LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Chap. Copyright No. 8helf-t5k.-_3.*5* UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ^t,!^^'' PREFATORY NOTE In dosing this last volume of my Nineteenth Century series, I should like to thank my critics and my readers for much kind appreciation; among the latter I have made some real friends. It would be hard to convey to others an idea of the many difficulties I have had in bringing together the numerous sub- jects contained in this volume, especially what in it relates to the last two or three years. In general, a writer of history has the work of some predecessor to serve him as a guide line, but I had to buy contemporary books of travel and adventure, to borrow others from the shelves of libraries, and, above all, to pick my recent facts out of piles of magazines and newspapers, American, English, French, and Italian. I was limited as to space, and pressed for time ; the manuscript of the book had to be ready a month or more before the close of the century. The part of the book that relates to France (1892-1900) ends with the complete political calm which followed the opening of the Exposition. Of the Exposition itself I have said nothing. " Russia and Turkey " has been brought down almost to the present day. Most earnestly my readers, I trust, will hope for the recovery of the young Czar. England is coming triumphantly out of her great struggle in South Africa. Her people, heart and soul, have backed her administration. We hope that she may prove herself as trium- phant in the work of reconciliation as she has been in putting an end to organized opposition ; for, as the two Republics no longer have any government or any political leaders, the guerilla warfare still carried on seems purposeless and cruel. The reception of Mr. Kruger by the municipality of Paris and by applauding crowds in France is due, in the first place, to long-cherished racial jealousy of England, aggravated by her recent sympathy with the accused in the Dreyfus aiTair, and by a wild desire among the dangerous classes in France to do anything that may harass or embarrass their own present government. 2 PREFATORY NOTE I closed my account of the war of the United States with Spain when the remainder of the history became American ; that is, after the surrender of Santiago and Manila and the sign- ing of the protocol by which Spain shifted the burden of her colonies on to the shoulders of a younger, stronger, and more progressive nation into whose affairs I have nowhere presumed to permit myself to intrude. Many personal friends and many readers to whom I am a stranger have asked me why " Germany in the Nineteenth Century " was not included in my series. They point out that Germany is a most important factor in European politics, and ought not to have been left out of my review of the closing cen- tury. The answer I have to make to these remonstrances is that I gave in " Italy in the Nineteenth Century " a full ac- count of the making of the present German Empire and its history up to the battle of Sadowa, and also in " France," up to the close of the Franco-Prussian War. The history of Ger- many since 1888 has been the personal history of the Emperor William. I do not like to write of people or of things I have failed to understand, and the Emperor William was to me an enigma that I could solve only by an hypothesis which I had no right to put into print without evidence to sustain it. During the past five years I have greatly changed my opinion of the Emperor William, and I could now write his history without fear of bearing false witness against him, but by using up my material in my volumes upon Italy and France I had made it impossible to write " Germany in the Nineteenth Cen- tury." I should no longer have had the advantage of the most picturesque passages in the history of modern Germany, be- cause I had already told how the Empire was made ; how King William of Prussia received the offer of the Imperial crown in the Prefecture at Versailles, when flushed with victory ; of Prince Bismarck, who was Germany incarnate, both in his strength and roughness ; of Sadowa and the annexation of Hanover; and of the probable future of the present North- German Empire. The rest of the history would have been an account of factional struggles in the Reichstag and the Reichs- rath, of studies in the many-sided character of the young Emperor, and of guesses as to his dimly foreshadowed designs in Asia Minor and China. I now regret that I put it out of my power as early as 1892 to use material which would have added greatly to the interest of any attempt I might have made to write of Germany. I have said nothing of the present situation in China. Events PREFATORY NOTE 3 in the Flowery Kingdom developed themselves when my book was becoming too large to admit more than a brief notice of them, and any reader can find what he may want to know upon the subject in recent periodicals and newspapers. I regret also that I had no space to tell the story of Samoa, which interested me very much, and concerning which I had a chapter already written. There is another subject I have not touched upon ; I mean the late struggle in the Church of England between ritualism and the simpler forms of public worship. I did not think any discussion of this controversy was appropriate in a book of historical narrative ; moreover, I have lived through several such crises. Evangelicalism and Puseyism were watchwords of two parties in my early days, and I have seen excitement in the Church calm down with a residuum of more fervent personal piety and of more lively zeal in the great struggle which, as " one army of the Living God," all Christians ought to carry on, not against each other, but against the common foes of their great Master. I could wish the Twentieth Century might see a Missionary Union among Christians, by means of which all de- nominations, putting out of sight their disagreements upon minor matters, and holding fast the fundamental doctrines of our faith, might together carry Christianity to the heathen. In that work they should be unencumbered with differences of opinion as to Church organization, adult or infant baptism, the office in the Church of departed saints, and other matters which now divide those "that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." Such things need not distract the minds of the ignorant, to whom Christianity should be presented in simpHcity as the message of glad tidings sent to all of us from God. E. W. LATIMER. BoNNYWooD, Howard Co., St. Denis P. O., Md., December i, 1900. I CONTENTS Part I. — FRANCE CHAPTER PAGE I. President Sadi-Carnot 9 II. President Casimir-Perier 33 III. President Felix Faure 46 IV. The Dreyfus Case ■ 62 V. President £mile Loubet 93 Part II. — RUSSIA AND TURKEY I, Alexander III. Nicholas II 113 II. Railroads and Waterways in Russia . . 133 III. The Peace Congress. The Brother of the Czar. Finland 148 IV. The Sultan and Armenia 159 V. Crete, and the War in Thessaly .... 189 VI. In the Balkans 212 Part III. — ENGLAND I. The Diamond Jubilee 233 II. The Queen's Ministers from 1880 to 1900 . 249 III. Frontier Wars in India 265 IV. India, the Plague and the Famine . . . 286 6 CONTENTS Part IV. —EUROPE IN AFRICA CHAPTER PAGE I. Egypt 299 II. The Dongola Campaign 30S III. Atbara and Omdurman 321 IV. Fashoda. End of the Khalifa 336 V. The Transvaal. President Kruger . . . 344 VI. The Jameson Raid 356 VII. The Boer War. Ladysmith 379 VIII. The Boer War. Capture of Pretoria . . 408 IX. Other Notes on Africa 436 Part V. — ITALY AND AUSTRIA-HUNGARY I. Italy 461 II. Austria-Hungary 481 Part VI. — SPAIN The Spanish-American War 497 INDEX 523 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Emperor Nicholas II Frontispiece Ferdinand de Lesseps To face page i8 Casimir-Perier 34 Felix Faure , . . . . 46 President Loubet 94 The Empress of Russia 158 Prince George of Crete 198 General Kelly-Kenny 236 Mrs. Gladstone 254 General Lockhart 284 Lord Roberts 300 Lord Cromer 322 Dr. Jameson 344 Lord Kitchener 366 Major Marchand 388 President Kruger 400 General Joubert 420 General Buller 450 General Pelloux 470 Count Badeni 488 Admiral Dewey 498 General Miles 502 Admiral Cervera 508 Admiral Sampson 512 Admiral Schley 518 part $ FRANCE Chapter I. President Sadi-Carnot. " II. President Casimir-Perier. " III. President Felix Faure. " IV. The Dreyfus Case. " V. President £mile Loubet. THE LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY -♦ FRANCE CHAPTER I PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 'T*HE misfortune of France in its parliamentary system -'• of government is that that system does not seem to adapt itself to the character and wants of the body politic. It is otherwise with the internal administration of the nation, which, late observers tell us, seems in all essential respects to meet the needs of an orderly and frugal population. In the Chamber of Deputies, — the governing body that has in charge the " politics " of France, — two great parties have been lacking for many years to oppose each other. The Chamber is broken into " groups," — into eight groups, if we may sort them roughly, — whose lines of separation are so indistinct that they run one into another. A parlia- mentary majority composed of two, three, or four of these " groups " can support or overthrow a ministry. Prior to 1887, when M. Gr^vy resigned (or was deposed), there had been, for practical political purposes, something like a " Republican party," and something like a " Conserva- tive party " to divide the Chamber : thus Republicans of every shade would on occasion unite to oppose the Con- servatives, by whom I mean those not in sympathy with 10 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Republican institutions, — Legitimists, Orleanists, Bonapart- ists, and Clericals. But there has since been no settled majority acting under recognized leaders in support of a distinct policy, neither has there been an organized opposi- tion to oppose or modify the views of the majority. Jeal- ousies and private interests now lead to changes of ministry, though it is perfectly well known that the new ministry will pursue very much the same policy as the old. In this way, from 1891, when my " France in the Nine- teenth Century" was written, to 1896, there were eight ministries ; even in the troubled reign of Louis Philippe, the same number lasted twelve years, from 1835 to 1847. For the most part, the Prime Ministers (called sometimes the Presidents of the Council) have been Moderate Re- publicans, or, if of the Radical faction, tenure of ofifice has tempered their zeal by a sense of responsibility; but no French Ministry can continue in office unless it conciliate the Radicals, and it has, therefore, to gain their favor by the distribution of places and patronage. All accounts from those who have studied popular feeling in rural France agree that public sentiment in the provinces is not Radical, but rather is Conservative. The peasantry and the tradespeople (whom, in the words of Mr. Bodley, I have called "an orderly and frugal population") desire above all things stability and quiet. They willingly leave the turmoil of politics to those paid to take part in it, and would probably accept any government that promised them peace and security; but in their hearts still lingers the Napoleonic legend ; their preference would be for a strong ruler of whom they might be proud. As there is no present prospect of such a man to govern them, they content them- selves with voting for the deputy likely to promote their private interests, or those of the district he will represent in the Chamber. It is the same thing in Italy, and will probably be the same in any parliamentary system confided to the working of a Latin race. The President of the , French Republic may be said to be its figure-head. He controls no policy ; that of his PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT II government shifts with the Cabinet imposed on him. M, Gr^vy took no personal interest in the home affairs of France ; M. Carnot, for six years, rigidly abstained from politics, though before his election he had been a party leader and an accomplished statesman. As President he devoted himself to the task of making his office respect- able by his charities and private virtues. He had begun life as a hardworking, painstaking civil engineer in the newly acquired province of Savoy, one of the trophies of French victories in 1797, — victories due largely to the genius for the organization of the armies of the Revolution displayed by his great ancestor, Lazare Carnot. Savoy was lost to France under the Restoration, but was restored to her, during the second Empire, by Napoleon HI. When the Emperor's memory is execrated for the loss of Alsace and Lorraine, surely the acquisition of Savoy and Nice should be entered in his favor on the page of history as a per contra. The fall of General Boulanger in 1889 caused conster- nation through the ranks of all parties in France, for men of all opinions, anxious for change, had secretly or avowedly supported him, — Legitimists and Bonapartists, extreme Radicals ^ and even Socialists ; while in the country at large the showy leader on his prancing horse appealed to the strongest passion in the French heart, which is to follow the lead of a dazzling or all-conquering hero. The collapse of General Boulanger, succeeded by his melancholy suicide, shattered the Monarchist party. The Comte de Paris had never been personally popular with his supporters. He had not the dash and spirit necessary in France to win the enthusiasm of a glory-loving people. His repudiation of Orleanism in favor of Legitimism, shown by his reconciliation with his cousin at Frohsdorf and in other ways, had alienated the advocates of Consti- tutional Monarchy ; while his profitless and vulgar trafficking with a military adventurer forfeited the attachment of the ^ The same factions, minus the Socialists, whose place is occupied by the Clericals, were Anti-Dreyfusards in 1899, and now call themselves the Nationalist party. 