them + in public.' + +After some discussion, in which Mr. Gladstone and also Harcourt and +Chamberlain were consulted, it was agreed that Dilke should do what he +pleased in the name either of the Home Office or Local Government Board +'as to fighting Vestries about the dwellings of the poor.' At this moment, +near the end of November, several delicate diplomatic questions were in +hand, upon which, as a member of the Cabinet, Sir Charles was now taking a +leading part. Accordingly Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, who thoroughly +understood Local Government problems, took charge of the work on the +detail of the Local Government Bill: + + 'It might be said that Fitzmaurice was doing my work and I was doing + his. Although I was visiting St. Giles and the courts about the + Strand, the worst streets near Judd Street (St. Pancras), Lisson + Grove, and other curious places in Marylebone, Lord Salisbury's Courts + in the neighbourhood of St. Martin's Lane, and the worst slums of St. + George the Martyr, Newington, St. Saviour's, and St. George's in the + East, yet as regarded the preparation of the details of my Bill I + turned the matter over to Fitzmaurice....' + +Sir Charles's main interest of these months was making up the case against +those responsible for bad housing, and he fixed responsibility on some who +showed themselves honourably sensitive: + + 'About this time I received a very strong and detailed anonymous + letter calling my attention to the condition of the Northampton + tenants in Clerkenwell, and I sent it to Lord William Compton-- + afterwards Lord Compton, and later Lord Northampton--who was serving + as a clerk in the Turkish Department of the Foreign Office. At my + request he went down to Clerkenwell and looked into the matter for + himself, and found the state of things so horrible that he warmly took + up the question, and I then took him down to Clerkenwell again. I + found Clerkenwell to be my strongest case, as it was the only parish + in which the local authority was entirely in the house-farmers' hands, + and from this time forward I put it in a prominent place in all my + speeches.' + +Before departing, on December 20th, for Toulon, + + 'I had a correspondence with the Archbishop of Canterbury (Benson) + with regard to the condition of the property in London of the + Ecclesiastical Commissioners, which I thought a disgrace to the + Church. He only asked me to send him the facts, which I did, pointing + out that the district "in the Borough" at the meeting of St. + Saviour's, Bermondsey, Newington, and St. George the Martyr, was in a + shameful state.' + +The outcome of these inquiries was the appointment of the Royal Commission +on Housing. The subject afforded safe ground on which to meet the Queen +when he first went down as a guest to Windsor, and it was supplemented by +another matter, on which much correspondence had passed between him and +Sir Henry Ponsonby--that of certain cement works near West Cowes, the +smoke from which killed the Queen's shrubs at Osborne. + + 'On Tuesday, November 27th, I dined and slept at Windsor, and the + Queen talked artisans' dwellings and Osborne chemical works. Ponsonby + I thought very able and very pleasant. I suppose I had Dizzy's rooms, + because there was not only a statue of him, but also a framed + photograph, in the sitting-room, while in the bedroom there was a + recent statue of the Empress Eugenie. The Queen was, of course, very + courteous, but she was more bright and pleasant than I had expected. + The Duke and Duchess of Albany were at Windsor, and I had her next me + at dinner. Lorne was also there, and after the Queen had gone to bed + the Duke and Lorne showed me all the curiosities, having had the whole + of the galleries lighted. We sat up very late. Loene is serious- + minded ... through his real attempt to understand his work, and would + do most things well....' + +In this year Sir Charles opposed the scheme of "assisted emigration" under +which was offered to the world the amazing spectacle of a Government +paying its own subjects to quit its shores and its flag. Irish peasants, +half starved, clad in garments promiscuously flung out from the slop-shop, +often quite unfit to make their way in a strange country, were induced by +the offer of a free passage (without even inspection to see that they were +decently accommodated on board) to pour in thousands out of a country +whose rulers had no better thing to offer them than this cynical quittance +in full. Sir Charles 'violently opposed the scheme' in one of his first +Cabinets (May 5th), and again on July 25th tried to abolish it, but 'only +succeeded in getting a promise that the second year of it should be the +last.' + +At the beginning of 1883 his brother Ashton was very ill at Algiers, and +on February 17th the manager of his paper, the Weekly Dispatch, brought to +Sloane Street a communication in Ashton Dilke's own hand, which contained, +amongst other directions to be carried out after his death, the actual +paragraph by which it was to be announced. When the end came, on March +12th, 1883, it meant 'a serious breaking with the past. William Dilke +alone was left to me, if, indeed, at eighty-eight one could speak of a man +as left.' This old grand-uncle, with his military memories of Waterloo +days, whom Sir Charles Dilke yearly visited at Chichester, and who often +stayed at Sloane Street, was also at this moment very ill, and supposed to +be dying; but he recovered, and lived on for more than two years. In April +Sir Charles ordered from Mr. W. E. F. Britten, the painter, whom Leighton +had commended to him, a portrait of his brother, which 'proved very good,' +and which hung always in 76, Sloane Street. + +He clung to family ties, and later in the year paid a visit to distant +kindred, the heads of the Dilke family: + + 'On Saturday, August 25th, I went to Maxstoke, and returned on Monday, + the 27th. There dined on the Saturday night Lord and Lady Norton and + their eldest son, Charles Adderley. The old man said a very true thing + to me about the place. "What a good castle this is, and how lucky that + it has always been inhabited by people too poor to spoil it!" From the + Commonwealth times, when Peter Wentworth plundered the Dilke of his + day for delinquency after the two years during which Fairfax had held + the Castle, they have never had money, and no attempt was ever made to + rebuild the interior house after the two fires by which two-thirds of + it were successively destroyed. They are, owing to Mrs. Dilke having a + little money, a little more prosperous just now, and there is a larger + herd of deer than usual; on this occasion I counted over one hundred + from the walls.' + +The loss of his only brother had been preceded by a 'heavy blow.' That +"great and illustrious friend" for whom, in the early seventies, Sir +Charles prophesied that, in spite of the opposition of French aristocracy +and clericalism, he would govern France, had passed away on the last day +of 1882. Gambetta was dead. + +On New Year's Day, 1883, Sir Charles, speaking to the electors of Chelsea, +dwelt on the qualities of "the greatest of all Frenchmen of his time"-- +"the magnitude of his courage, his tremendous energy, his splendid +oratory, and, for those who knew him in private, his unmatched gaiety and +sparkling wit." + +Among those who wrote to him was Mr. Gladstone, condoling on a death "you +will much feel." To one friend who wrote of Gambetta's "moral power," he +replied: "It seems difficult to speak of 'moral' power about Gambetta. His +kind of power was almost purely physical; it was a power of courage, +energy, and oratory." During his visit to Paris in January, 1883, 'my +first visit after Gambetta's death,' he and Lord Lyons 'talked chiefly +about Gambetta.' + +Later, turning--with the detachment of judgment which characterized his +attitude to public life--from his private friendship to his estimate of +the needs of France, he left this estimate of Gambetta and the Republic: + + 'Much as I loved his society, I did not think him a loss to the + Republic, for he was too dictatorial and too little inclined to let + other men do important work to suit that form of government, except, + indeed, in time of war. It is quite true that his was the only strong + personality of which France could boast, and it was possible that, so + long as he was there, the people would not be likely in a panic to + hunt in other camps for a saviour: but great as was his power-- + physical power, power of courage and of oratory--and terrible as was + the hole in France made by his death, nevertheless the smaller men + were perhaps more able to conduct the Republic to prosperity and to + general acceptance by the people.' + + +II. + +The governing fact of English politics at this moment was the general +expectation of Mr. Gladstone's retirement. Since Lord Hartington would +undoubtedly succeed him, the Radical wing, led by Dilke and Chamberlain, +was doubly eager to commit the Government in advance to Radical measures. +Each of the two main subjects contemplated had two subdivisions. Reform of +the electorate included extension of the franchise, to which the Radicals +attached most importance, and to which Lord Hartington was sullenly +opposed; it also included redistribution of seats. Reform of local +government included, first, proposals for a new system of county +government; [Footnote: These had taken some shape, and Dilke found a draft +of them in his office when he succeeded to it; but Mr. Chamberlain agreed +with him in thinking it "a poor thing which I should not like to father."] +secondly, the Bill for the Government of London, which Sir William +Harcourt and Sir Charles Dilke had prepared with the help of Mr. Beal and +Mr. Firth, and this was ready for circulation to the Cabinet. + +While Dilke, with his son, was passing Christmas-time at Toulon, Mr. +Gladstone had also come to the Mediterranean coast. + + 'I went to Cannes, where I dined with Mr. Gladstone twice, and went to + church with him on Sunday, January 21st, 1883. + + 'While Mr. Gladstone was at Cannes he talked very freely to Ribot and + other Frenchmen in the presence of Mrs. Emily Crawford, the _Daily + News_ correspondent in Paris, about the London Government Bill. + Harcourt had insisted, against myself and Firth and Beal, and against + most of the Commons members of the Cabinet, including the Prime + Minister, on keeping the control of the police in the hands of the + Government. Ribot asked Mr. Gladstone whether we could really trust + London with its police, as few Frenchmen dared trust Paris, and Mr. + Gladstone said that we could and should, a statement which was at once + sent to the _Daily News_, and printed, to Harcourt's horror.' + +[Illustration: LEON GAMBETTA. +From the painting by Legros in the Luxembourg Museum at Paris.] + + 'On February 2nd we had a conference on London Government at the Home + Office, in which the police question again came up. In consequence of + our difference of opinion Harcourt shortly after circulated to the + Cabinet a memorandum on the police authority in the new municipality + of London.... + + '"No competent statesmen and no authoritative body of men have + considered this matter without arriving at the same conclusion-- + namely, that there ought to be one police force, and not two, in the + Metropolis. I will therefore take it for granted that it is impossible + to raise an argument against the union of the whole of the police + force in the Metropolis under one control.... There is only one + question worthy of debate--namely, whether the united force shall be + placed under the control of the corporation or of the Government.... A + practical consideration of the case will, I think, demonstrate the + sheer impossibility of vesting in a popular council the discipline and + administration of such a force as the Metropolitan Police.... Suppose, + for example, that news arrived either from America or Ireland which + required instant and secret action by the police throughout London + against a Fenian outbreak. Is it to be contended that a meeting of the + Watch Committee is to be summoned ... a debate to be raised and a vote + taken?... When the Government determined to arrest Davitt, was the + warrant to be canvassed ... in the Watch Committee?..." + + 'On this I wrote in strong dissent: "Suppose the same news as regards + Liverpool. A case in point was the attack on Chester Castle. Liverpool + was the Fenian centre for this. Liverpool is by far the most Fenian + town in England. Yet all the arrests were made in Liverpool, and all + worked perfectly. If all this argument were really true, there would + be Fenian Alsatias in existence now. We do not find any difference + between town and town. We do not find that the Fenians avoid London, + where Harcourt has all his force and all his powers." + + 'Harcourt's memorandum went on in extraordinarily violent and anti- + popular language.... To this reasoning neither Mr. Gladstone nor + Chamberlain nor I yielded.' + +Extension of the franchise involved Ireland. It was certain enormously to +increase Mr. Parnell's following, and Lord Hartington's opposition to the +proposal was very largely due to this fact. The Whig leader's attitude to +Ireland was expressed in a speech at Bacup, in which