12 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY better class of thinking men, whether of the Orleanist or the Legitimist party. Thanlcs to the well-organized system of local administra- tion established in France by Napoleon,^ under prefects, sub-prefects, and maires, the private life of Frenchmen in the provinces goes on with order and tranquillity, whatever may be the form of government, or whoever in Paris may preside over the destinies of France. Let me not be misunderstood when I say that patriotism, as we employ the word, is not a virtue of the French peo- ple. They will follow a leader with enthusiasm and fidelity, they will make any sacrifice in support of a popular idea ; but they have not the patriotism which has a single eye fixed on what is for the good of the fatherland and its whole people. Before the Revolution the spirit that ani- mated French armies was loyalty to the King ; afterwards enthusiasm — not for France, but for the Republic ; lastly, fidelity to their great leader Napoleon. If another war should break out in the coming century, its rallying cry will be pour la revanche. The good of France would be forgotten in chauvinism, as it is now in personal in- terests or in insane attachment to some prevalent idea. The elevation of M. Carnot to the Presidency, together with the course run by Boulangism during the years from 1885 to 1 89 1, has been told in a former volume.'^ Mr. Bodley, in his valuable book on modern France, says that " the years that Carnot was President of the Republic were unexampled in France, even in times of revolution, for the bitterness of political passion and the 1 This system, the credit for which is usually given to Napoleon, the great master of detail and organization, was first suggested in 1756 by M. d'Argenson. He proposed that France should be divided into departments, with the appointment of local mayors and magis- trates in the smallest villages ; he recommended the establishment of uniformity of weights and measures throughout the country, the institution of tribunals of commerce, the holding of agricultural con- ferences, and the establishment of free education. — M. Ferdinand Rothschild : Nineteenth Centwy Magazine. '■^ " France in the Nineteenth Century," by E. W. Latimer. PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 1 3 ferocious license of the press. Thie Decorations scandal, the Boulangist movement, and the Panama affair filled the entire period with scurriHty and recrimination." Of the two former I have already written, — of the re- maining subjects of general interest during the Presidency of M. Carnot there remain the Panama scandals, and the received opinion among the French that their country had secured the Russian alliance, in pledge of which they hailed with wild enthusiasm the presence of a Russian fleet in Toulon and of Russian officers irf their capital ; lastly, the tragic death of M. Carnot, June 24, 1894, a few months before the ending of his Presidential term. A tide-water canal to cut the Isthmus of Panama had been projected as early as May, 1879.^ One milliard two hundred millions of francs expended in its construction would, it was calculated, pay the investors seven per cent. M. de Lesseps visited Panama in 1880, and reduced the estimate. He held out hopes that the work would be com- pleted in eight years from that time. All classes of French- men, inspired by the success of the Suez Canal, hastened to put money into what seemed a national enterprise. Not capitalists alone, but peasants, tradesmen, and thrifty men of moderate fortune, invested one milliard three hundred millions of francs ($251,000,000) in the undertaking. It 1 My brother, Preble Wormeley, was asked, in 1850, to furnish to Mr. William Aspinwall of New York, plans for a ship railroad to transport vessels across the Isthmus of Panama. Ships were to be raised by something called, I think, " camels," but I had no knowl- edge whatever of the plans, nor could I have understood them. My brother sent them to England to get the professional opinion of Mr. Brunei, in whose office he had been educated as a civil engineer, and who had the highest opinion of his talents and his character. Mr. Brunei entirely approved the plans, and they were handed over to Mr. Aspinwall. My brother died shortly after (Jan. 10, 1S51) after a very brief illness, and I never heard any more of the ship railroad or of the plans. May I be forgiven for liking to record that my brother, cut off at the age of twenty-six, when life seemed full of promise, had already distinguished himself at King's College, Lon- don, in 1842; he carried off every prize the College had to give that year. 14 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY was understood that two contractors had engaged to do the work for five hundred and twelve millions. In 1892 most of the money paid for shares in the Com- pany had disappeared, and only a small part of the work had been accomplished. Immense sums had been paid for newspaper puffs, parliamentary influence, and hush-money, and the directors, by the aid of bribery, had floated loans. In 1886 permission was sought from government to raise more money by a lottery. Numbers of petitions were signed throughout France in favor of this scheme, but the Chamber of Deputies rejected the bill. Lesseps then proposed other means of raising money. The promoters of the Canal, who dreaded the collapse of their scheme, went- deeper and deeper into secret transactions with journalists, lobbyists, and legislators. Meantime engineer- ing experts, sent out to survey the proposed route, reported that a tide-water canal was impracticable. The lottery scheme was subsequently revived in 1888, but M. Tirard, then Minister of Finance, refused to enter- tain the project until a canal with locks should be substi- tuted for the tide-water system, which engineers and contractors alike had pronounced impossible. To con- struct these locks, M, Eiffel, the man whose name is associated with the Eiffel Tower, was employed to furnish machinery of four hundred and fifty thousand horse-power, and was paid thirty-three millions of francs for the same. After this the Lottery Bill was passed, and a loan was authorized by the Chambers. To float this loan Baron Joseph Reinach was intrusted with six millions of francs, but all possible exertions failed to secure more than six hundred millions of francs, with which Charles de Lesseps promised to complete the Canal in three years. When the crash came in 1892, it was found that the money raised for the Canal project had been one milliard three hundred millions of francs, while the sum expended on construction had been only five hundred millions, and four hundred and forty millions, it was calculated, had been PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 1 5 consumed in extravagant salaries and in the profits of con- tractors ; there remained, therefore, three hundred and sixty million francs unaccounted for. Considering the multitude of investors throughout France in the five-hundred-franc bonds of the Canal, it is curious that at first the financial troubles of the great enterprise seemed to inspire litde terror in the minds of the general public. People looked upon the affairs of the Canal as a matter to be settled by Parliament, and no personal interest in what simply con- cerns Parliament seems of late years to excite much interest in rural France. But the suicide of Baron Joseph Reinach, the financier, to whom the affairs of the Canal had been intrusted, gave an individual interest to the affair. Dr. Cornelius Herz, who had been in a sense Baron Reinach's partner, and Arton, then their intermediary in all transactions which in- volved payment of money to journalists or legislators, were at once sought for by the pohce. Toward the close of 1892, Baron Reinach had had a fierce quarrel with Cornelius Herz, who in their last inter- view threatened to make compromising revelations. A few hours later the Baron was found dead. No inquest (or what in France is its equivalent) was held, and the official report of his death was that the deceased died of apoplexy. This turned all eyes in France on the affair in which Rei- nach had been implicated. Among his papers were found lists of deputies and journalists, who had received money for bolstering up the Panama enterprise ; and Herz, who fled to England, carried off with him much more precise and important evidence of parhamentary corruption. Dr. Herz was the son of a Bavarian Jew. He had taken advantage of the United States naturalization laws to obtain our citizenship, and as an American savant he had received from the French Government of the Republic a high position in the Legion of Honor. Great subsidies were paid to journalists ^ for supporting the Canal interests in Parliament. In France newspapers 1 In the year 1S82, 1,320,000 francs. 1 6 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY receive little pecuniary advantage from advertisements. In England and America they thrive on what they receive from them, for their subscription lists barely pay their pub- lishing expenses. In France, as this source of revenue is not available, journalists look to the sums paid them to support schemes, or causes in which their patrons are interested. According to the French code of right and wrong, it was legitimate business for journalists to write up the Panama lottery scheme, and to receive money for doing so. In 1888, when Boulangism was a menace to the Re- public, M. Floquet, then Prime Minister, and M. Rouvier, who was Prime Minister the year before, forced the Panama Company to hand over to the Government fifty thousand francs to be used, not for piercing the Isthmus, but for com- bating the " enemies of the Government " on matters wholly unconnected with the Panama Canal. For this act Floquet afterwards defended himself feebly before the Chamber at the close of December, 1892, when he pleaded that the superior interest of the Republic, imperilled by the party of Boulanger, justified the levy of such a subsidy for the good of France. "The good of France!" — that formula seems of late years to have been made to cover a multitude of sins. It had been theoretically supposed that the fall of the Second Empire meant the fall of corruption and of all other vices ; the Republic was to bring in integrity, patriot- ism, self-abnegation, and all the austere virtues. Alas ! the Parliamentary system (at least among the Latin races) carries out this programme less and less, year after year. The tragedy of Joseph Reinach, " driven to death, it was said," writes Mr. Bodley, " by menaces and demands of blackmail," roused the public, " and then succeeded a period the like of which had never before been witnessed in a great capital, save in a time of revolution." It is curious to look through the pages of Paris newspapers at the close of 1892 ; they are full of the most clever, bitter caricatures, aimed against the integrity of deputies, minis- PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 17 ters, and the leading men of France. The very air seemed full of denunciation. "Is any man honest?" was the burning question of the day. At the close of " France in the Nineteenth Century," I gave an estimate of the opinion entertained of M. Ferdi- nand de Lesseps by foreigners, of his character, and of the services he had rendered to his own country, and to the world. To him Renan said when he took his seat in the Academic, April 23, 1885, " After Lamartine you have, I think, been the man the most beloved of our century." But no one in high places is safe in France from the ruin wrought by a political cyclone. Ferdinand de Lesseps was born at Versailles in 1805. His father had been Consul in Egypt in the days of Mehemet Ali ; his grandfather had also been in the diplo- matic service. Ferdinand de Lesseps was educated with a view to mak- ing diplomacy his profession, and from 1825 to 1854 he filled various high diplomatic positions in Spain, Egypt, Italy, and elsewhere. He was cousin to the Empress Eugenie, their grandmothers having been sisters. In 1854, having quitted the diplomatic service, he felt himself at liberty to carry out a project which for ten years had been ripening in his mind. He went to Egypt, where his plan for piercing the Isth- mus of Suez was approved by Said Pasha, who had just been appointed Viceroy. A survey was made by eminent engineers, who pronounced that the Red Sea and the Mediterranean had the same level. This was disputed by engineers in England, among others by Stephenson, a great authority on railroads in Great Britain. On political grounds Lord Palmerston was a prominent opposer of the scheme. But M. de Lesseps visited England, and succeeded in win- ning the confidence of Prince Albert, Mr. Gladstone, Lord Clarendon, and others. A capital of two millions of francs was raised, and in 1859 the work was begun. Said Pasha himself took a large number of shares, which sixteen years later were purchased from his successor by the English 1 8 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Government. England thus became the largest shareholder in the Canal, which has since proved of inestimable service to her in her relations with the East and with her Indian empire. In November, 1869, the Canal was opened with imposing ceremonies, the Empress of France leading the procession of royal and distinguished persons. In " France in the Nineteenth Century " I gave a full account of the brilliant proceedings of that day. The man who had thus achieved a triumph for France on the eve of her misfortunes, was loaded with honors by his countrymen, and stood prominent among men of en- terprise in the eyes of the world. His activity did not, however, cease ; though he had passed the age to which the Psalmist limits the working powers of man, he pro- moted an enterprise to pierce the Isthmus of Corinth, and he looked favorably on the scheme to submerge the Desert of Sahara, and thus convert it into an inland sea. But there was another isthmus left to conquer, and he could not be at peace while its difficulties were unsub- dued. In 1879, in an evil hour for himself and France, he began, as I have said, to organize a company to cut a tide-water canal through the Isthmus of Panama. His great name commended the project to thousands of people of small means ; but in ten years little or no work had been accomplished, and the company was reduced to bankruptcy. At the close of 1892 Ferdinand de Lesseps and the other directors of the Panama Canal were indicted for breach of trust and misappropriation of funds. The old man, who was lying paralyzed in his country home, had known noth- ing of the disreputable methods adopted by his son in the vain hope of saving the enterprise, nor did he ever know that he himself had been condemned to five years' impris- onment and a heavy fine. This sentence was quashed on technical grounds by the Court of Cassation. Young Lesseps and some others suffered fine and imprisonment. But all painful intelligence was, as far as possible, kept FERDINAND DE LESSEPS. PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 19 from the aged father, who died, let us hope, peacefully, at his country home near Paris, Dec. 7, 1894, at the age of eighty-nine. The following extract is part of an article upon his death, by M. Emile Ollivier, published in the ''Figaro," Dec. 8, 1894: — " He died without suffering, without any last words, without a groan, indeed, after the terrible misfortunes which had not spared him, nor those who were his nearest and dearest ; life seemed to fade out of his frail body, already enfeebled by incessant toil and by the cruel reproaches heaped upon him by Ids fellow-men in return for all that he had done for them. " One of the actions due to the weakness of a government only anxious to satisfy public clamor, or rather public delirium, was, permitting to be brought against such a man a charge of fraud and abuse of confidence. Such words in connection with his name are sacrilege ! "//>a swindler! He! the most disinterested of men! A man who cared little for gain, who lived with the frugality of an Arab and the simplicity of a patriarch ! " It may be said, indeed, that he did not give sufficient over- sight to the details of his counting-room ; but he never forgot what was due to honor. " His second enterprise was not less important or less hopeful than his first, which connected the Red Sea with the Mediter. ranean. It would have realized for France equal profit and renown. But between the execution of these projects lay a difference. The Suez Canal was undertaken under the protec- tion of an enlightened and generous viceroy and a French emperor, both deeply interested in the work, both ready, if necessary, to offer the great Frenchman encouragement and assistance. " When he undertook the Panama Canal, he engaged in it with shameless greedy speculators indifferent to national interests, ready to grab at anything that might serve themselves. These men have ruined both his work and him. The Viceroy gave him millions like a Caliph in the Arabian Nights ; the speculators robbed him of millions like highwaymen. " To the last moment, in spite of everything, he believed in the ultimate success of his Panama enterprise, and, like Benvenuto Cellini when he flung into the fire of his furnace his furniture and all else that he could lay his hands on, that his statue, his 20 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY bronze Perseus, — "my poor dear Perseus," ^ he calls it in his memoirs, — might come out, complete, perfect, and beautiful, so Lesseps, at the last, accepted every assistance that was offered him without too closely examining whence the money was to come. " But the dreadful moment arrived at last when he perceived that the great work would not be accomplished, and that it had swallowed up the savings of the poor who had had faith in him, and trusted him, — the poor, of whose confidence and affection he had been more proud than of the patronage of kings. " I saw him for the last time in his little study in the Rue Montaigne. He was sitting before a fire with a blanket over his knees. At the sound of my voice he rose, and said ' Ah ! there you are ! I am glad to see you. You are coming to breakfast, of course.' Then he sat down again without waiting for my answer, without another word, and resumed his gaze into the fire. " They told me that he sat thus for hours, and that his thoughts were of the poor, who had given what they could ill spare to realize his project. He seemed to see them crowding round him as he gazed into the embers; and when, brought back for a moment to reality, he had welcomed me as an old friend, he relapsed into his painful reverie as before." Eleven persons were prosecuted in all for criminal com- plicity in the Panama affair. Six of these had at one time or another been Cabinet Ministers. One of them, M. Baihaut, ex-Minister of Public Works, had the courage to plead guilty ; for which he was bitterly reproached, not only by his colleagues, but by the public, which considered he had shown want of patriotism by admitting the truth. He defended himself by saying that he was by education a civil engineer, and had considered the money he accepted as a fee for a professional opinion. Nothing was brought to light concerning the disposition of the greater part of the deficient funds. " Nothing was clear but that millions had disappeared, and that the persons punished could account for only a trifling sum." It was thought that Arton and Dr. Herz might have 1 The statue stands now in Florence in the Mercato Vecchio, in the Loggia dei Lanzi. PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOr 21 thrown light on the affair, in which probably they were deeply implicated, but both had escaped ; Herz went to England, whence he was not extradited, as certificates from his doctors pronounced him so dangerously out of health at Bournemouth that his life might have been forfeited by his removal. He is reported to have said : " Baihaut's real crime was his confession ; for there is many a colleague of his in the Chamber who ought to be his colleague in Etampes jail." French honor was, however, supposed to be satisfied by the exposure and punishment of a very {q.w ; and the Panama scandal, which at one time seemed likely to involve so many high officials in disgrace, was hushed up as speedily as possible. In 1897, however, the case was again opened. Arton, who had been extradited, promised to give the names of the deputies and high officials to whom he had paid money. Dr. Herz promised the same thing, if a committee would wait on him at Bournemouth. Some arrests took place in consequence of Arton's revelations, and an investigation was ordered, but the matter was suffered to drop quietly. M. Quesnay de Beaurepaire, who was public prosecutor at the time, did his best to put obstacles in the way of investigation. Strange to say that while in 1892 and 1893 dramatists, journalists, and caricaturists found no subject so popular as the general suspicion of parliamentary corruption, it played very httle part in the provincial elections. When a candi- date for re-election whose character had been smirched during the Panama investigation presented himself to his constituents, they appeared to take little heed of the great Panama scandal. They re-elected him on the ground of his services to themselves, or to their part of the country. The ordinary French elector is apathetic with regard to matters that do not affect his private interests. And yet, says Mr. Bodley, " The French as a nation are remark- able for their integrity, which, combined with self-denying industry, is of a high order." 22 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Other events in France most interesting to foreigners in 1892 were: first, the pubhcation of an EncycUcal ad- dressed to French CathoUcs by Pope Leo XIII. ; secondly, the activity of Anarchists j and, thirdly, the rapid changes of Ministry. When the year began, M. de Freycinet (classed as a moderate Republican) was Prime Minister, but by February 18 his Cabinet was outvoted in the Chamber on a bill concerning the relations of Church and State. President Carnot found it very difificult to induce any leading states- man to form a Cabinet, but at last the task was undertaken by M. Loubet. That ill-starred Cabinet — which from that day to this has brought trouble into the lives of almost all the men included in it — contained M. de Freycinet as Minister of War, and M. Rouvier as Minister of Finance. In the early part of 1892, a body of French Bishops and Cardinals published a complaint concerning the situation of French Catholics in the Departments. They enumer- ated a number of wrongs that the Church and its clergy suffered from the State. Among other things they com- plained of the divorce law, the secularization of the schools, the exclusion of religion and the religious orders from charit- able institutions, the enforced military service of seminarists (young men studying for the ministry), and the control of church buildings, not by churchwardens or vestries, but by the municipalities. They added that in accordance with the orders of the Holy See, and with Catholic tradi- tions, they would refrain from opposing the form of govern- ment that France had chosen, but Catholics were enjoined, when laws were passed which violated their consciences or encroached upon ecclesiastical rights, to oppose them by a firm resistance. This brought out in February an Encyclical from the Pope explaining the relation of the Church to Civil Govern- ment. French Catholics were exhorted loyally to accept the Republic, and to abstain from overthrowing it or enroll- ing themselves among its enemies. The Pope reminded them that the Church had always upheld Civil Government PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 23 as the corrective of anarchy and disorder. He urged Cath- ohcs to stand by the Concordat framed in 1891, even if all its provisions did not meet their views. But the Min- ister of Justice and Public Worship in the Cabinet, in which M. Ribot had succeeded M. Loubet as Prime Min- ister, by no means met half-way the Pope's conciliatory counsels. Law proceedings were begun against pious Cleri- cals, which almost amounted to religious persecution and engendered among Catholics very bitter feelings. Besides this, ardent Legitimists and Clericals refused to believe that Pope Leo could have meant what he said, and con- tinued to hold themselves pledged to restore Monarchy in France. This, on May 3, brought a letter from the Pope to the French Cardinals, enjoining them — and all French Catholics — to recognize unreservedly the existing govern- ment ; and His Holiness added : " The men who would subordinate everything to the previous triumph of their respective parties, even on the plea that that triumph is fittest for the defence of religion, would, by a perilous per- version of ideas, place politics, which divide, before religion, which unites." This brought a large body of Catholics over to the group called Moderate Republicans. These new recruits were called Les Rallies. They deserted from the doctrine that for twenty years had been held by ardent Catholics in France ; namely, that, to be a good Christian, a Frenchman must support the cause of Legitimism. This doctrine died a sudden death, slain by the Pope's Encyclical. Its demise was a severe blow to the Comte de Paris, who had hoped to rally his followers by the cry of " Church and Throne ! " While these things were in progress, Anarchism became rampant in France. Anarchism differs from Socialism in that it aims to destroy all government and all existing institutions. Socialism, on the contrary, would invest the State with complete power over everything belonging to society. Anarchists in France may, it is said, be roughly divided into four classes. 