he declared that it +would be "madness to give Ireland more extended self-government" unless +they could "receive from the Irish people some assurance that this boon +would not be used for the purposes of agitation." + + 'Chamberlain wrote to me January 20th: + + '"Hartington's speech was very Conservative the other day. I cannot + complain, as he has as much right to talk Whiggism as you and I to + spout Radicalism. Only I don't see how we are to get on together when + Mr. G. goes.... But the general impression left on my mind is that the + country (_our_ country, that is--the great majority of Liberal + opinion) is ripe for a new departure in constructive Radicalism, and + only wants leaders. So if we are driven to fight, we shall easily + recruit an army."' + +Speaking at Swansea on February 1st, Mr. Chamberlain said: + + "So long as Ireland is without any institution of Local Government + worthy of the name, so long the seeds of discontent and disloyalty + will remain, and burst forth into luxuriant growth at the first + favourable occasion." + +Radicals were already uneasy about Lord Spencer's administration, and +their uneasiness was finding expression in public. Sir Charles notes in +January, 1883, before his brother Ashton's death: + + 'My brother had in January placed his application for the Chiltern + Hundreds secretly in the hands of his Newcastle friends, to be used so + soon as they had found a candidate, and I managed through Chamberlain + the selection of John Morley. Lord Spencer and Trevelyan were at this + time very hostile to Morley, who was writing against their policy in + the _Pall Mall_, and was supposed to be instigated by Chamberlain. In + sending me a letter of complaint from Trevelyan, Chamberlain wrote: + + '"It seems to me devilishly like Forster over again. I think it may + wait without further reply; but I fear there may be more trouble in + store in Ireland yet, and we may have to put our feet down on further + coercion." + + 'In a letter of February 2nd, Chamberlain wrote: + + '"If Spencer and Trevelyan really believe that I have set Morley + against them, they are very foolish. On the other hand, I have done + all I can to keep him straight, but you know he is kittle cattle to + drive. If I have not converted him, I must admit that he has rather + shaken me, and I have not quite so much confidence in their discretion + as I thought it politic to express last night" (at Swansea). "The more + I think of the prosecutions of the Press and of Members of Parliament, + the less I like them. But I have said nothing of this to Morley. You + will see that I replied to Hartington by implication. I do not want to + have a row, but if it must come I shall not shrink from it.'" + +The Radicals were pressing forward a proposal to deal at once with the +extension of franchise instead of with Local Government; but here they +were overruled. + + 'On this last point of the order of our chief Bills, Chamberlain and I + jointly consulted the Cabinet in writing, with the result that all + pronounced against our view except Mr. Gladstone, who was away and did + not write.' (Mr. Gladstone did not return from Cannes till the + beginning of March.) 'Hartington showed in his minute not only that he + wanted County Government dealt with first, but that he wanted + redistribution dealt with in the same Session with franchise. Lord + Spencer and Lord Selborne strongly agreed with Hartington. Lord + Granville was against binding ourselves to couple redistribution with + equalization of franchise, but thought that to introduce Bills dealing + with one or both of these subjects "would be prematurely hastening the + end of a good Parliament, and would delay the passing of useful + measures, including Local Government. It seems to me important to test + the utility of the new rules of procedure by several non-political + Bills, together with such Bills as the Local Government Bill and the + reform of the municipality of London." Lord Granville, of course, was + anxious to stop in, and was merely finding reasons for not touching a + subject which he thought dangerous. + + 'Lord Derby agreed with Lord Granville: "The objection on general + grounds to bringing forward a County Franchise Bill in the present + Session seems to me strong. You could not postpone redistribution of + seats, and this latter measure would involve the necessity for + dissolution, either in order to carry it or immediately after it was + carried. Local Government would thus be delayed for several years." + Lord Kimberley wrote: "I agree with Lord Derby. From the time when we + propose the extension of the county franchise until (by some + Governments) the redistribution of seats is carried, there will be a + political crisis, and all other measures will be postponed." + + 'In consequence of the position taken up by the Cabinet, I proceeded + to draft a Local Government Bill.' [Footnote: The measure was a large + one, but he notes in his Memoir that 'it was a less complete and + comprehensive measure than that prepared by me for Chamberlain in + 1886.'] + +Thus, immediately on his entry into the Cabinet Sir Charles found himself +entrusted with the task of framing the chief measure for the succeeding +Session. When the outlines had been sketched in, he wrote: + + 'Before I started for my Easter holiday I went through the draft of + the Local Government Bill. Drawing great Bills is heart-breaking work, + for one always feels that they will never be introduced or seen, so + considerable are the chances against any given Bill going forward. All + the great labour that we had given to the London Bill was wasted, and + this forms a reason why the Foreign Office is pleasanter than other + offices, as no work is wasted there.' + +The decision to postpone extension of the franchise, though it eased the +situation, did not solve all difficulties. Mr. Chamberlain urged a Tenant +Rights Bill for England, which, he said to Sir Charles, "would be a great +stroke of business. Without it" they would "lose the farmers for a +certainty." Sir Charles concurred, and an Agricultural Holdings Bill was +amongst the measures carried in that Session. It did not go far in the +direction of tenant right, and therefore created no controversy with the +Whigs. But with regard to Ireland, Mr. Chamberlain 'was strongly in favour +of an Irish Local Government Bill' (which had been promised in a previous +Queen's Speech). The Prime Minister was of Mr. Chamberlain's view. On +February 3rd to 5th, when Dilke was staying with the Duke of Albany at +Claremont (and 'admiring Clive's Durbar carpet, for which the house was +built'), the Duke 'talked over Mr. Gladstone's strong desire for an Irish +Local Government Bill.' That desire was, indeed, no secret, for Mr. +Gladstone, still in his expansive mood of Cannes, gave an interview to M. +Clemenceau, in which he expressed his hope to "make the humblest Irishman +feel that he is a self governing agency, and that the Government is to be +carried on by him and for him." + +At the Cabinet of February 9th + + 'we looked forward to what the schoolboys call "a jolly blow up," when + Mr. Gladstone should return. The letter from Mr. Gladstone, which was + read, was so steady in its terms that I passed a paper to Chamberlain, + saying: "He is quite as obstinate as you are." + + 'On February 12th I ... found Harcourt perfectly furious at Mr. + Gladstone's conversations as reported in the _Daily News_. I wrote to + Chamberlain to tell him, and he replied: u It is lovely. And his + conversation with Clemenceau will send Hartington into hysterics re + Irish Local Government.' + +Sir Charles's first Cabinet Council was on Tuesday, February 6th, 1883. + + 'This was the Queen's Speech Cabinet, and my notes show that I wrote a + good deal of the speech, especially the part which concerned the + Bills. I was much surprised at the form of the circular calling the + Cabinet: "A Meeting of Her Majesty's servants will be held," etc.... + We were thirteen on this day, and spent a portion of our valuable time + in wondering which of us would be gone before the year was out. Mr. + Gladstone still stated in his letters that he would retire at Easter, + or at the latest in August, and it was generally thought that he meant + August.' + +A series of Cabinets followed in which the Prime Minister continued to +make himself felt, though absent, and Sir Charles wrote in his Diary: + + "Talk of two Kings of Brentford! This Cabinet has to serve two + despotic monarchs--one a Tory one, at Osborne, and one a Radical one, + at Cannes." + +It shows the temper of the moment that Sir Charles should have described +the second monarch as 'Radical.' But Ireland was then the central subject +of contention, and concerning Ireland Mr. Gladstone was with the Radicals, +Dilke and Chamberlain, and against those who wanted to revenge upon the +whole Irish nation, the plots of the "Invincibles," then being exposed by +the evidence of James Carey, the Phoenix Park assassin, who had been +accepted as an informer. + + 'On Sunday, February 18th, I dined with the Prince and Princess of + Wales at Marlborough House, where were present Prince Edward of Saxe- + Weimar, Hartington, the Duchess of Manchester, Lord and Lady Hamilton + (afterwards Duke and Duchess of Abercorn), Lord and Lady Granville, + Lady Lonsdale (afterwards Lady de Grey), Lord Rowton, H. Bismarck, + Leighton, Alfred de Rothschild, and Sir Joseph Crowe. Lord Granville + and I sat in a corner and talked Danube Conference. Lord Granville + told me, when we returned to other matters, that Harcourt was in a + dangerous frame of mind, and might at any moment burst out publicly + about the necessity of governing Ireland by the sword. He was also + threatening resignation on account of Mr. Gladstone's views about the + Metropolitan Police.' + + 'On February 19th there was an informal Cabinet in Mr. Gladstone's + room, which was now temporarily mine.... Harcourt fought against Lord + Granville, Kimberley, Northbrook, Carlingford, and Childers, in favour + of his violent views about the Irish. At last Carlingford, although an + Irish landlord, cried out: "Your language is that of the lowest Tory." + Harcourt then said: "In the course of this very debate I shall say + that there must be no more Irish legislation, and no more + conciliation, and that Ireland can only be governed by the sword." "If + you say that," replied Carlingford, "it will not be as representing + the Government, for none of your colleagues agree with you." It was + only temper, and Harcourt said nothing of the kind, but made an + excellent speech.' [Footnote: Sir Charles Dilke's view of the Irish + movement is expressed in a letter of March 7th, 1883: "I don't think + that the movement in Ireland is to be traced to the same causes as + that on the Continent. The Irish movement is Nationalist. It is + patriotic--not cosmopolitan, and is as detached from French Anarchism + and German or American Socialism as is the Polish Nationalist + movement."] + + 'On March 1st I heard that when the Irish Government, through the Home + Office, had applied to the Foreign Office to ask the Americans for P. + J. Sheridan, the Home Office had said that they feared it was useless + to apply to the United States except on a charge of murder. On this + hint the Irish Government at once charged Sheridan with murder. + Harcourt told me that their promptitude reminded him of a story which + he had heard from Kinglake, who was once applied to by a friend as to + the circumstances which would be sufficient to legalize a "nuncupative + [Footnote: "Nuncupative" is a legal term for an oral as distinguished + from a written will.] death-bed will." Kinglake wrote a figurative + account of an imaginary case in much detail, and by the next post + received a solemn affidavit from the man setting out Kinglake's own + exact series of incidents as having actually occurred.' + +Prosecutions and sentences had no more effect than such things generally +have in face of a suppressed revolution and on the night of March 15th, +1883, a dynamite explosion took place at the Local Government Board. Sir +Charles, however, did not take a very serious view of it: + + 'The dynamiters chose a quiet corner, and they chose an hour when + nobody was about, which showed that the object was not to hurt + anybody, but only to get money from the United States. At the same + time they picked their office most unfortunately, for the Local + Government Board is the only office where people worked late at night, + and two out of my four leading men were still in their rooms, although + they had come at ten in the morning and the explosion did not take + place till nine at night.' + +Mr. Gladstone had returned at the beginning of this month, and on March +5th Sir Charles saw him for the first time in Cabinet, 'singularly quiet, +hardly saying anything at all.' He did, however, say that Mr. Bradlaugh +was "a stone round their necks," 'which in a Parliamentary sense he was.' +Despite one of Mr. Gladstone's greatest speeches, Government were again +beaten when they proposed to let him affirm. + +In this spring there was an agitation to create a Secretaryship of State +for Scotland, and Lord Rosebery was looked upon as designate for the +office. Sir Charles did not think the change necessary, but was strongly +for having Lord Rosebery in the Cabinet, and wrote to Sir M. Grant Duff, +Governor of Madras: + + "It would be natural to give Rosebery the Privy Seal, and let him keep + the Scotch work; but nothing will induce Mr. G. to look upon him as + anything but a nice promising baby, and he will not hear of letting + him into the Cabinet." 