24 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY First, those belonging to the Anarchist Federation. This is an association containing many ex-Communists. Its objects are poUtical. Its members will join any party opposed to any government, and lend it their votes and influence, but they do not employ violence. The second and third are the Leagues of Internationals and Anti- patriots. These include political refugees from all nations, — Italians, Germans, Russians, Poles, Hungarians, Belgians, Irishmen, and Spaniards. Their principal object is to promote mutiny in armies, and insurrection generally. Fourthly, there is the Cosmopolitan League. This is an organization which employs dynamite and assassination. The most advanced group of these people call themselves Independents, and act accordingly. They are divided into small bodies not exceeding twelve. On May i, 1892, a bomb was exploded before the house of a fashionable lady, a princess residing in the Faubourg St. Germain. Two weeks later an attempt was made to blow up a judge who had recently presided at the trial of some Anarchists, and about the same date a bomb was thrown into a barrack full of soldiers. Other similar out- rages were attempted, especially against judges who had sentenced men convicted of disorder. Dynamite had for some time been stolen in small quantities from government stores in various parts of France. All through the month of May judicial and official circles in Paris lived in a state of terror. The worst outrage took place in the Rue de Clichy, where a house was wrecked and several persons injured. These attempts were traced to a man known as Ravachol. He had already murdered an old man in the provinces, and with his plunder — thirty thousand francs — had eluded the police. He was at last betrayed by a con- federate, and arrested in a cafe. This cafe was promptly blown up by his accomplices, and the proprietor, who had assisted at Ravachol's arrest, was severely injured. Ravachol was guillotined, but his sentence was for the murder com- mitted a year before. In November, 1S92, fell the Loubet Cabinet, and the re- PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 2$ mainder of the year was kept in excitement concerning the Panama scandal. The year 1893 opened with pubUc excitement occasioned by suspicion of every one who held a high position. The French public when in delirium has " treason on the brain." After the trial of deputies, senators, ex-ministers, and others accused of connection with the mysteries of the Panama affair, there was a new Cabinet, the Premier of which was M. Charles Dupuy. A lull fell on French poli- tics for a few weeks, during which time excitement was supplied by the " Cocarde " newspaper, the former organ of Boulangism. Its editor announced that he had pur- chased from one Norton, a man employed at the English Embassy, copies of private letters that had passed between Sir Thomas Lister of the Foreign Office and Mr. Austin Lee of the English Embassy, which letters disclosed the names of journalists of high character, deputies and others, who were engaged in plotting with English agents for the overthrow of the French Government. The Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs had been shown these letters (that is, their copies) and had accepted them as genuine. But when, in the Chamber, M. Millevoye, a Boulangist deputy, read aloud a French translation of the documents, their clumsy imitation became evident. They contained such a jumble of ignorant allusions to French politics and international affairs that no diplo- matist could possibly have written them. Their style, too, was not that of an English gentleman. M. Millevoye was hooted from the tribune ; and the Chamber, by a vote of 389 to 4, passed on to the order of the day, "regretting that it had wasted time in listening to such calumnies." We may do well to remember that this epidemic of forgery, and of stealing false papers from a Foreign Em- bassy, began in the autumn of 1893, the very time when in the Intelligence Department of the War Office subordi- nates were engaged in similar atrocities. A senator brought in a bill to suppress public indecency 26 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY in Paris. Tiie shop windows on the Boulevards displayed abominable pictures, and all accounts tell us that Paris (at no time remarkable for public propriety) had never been so bad even under the Second Empire. Among other reforms that the senator who took public decency in charge was desirous to carry out, was the suppression of a certain ball, called the Bal des Quat'-z-Arts, annually given by the students of the Latin Quarter. This entertainment was especially patronized by the art students, and its details were arranged by them. These students, profes- sionally familiar with denuded females, probably looked on the public and artistic exhibition of their "models" with much less sense of its indecency than that which horrified the unartistic Philistine. The ball took place at the close of June, and the " models " and managers were prosecuted for the exhibi- tion. The students were indignant at the interference of the police with what they maintained was a private enter- tainment. A riot took place in the Quarter, during which a young man had his skull fractured by a metal match- box, thrown by a policeman. This roused the students to fury. They assembled before the Chamber of Deputies, calling for protection against the police and the restitu- tion of their right to carry on their entertainments in their own way. They also clamored for the deposition of the Prefect of the Seine, or the resignation of the Prime Minister ; the Chamber refused to take any notice of these demands, and the students renewed the rioting. On the second day the socialists and roughs in Paris, eager for a fray, took the part of the rioters against the Government. Here is a letter I received at that time. The writer was an art student, who had been absent from Paris since the beginning of May.^ He was returning by way of Munich and Strasburg, and thus writes of his arrival in Paris on the morning of July 9, 1893 : — 1 This letter gives a graphic picture of Paris in an hneiite. I saw the city in similar frenzies in May, 1839, and February, 1848. — E.W.L. PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 2/ " Here I am back again in tlie old place. The journey up from Munich was a very pleasant one, and not too fatiguing. When I got to Paris (Tuesday, 5.30 A. M.) the first thing I saw was newspaper kiosks and other street buildings in ruins. I asked my cocker what it meant, and he said, ' Une petite legerete des etudiaftts.'' The concierge, however, gave me a full account of the matter. " How curious that our Bal des Quat'-z-Arts should have started these riots ! Tuesday afternoon they buried the chap who had been killed, and in the evening I had my first expe- rience of Paris in a state of excitement. I came down to dinner and was just starting from this street, the Rue de Ste. Placide, into the Rue de Rennes, when I saw a crowd at the other end, by St. Germain des Pres, and saw several kiosks in flames. I stopped to see the excitement, and I could see all very well, being on Montparnasse, and looking down. The mob had made a barricade, and had rifled a gun shop, and were quite happy and satisfied, when suddenly the Garde Municipale charged up the street. I wish you could have seen the people run, and the shopkeepers put up their shutters ! I made for Leon's restaurant, and just got there as the military came past, using their swords pretty freely. After I had had my dinner, I walked down and looked at the barricade. It was made of an omnibus, two tram cars, and several fiacres. The mob stopped all the fiacres coming from the Gare Mont- parnasse, and made their occupants descend. If the cocker made any fuss, they killed his horses. I saw three dead ones. The French are brutal to horses. There was fighting that night and the next day, but things are getting quiet now. Still, I think July 14 may bring trouble. It is always worse on hot days, because the men drink all the afternoon, and in the evening they go forth and fight. Apart from this, I have had a very quiet week. Julien's is nearly deserted." The Socialists took advantage of the emeute originated by the students, and assembled in force round their Labor Exchange. Up to 1889 the word " Socialist " was meant to define all those who aspired to ameliorate society in favor of the working classes. Every man in France who gave his attention to social questions willingly accepted the name of Socialist. It was the same in England, where Charles Kingsley and Maurice were proud to be classed as Christian Socialists. 28 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY " All advocates of social reform," says M. Yves-Guyot, himself a Socialist before 1889, "worked for freedom of the press and the right to hold meetings." They also demanded from the Government some change in the laws relating to trades unions, A law was passed in 1884 authorizing syndicates of labor under certain restrictions, but no sanction was given to trades unions unless they would join the syndicates, which were in a measure responsible to government. This the trades unions refused to do, but kept up their organi- zations, which were in fact illegal. The Cabinet, when the student riots began, was on the point of taking steps to compel trades unions to conform to the law before the 5th of July. Members of these unions assembled round the Bureau de Travail, or Labor Exchange, and determined to resist. By this time Social- ism had become a political party, whose aim was " to secure the intervention of the state in all contracts for labor, always directed against the employer and to the exclusive profit of the laborer." The Government, as we have seen, called out the mili- tary and dispersed some thousands of people congregated around the Labor Exchange. At this point the students abandoned their allies. The fight was between the labor unions and the police, who were assisted by the military. On July 6, the Government closed the Labor Exchange, a large and very expensive building, where leaders of the riot had their headquarters. Then the affair was over, that is to say, so far as street fighting was concerned ; but the quarrel was kept up in the Chamber of Deputies. The attention, not only of Paris, but of all France, was soon after turned to what was considered a great national triumph, — the friendly visit of the Russian fleet to the harbor of Toulon, in return for the visit paid to Russia by the French fleet at Cronstadt in 1891. This return visit had been delayed because of Alex- ander IIL's personal antipathy to French politics and French morals. But at last a visit paid by two of the PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 29 Grand Dukes to M. Carnot at Nancy during the manceu- vres of the French troops dispelled the Czar's fears that Nihilists domiciled in France would take advantage of the occasion for an outbreak of violence or assassination. France had deeply felt her European isolation. She felt that the Triple Alliance — that of Germany, Austria, and Italy — was a menace to her power and influence, and she eagerly welcomed the prospect of an alliance with Russia, the nation that a priori would have seemed least likely to attract the sympathy of a newly made republic ; but from the day when the French fleet visited Cronstadt, and was received with fetes and rejoicings, the French public looked eagerly for an official enunciation of the word "alliance. " When the Russian fleet appeared at Toulon, its recep- tion was magnificent. The city was adorned with French and Russian flags ; enthusiasts flocked to it from every part of France ; women dressed themselves in the Russian colors ; addresses of welcome and assurances of brotherly regard were made by public bodies. The French people seemed in a frenzy of self-congratulation, accepting it as certain that the visit of the Russian fleet prognosticated that the long isolation of France had come to an end, and that she had secured a powerful friend and political sympathy. The Russian Admiral and sixty of his officers were escorted to Paris by the President of the Republic and by the President of the Municipal Council at Toulon. The distinguished position occupied by the latter personage on this occasion was one of the queer ironies of fate not uncommon in French politics. He had once served in the galleys at Toulon as a Communist convict, and had been subsequently conspicuous by a eulogy that he pro- nounced upon those Nihilists who had so cruelly slaughtered Alexander II. Paris, like Toulon, vv^ent mad over the presence of the Russian officers ; the tricolor and Russian flags adorned the streets ; houses and signs were draped in yellow and black, 30 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY and the streets were alive with the same colors. Every- thing was done that could be done to fete the naval visitors, and to rejoice over their coming ; enthusiasm and fraternity were the watchwords of the day. And when, after a week, the officers returned to their ships, they were loaded with presents for themselves and the Imperial household. The Russian press was inspired with delight at the prospect of this new alliance ; and the Czar, unwilling to damp the en- thusiasm of two nations, sent the following despatch to President Carnot : — " At the moment when the Russian squadron is quitting France, I am anxious to express to you how much I am touched by, and grateful for, the warm and splendid reception which our sailors have everywhere found on French soil. The testi- monies of warm friendship which have been once more mani- fested with so much eloquence will add a fresh link to those already uniting the two countries, and will contribute, I hope, to the strengthening of the general peace, — the object of their efforts and of their most constant wishes." To this telegram from the Czar, President Carnot in corresponding terms made a cordial reply. The privilege of all French ports and navy-yards was ac- corded to the Russian fleets, in common with the French navy, and it is said that financially the rapprochement of the two nations was beneficial to them both. On one of the last days of the year 1893 an Anarchist named Vaillant, sitting in the Strangers' Gallery of the Chamber of Deputies, flung a bomb at the President, M. Dupuy. Happily, a woman sitting near seized the assassin's arm and spoiled his aim ; but the bomb, being loaded with nails and scraps of iron, wounded many bystanders when it exploded. After a few moments of confusion the Presi- dent of the Chamber called the Deputies to order, and the business of the day was proceeded with as if nothing had happened. Vaillant was very anxious that his trial should be considered not a political, but a social crime ; and he was in fact found guilty of an attempt to murder and of the destruction of public property. He was guillotined, PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 3 I but his execution and the arrests which followed it were the signals for fresh Anarchist crimes. A vigorous campaign, especially against foreign Anarchists, was kept up by the police. Hundreds were arrested, but not one in ten was brought to trial. The mania for bomb-throwing spread even to England, where an Anarchist on his way to Green- wich with his bomb in a bag, accidentally exploded it and killed himself. One of the most atrocious attempts at wholesale assassination was that of a man who went to the door of the fashionable Church of the Madeleine during ser- vice, purposing to throw a bomb into the crowd of kneel- ing worshippers. Happily, the heavy leathern spring door at the entrance swung back against him as his hand was poised to throw the bomb, and spoiled his aim. Nothing was destroyed but part of the vestibule. These murderous attempts, the arrests that they occa- sioned, and the trials of their perpetrators continued all through the winter and spring. In June, 1S94, Lyons undertook to hold an exhibition of arts, science, and in- dustries. To this the President of the Republic was invited ; and M. Carnot, always solicitous to fulfil any semi-social political duty, willingly lent his presence to the occasion. He arrived at Lyons, and spent one night there. The next day, Sunday, he went in state to view the Exhibition. He then attended a banquet in the Chamber of Commerce, and about nine p. m. took his seat in his carriage to drive to the theatre, where a performance in his honor was to conclude the day's proceedings. While at the banquet he had dismissed the body-guard appointed to attend him by the Municipality. Suddenly a young man pressed forward, holding what seemed to be a roll of paper in his hand. He sprang upon the step of the carriage, and plunged a dag- ger into the President's abdomen. Bystanders seized the assassin, and with some difficulty the police prevented his being summarily lynched. The President was taken to the Prefecture, and died soon after midnight. The murderer, as they arrested him, shouted, " Vive 32 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY r Anarchic ! " His trade was that of a baker. He was a native of Italy, but having fallen under the suspicion of the police at home, had sought refuge in France, where he worked for a time at Cette, a French port on the Mediterranean. CHAPTER II PRESIDENT CASIMIR-PERIER nPHE tragic death of President Sadi-Carnot took place -*■ on June 25, 1894, and he was laid to rest in the Pantheon a week later. Already, as his term of office would have expired six months later (in December, 1894), lively discussions as to his successor had taken place. Some persons thought that M. Carnot had been intriguing for a second term. They were not aware that he had said in confidence to an ex-minister, whom he wished to induce to form a Cabinet, that he had definitely resolved to refuse a renomination, on constitutional as well as on personal grounds. M. Brisson, who might be ranked as a Moderate Radical, was talked of as likely to prove the successful candidate, but the ex-Prime Minister, M. Casimir-P^rier, who, only a few weeks before, by a vote of the Chamber, had fallen from his high office, was chosen by the joint vote of Senators and Deputies, who gave him a decided majority. M. Casimir-Pdrier belonged to a family which, for two hundred years, had been distinguished in France. Its members never boasted the possession of the particule (the aristocratic de which distinguishes the born nobleman), but they were wealthy landowners in Dauphin^. One man in the family was an archbishop in the time of Louis XVIIL, another a Peer of France in Louis Philippe's House of Peers, while another was that monarch's most distin- guished Prime Minister. But the wealthy P^riers of our own day were classed among the bourgeoisie, — that class of Frenchmen equally ^ detested by aristocrats and manual 1 A labor member of the House of Commons once related to me his experiences at a Trade Union Congress in Paris. He said that he 3 34 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY laborers. I think Louis Blanc first started popular enmity to the bourgeoisie, the only stable element in the French urban population. They are Philistines in politics, capital- ists in trade, and thus form a class hateful to Socialists throughout Europe and America. No sooner was M. Casimir-P^rier elected President than all the low newspapers opposed to the bourgeoisie denounced him, because of his ancestral connection with "the middle-class Monarchy," — in other words, the reign of Louis Philippe. He was also denounced as one of the owners of a certain coal mine famous for strikes, and was made the object of attacks inspired by Socialist leaders. The utter depravity of the Parisian journals of the lower class then and subsequently, the abomination of their daily volleys of abuse against government, law, and justice, " is," says the "Journal des D^bats," "unequalled by the worst performances of low-class journalism in other countries. Incriminating names are shamelessly applied to the highest dignitaries of state, and are echoed by vulgar tongues in cafh and other places of public resort, without shame or reserve, mingled with the sacred words peuple, patrie, etc." Thus, from the day after his election Casimir-P^rier found his honored name, up to that time always associated with the cause of popular liberty, turned into a reproach. Mr. Bodley says that, " beneath an exterior of resolute sturdiness, he had not the calm temperament, free from self-consciousness, of M. Carnot. . . . His habit of perus- ing the journals containing gross libels on his character had gone to France entirely ignorant of the language, but to his last day he should never forget one word repeated in every sentence of the French delegates' speeches with every intonation of hatred and contempt; the word was bourgeois. This estimable Englishman, though representing thousands of working-men, was in appearance and in mode of thought a typical bourgeois from the French point of view, as dissimilar to his as the Carmagnole, with which his French colleagues terrified him, was to the pious exercises which he was wont to conduct at his Sunday-school at home. — Fratice, by J. E. C. Bodley. CASIMIR PERIER. PRESIDENT CASIMIR-PERIER 35 and incitements to violence kept constantly before his eyes the causes which might render him unpopular." A trained statesman, head of a Cabinet which had fallen from power only a few weeks before, M. Casimir-P^rier naturally thought himself not only competent, but in duty bound, to have a voice in the selection of his ministers, and not to be kept in the dark as to their proceedings. The Dupuy Cabinet had resigned on the election of a new President, but M. Casimir-P6rier requested them to resume their portfolios. This Cabinet contained among other names some that in 1899 became only too well known to us, besides some men who have distinguished themselves for integrity and diplomatic skill ; these last were M. Hanotaux, Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. Delcassd, Min- ister for the Colonies, and M. F61ix Faure, Minister of Marine. Among the former was General Mercier, Minister of War, while General Boisdeffre was about this time made head of the General Staff. The principal event which interests the world in general during the seven months' administration of M. Casimir- P^rier was one so obscure and apparently unimportant at the time that it is thus reported in Appleton's admirable "Annual Cyclopedia " for 1894 : — " Military Scandal. Captain Albert \_sic\ Dreyfus, an artillery officer of Alsatian-Jewish extraction, was tried on December 22, by court-martial, for treason. A letter in his handwriting had been found by a detective in the house of an attache oi a foreign legation, containing information and prom- ises of information regarding the plans and armament of French fortresses. He was convicted by his brother officers, and the severest penalty applicable in time of peace — namely, imprisonment for life in a fortress, and degradation from all military rank and honors — was pronounced." The general public accepted, with full faith in the in- tegrity and ability of the General Staff, the verdict of the court-martial. The cry, " I am innocent ! " no more reached the public ear than in former days a wail of despair came through the stone walls of the Bastile. 36 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY On a bitter cold morning, January 5, 1895, the Degrada- tion of Dreyfus took place. Here is the scene as related by Adolph Brisson,^ an eye-witness, who, like most other Frenchmen at that time, believed Dreyfus a traitor, guilty of delivering papers stolen from the War Office to a national enemy : — "January 4, 8 a.m. I am off for the £cole Militaire. A bitter wind is blowing along the Quais. Many fiacres are making their way to the Champ de Mars. Along the streets officers are hurrying in dress uniforms, the collars of their coats turned up about their ears, and in all directions are to be seen the detachments — old soldiers in marching order, fresh recruits in jacket and cap — who are to be present at the performance. The civilians allowed to penetrate to the inner court are not numerous. The bulk of the crowd has had to stay without the gates. You can tell that it is rough, and ready to display its indignation. " 8.45. The last of the troops have arrived. They are drawn up on the four sides of the court, and presently Dreyfus will have to pass before them, subjected for more than half a mile to the silent scorn of these thousands of men. What a Calvary ! Some hundred yards have been reserved for the reporters, who draw up in line, and toe the mark like common soldiers. *' Meanwhile the time draws near; we have seen the arrival of the prison van, which has been drawn up by the side of a build- ing. It is he ! We imagine him there awaiting the moment. He hears from afar the click of the bayonets, the tread of the soldiers summoned to be present at his torture. To what anguish must he not be a prey ! Will he not wear the pallor of death when he is brought forth before us ? Will he be able to stand upright ? Or will he not give way for one moment? And at this thought, notwithstanding our horror of his crime, 1 From " La Republique Fran9aise." Translated in February, 1898, for " Littell's Living Age," No. 2797. 