'Nothing,' he adds, 'was settled on this + occasion.' + + "A smaller Bill than those which I have mentioned, but one in which I + was interested, was my Municipal Corporations (unreformed) Bill, which + had passed the House of Lords, but failed to pass the Commons. + [Footnote: Previous reference to Sir Charles's persistent fight for + this Bill is to be found in Chapter XIII.] Rosebery thought that this + time it should be introduced into the Commons... because, although the + Lords were pledged to it by having passed it," this pledge must not be + strained too hard by constantly waving the red flag of uncomfortable + reform before the hereditary bull. "Harcourt having agreed with me + that the Bill should be introduced into the Lords, and having also + agreed with Rosebery that it should be introduced in the Commons, + Rosebery again wrote: 'I am afraid if you go on bringing this measure + before the peers they will begin to smell out suspicious matter in + it."' + +On April 21st 'Rosebery again promised me to introduce a Bill,' and the +Bill became law in 1884. + +After his brother's death on March 12th Sir Charles Dilke, in his reply to +a very kind letter from the Prince of Wales in the name of himself and the +Princess, mentioned Lord Rosebery and the Scotch agitation. The Prince +wrote back: + + "I quite agree. If Rosebery was not to be President of the Council, he + ought at least to be Privy Seal. It seems very hard, as he has every + claim, especially after the Midlothian election." + +Several matters relating to the Queen and Royal Family appear at this time +in the Memoir. At the Cabinet of March 5th + + 'a letter from the Queen was read as to her strong wish to have an + Indian bodyguard, consisting of twenty noncommissioned officers of the + native cavalry. I did not say a word, and Chamberlain not much, but + all the others strongly attacked the scheme, which they ended by + rejecting. Lord Derby said that the Empress title had been forced on + the former Conservative Cabinet, of which he had been a member, in the + same way. It was pointed out that if India consented to pay the men, + and they only carried side-arms, they might be treated as pages or + servants, not soldiers, and need not be voted at all as "men" in the + Army Estimates.' + + 'A day or two later Villiers, our military attach. in Paris, reported + the existence of a military plot, said to have been got up by General + Billot, the Minister of War: the plan being that fifteen commanders of + corps were to turn out Grévy and put in the due d'Aumale. The story + was probably a lie.' + + 'On March 18th there was to have been a "forgiving party" at Windsor, + for Lord Derby was commanded as well as I. The Harcourts were to have + gone, but the Queen sent in the morning to say she had slipped down, + and must put off her Sunday dinner.' + + 'At this time peace was restored between Randolph Churchill and the + Royal Family. The reconciliation was marked by Lady Randolph attending + the Drawing-Room held on March 13th at the Queen's special wish.' + + 'At the Marlborough House dinner on May 27th, the Prince spoke to me + about the allowance for his sons as they came of age, and told me that + he thought the money might be given to him as head of the family. My + own view is very much the same, but I would give it all to the Crown, + and let the King for the time being distribute it so that we should + not deal with any other members of the family.' + + 'At Claremont I found, from the conversation of the Duke of Albany and + of his secretary, that if the Duke of Cambridge resigned speedily, as + then seemed probable, the Duke of Connaught had no chance of obtaining + the place; but it was hoped at Court that the Commander-in-Chief would + hold his position for five or six years, and then might be succeeded + by the Duke of Connaught.' + +Later Sir Charles mentions the Duke of Albany's conversation with him as +to Canada, of which he wished to be Governor, but the Queen opposed the +project, and Lord Lansdowne was eventually sent out. + +Returning to the Easter recess: + + 'The Government programme now began to be revised in the light of + men's declared intentions.' + + 'On Wednesday, March 21st, I crossed to Paris, and went to Toulon. I + must have been back in London on Thursday, March 29th, on which day I + had a long interview with Mr. Gladstone on things in general. He had + told Harcourt that he would hardly budge about the London police. His + last word was that they should be retained by the Home Office for a + period distinctly temporary, and to be named in the Bill. I gathered + from Mr. Gladstone's talk that all idea of retirement had gone out of + his mind.' + +There was a Cabinet on April 7th, and 'London Government was again +postponed, but, owing to the fierce conflict between Harcourt and Mr. +Gladstone, was looked upon as dead.' + +Mr. Gladstone, in his anger, told Sir Charles that "Harcourt, through +laziness, wanted to get out of the Government of London Bill." But the +truth was, says the Memoir, 'that he could think of nothing but the +dynamite conspiracy.' A Bill to meet this was being rushed through +Parliament, with an almost grotesque haste, that was as grotesquely +baffled in the end. + + 'On April 9th the Queen sat up half the night at Harcourt's wish in + order to be ready to sign the Explosives Bill at once, but Mr. Palmer + of the Crown Office (the gentleman who signs "Palmer" as though he + were a peer) could not be found; and the other man, Zwingler, was in + bed at Turnham Green, and to Harcourt's rage the thing could not be + done. On the 16th Harcourt told the Chancellor that in the discussion + of the Crown Office vote he should move the omission of the item for + his nephew's pay.' [Footnote: Mr. Ralph Charlton Palmer was Lord + Selborne's second cousin, and secretary to Lord Selborne in the Lord + Chancellor's Office. He was afterwards a Commissioner in Lunacy.] + +The London Government Bill was not yet given up for lost. On April 11th +Sir Charles Dilke wrote to Mr. Gladstone to deprecate its withdrawal, and +the Prime Minister replied, agreeing that "withdrawal ... would be a +serious mischief, and a blow to the Government." + + 'On April 14th there was a Cabinet, at which Mr. Gladstone announced + that Harcourt had written to him refusing to go on with the Government + of London Bill after the second reading of the measure, and proposing + that I should conduct it through Committee.' + + 'At the Cabinet of this day (April 21st) Mr. Gladstone said that he + wanted the bearing of the Agricultural Holdings Bill on Scotland + explained to him. "I wish Argyll were here," said he. "I wish to God + he was," said Hartington, who had been fighting alone against the + Bill, deserted even by the Chancellor and by Lord Derby. Indeed, all + my lords were very Radical to-day except Hartington, who was simply + ferocious, being at bay. He told us that Lord Derby was a mere owner + of Liverpool ground rents, who knew nothing about land.' + + 'On Thursday, May 24th, there was a meeting at the Home Office of nine + members of the Cabinet as to the Government of London Bill, and I + wrote after it to Chamberlain: "Victory! Hartington alone dissenting, + everybody was for going on with everything, and sitting in the + autumn." And Chamberlain replied: "At last! But why the devil was it + not decided before?"' + +At a full Cabinet a few days later 'the police difficulty finally slew the +London Bill.' This seemed to Sir Charles a very serious matter, and he +thought of resigning. Mr. Chamberlain, however, was against this, though +agreeing that he should resign in the autumn 'unless Mr. Gladstone would +promise to put franchise first next year.' + +So it was left. But presently Mr. Chamberlain himself became the cause of +very grave dissensions. On June 13th, 1883, a great assembly was held at +Birmingham to celebrate the twenty-fifth year of Mr. Bright's membership +for the borough, and Mr. Chamberlain in speaking observed that +representatives of royalty were not present, neither were they missed. +[Footnote: On Monday, June 11th, 1883, there was a "monster procession and +fete constituting the popular prelude to the more serious business of the +Bright celebration at Birmingham" that week. On June 13th Mr. Chamberlain +said: "Twice in a short interval we have read how vast multitudes of human +beings have gathered together to acclaim and welcome the ruler of the +people. In Russia, in the ancient capital of that mighty Empire, the +descendant of a long line of ancient Princes, accompanied by a countless +host of soldiers, escorted by all the dignitaries of the State, and by the +representatives of foreign Powers, was received with every demonstration +of joy by the vast population which was gathered together to witness his +triumphal entry. I have been told that more than a million sterling of +public money was expended on these ceremonies and festivities.... Your +demonstration on Monday lacked nearly all the elements which constituted +the great pageant of the Russian Coronation. Pomp and circumstance were +wanting; no public money was expended; no military display accompanied Mr. +Bright. The brilliant uniforms, the crowds of high officials, the +representatives of Royalty, were absent, and nobody missed them; for yours +was essentially a demonstration of the people and by the people, in honour +of the man whom the people delighted to honour, and the hero of that +demonstration had no offices to bestow--no ribands, or rank, or Court +titles, to confer. He was only the plain citizen--one of ourselves...." +(the Times, June 14th, 1883).] He added that the country was in his +opinion more Radical than the majority of the House of Commons, but not +more Radical than the Government; that the country was in favour of +Disestablishment, and that three things were wanted: First, "a suffrage +from which no man who is not disqualified by crime or the recipient of +relief shall be excluded "; secondly, equal electoral districts; and, +thirdly, payment of members. + + 'On June 25th Mr. Gladstone had sent for me about a recent speech by + Chamberlain at Birmingham. + + 'The Queen had been angry at his "They toil not, neither do they + spin," but was still more angry about this recent speech, at which Mr. + Gladstone was also himself offended. [Footnote: "This speech is open + to exception from three points of view, I think--first in relation to + Bright, secondly in relation to the Cabinet, thirdly and most + especially in relation to the Crown, to which the speech did not + indicate the consciousness of his holding any special relation," wrote + Mr. Gladstone to Sir Henry Ponsonby (Morley's Life of Gladstone, vol. + iii., p. 112).] I pointed out that Hartington had committed his + colleagues on a practical question when he spoke as to Irish Local + Government last January, and Mr. Gladstone had committed them when he + talked on Ireland and on London government to Ribot and Clemenceau at + Cannes. Mr. Gladstone defended himself, but threw over Hartington, who + had "behaved worse than Chamberlain." I went to see Chamberlain about + it, and found him very stiff, but tried to get him to say something + about it at the Cobden Club, where he was to preside on Saturday, the + 30th. On the next day he promised that he would do this, but when he + came to read me the words that he intended to use I came to the + conclusion that, although they would make his own position very clear, + they would only make matters worse as far as Mr. Gladstone and the + Queen were concerned.' + +Dilke's mediation was ultimately successful, and 'on July 2nd Mr. +Gladstone, in a letter to Chamberlain, accepted his explanations with +regard to his speech.' In the House of Commons, charge of the Corrupt +Practices Bill had been entrusted to the President of the Local Government +Board--a very unusual arrangement--and it meant sitting late many nights, +once till 5.30 a.m., after which 'I had to get up as usual for my fencing +people.' + + 'On July 25th there was another Cabinet, before which I had + "circulated" to my colleagues my local government scheme. Many members + of the Cabinet objected to it as too complete, and on my communicating + their views to the draftsman, Sir Henry Thring, he wrote: + + '"I believe that the great superiority of your plan of local + government over any other I have seen consists in its extent. I + believe that you will find that your scheme, though apparently far + more extreme than any scheme yet proposed, will practically not make a + greater alteration in existing arrangements than a far less + comprehensive scheme would make. It is, as far as I can judge, + impossible to make a partial plan for local government: such a plan + disturbs everything and settles nothing.... Your plan, when carried + into effect, will disturb most things, no doubt, but will at the same + time settle everything."' + +At a Cabinet held in the recess on October 25th + + 'Mr. Gladstone made a speech