2 We know now what was passing in the little inner room of the ficole Militaire, where the victim was walking up and down muttering indistinctly an anguished monologue, crying always, " I am innocent," and then, in broken words alluding to the offer of General Mercier, a few days before, urged on him for an hour by du Paty de Clam : "Only confess that you are guilty of giving copies of documents to the German Government to get important information in return, and you shall be spared the anguish of this terrible degradation." PRESIDENT CASIMIR-FERIEU 7)7 we are overwhelmed with pity for the unfortunate man, so cruel does his expiation seem. "9 A.M. Barely has the lirst stroke sounded from the great clock of the Ecole Militaire when General Darras lifts his sabre. The trumpets sound, and we perceive in an angle of the court a little group consisting of four artillerymen commanded by a sergeant and surrounding an officer in full uniform. " This officer is Alfred Dreyfus. " He raises his head ; his bearing is assured, but perfectly natural ; he does not overdo his calmness. You would say he was making his way tranquilly to the parade-ground. At twenty paces from the General, the group halts. The General pronounces in a loud voice the regulation phrase : — " ' Alfred Dreyfus, you are unworthy to bear arms ! ' " A police adjutant at once steps forward, and the hideous torture begins. Braid and buttons are torn away ; the regi- mental number is removed from the cap. Finally — and this is the hardest moment — the adjutant draws Dreyfus's sabre, breaks the blade over his knee, and flings the fragments at the traitor's feet. Dreyfus is too far away for us to make out his expression. He seems agitated and gesticulates. When the General uttered the damning apostrophe he raised his arm and in a voice strained and piercing cried out : ' Vive la France ! I am innocent ! ' " The adjutant has finished his task. The gold which covered the uniform lies heaped upon the ground ; they have not even left the condemned man those red bands down the trousers which indicate his branch of the service. Dreyfus, in his jacket, now perfectly black, with his dark cap, seems already to have assumed a convict's costume. The sinister escort is once more set in motion. The traitor is to pass before our eyes, and we are impatient to see him. Here he comes. Dreyfus is more and more agitated. He' continues to cry, 'I am innocent! Vive la France ! ' And on the other side of the gates the crowd, vaguely discerning his form, lets fly fierce volleys of hoots and hisses. Dreyfus hears these imprecations, and they increase his rage. " As he passes a group of officers, this phrase is audible : ' Be- gone, Judas ! ' Furious, he turns on the speaker, and repeats with redoubled energy : ' I am innocent ! I am innocent ! ' " Now we can discern his features clearly, and for a moment we closely scrutinize them, hoping to find there a supreme reve- lation, a reflection of that soul whose inmost windings only the members of the court-martial have thus far been able to pene- 38 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY trate. That which is most prominent in the face of Dreyfus is anger, — anger almost beyond the point of control; his lips are parted, his eyes are bloodshot. We realize that if the con- demned man is firm and walks with so proud a bearing, it is because he is lashed by a fury that is straining his nerves to the breaking point, and putting him beside himself. " He passes by us : he disappears, and he leaves us bewildered and strangely moved. What is in the heart of that man ? What motive power is he obeying when he protests thus of his innocence, with the energy of despair? Is he hoping to deceive public opinion, to fill us with doubts, excite suspicions with re- gard to the fidelity of the judges who have condemned him ? And like a lightning flash this thought crosses our minds, — If he were not guilty, what frightful agony ! " But we repel this thought. Reason regains the empire over our feelings. No ! we cannot, and do not, have any doubt that Dreyfus has been branded by the purest and most honest ele- ment in the French army. He was condemned without a dis- sentient voice. He did really sell his country ! " From this scene of torture Dreyfus disappeared to Devil's Island, off the coast of French Guiana, not to re- appear, as it were, in public, until the heart of all the civi- lized world should be wrung with sympathy for his suffer- ings, and all men (except French fanatics) should hold him innocent. " No trial of king or of colossal criminal," says the " Nation," " ever held the breathless attention of all classes in all countries as has that of this obscure French captain." Of his trial, his condemnation, and all else that followed it in 1898 and 1899, when the world rang with the name of Alfred Dreyfus, we will tell in a subsequent chapter. This much, however, may be said here. Why was it necessary to get up a war scare in 1895 in connection with his trial? "WTiy were the documents in the " secret dossier " read to his judges, but withheld from the prisoner and his counsel? All France was told that it was to avert an im- minent danger to the country, that danger being a war with Germany. But we know now, on the authority of President Casimir-P^rier, substantiated by declarations from Berlin, that there was no danger whatever of such a PRESIDENT CASIMIR-PERIER 39 war in 1895. " Peril to France!" "The country is in danger !" were false phrases, framed to excuse secrecy and illegality during the first trial. A court-martial could be held with closed doors, but to withhold from the knowledge or inspection of a prisoner and his counsel documents altered by the insertion of new matter, a name inserted where only D was written ; to bring in a verdict of guilty based upon forgeries and inconsequent matter that the prisoner and his counsel were not allowed to examine, or even to see, — argues a determination beforehand to fix guilt upon the prisoner, and some personal motive of great weight which impelled those who prepared and pressed such evidence to shield themselves. Whatever platitudes in connection with the Dreyfus case may have been uttered about the unsullied honor of officers in the French army in 1894, three years had barely elapsed since two French captains had been accused and found guilty of selling important secrets to foreigners. They were not Jews, nor Alsatians, and the matter, *' for the honor of the army," was more or less quietly hushed up. The French Government had for some time had in its possession a new explosive called melinite, and desired to keep its composition a strict secret, A clever ordnance officer, however, named Turpin found out for himself that picric acid was the chief component in melinite. He at once threatened to sell the secret to a foreign government unless that of France would buy his silence. The bargain was struck, and the French Government paid him 50,000 francs to hold his tongue. Notwithstanding this, he tried to obtain money for his secret from foreign firms, especially from the Armstrongs, the great English manufacturers of cannon. In these transactions another French captain was his agent, named Tripon^. The principal and his agent came at last to an open quarrel ; the matter reached the public ear ; and M. de Freycinet, then Minister of War, found himself compelled to send Turpin, Tripon^, and two other officers for trial under the laws against the revelation of mihtary secrets. The court, as was legal in such cases. 40 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY heard the evidence with closed doors, and pronounced sentences which were at that time considered of extra- ordinary severity. Turpin and Tripone were each con- demned to five years' imprisonment and to an insignificant fine. In the case of Tripon^ ten years of exile from France was added to the penalty. Suspicion, however, was at once aroused, that pointed to an officer in high command as the real culprit, and it was also asserted that " M. de Freycinet, then War Minister (though his own honesty was above suspicion), had been trying to shield officers so im- portant that to bring them to justice would discredit the army." The matter was brought before the Chamber of Deputies in June, 1891 ; and, although the vote of the Deputies was largely in M. de Freycinet's favor, the per- sonal support given him was so half-hearted that he lost all his usual self-command in debate, and was eager for an opportunity to resign. A law'' was subsequently introduced into the Chamber inflicting much severer penalties than those meted out to Turpin and Tripon^ ; in certain specified cases of betraying secrets, imprisonment for life was to be inflicted, or even the death penalty. It is not hard to see why M. de Freycinet shrank after this from any interference with the General Staff that might again have brought him under suspicion of wanting to defend one who had betrayed French secrets to the enemy. Turpin was pardoned, we know not by what influence; and early in 1894, when General Mercier was Minister of War, a heated discussion took place in the Chamber of Deputies, in which the Government was severely criticised because General Mercier had refused to treat with Turpin, who again offered to provide France with a new engine of war that would clear a space for miles in front of an enemy. It was to be a gun capable of hurling a bomb containing picric acid, which on bursting would scatter other bombs filled with similar projectiles. On January 15, 1895, ^^^er a presidency of only six months, M. Casimir-P^rier amazed France and all Europe PRESIDENT CASIMIR-PERIER 41 by suddenly laying his resignation on the tables of the Senate and the Chamber. " I never concealed from myself," he said, " the diffi- culties of the task imposed on me by the National Assem- bly, I foresaw them. If a man does not refuse a post at the moment of danger, he can only preserve his dignity by the conviction that he is serving his country. The Presi- dent of the Republic, deprived of means of action and control, can derive from the confidence of the nation alone, the moral force without which he can do nothing. I doubt neither the common-sense nor the justice of France, but the attempt to mislead public opinion has succeeded. More than twenty years of conflict for the same cause, more than twenty years of attachment to the Republic, and of devotion to the democracy, have not sufficed either to convince all Republicans of the sincerity and ardor of my political faith, or to disabuse the adver- saries who believe, or affect to believe, that 1 shall become the instrument of their passions and their hopes. For six months a campaign of slander and insult has been going on against the army, the magistracy, Parliament, and the head of the state, who in this matter could not be held responsible ; and this liberty of fanning social animosities continues to be styled liberty of thought.-"^ The respect and the ambition which I cherish for my country do not allow me to admit that the country's best servants, and he who represents it in the eyes of the foreigner, may be insulted daily. I will not consent to bear the weight of the moral responsibility resting upon me in the condition of power- lessness to which I am condemned." Jean Casimir-Perier (legally authorized to add the Chris- tian name of an illustrious ancestor to his surname) was 1 See how Henri Rochefort, the very chief of sinners, exults over his shameless vituperation of Napoleon III. when chief of the French people: "Any weapon was good enough forme to sap the respect with which they affected to surround that official dummy called ' the person of the sovereign.' Ah ! that poor sovereign ! I twisted and wrung him like a wet towel." And twenty years after that, he did no less for a President not to his likinjr. 42 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY born in Paris a year before the flight of Louis PhiUppe and the temporary organization of the Second RepubUc. He served in the Franco-German war with distinction, both on the frontier and during the siege of Paris, and was decorated with the Legion of Honor. In 187 1 he went into public life as a subordinate in the office of the Minis- ter of the Interior. Not long after that he became a Deputy, voting always with the Moderate Republicans. When in 1S83 a law was passed excluding from pubhc office all members of any family which had reigned in France, he resigned his seat, rather than vote, being unable to reconcile family duty with Republican sentiments. In 1893, he was elected to the honorable office of President of the Chamber of Deputies (that is, its Speaker), but he soon resigned this position, at the earnest solicitation of President Carnot, to become Prime Minister. This post, which he foresaw would launch him on a sea of troubles, he held only a few months. His cabinet was overthrown shortly before the assassination of President Carnot, and then the body that had rejected him as Prime Minister elected him, June 27, 1894, on its first ballot, to be Presi- dent of the Republic. His opposing candidates were M. Brisson and M. Dupuy. As I have said before, Casimir-P^rier, engaged in public affairs from his youth, and recently Prime Minister, saw no reason why his experience in statesmanship should not be put to the service of his country. M. Dupuy and his Cabinet (whom the new President retained in office) thought otherwise. They did not choose to be hampered by his interference. They were not willing to stand by him when he was virulently attacked by writers in low- class Parisian journals. Everything that could be thought of by Socialist leaders was done to stir up the Anarchists and mob of Paris against the man who had signed the death-warrants of Ravachol, Vaillant, and Henry, the Anarchist who threw a bomb into the midst of an audience listening quietly to a concert near the Gare St. Lazare. PRESIDENT CASIMIR-PERIER 43 The " scandal " that occupied pubUc attention at the close of 1894 was not the court-martial held with closed doors on Dreyfus, in December of that year, but a scandal concerning railroads in southern France. In 1883, the Government had guaranteed payment of interest on the bonds of these railroads for a term of years, on condition that they should build certain branch lines of strategical value, not likely to be remunerative for traffic. The Min- ister who negotiated this matter was M. Raynal, a warm personal friend of M. Perier. By 1894, this guarantee had become a heavy burden on the Public Treasury. It began to be questioned whether the guarantee was for thirty years, which would bring it to an end in 19 14, or whether it was to last until the bonds should become due in i960. The wording of the original agreement was vague. M. Raynal wished to have it considered that the obligation of government would last as long as the bonds, but Par- liament insisted that in 19 14 it would have a right to reopen the matter. Meantime a great deal of money was being made by those who held the securities of these rail- roads, their price having advanced from two hundred to three hundred above par. All this gave rise to a great out- cry against capitalists. The President's son Ernest was a young mining engineer who had some pecuniary interest in one of the companies. All kinds of false and malicious reports were circulated regarding the origin of the great Perier fortune. The friendship of the President with M. Raynal, on whom the most bitter invectives fell, was made a weapon with which to attack his hitherto unsullied character. Added to this, he received daily anonymous letters from Anarchists, threatening with death not only himself, but members of his family. The President was a man of sensitive temperament and of quick temper. He had not the impassivity with which General the Marquis de Gallifet, inured to abuse, stood fire from the press, the public, and deputies in the Chamber. M. Dupuy, who was far from friendly to the chief who had 44 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY proved his successful rival for the presidency, took care that he should see all the reports of prefects which spoke of his unpopularity in the provinces, and Casimir-P^rier himself insisted upon reading all that reflected on him in the Parisian journals. Besides this, he who but a few months before had been head of a Cabinet in which many of his present ministers were members, felt keenly the way in which he was set aside by those who ought to have treated him with confidence, but, on the contrary, kept from him official knowledge. M. Poincar^, the Minister of Finance, submitted to the Chamber a revised budget, of which the President had never heard. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, and General Mercier, the Minister of War, neglected to keep him in- formed of diplomatic business, especially in the case of Captain Dreyfus ; while Mercier made arrangements to dismiss thirty-six thousand French soldiers from active ser- vice, and to send them back to their homes, without giving the President any intimation of what he intended to do. A letter from the Queen Regent of Spain to the President was also withheld until the Spanish Ambassador had told him of it. The Socialists, by public meetings and through the press, began a campaign of denunciation, calumny, and invective, against M. Perier ; and when one of the worst of these libellers, M. Gerault-Richard, was brought to trial, it was hard to get a jury to convict him. A few weeks after he had been sent to prison, M. Gerault-Richard was elected Deputy for one of the districts of Paris, where the electors were working-men. The Chamber of Deputies refused, indeed, to give the convict his seat, but by a very small rnajority. Thus M. Perier found himself powerless, unsupported by his Cabinet and by the Chamber, his family and himself exposed defenceless to the attacks of journalism, and set at nought by his ministers. The straw that is said in the end to have broken him down was an incident in the Dreyfus affair. The Intelli- PRESIDENT CASIMIR-PERIER 45 gence Department of the General Staff contrived (I think by a prearranged accident to the mail) to get into its hands despatches addressed to the Emperor William from his Parisian Embassy. These papers were examined, copied, and, with as little delay as possible, forwarded to Berlin. Emperor William, incensed at this outrage, com- plained of it with indignation to President P^rier, who was forced to confess that he knew nothing of the matter, as his ministers ignored him completely. Emperor William is said to have accepted this humiliat- ing apology, but the transaction is also thought to have laid the foundation for the so-called " war scare," on which General Mercier insisted, to justify concealment in regard to the secret dossier in the Dreyfus affair. These things could not but confirm the President's con- viction that he was not in his proper place, and that it did not suit a man of his stamp to hold the Presidency of the French Republic. He is said to have hesitated before accepting the position, and to have been induced at the last moment to take office by a feeling that, after the assas- sination of Carnot, it was a post of personal peril. " In the face of danger," his brave mother said to him, " a Pdrier never hesitates." So Casimir-P^rier laid his resignation on the table of the Senate and on that of the Chamber, and retired into private life, from which he was not to emerge until sum- moned as a witness for the defence before the too cele- brated court-martial at Rennes, in August, 1899. He fell, the victim of attacks inspired by Socialist leaders, to please every form of discontent which under the Third Repubhc is seething in France beneath the surface of society, from the anti-Semites and Anarchists of the fin du siecle, Legitimists, Clericals, and Bonapartists, to inheritors of the old doctrines of the Jacobin Club. CHAPTER III PRESIDENT f6lIX FAURE 'T^HE choice of the National Assembly on Jan. 17, -■- 1895, fell, without turbulence or even an exciting debate, on M. F^lix Faure. M. Waldeck-Rousseau (Mod- erate Republican) had a large vote on the first ballot, M. Brisson (Moderate Radical) had a still larger one, but on the second ballot M. Waldeck-Rousseau withdrew, and his votes went over to M. Faure, who had been Minister of Marine in a late Cabinet, "and yet," says Mr. Bodley, " it is probable that on the previous New Year's Day, even in Paris, in the heart of political life, not one person in a thousand knew him even by name." It was like the election of James K. Polk to be President of the United States, in 1844. M. Faure had, however, been well known to those associated with him in the busi- ness duties of the Chamber. In all practical matters his colleagues had found him far-sighted and intelligent. In Havre, for which he sat as Deputy, he enjoyed the esteem and confidence of his fellow-townsmen. Deputies in France are commonly selected from among lawyers, professors, doctors, and journalists ; it is rare that a man of business enters a Cabinet, or is elected to the Legislature. M. Faure represented no family in France of historical influence, like P^rier or Carnot ; he was no political theorist like M, Gr^vy ; he had no military prestige like MacMahon, no world-wide reputation like M. Thiers, " but his genial manners, his correct deportment, and his blithe alertness in performing his social functions, made him a popular hero, before the detractors of M. Casimir-P6rier had had time to recognize that he was of that odious bourgeois FELIX FAURE. PRESIDENT FELIX FAURE 47 class whose members, without rank, aspired to the influence of wealth in the community, especially in all matters relat- ing to finance." When, however, it became manifest that the new President was becoming popular, the Socialists grew alarmed to think that a capitalist and an employer was winning good opinions from all classes of society. They raised the cry of " Danger to the State ! " before the new President had been a month in the Presidential Chair. It was impossible to deny that, according to every mean- ing attached to the word, M. Faure was a bourgeois. His supporters found it desirable to make out that he had at least begun life as a manual laborer, a man who had earned his bread by the work of his hands. His family had had its origin in Provence ; his father had come up to Paris, and was a furniture-maker on a small scale. F^lix was for a time apprenticed to a tanner, and soon after his election Paris was flooded with pictures representing him in a workman's blouse, disordered, blood-stained, and very dirty. The accusation of being a bourgeois, pur et simple, thus being refuted, the enemies of the new President turned their attacks in another direction. In France any- thing like commercial failure is supposed to reflect dis- credit on all branches of the family of the defaulter. A most despicable intrigue was carried on, upon these lines, against President Faure, which, when it was brought to light, only strengthened his position. An ignoble crowd of political workers endeavored to blackmail the head of the State by threatening him with the disclosure of a domestic scandal unless he retired into private life of his own accord. The scandal in question v/as simply that Madame Faure's father, before she was born, had com- mitted a breach of trust, and had become an absconder. When, twenty years later, M. Faure sought to marry the young girl, she told him of these circumstances, and instead of being repelled by the shadow on the family name, he loyally and honorably refused to part from her. When 48 LAST YEARS OF THE NIA^'ETEENTfl CENTURY these circumstances became public, all this turned to the credit of M. Faure and to that of his excellent wife, and the result was that France gained a new appreciation of her President, as a man who, being honorable in private life, could afford to be brave in public office. One of the first duties of a President of France and indeed of all persons placed in exceptionally high positions, according to the modern code, is to hold reviews, visit hospitals, appear at exhibitions, preside at fetes, lay corner- stones, and make tours in the Provinces. All these func- tions M. Faure fulfilled with exemplary diligence and geniality. He seemed to enjoy them. He was a tall, well-made man, and his manners had the dignity of those of M. Carnot, but with more grace. He even inspired hope among the better class of Frenchmen that he might prove more than a mere honorary official, — a real head of the State, exerting a discreet but effectual influence over the Government. But circumstances were too strong for him. In spite of his brave spirit, his prudence, and his skill, he became, what his predecessors had been, little more than the figure-head of a storm-tossed ship, and he died, broken down by cares and disappointments, after four years of political worry. For two years after he became President, little occurred in France to interest the world beyond its borders ; but Parliamentary squabbles were carried on with great bitter- ness. Under the Presidencies of M. Carnot and M. Cas- imir-P^rier, scepticism and violence were the dominant notes in Parliamentary eloquence. The same thing con- tinued under the Presidency of M. Faure. The integrity of nearly every public man was called in question. The Panama scandal, and that of railroads in the South of France, were revived. It was in these years that Arton and Herz offered to make revelations, but the latter drew back at the last moment. In consequence of Arton's con- fessions some arrests of public men took place, but interest in these scandals was no longer intense. The Minister for Foreign Affairs was M. Hanotaux, a PRESIDENT F£LIX FAURE 49 young man who had already acquired a high reputation. Speaking, in 1895, of M. Hanotaux's accession to office, M. Gabriel Monod, who, in 1898 and 1899, was a most earnest Dreyfusard, made this remark, which shows how imphcitly all Frenchmen then believed in the good faith and ability of the court-martial which had condemned Dreyfus at the close of 1894. He said: " Hanotaux found himself confronted by not a few matters of impor- tance. The treachery of Captain Dreyfus involved a grave national question, for the principal document in evidence against him had been stolen from a foreign government." We know now that M. Hanotaux was not confronted by the probability of any immediate war with Germany, but that there were other international matters on the tapis that required his delicate handling. A war was going on between China and Japan which threatened to involve European nations in disputes with one another, and the relations of France with England in Africa, both in the East and in the West, were becoming very complicated. In Madagascar, France had assumed the White Man's Burden, in opposition to the known views of M. Hanotaux ; and she found that it lay heavy on her shoulders, with little glory, honor, or commercial advan- tage to offset the loss of money and of life it was certain to entail. In Eastern Europe there was an impending war between Turkey and Greece ; an insurrection in Crete was to be assisted or suppressed, and, above all, there was the question of the Armenian massacres. M. Gabriel Hanotaux was a self-made man, born near St. Quentin, in Picardy, in 1853. His