about the next Session which virtually + meant franchise first, and the rest nowhere. After this I locked up my + now useless Local Government Bill, of which the principal draft had + been dated August 24th. One of its most important parts had been the + consolidation of rates and declaration of the liability of owners for + half the rates. It had then gone on to establish district councils, + and then the County Councils. There was, however, to be some slight + resuscitation of the Bill a little later.' + +Two minor concerns which interested Sir Charles exceedingly were under +prolonged discussion this year. The first was the proposed purchase of the +Ashburnham and Stowe collections. Sir Charles 'voted all through against +the purchase of the Ashburnham manuscripts, being certain that we were +being imposed upon.' He noted + + 'the experts always want to buy, and always say that the thing is + invaluable and a chance which will never happen again. No one can care + for the National Gallery more than I do; I know the pictures very + well, for I go there almost every week.' + +He thought, however, that some wholesale purchases for public collections +had been all but worthless, with perhaps one admirable thing in a mass of +rubbish. + +Secondly, there arose in May a discussion over the Duke of Wellington's +statue, which Leighton and the Prince of Wales wanted to remove from Hyde +Park Corner, but which Sir Charles cherished as an old friend. It was one +of the matters on which he and Mr. Gladstone were united by a common +conservatism: + + 'The ridiculous question of the Duke of Wellington's statue had come + up again at the Cabinet of August 9th, and the numbers were taken + three times over by Mr. Gladstone, who was in favour of the old statue + and against all removals, in which view I steadily supported him, the + Cabinet being against us, and Mr. Gladstone constantly trying to get + his own way against the majority. It was the only subject upon which, + while I was a member of it, I ever knew the Cabinet take a show of + hands.' + +In the last Cabinet of the Session they 'once more informally divided +about the Wellington statue'; and he recorded the fact that he 'still +hoped to save it.' Yet in the end he failed; and 'now,' he notes +pathetically, 'I should have to go to Aldershot to see it if I wished to +do so.' + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +FOREIGN AND COLONIAL AFFAIRS +OCTOBER, 1882, TO DECEMBER, 1883 + + +Sir Charles Dilke's transference to the Local Government Board scarcely +lessened his contact with the more important branches of the Foreign +Office work, while his entry into the Cabinet greatly increased the range +of his consultative authority. + +The Triple Alliance was a fact, but only guessed as yet. It is not till +the middle of 1883 that Sir Charles writes: + + 'On June 4th, 1883, I heard the particulars of the alliance of the + Central Powers, signed at Vienna between Germany and Austria in + October, 1879, and ratified at Berlin on October 18th of that year, to + which Italy had afterwards adhered.' [Footnote: Sir Charles knew that + Prince Bismarck had tried first for an English alliance, and wrote on + August 17th, 1882, to Sir M. Grant Duff: "N. Rothschild told me that + the late Government had twice declined an offensive and defensive + alliance offered by Germany." See also _Life of Lord Granville_, vol. + ii., p. 211.] + +An extension was contemplated which would have put France between two +fires. Later, in the autumn of 1883, + + 'a private letter from Morier to Lord Granville showed that Bismarck + had sent the Crown Prince of Germany to Spain to induce Spain to join + the "peace league"' (Triple Alliance), 'and had failed.' + +On November 22nd, 1883, + + 'At the Cabinet I saw a telegram from Lord Dufferin, No. 86, received + late on the previous night, in which the Sultan asked our advice as to + offers of alliance in the event of immediate general war, which had + probably been made him by both sides. We replied to it after the + Cabinet (No. 68): "We cannot enter into hypothetical engagements or + make arrangements in contemplation of war between friendly Powers now + at peace. The Sultan must be aware that Germany is the most powerful + military nation on the Continent, and that she has no ambitious views + against Turkey. Strongly advise the Sultan not to enter into + entangling engagements." This whole story of the Sultan's was probably + a lie, to get us to say whether we would defend his Armenian frontier, + but, curiously enough, Dufferin seemed to believe it.' + + 'On May 24th, 1883, I informed the Ministers assembled of two + interesting matters of foreign affairs. The one was Bismarck's + denunciation to us of a league among the small Christian States of the + Balkan Peninsula for provoking popular votes in Turkey in favour of + annexation of various provinces to one or other of the partners. The + other was an offer by the Grand Sherif of Mecca to turn the Turks out + of Arabia, and place it under British protection.' + +The gravest danger to the world's peace lay in the fact that to the +ordinary Englishman Russia was still the natural enemy, and that France, +smarting under the rebuff she had experienced in Egypt, was assuming a +more unfriendly attitude towards Great Britain. + +In South Africa the state of things established after Majuba was revealing +itself as one of constant friction, and border wars between the Boers and +African tribes claiming British protection led to ceaseless controversy. + + 'On the 10th (March, '83) there was another Cabinet. A Transvaal + debate was coming on on Thursday the 15th, and in view of this + Chamberlain asked for support of his opinion that an expedition should + be sent out to save Montsioa. He was supported only by Hartington and + myself, but he afterwards managed to commit us to it, and to force his + view upon Mr. Gladstone. He passed a paper to me when he found we + could not win at the Cabinet: "How far would the difficulty be met by + supplying arms to Mankowane and (query) to Montsioa, and permitting + volunteers to go to their assistance?" I replied, "I don't think it + would stand House of Commons discussion." To this he answered, + "Perhaps not. But the first is what Mankowane himself asks for, and if + we gave him what he wants that course ought to be defensible." I + wrote, "Yes, I was thinking more of Montsioa."' [Footnote: Mankowane + and Montsioa were independent native chiefs of Bechuanaland, for whose + protection the Aborigines' Protection Society was appealing to the + British Government.] + + 'March 16th, 1883, Mr. Gladstone asked me to speak in the event of the + Transvaal debate coming on again, and I refused, as I did not agree in + the policy pursued. Chamberlain said he would speak in my place, and + did so. + + 'May 26th or 27th. We decided at the Cabinet to keep Basutoland. + + 'June 13th. As to South Africa, the Colonial Office told us that they + hoped to induce the Cape to take Bechuanaland. A little later on the + whole of their efforts were directed in the opposite direction-- + namely, to induce the Cape to let us keep Bechuanaland separate from + the Cape. It was announced that Reay had accepted the Transvaal + Mission. + + 'June 23rd. We decided that Reay was not to go out, because the + Transvaal people preferred to come to us. + + 'November 30th. We talked of the Transvaal, which looked bad.' + +The Transvaal deputation is mentioned immediately after this as having +arrived. + +There are also allusions to South African affairs having been raised at +other Cabinets in this year, but no details given. + +Late in 1883, Sir Charles says, 'I was pressing for the restoration of +Cetewayo, and Lord Derby insisted that he had brought all his troubles on +himself.' + +At this time Russia had subdued the Turcomans and made herself paramount +in the territories north of Persia and Afghanistan. It was only a matter +of months before Russian troops would be on the ill-defined frontiers of +Afghanistan. Great Britain was bound to the Amir of Afghanistan by an +engagement to assist him against external attack, provided that he +complied with British advice as to his foreign relations. Not only was a +collision predicted between Russia and the Amir, whose territory Great +Britain had thus guaranteed, but it was known where the struggle would be. + + 'It was also about this time' (February, 1883) 'that the Russian + Government took up my suggestion as to the delimitation of the + boundary of Afghanistan. But, as Currie wrote, "the object of the + Russian Foreign Office may only be to keep the British Government + quiet, while they are settling the boundary question with Persia and + annexing ... Merv, with a view to a fresh departure in the direction + of Herat as soon as that process is accomplished."' + + 'We already foresaw that the struggle would be over Penjdeh. A + memorandum of 1882, by Major Napier, [Footnote: Lieutenant-Colonel the + Hon. G. C. Napier, C.I.E., son of the first Lord Napier of Magdala, + and twin brother of the second Lord Napier.] had told us that "below + Penjdeh the Afghans would not appear to have ever extended their + authority." Mr. Currie, [Footnote: Afterwards Lord Currie, Assistant + Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office.] as he then was, prophesied + that the line proposed by the Russians would strike the Murghab near + Penjdeh.' + +This was a situation well fitted to arouse Sir Charles, who wrote to Lord +Edmond Fitzmaurice: "I'm as great a jingo in Central Asia as I am a +scuttler in South Africa." His policy was not that of the India Office. He +advocated delimitation of the Afghan frontiers, and in October, 1882, the +Amir had asked for this. [Footnote: 'On October 17th, 1882, the Amir had +proposed to Lord Ripon that delimitation of his frontiers which I was +pressing at the time, but which had been refused by Lord Ripon. Lord +Granville and Fitzmaurice had come round to my view. Northbrook strongly +resisted, and wanted his famous treaty.'] 'The Government of India +insisted at this time upon the proposal to Russia of a treaty with regard +to Afghanistan.' Sir Charles thought that British interests in India would +be better served by strengthening Afghanistan, by ascertaining exactly +what the Amir's rights were, and by making him feel that he would be +protected in them. To-day, when Afghanistan is one of the self-equipping +Asiatic military powers, and admittedly an awkward enemy to tackle, the +situation seems plain enough; but in those days Abdurrahman, new on the +throne, was still a 'King with opposition.' + + 'On April 20th, 1883, there was a meeting at the Foreign Office as to + Central Asia between Lord Granville, Hartington, Kimberley, + Northbrook, Edmond Fitzmaurice, and myself. The Amir was in a friendly + humour, and I felt that the evacuation of Kandahar had been better + than a dozen victories.' + +The evacuation of Kandahar had been Lord Ripon's work, but Lord Ripon was +now inclining to compromise the unity of the Native State which he had +then laboured to establish. He was disposed to keep the Amir at arm's +length, and wished to decline a visit of ceremony which Abdurrahman +proposed. All the Committee at the Foreign Office were against this, +except Lord Northbrook, who 'did not believe in Abdurrahman's strength, +and believed that he would soon be turned out of Herat by his own +Governor.' + +'On June 7th it was settled that the Amir should have twelve lakhs of +rupees a year.' But Sir Charles had not yet carried his point as to +preventing a treaty with Russia, and + + 'Philip Currie and Fitzmaurice both wrote to me in favour of the India + Office view, while Condie Stephen [Footnote: Sir Alexander Condie + Stephen, K.C.M.G., was in 1882-83 despatched from the Legation at + Teheran on a mission to Khorassan, the north-east province of Persia] + returned from Central Asia with the same view in favour of a + treaty.... But Currie put a postscript to his long letter, in which he + departed altogether from the treaty position, and took up my own view + as to delimitation: "In view of our engagement to defend Afghanistan + from foreign aggression, we ought surely to know the limits of the + territory we have guaranteed." + + 'I finally said that I had no objection to a treaty which would merely + recapitulate facts and set out the Afghan frontier. This was my last + word, and, Lord Granville agreeing with me, we went on with + delimitation as against treaty.... It was not until June 8th, 1888, + that the Emperor of Russia recognized the arrangement and the frontier + marked by the boundary pillars.' + +For Sir Charles's policy it was necessary to propitiate the ruler of +Afghanistan, and in July, 1883, it was reported that the Amir had applied +to the British Government for a new set of teeth. The application had +really been for a European dentist. When Lord Ripon persisted in refusing +Abdurrahman's proffered visit, Sir Charles tried to get civil expressions +of regret from the Government, and, failing in this, wrote in despair to +Lord Kimberley: "I hope to goodness he has got his teeth." + +It was not, however, till 1885 that the tension with Russia became really +acute. + +In France, Gambetta's death had been followed by a Ministerial crisis, and +in the disturbances which resulted M. Duclerc fell in February, 1883, and +after a time of confusion M. Ferry became, for a second time, Prime +Minister, having M. Challemel-Lacour, no lover of England, for his Foreign +Secretary. + +"In order to distract the country's attention from internal dissensions +and the Eastern frontier," [Footnote: _Life of Lord Granville_, vol. ii., +p. 313.] M. Ferry developed that "Colonial policy" of which Sir Charles +said, in 1887, that + + "it greatly weakens the military position of France in Europe, and + disorganizes her finances, while it compromises the efficiency of the + only thing which really counts in modern European war, the rapidity of + mobilization of the reserves." [Footnote: _Present Position of + European Politics_, p. 101.] + +Germany also was embarking on a "Colonial policy" disapproved of by +Bismarck, but to which later he had to bow. One instance of the +difficulties thus created was that of the Congo. A sketch of our proposed +treaty with Portugal has already been given; [Footnote: See Chapter XXVI., +p. 418.] but while the negotiations were proceeding, + + 'de Brazza, employed by the French, had been making treaties in the + Congo district, which had been approved by the French Government and + Parliament. The King of the Belgians pulled the strings of the + Manchester Chamber of Commerce, and succeeded in arousing a good deal + of feeling against our negotiations with the Portuguese, and + ultimately the French and Germans joined the King of the Belgians in + stopping our carrying through our treaty.' + +Mr. Jacob Bright became the spokesman of those who opposed the Portuguese +negotiations, and in 1883 Sir Charles, though offering to express his own +clear belief that the treaty was right, foretold to Lord Granville that +the House of Commons would not accept the arrangement, and Mr. Gladstone +avoided an adverse vote only by promising that the treaty should not be +made without the express consent of Parliament. Sir Charles's reference to +this lays down an opinion upon the relation of Parliament to the Foreign +Office which is interesting as coming from so strong a democrat: + + 'In the Congo debate, which took place on Tuesday, April 3rd, 1883, + Mr. Gladstone went perilously near giving up the valuable treaty- + making power of the Crown. What he said, however, applied in terms + only to this one case. To Grant Duff I wrote: "In all other countries + having parliamentary government, the Parliaments have to be consulted. + We stood alone, and it was hard to keep the special position, but it + was good for the country, I feel sure."' + +In 1883 a Committee of the Cabinet was appointed to deal with affairs on +the West Coast of Africa, and this Committee 'by its delays and +hesitations lost us the Cameroons,' where two native Kings had asked to be +taken under British protection. [Footnote: See Chapter XXVII., p. 431.] On +the East Coast there was a more serious result of procrastination in +regard to Zanzibar. + + 'As late as November 16th, 1882, I wrote to Lord Northbrook, "Are you + going to let Zanzibar die without a kick?" a note which applied to an + offer which had been made to us by the Sultan, that we should become + his heirs--an offer which Mr. Gladstone had wished us to decline, and + which I was in favour of accepting.' + + 'The Foreign Office, in a memorandum upon this subject, assigned as + the chief reason for not accepting this trust "the fear lest it should + infringe the agreement entered into with France in 1862." ... It may + be open to argument whether our acceptance of a voluntary offer by the + Sultan of the above nature would have been a breach of the agreement. + In the autumn of 1884 the Government, waking up too late, telegraphed + to our agent at Zanzibar as to the importance of our not being + forestalled by any European nation in the exercise of at least + paramount influence over the mountain districts situated near the + coast and to the north of the equator. The Foreign Office at my + suggestion pointed out at this time that "to the north of the + Portuguese dominions we are at present, but who can say for how long? + without a European rival; where the political future of the country is + of real importance to Indian and Imperial interests, where the climate + is superior, where commerce is capable of vast extension, and where + our influence could be exercised unchecked by the rivalry of Europe in + the extension of civilization and the consequent extinction of the + slave trade." The Government, however, delayed too long, and we + afterwards lost our position at Zanzibar, and had ultimately to buy + half of it back again by the cession of a British colony.' + (Heligoland). + +Sir Charles was especially concerned at the heedlessness which disregarded +the interests of the great self-governing colonies, who had no authority +to deal with foreign affairs. He gives the history of the New Hebrides. +Here native chiefs had asked to be taken under British protection; New +South Wales had urged action; the French had three times declared +intention to annex, but Great Britain had done nothing. Australian anxiety +as to the French occupation extended to New Guinea, and in March, 1883, +officials of the Government of Queensland declared an annexation of half +New Guinea. They were disavowed, but their action had created a feeling +that something must be done. + + 'On June 12th, 1883, there was hatched a scheme for the partial + annexation of New Guinea, which had been prepared by the Chancellor, + Mr. Gladstone, and Sir Arthur Gordon, [Footnote: Sir Arthur Gordon was + one of the philanthropists who believed in making the coloured peoples + work by a labour tax. Sir Charles had met him in 1879, and described + him as one 'who invented, in the name of civilization and progress, a + new kind of slavery in Fiji.'] of Fiji and New Zealand fame. On the + 13th a Cabinet decided to go slowly in this matter, and they went so + slowly that we lost half of our half of New Guinea to Germany, and + almost lost the whole of it.' + + 'As early as June, 1883, we had told Italy that any attempt to occupy + any portion of New Guinea without a previous agreement with the + British Government would undoubtedly "excite a violent outbreak of + public feeling in the Australian colonies." Lord Derby was a party to + this communication to the Italians, and it was absurd for the Cabinet + and Lord Derby afterwards to argue, when the Germans landed in New + Guinea, that steps ought not to have been taken in advance to have + prevented such action. The difference was that we were willing to + bully Italy, and not willing to stand up to Germany.' + +The Colonial Secretary's general attitude upon these matters may be +illustrated from a correspondence which passed between him and Sir Charles +in the autumn of this year. Replying to criticisms concerning the +Australian Colonies, Lord Derby + + 'somewhat sneeringly observed that in order to keep out foreign + convicts "it is not necessary that they should annex every island + within a thousand miles of their coast. They cannot have at once the + protection of British connection and the pleasures of a wholly + independent foreign policy."' + +On this Sir Charles comments: + + 'Lord Derby had lost all credit with the Conservative party about the + time of his resignation of the Secretaryship of State for Foreign + Affairs in the Conservative Administration. But he had retained + considerable weight with Liberals. During his tenure of the + Secretaryship of State for the Colonies in Mr. Gladstone's + Administration, he lost his credit with the Liberals as well, and his + influence reached a position of decline which makes it difficult even + to remember the enormous weight he had possessed in the earliest part + of his political career. For many years Lord Derby was the ideal + spokesman of the middle man not fiercely attached to either party. + Going over this diary in 1900, it is a curious reflection that the + immense weight gained by Sir Edward Grey in the period between 1890 + and 1900 was similar to that which Lord Derby had enjoyed at the + earlier period. Each of them in his time appeared to express, though + far from old, the lifelong judgment of a Nestor. Each of them extorted + from the hearer or reader the feeling: "What this man says is + unanswerable. It is the dispassionate utterance of one who knows + everything, and has thought it out in the simplest but the most + convincing form." Lord Derby could sum up a discussion better, + probably, than anyone has ever done, unless it is Sir Edward Grey. Sir + Edward Grey's summing up of a discussion on a difficult problem, such + as that presented by the Chinese question, 1897-1900, was better than + was to be expected from anyone else, unless it had been the Lord + Stanley of, say, thirty-five years before.' + +On May 27th + + 'I dined at Marlborough House at a dinner to meet a little tin soldier + cousin in white epaulettes, who was over from Germany ... and (the + German Ambassador) Count Münster told me that the French had hoisted + their flag on a reef, as he said, within cannon-shot of Jersey, as to + the British or neutral nature of which there had long been a dispute + between the two Governments.' [Footnote: The Memoir has a note upon + this episode of the Ecréhous Books, which led to the publication of + Parliamentary papers in June of that year: + + 'The rocks were not within three miles of the coast of Jersey at low- + water mark, and this was the limit of the reservation of the Jersey + oyster fishery, and it was upon this fact that the French went. It + afterwards appeared that the French flag never had been hoisted on the + rocks, but only on a boat which came thither for the purpose of + fishing, so that the whole matter was somewhat of a storm in a teacup. + It raised, however, another question. The Convention of 1839, which + defined the limits of the oyster fishery between Jersey and France, + also defined the limits of the exclusive French rights of fishery on + all other parts of the coast of the British islands; and some day an + Irish Parliament may find interest in Sir Edward Hertslet's + "Memorandum as to the French right of fishery upon the coast of + Ireland, printed for the Foreign Office on the 5th June, 1883."'] + + 'On May 28th there was a Levee, at which d'Aunay, of the French + Embassy, told me that the act of the fishermen at Ecréhous was + disavowed by France. "But," he added, "there is perhaps some Challemel + in it," an admission which rather weakened the other statement, and it + again struck me that it was a pity we had been so rude to Challemel + when he was Ambassador.' + +Relations with France were going from bad to worse. Not only were they +strained by the breach of 1882 over Egypt, but French colonizing +aspirations had created trouble in Madagascar. The understanding between +the two Great Powers that an "identic attitude" in regard to the Hova +people was to be maintained was broken down by France, which under various +pretexts intervened by force in Madagascar, claiming a protectorate over +certain narrow strips of territory on the north-west coast. This claim was +denounced by Lord Granville. Yet 'on October 27th, 1882, there was a +dinner at Lord Granville's, at which I met Hartington, Kimberley, and +Northbrook.' This meeting of the heads of the military and foreign +services discussed the affairs of the Congo, and also Madagascar; 'it was +decided against my strong opposition to put no difficulties in the way of +the French. 'At this time the growing tension was disagreeably felt, and +Sir Charles learnt a month later that the Cabinet of November 28th, 1882, +'had been much frightened at the prospect of trouble with France.' + +At this time an Embassy from Madagascar was in Paris to protest against +the oppressive policy pursued. An ultimatum was presented which left the +envoys no option but to depart, and they came with their bitter complaint +to London, where Sir Charles Dilke very warmly espoused their cause: + + 'At this moment, December 1st, 1882, I was having difficulties with + Lord Granville about Madagascar, as I was seeing much of the Malagasy + envoys, and was very friendly to them; whereas Lord Granville was + frightened of the French. A deputation came to us, got up by Chesson, + Secretary of the Aborigines' Protection Society, and introduced by + Forster; it suggested American arbitration, and Lord Granville threw + much cold water upon the scheme.' + +A few days later he adds: + + 'I was still at this moment fighting for my Malagasy friends. Not only + did Lord Granville snub me, but Courtney wrote from the Treasury: "I + hope you will get rid of these people as soon as possible. Even the + Baby Jenkins sees the absurdity of the anti-French feeling." But + whatever "Ginx's Baby" might do, I could not see the absurdity of the + anti-French feeling with regard to Madagascar, for the French were + wantonly interfering with an interesting civilized black people in + whose country they had not even trade, for All the trade was in + American, British, or German hands. + + 'On December 15th, 1882, there was a fresh trouble, for Lord Granville + was furious at a speech by Lord Derby, and, indeed, I never knew him + so cross about anything at all. The difficulty was once more + Madagascar. Lord Granville _meant_ to do nothing about Madagascar, but + he did not like Lord Derby saying so in public. It spoiled his play, + by allowing his French adversary to look over his hand and see how bad + the cards were.' + +The Malagasys were unique in that since 1869 they had become definitely a +Christian State, and a State Christianized by English missionaries, and +this fact was impressively brought home to Sir Charles by a scene which he +afterwards (in 1886) thus described in a public lecture: + + "At Westminster Abbey there came in to the Morning Service the whole + of the members of the Madagascar Embassy, which had just come to + London from France. The two Malagasy Ambassadors were at the head of + the party. They sat very silently through the service, which the + senior Ambassador did not understand at all, and which the second + Ambassador only partly understood, until a hymn which had been given + out was sung, when, recognizing the familiar tune, the two Ambassadors + and the whole of their secretaries struck boldly in with the Malagasy + words. There could be no better instant proof, to anyone who saw the + scene, of their familiarity with the missionary teaching of England + and America, and of the extent to which, though separated from us by + language, they look upon themselves as members of the Christian + Church." + +In 1882-83 Sir Charles failed to interest his colleagues in the matter, +till on August 22nd, 1883, just before Parliament was prorogued, the +Cabinet had to discuss 'what was known as the Tamatave incident, which +nearly brought England and France to war over matters growing out of the +French operations in Madagascar.' + +The town of Tamatave had been bombarded and occupied by the French in +June. The matter was aggravated by the treatment of the British Consul and +of a British missionary, and difficulties were made as to adequate apology +and indemnity. + + 'In the course of September I had frequent interviews with Fitzmaurice + at the Foreign Office with regard to Madagascar.... Lord Granville + wrote to me, about the middle of October, that (the French Ambassador) + Waddington "professed to have a solution of the Tamatave" difficulty, + and on the 22nd a Cabinet was called with regard to the Tamatave + difficulty, Egypt, and South Africa. The French despatch from + Challemel to Waddington was most unsatisfactory.' + + Another Cabinet having been summoned for October 25th, Harcourt wrote: + "I have heard nothing about its cause or object, but conjecture that + it is Granville's Cabinet for France.... It is ominous Northbrook + (First Lord of the Admiralty) being a principal assistant. I am myself + for being _stiff_ with France." + + 'The Cabinet was upon the two points of Tamatave and withdrawal from + Egypt, but, in the absurd way in which Cabinets behave when summoned + upon important questions, we spent most of our time in discussing a + scheme of Lefevre's for widening Parliament Street; Mr. Gladstone + wishing to widen King Street and to make a fork. A Committee was + appointed on the matter, to consist of Harcourt, Childers, Lefevre, + Northbrook, and myself. Hartington came late as usual, and on his + arrival our Tamatave despatch was discussed.' + +The complete destruction of the native State and dynasty did not come at +this time, and French "protection" of Madagascar was only recognized by +Lord Salisbury's Government in 1890. But the encroachments of France led +in this year to further friction, arising from their conflict for the +possession of Tonquin. On November 17th the Cabinet discussed 'the +protection of British subjects in China in view of a French attack on the +Chinese Empire, and decided to concert measures with Germany and the +United States.' On the 19th they proposed to France mediation in the +Chinese difficulty, 'with the full expectation that it would be refused.' + + 'On December 7th there was a paragraph in the _Times_ in large type + intended to reassure the French, by stating that our interference in + China to protect our own subjects was not combined with Germany in + particular. The paragraph, although it may have been wanted, was + untrue. We _had_ combined our action with the Germans, and then found + it was resented by the French.' + +So dissension grew at a pace which enabled Bismarck to turn his attention +from European politics, and, in one of his many meetings with Count +Herbert, Sir Charles reports that about the second week in November + + 'I had a conversation with H. Bismarck about his father. He said that + the Prince had turned as yellow as a guinea, and could not now work + more than an hour at a time, and that the only thing on which he + troubled himself was his workman's insurance scheme.' + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +EGYPT AFTER TEL-EL-KEBIR +SEPTEMBER, 1882, TO DECEMBER, 1883 + + + 'On September 19th, 1882, at noon we had a conference at the War + Office with regard to the future of Egypt, at which were present Lord + Granville, Childers, Sir Auckland Colvin, and myself, and which was + followed afterwards by a further conference, when there were admitted + to us Pauncefote for the Foreign Office and Sir Louis Mallet for the + India Office, Admiral Sir Cooper Key for the Admiralty, Sir F. + Thompson, Permanent Under-Secretary for War, and Generals Sir Andrew + Clarke and Sir Henry Norman for the War Office. In preparation for the + conference I had stirred up Lord Granville as to the volunteering of + Indian Moslem troops for the Khedive's guard. But Lord Granville in + his reply to me was more concerned with abusing my handwriting in + choice language than with answering my questions. Hartington, however, + had telegraphed to India for me on the 17th to ask the opinion of the + Indian Government on the point. Harcourt, writing from Balmoral on the + 19th, said: "If you have any ideas on the settlement of Egypt, I wish + you would let me have them. I confess I am myself _in nubibus_, and I + do not find that my betters are much more enlightened. I am constantly + asked here what we are going to propose, and I do not know what to + say. I have written to Mr. G. and to Lord G. to ask for light, but I + should like to have your own personal views as to what is practicable. + I think we must cut the cord between Egypt and Turkey, but one cannot + conceal from oneself that the consequences will be serious, and may + lead to far-reaching complications. The one good thing is that + Bismarck is honestly friendly, and I believe will support us in + whatever we propose. Austria seems to be almost as nasty as Russia, + and France naturally jealous. I suppose Bismarck can and will keep + Austria in order. Please write me a real letter on these knotty + points." + + 'Our Egyptian conference decided upon free navigation of the Canal, + or, in other words, that ships of war were to pass at all times; on + increased influence for England on the Directorate of the Canal; and + on the destruction of the Egyptian fortresses. Childers promised to + prepare a scheme for taking over the Egyptian railroads. A paper by us + was printed for the use of the Cabinet on October 20th, in which we + stated our views about the Canal, and incidentally our decision + against a British protectorate of Egypt. The arrangement proposed by + us was pretty much that afterwards agreed upon by the Powers.' + +Before this paper was issued Sir Charles had seen Émile Ollivier, who, as +a legal adviser of the Khedive, 'had great knowledge of the affairs of the +Suez Canal': + + 'I possess the draft of a full memorandum of Ollivier's conversation + which I sent to Lord Granville, and which represented his private + protests to Lesseps and his argument to the Khedive. Ollivier, who was + more English than French in the matter, accepted the position that by + the Khedival decree of August 14th England had been substituted for + the Khedive in all measures for the re-establishment of order in + Egypt, and that it was under this decree that we occupied the ends of + the Canal as the delegates of the Khedive; therefore there was no + violation of the neutrality, and when the Canal Company on August 19th + set up as a new Great Power, and addressed to the Khedive a diplomatic + note, their arguments became nonsensical, inasmuch as they virtually + argued that the Khedive himself had violated his own neutrality by an + internal act. Moreover, the neutrality of the Canal had never been + declared at all. The word "neutral" was indeed found in the original + concession, but it evidently meant that the Company was not to give to + one Power an advantage not given to others as regards trade and + passage. Lesseps had set up the Canal as a new Great Power, whereas it + was only an Egyptian Limited Company. + + 'Even, however, if the Canal had been neutral, Ollivier would have + argued against the Company that the suppression of an internal + rebellion in the Khedive's name, at his request, was not war or + violation of neutrality. It was the duty of the Khedive to suppress + rebellion, and the duty of the Canal as an Egyptian Company to aid, + and not to impede, as it had impeded, the lawful action of the + Egyptian ruler through his representatives. It had not been contended + by the Porte, as the overlord of the Khedive, that the Khedive had not + power to delegate authority to England to suppress Arabi's rebellion. + The Porte had delegated to France power to suppress the rebellion in + Syria in 1860 in its name. Lesseps seemed to think that it was within + the power of the Khedive to delegate to him sovereignty over the + Canal, and not in his power to delegate to anybody else the + suppression of a rebellion.' + +A casual reference at this point recalls the fact that the Khedive's +dethroned predecessor was still moving about the world and capable of +causing trouble. Sir Charles went abroad for his autumn vacation: + + 'In Paris' (in the middle of October) 'I found a letter from Lord + Granville as to a visit which the ex-Khedive Ismail proposed to pay to + London. Lord Granville said that the Government could not object to + his "coming to this country. But at this moment his arrival would be + misunderstood, and any civilities, which in other circumstances they + would be desirous to show to His Highness, would lead to + misconstruction."' [Footnote: 'In November, 1883, the ex-Khedive had + come to London, and when asked to see him, at his wish, I at first + refused, but as, after he clearly understood that I knew him to be a + rascal, he wished to see me "all the same," I saw him privately at + Lady Marian Alford's house in Kensington; but he had little to say, + and seemed very stupid.' ] + + 'I was at this time in correspondence with my friend d'Estournelles, + [Footnote: Baron d'Estournelles de Constant.] who was Acting Resident + at Tunis, as to the capitulations. In the course of his letter + d'Estournelles expressed his bitter regret that France had not gone to + Egypt with us.' + +When Sir Charles came back to London from France on October 20th, the +Cabinet was still vacillating as to its Egyptian policy: + + 'I had found on my return that nothing had been done towards setting + up such an Egyptian Army as could take the place of our own, although + Sir Charles Wilson, Colonel Valentine Baker, Baring, [Footnote: Major + Evelyn Baring, afterwards Lord Cromer, was then Financial Member of + Council in India. Sir Charles Wilson (Colonel Wilson) must not be + confounded with Sir Charles Rivers Wilson. Colonel Valentine Baker was + head of the Egyptian Gendarmerie.] and others, had written memoranda + upon the subject. Baring, in the course of his memorandum, strongly + defended the honesty, humanity, and conscience of the Khedive, and + opposed annexation and protectorate. On the whole, Baring's memorandum + was a better one than that of his relative Lord Northbrook, or that of + Lord Dufferin, which afterwards attracted much attention. Chamberlain + and I discussed on Saturday, October 21st, a letter to me from + Labouchere, in which the latter seemed to take a different view from + that recorded above. Labouchere said that the dissatisfaction with the + Egyptian policy was growing, that we seemed to be administering Egypt + mainly for the good of the bondholders. He was a bondholder, so it + could not be said that he was personally prejudiced against such a + policy. But he was sure that it would not go down. + + 'He went on to recommend the policy which I was in fact maintaining-- + namely, that we should warn off other Powers, hand Egypt over to the + Egyptians, but, establishing our own influence over the Canal, remain + masters of the position so far as we needed to do so. Chamberlain + wrote on Labouchere's letter: "I am convinced the war was submitted to + rather than approved by Radicals, and, unless we can snub the + bondholders in our reorganization scheme, we may suffer for it. I have + written a long paper upon the subject, and sent it to Mr. G. I have + arranged for a copy to be sent you."' + +A further Cabinet held on Saturday, October 21st, "decided" (so Sir +Charles noted in his Diary at the moment) "to be very civil to the French +--too civil by half, I think. They rejected a complicated scheme of Lord +Granville's, and substituted a single English (not to be so expressed) +controller (not to be so called)." + +At this moment the autumn Session was approaching, in which the thorny +subject of reforming Parliamentary procedure must be disposed of, and the +Cabinet were preoccupied with this till 6 p.m. on October 23rd. They + + 'scamped their work on the draft despatch to Lord Lyons as to what he + was to tell the French as to Egypt, and so made a wretched job of it. + At night I pointed this out to Lord Granville, and told him that the + despatch was slipslop, and on the next day, October 24th, I managed to + get a good many changes made--one by telegraph, and the others by an + amending despatch.' + + 'Chamberlain's view of Lord Granville's proposals was that they were + childishly insincere. Europe would not be deceived into believing them + to be anything more than a proposal to restore the old system in its + entirety, with an English nominee as controller in place of the dual + control. Nothing, Chamberlain thought, was being done to develop + Egyptian interests or promote Egyptian liberties. + + 'Chamberlain was absent from some of the Cabinets at this moment, + detained at Birmingham by the gout, but his memorandum was sent round + the Cabinet. He was, however, in London on October 24th to assist me + in somewhat improving the despatch. His memoranda show the strong view + he held that, in spite of the almost unanimous approval of the Press, + the war had not been popular, but had only been accepted on the + authority of Mr. Gladstone as a disagreeable necessity; and that + dissatisfaction existed upon several points, but above all with regard + to the civil reorganization of the country. "There is great anxiety + lest after all the bondholders should be the only persons who have + profited by the war, and lest the phrases which have been used + concerning the extension of Egyptian liberties should prove to have no + practical meaning." Chamberlain thought that our first duty was to our + principles and our supporters rather than towards other Powers, and + that, if the other Powers insisted upon financial control, we should + at least put forward as our own the legitimate aspirations of Egyptian + national sentiment. Chamberlain refused to believe that an Egyptian + Chamber would repudiate the debt, inasmuch as such a course of action + would at once render them liable to interference by the Great Powers.' + + 'On October 27th, 1882, there was a dinner at Lord Granville's, at + which I met Lords Hartington, Kimberley, and Northbrook' (representing + India, the Colonies, and the Admiralty). 'I noted with regard to + Egypt: + + '"Chamber of Notables: decided to do nothing, at which I am furious. + What do four peers know about popular feeling?"' + +In view of the temper of the House of Commons, Sir Charles Dilke warned +Lord Granville by letter of the danger that the Fourth Party might carry +"the mass of the Tories" with Liberals on a cry for the "liberties of the +Egyptian people." Considerable delay was occasioned by negotiations as to +whether Arabi and his associates should or should not be represented by +European counsel at their trial, and in the interval rumours were set +afloat as to ill usage of them in prison. + + 'I had had in the course of this week a good deal of trouble in the + House of Commons, caused by a sensational telegram in the _Daily + News_, and a letter from a Swiss Arabist in the _Times_ containing + most ridiculous lies as to the treatment of political prisoners in + Egypt, but believed by our supporters, who were backed up by the + Fourth Party.' + +These attacks involved the British Agent-General in Egypt, and Sir Edward +Malet felt the situation cruelly. He telegraphed home begging to be +relieved from the sole responsibility. + + 'On Sunday, October 29th, 1882, Lord Granville, with the gout, got the + French refusal of our proposals, and the bad news from the Soudan' + (where the Mahdi was laying siege to El Obeid, the capital of + Kordofan). 'He called a Cabinet, but only five Ministers were in town, + so it was decided that it was not to be called a Cabinet.' + + 'On Tuesday, October 31st, the Queen, who had at first approved of the + idea of Dufferin being sent to Egypt to supersede Malet, had now been + turned against him by Wolseley, who was staying with her, and, not + having seen the telegrams of the 27th, because we had made them into + private telegrams and kept them back, told us that she thought that to + send Dufferin was bad treatment of Malet. We had therefore to send her + Malet's telegrams in order to persuade her that it was necessary that + Dufferin should go.' + + 'On Monday, November 6th, there was held at the House of Commons, by + Lord Granville's wish, a meeting at which were present, besides Lord + Granville and myself, Hartington, Childers, Harcourt, Chamberlain, and + Dodson. We met to consider a further violent refusal by France of all + our proposals. Chamberlain and Harcourt were strong in the one sense, + and Hartington in the other, while Childers and Dodson sat meek like + mice. Hartington was fiercely for the old control, Harcourt and + Chamberlain against all control, and no one except Lord Granville in + favour of the proposals which were actually made, and Lord Granville a + man who constitutionally would always prefer a compromise to a clear + course. None of them knew what to do. I noted that I wished they would + not first agree upon some foolish course, and then call me in when it + had been taken beyond all possibility of alteration. When I was + talking to Brett afterwards, he said of his chief, Hartington, that it + was somewhat a pity that, being so violent as he always was in + Cabinet, he should frequently forget what his opinions were on + particular questions, as, for example, closure and county franchise.' + + 'Brett also told me that the Queen, to whom, he said, Lord Granville + had had to "crawl" for having sent Lord Dufferin to Egypt, was now + still more furious with him because the instructions to Dufferin had + been sent off on Friday, the 3rd, without her having seen them. + + 'Having trouble in the House with regard to the legal points connected + with the trial of Arabi, I had at the time frequent meetings with Lord + Selborne, who drew draft answers to the questions in the House of + Commons, which were ingenious, but hardly suited to the Commons + atmosphere. + + 'On the 8th there was a Cabinet at which Mr. Gladstone only attended + for a minute, merely to prevent his name being omitted from the list. + He was ostentatiously devoting himself to procedure only, and taking + no part with regard to Egypt. + + 'On Friday, the 10th, Count Münster called on me to tell me that + Prince Bismarck objected to any plan for a temporary dealing with + Egyptian finance, as he feared panic towards the end of the term + fixed; but the Ambassador said that the Chancellor attached no + importance to any form of control. + + 'On Monday, November 13th, I had a formal conference at the House of + Lords with the Chancellor, the Attorney-General, and Pauncefote, on + the whole of the legal questions connected with the trial of Arabi and + our position in Egypt; and I cannot but think that Lord Selborne in + all those many letters to me about the subject, which I have retained, + showed himself given rather to legal quibbles than to a broad view of + the questions raised. At three o'clock there was a Cabinet to consider + whether a day should be given to Bourke for the discussion of a + motion, but the Cabinet went on to decide to accept a suggestion by + Childers and Chamberlain that the sending of a Turkish envoy to Egypt + was to involve the breaking off of diplomatic relations with Turkey. + Six members, however, stopped after Mr. Gladstone, Chamberlain, and + Childers had gone away, and toned down the phrase to be made use of to + Musurus Pasha. + + 'On Tuesday, November 14th, we had a Suez Canal conference at Lord + Granville's at noon, and in the afternoon a Congo deputation. Between + the two we discussed at Lord Granville's house (Kimberley, Northbrook, + Carlingford, and Childers being present with Lord Granville and + myself) the question of the employment of Baker Pasha in Egypt as + Chief of the Staff.... Coming back to the Suez Canal question, + Childers, who wished us to obtain preponderance, made a characteristic + observation, saying: "_I would do it boldly_ by making the Khedive + say--" It struck me that some people had an odd idea of boldness. + + 'On November 15th we had a further meeting on the Canal question at + Mr. Gladstone's room at the House.... When all had come, there were + present Childers, Hartington, Northbrook, Kimberley, Carlingford, Lord + Granville, and myself. I found that Count Münster had not told Lord + Granville that which he had told me on November 10th. It was decided + to send my notes, based on my conversations with Ollivier, to + Dufferin. With regard to Arabi's trial, it was decided that Dufferin + should be told to consider the case against him, and to decide that + there was no proof of common crime, after which, by arrangement + between us and the Khedive, we were to put him away safely in + Ascension, Barbados, Bermuda, Ceylon; or any other island than St. + Helena, which would be ridiculous. Mr. Gladstone had written us a + letter proposing that we should make the Sultan banish Arabi, but we + did not much like the idea of his coming to England and stumping the + country between Wilfrid Lawson and Wilfrid Blunt. Childers asked leave + to arrest any Turkish envoy who might be sent to Cairo, but the matter + was left open.' + +On November 16th the Cabinet again 'discussed the fate of Arabi, and +decided to let him run riot anywhere; but the decision was afterwards +reversed.' + +On November 21st + + 'there was sent off to Lord Dufferin a personal telegram to say that + Baker was to be sent to fight in the Soudan, and that another + Englishman must be chosen for his post, that Arabi was to be interned + on some island on parole. + + 'I received letters at this time from Lord Dufferin on his arrival at + Cairo, asking me to keep him informed of my views on the Egyptian + situation. + + 'On December 4th there was a Cabinet which decided to send Arabi to + Ceylon, but after a consultation with Lord Ripon, whose advice was not + to be followed if it was hostile; and on the next day Lord Ripon + protested, as had been foreseen. + + 'Evelyn Wood, who was to command the Egyptian Army, asked the Cabinet + for such large figures as to startle them.' + + 'I heard from Dufferin also in December from Cairo, in reply to + Chamberlain's memorandum. He thought that Egyptian Members of + Parliament would many of them be tools in the hands of the Sultan or + of foreign Powers, but added that he would sooner run any risk than + wholly abandon representative institutions. "But I think we should + make a mistake if we forced upon this country premature arrangements + which we dare not apply to India, where the strength of our own + position and other circumstances afford not only better guarantees for + success, but the power of retreating if the experiment should prove a + failure." + + 'In a further letter Lord Dufferin confirmed a story which I had heard + as to Halim having bribed Arabi and the other Egyptian Colonels, but + most of the money stuck to the hands of the agent who was employed.' + + "Two days after I had left the Foreign Office, Hartington wrote to me + to ask whether his soldiers might pay military honours to the holy + carpet on its return from Mecca--an amusing example of the kind of + question with which British Ministers are sometimes called on to +deal." + +After Dilke's promotion to the Cabinet, + + 'On Thursday, February 15th, 1883, Parliament met, and I was very hard + worked, and on February 17th had heavy business in the House with + regard to Egypt, as revealed in the division of the previous night, in + which we only had a majority of thirty-five, although I had been + permitted distinctly to announce our intention to withdraw our troops, + and not to stay permanently in the country. This, after all, was a + mere expansion of the promise given to the Powers by Lord Granville in + his circular despatch of January 3rd, in which he said that we were + desirous of withdrawing British force as soon as the state of the + country would permit. + + 'In the meantime the Soudan was in a disturbed condition. On January + 1st, 1883, we had heard from Cairo: "Second false prophet appeared, + hung by first;" or, as the despatch by post expanding the telegram put + it, "A second Mahdi has lately appeared, but was hung by order of the + first." The Mahdi, however, was making progress. The Foreign Office + were inclined to adopt some responsibility for the Egyptian attempt to + defeat the Mahdi, and reconquer the Soudan; but I invariably insisted + on striking out all such words from their despatches, and, so far as I + know, no dangerous language was allowed to pass. In consequence of my + observations a despatch was sent by Lord Granville to our consulate in + Egypt, pointing out that telegrams had been received from General + Hicks in relation to his military operations in the Soudan, and that + Lord Granville understood that these were messages intended for + General Baker, and only addressed to the consulate because Hicks found + it convenient to make use of the cipher which had been entrusted to + Colonel Stewart, who was acting as our Consul at Khartoum; but we + repeated that "H. M. G. are in no way responsible for the operations + in the Soudan, which have been undertaken under the authority of the + Egyptian Government, or for the appointment or actions of General + Hicks." At this time the Turkish Government were supplying the Mahdi + with money and officers in the hope that the troubles in the Soudan + would afford them an excuse for sending troops to "assist the + Khedive." As we continued to get telegrams from Hicks Pasha, Sir + Edward Malet informed the Egyptian Government by letter that we must + repeat that we had no responsibility for the operations in the Soudan. + We foresaw the failure of the Hicks expedition, and should perhaps + have done better had we more distinctly told the Egyptian Government + that they must stop it and give up the Soudan, holding Khartoum only; + but to say this is to be wise after the event. What we did was to + "offer no advice, but" point out that the Egyptian Government should + make up their minds what their policy was to be, and carefully + consider whether they could afford the cost of putting down the Mahdi. + In other words, we discouraged the expedition without forbidding it. I + fear, however, that Malet, against our wish, was a party to the + sending of reinforcements "to follow up successes already obtained"; + for after his conversation with the Egyptian Prime Minister he added: + "This view seems reasonable."' + + + 'On May 4th; 1883, I noted in my Diary, in reference to a matter which + I have named, that Colonel Hicks's telegram to Malet, about which both + Hicks and Malet would be reproved, the British Government having + nothing to do with the expedition, was to request that communications + should be made to General Baker which were, in fact, intended for Sir + Evelyn Wood. This showed how completely it had been settled in advance + that Baker should command the Egyptian Army, for Hicks in the Soudan + fully believed that Baker was in command.' + +Expressions of opinion in England had, however, prevented this +appointment. + +Another entry indicates that French opinion was beginning to accept the +British position in Egypt as a _fait accompli_: + + 'On May 2nd, 1883, d'Aunay, the French Secretary, told me that + Waddington was coming as Ambassador, and intended to ask for Syria for + the French as a compensation for our position in Egypt.'.... + +During the summer there was much negotiation concerning the Suez Canal, +and the proposal to cut a rival waterway. + + 'On July 4th there was a meeting of Mr. Gladstone, Lord Granville, + Childers, Chamberlain, and myself, as to the Suez Canal, and we + decided to ask Lesseps to come over and meet us. Childers had a scheme + with regard to the Canal, to which only Chamberlain and I in the + Cabinet were opposed. + + 'On July 19th there was another Cabinet. Chamberlain and I tried to + get them to drop Childers's Canal scheme, but they would not. The + Cabinet was adjourned to the 23rd, and on Monday, the 23rd, they + dropped it.' + +In the end, however, M. de Lesseps won. An entry of November 22nd follows +up the question of widening the Canal: + + 'Another matter which was active at this moment was that of the + position of Lesseps, with whom we had now made peace, and to whom we + had given our permission for the widening of the first Canal. We + supported him against the Turkish Government, who wanted to screw + money out of him for their assent, and got the opinion of the law + officers of the Crown to show that no Turkish assent was needed. On a + former occasion we had contended that his privileges must be construed + strictly, as he was a monopolist. On this occasion the law officers + took a more liberal view. The fact is that the questions referred to + the law officers for opinions by the Foreign Office have very often + much more connection with policy than with law, and their opinions are + elastic. There never were such law officers as James and Herschell. + They did their work with extraordinary promptitude and decision, and + with the highest possible skill. They never differed, and they always + gave us exactly what we wanted in the best form. Comparing their + opinions with those of law officers of other days, which I often at + the Foreign Office had to read, I should call James and Herschell + unsurpassed and unsurpassable for such a purpose. Lord Selborne, who + was, I suppose, a much greater lawyer, was nothing like so good for + matters of this kind, for he always tried to find a legal basis for + his view, which made it unintelligible to laymen.' + + + 'On August 7th I had to set to work hard to read up all the Egyptian + papers in order to support Fitzmaurice on the 9th. In the course of + this speech I announced our intention from November, 1883, to allow + Sir Evelyn Wood to maintain order in Cairo with his Egyptian forces, + we withdrawing the British forces to Alexandria. There was a Cabinet + on the 8th, at which, after a good deal of fighting, it had been + decided, against Hartington, to allow me to make the statement with + regard to Egypt which I made upon the 9th.' + +By August 22nd Lord Hartington had 'come round so fast that he told us he +would be able to evacuate Cairo even before our meeting in October.' On +August 31st Sir Charles Dilke 'received Sir Evelyn Wood, who was anxious +to assure me that he was perfectly able to hold Egypt with his Egyptians.' + +The report did not wholly convince Sir Charles, and he expressed some of +his doubts to Lord Granville, with whom Sir Evelyn Wood had been staying +at Walmer. + + 'Lord Granville wrote: "His conversation gives one more the notion of + activity, energy, and conscientiousness, than of great ability. I + presume you were not able to slip in a question, but, on the other + hand, if you had succeeded he would not have heard it. He is in favour + of the complete evacuation of Cairo.... He has full confidence in that + half of the Egyptian Army which is officered by English officers. He + has only a negative confidence in the other half. Evelyn Baring will + find a private letter on his arrival, and a despatch by this mail, + instructing him to send us a full report. Till we get this we had + better not go beyond the declarations which have already been publicly + made." Baring had just (September, '83) reached Cairo as Consul- + General.' + +Government policy shaped itself on the assumption that Sir Evelyn Wood was +right. On October 25th + + 'we formally decided to leave Cairo and concentrate a force of between + 2,000 and 3,000 men at Alexandria. This was no new decision, but was + taken on this occasion in order that the Queen should be informed, + which had not previously been done.' + +Ten days after this date the Egyptian Army of the Soudan, under General +Hicks, was destroyed by the Mahdi in Kordofan. The news only reached Cairo +on November 22nd, and the question was now raised as to what should become +of the upper valley of the Nile. + + 'On December 12th there was a meeting at the War Office about the + Soudan, Lord Granville, Hartington, Northbrook, Carlingford, and + myself, being present, with Wolseley in the next room, and the Duke of + Cambridge in the next but one. We again told the Egyptians that they + had better leave the Soudan and defend Egypt at Wady Halfa, and that + we would help them to defend Egypt proper. Wolseley was at one time + called in, as was Colonel Stewart, the last man who had left Khartoum. + Lord Granville told Hartington, who was starting for Windsor, what to + tell the Queen, and I noted that "the old stagers, like Lord Granville + and Mr. Gladstone, waste a great deal of their time on concocting + stories for the Queen, who is much too clever to be taken in by them, + and always ends by finding out exactly what they are doing. It is + certainly a case where honesty would be a better policy." + + 'I cannot but think that Malet was largely responsible for the state + of things in Egypt (Lord Granville being so far responsible that I had + much difficulty in getting him to interfere against Malet), and that + we had interfered somewhat late.... Malet left before the army + commanded by Hicks was surrounded, and it was on Baring that the blow + fell. But Baring was always strongly opposed to the attempt of the + Egyptians to reconquer the Soudan, and, moreover, thought that they + were quite unfit to govern it. Immediately after the bad news about + Hicks first came, Baring told us that Khartoum must fall, and + recommended us to tell the Egyptian Government, which we did, that + under no circumstances must they expect the assistance of British or + Indian troops in the Soudan. We even stopped their sending Wood's army + to the Soudan, and we told Baring not to encourage retired British + officers to volunteer, and told him to recommend the evacuation of the + Soudan. On December 3rd Baring sent us a most able report upon the + whole situation, and he and General Stephenson commanding the British + troops, Sir Evelyn Wood commanding the Egyptian Army, and General + Baker, were all of opinion that it was impossible to hold Khartoum, + and that the Egyptians must be made to fall back on Wady Halfa. On the + other hand, the Egyptian Government could not make up their minds to + leave Khartoum. Malet up to the last days of his stay in Egypt was + rendering himself, in fact, responsible for the Hicks expedition and + for the Soudan policy of the Egyptians, and there is one fatal + despatch of his in existence in which he relates how he interfered, at + the wish of Hicks, to suggest a change of Egyptian Governor. He was + privately censured for this, but he was publicly approved for his + whole course, and therefore we were in a sense responsible, although + we expressly repudiated this responsibility in our despatches to him, + and forced the Egyptian Government to acknowledge that they thoroughly + understood our repudiation. The only thing that could have been done + more than was done would have been to have publicly censured Malet, + and Lord Granville should have had the courage to do this. + + 'In September I had succeeded in getting Edgar Vincent appointed to + the Egyptian Cabinet as the English financier, virtually Prime + Minister; but, able as he was, it was a long time before he felt his + feet, and could take the government into his own hands.' [Footnote: + When on August 15th Mr. (afterwards Sir) Edgar Vincent dined in Sloane + Street with Edward Hamilton, Mr. Gladstone's private secretary, and + some other people, Sir Charles noted that he 'was once more struck + with the extraordinary strength displayed by Vincent for a man of + twenty-four.'] + + 'Two additional points concerning Egypt which should be mentioned here + are, in the first place, Lord Granville's mistake in creating a place + with Egyptian pay, at Lord Spencer's wish, for Clifford Lloyd, who had + made Ireland too hot to hold him; and, in the second place, the + violent protests of the Anti-Slavery Society, backed up by ours in + December, as to the employment of Zebehr Pasha. We should undoubtedly + have been censured by the House of Commons had we allowed any + important place to have been given to Zebehr Pasha, but it was + difficult to prevent it when it was wished both by the Egyptians and + by Baring--given the fact that we had washed our hands of their Soudan + policy. + + 'What we should have done, if I may be allowed to be wise after the + event, was to have distinctly ordered the Egyptians to abandon + Khartoum and to fall back to Wady Halfa. At the end of the year Baring + forwarded to us a memorandum from the Egyptian Government. They + pointed out that the Khedive was forbidden by Turkey to cede + territory; that we were asking them to abandon enormous provinces, + with Berber and Dongola, and great tribes who had remained loyal. They + thought that if they fell back Egypt would have to continually resist + the attacks of great numbers of fanatics, and that the Bedouin + themselves would rise. They were wrong, but they put their case so + well that they converted Baring; and he told us that he doubted if any + native Ministers could be found willing to carry out the policy of + retirement, and he thought that it would be necessary to appoint + English Ministers if we decided to force it on them. + + 'In the last lines of Baring's despatch of December 22nd there occur + words which afterwards became of great importance: "If the abandonment + policy is carried out ... it will be necessary to send an English + officer of high authority to Khartoum, with full powers to withdraw + the garrisons and to make the best arrangements he can for the future + government of the country." It was on those words that we acted in + sending for Gordon, and asking him whether he would go to the Soudan + for this purpose, which he agreed to do, and when we sent him there + was no question of his going for any other purpose than this.' + +END OF VOL. I + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles +W. Dilke V1, by Stephen Gwynn + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIR CHARLES W. DILKE V1 *** + +This file should be named 7382-8.txt or 7382-8.zip + +Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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