grandfather was a shrewd peasant, who cultivated his own land. He was a prudent manager, was respected by his neighbors, and did well. His son (the father of Gabriel) became a notary public. He sent his boy to the Lyc^e at St. Quentin, where, patient, industrious, and kindly, he was popular with his school-fellows. He made an excellent scholar, and was particularly distinguished by his love of history. He was not apparently ambitious of advancement, but it was his 4 50 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY earnest desire to do everything well. When he quitted the Lyc^e, he was sent to Paris to study law. His father had a cousin in the capital, the wife of Henri Martin, the his- torian. When the young student went to see her, she dis- couraged him by assuring him that he could never succeed in Paris at the bar, as his provincial accent would make it impossible for him to produce effect as a public speaker ; but M. Martin took him to see Gambetta, who employed him to write articles on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in his paper, " La Republique Frangaise." He was also attached to the department of Archives, and while there he labored diligently to collect materials for an exhaustive memoir of Cardinal Richelieu, whose career, strange to say, had never, up to that time, found a compe- tent historian. He next became a professor, and lectured on History in the Ecole des Hautes Etudes ; he also found employment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he was soon advanced to the position of Chief Clerk. But all this brought him little remuneration, and although he lived with extreme simplicity, he found it hard to make his means meet his expenses. When Gambetta in 1881 became Prime Minister, he took Hanotaux into his Cabi- net as a sort of under- secretary. In 1886, he was sent to Constantinople as an attach^ to the Embassy. Unfortunately he has never travelled, except during his connection with this mission. He reads English, but can converse in no foreign tongue, which is a great disadvan- tage to a statesman, especially to one connected chiefly with foreign affairs. His services while at Constantinople were of great use to his superiors, especially in what con- cerned the management of Bulgarian affairs. On his return to France he was elected Deputy from his own department, but all the North of France, especially all Picardy, was in 1889 wild with enthusiasm for Boulanger. A representative who stood out boldly in the Chamber against the methods and ulterior objects of le brav' general, was not to the taste of his constituents. In the general election that followed, public meetings to secure his re-elec- PRESIDENT FELIX FA URE 5 I tion were broken up by stone fights and fisticuffs. It is said that a trap was even laid to take his life. He was not re-elected, and made no subsequent effort to enter the Chamber, where indeed he had played the part of a man of business, not that of a political orator. In May, 1894, shortly before the death of M. Camot, he was made Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet that succeeded that in which Casimir-P^rier was Premier ; and his ability in that position was so marked that the Radi- cal successor of M. P^rier begged him to retain his port- folio. M. Hanotaux did not consent. He disagreed with the Cabinet about Madagascar, and his wish was to avoid irritating England until France could concentrate her strength for one mighty effort to checkmate her in Egyptian affairs. When he returned to office, he found Madagascar annexed, and what in his opinion was an unsatisfactory agreement entered into with England, con- cerning French colonies in Eastern Asia. He, however, accepted these things as accomplished facts, and turned his attention to negotiations with England concerning the boundaries of French and English possessions in West Africa. In this matter he was so successful that Lord Sahs- bury was accused in England of sacrificing English interests to avoid a rupture with France, but Lord Salisbury was well aware that English interests in West Africa and Central Africa were as nothing compared to those in countries watered by the Nile. M. Hanotaux was always anxious to preserve the warmest relations of friendship with Russia, and he was personally a strong friend of Prince Lobanoff, the Russian Ambassador. Cecil Rhodes, after the Jameson Raid, when his popularity in England was at a low ebb, visited M. Hanotaux as he passed through Paris. " I am nobody now," said Cecil Rhodes to Hanotaux ; " I am a broken man ; but I may come to the front again some day." It seerris unlikely that France in the coming century will ever recover the prestige she acquired as a colonial power in the days of Louis XIV. She has not French- 52 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY men enough to Europeanize lands peopled by savages. Her young men, by whom colonies might be developed, are absorbed by her large army. She has not, as England has, capable and honest colonial administrators, trained to the work, and willing to devote themselves to national interests at the antipodes. Nor has she private companies ready to invest large fortunes in colonial development. The French idea of colonial management is to make of each new possession a French department. Troops are sent there, Frenchmen establish telegraphs and postal ser- vice in it, and departmental methods are at once intro- duced ; but there are few or no Frenchmen in the country except army men and ofificials. This state of things, the timidity of capitalists, the danger of Parliamentary interfer- ence, the difficulty of getting able and honest men to aban- don the soil of France for that of distant regions, may for a long time render fruitless the enormous sacrifices France has made for her colonial possessions. This state of affairs ought to be an object lesson to other nations. But few of us, in moments of national enthusiasm, show any disposition to profit by the experience of others. In October, 1896, the young Emperor of Russia and his wife, after their coronation at Moscow, made a European tour. They visited Paris, and were received with trans- ports of welcome. The delirium excited by the presence of Russian naval officers in France was nothing to that roused when the Czar came to visit those who persisted in believing themselves his new allies. At a banquet at the Elys^e, President Faure, in proposing a toast to the Em- peror, said that " his presence had sealed the bonds uniting the two countries in a harmonious activity, and in a mutual confidence in their destinies, and that the union of a powerful empire and a hard-working republic had already exercised a beneficent influence on the peace of the world, and strengthened by a proud fidelity would continue to spread abroad its fortunate influence." The Czar replied that " faithful to an unforgettable tradition, he had come to France to visit the head of a nation to which he was PRESIDENT FELIX FAURE 53 united by such precious bonds, and he begged the Presi- dent to interpret to the whole of France his sentiment that the cordiaHty with which he had been received could not but leave on his mind the happiest influence." A million and a half of people flocked into Paris for the occasion. France dreamed of the humiliation of Ger- many, and the restitution of Alsace and Lorraine. Mr. Bodley remarks, " It was said that the plaudits of the crowds were addressed to the chief of a sympathetic nation, which had taken France out of her isolation ; but had it been possible for the sister Repubhc of America to per- form that office, it may be doubted if the spectacle of the President of the United States promenading the Boulevards with his citizen colleague of France would have produced the same democratic rapture. The French saluted in the person of the Czar an autocrat, the absolute master of legions, which, at a word from him, may one day march to victory side by side with the armies of France." It is imposed on the President of the French Republic never to attend public worship, never to pronounce the name of God in any public utterance, lest he should offend the anti-clericals, and, like every other functionary in France, President F^lix Faure submitted to the terrorism of a small minority, and carefully avoided official appear- ance in the churches, "as if," says Mr. Bodley, "they were places of ill repute." At Rheims, where he went to inaugurate a statue of the Maid of Orleans, whose only connection with that city was, that in its cathedral she had crowned Charles VII., President Faure, not daring to enter its hallowed precincts, took care not to reach the city until the religious observ- ances were over. But on one occasion — one only — during his Presi- dency, he made an official visit to Notre Dame. " When the Czar of Russia came to Paris, the young autO' crat profited from the curious deference paid him by the French nation to read the Republican Government a lesson in reli- gious decorum. Though not a member of the Roman com- 54 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY munion, he expressed his desire to pay his respects to the rehgion professed by the majority of the people whose guest he was ; and thus the President of the Republic went officially to the metropolitan Cathedral of Notre Dame, not as the chosen chief of many millions of Catholics, but as the polite attendant of a foreign potentate. The Czar plainly intimated to the French Government that only as a Christian prince did he accept its homage, and his first public act in France was to proceed with pomp to a solemn service at the Russian Church, though he had not found that ceremony necessary when visiting Great Britain or Germany. One of the most singular results of the Franco-Russian alliance was that in its desire to please its august ally, the Republican Government, which officially ignored religious solemnities celebrated by French- men and Frenchwomen, displayed a sudden cult for the offices of the Orthodox rite. On every birthday or other festival of the imperial family of Romanoff, the high officials of the French Republic trooped to prayers to the Russian Church in the Rue Daru." What led to such enthusiasm on the part of France for an alliance with a nation essentially unlike itself? " The homage," says Mr. Bodley, " paid by France to Russia in the last decade of the nineteenth century is one of the most curious international spectacles ever presented to Europe, regarded either as the attitude of one great Power before another, or as that of a democracy before despotism." Not many years earlier, all France had been permeated with sympathy for Poland ; but after the disas- ters of 187 1, the absorbing aspiration of Frenchmen has been the recovery of the lost provinces, Alsace and Lorraine. Not that these provinces are dear to France and Frenchmen in themselves. They were not an inte- gral part of France. The peasants of Alsace had preserved their German language. Alsatians were to Parisians what Galileans were once to Jewish aristocrats in Jerusalem. When we lived in Paris in 1839, 1840, 1841, 1847, ^^^ 1848, we had Alsatian servants, and realized that they were never considered " quite French " when brought into contact with Parisians. We have seen in the Dreyfus affair that to be an Alsatian told against a French officer PRESIDENT FELIX FA URE 5 5 more than to have been born an Austrian. France obtained Alsace in 1697, partly through diplomacy and partly through success in war. But Louis XIV., realizing that its possession was of no great value, was ready to restore it to Germany, had it been demanded as a con- dition of peace, after the battle of Malplaquet. Lorraine was ceded to France, only twenty- three years before the Revolution, its Duke receiving in exchange the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Lorraine was, however, always more French than Alsace, and it is greatly to be lamented that the wish of the Emperor Frederick (then Crown Prince of Prussia) to leave her to France in 187 1, was overruled by Von Moltke, who urged that in a military point of view Germany must hold possession of Metz, for the security of her new frontier. To all appearance, the people of Alsace and Lorraine have not been oppressed by their German conquerors. But above all things France desires the recovery of these provinces. She counts for nothing the annexation of Nice and Savoy under the Second Empire. Her alliance with Russia seemed to Frenchmen a first step in la revanche ; that is, in the great revenge for what she had lost. It is not to be supposed that Russia would enter into a close alliance with France which had this aim in view without, in case a new map of Europe is constructed by her help, receiving a quid pro quo. Russia is supposed to desire the posses- sion of Constantinople and an open port on the Mediter- ranean quite as much as France desires the recovery of Alsace and Lorraine. Once before Russia was in close alliance with France, when Alexander I. and Napoleon at Erfurt planned the division of Europe into an eastern and a western empire, but their agreement split upon this point. Napoleon would not yield to the wish of the Czar to gain possession of Constantinople. As far back as 1889 a formal treaty of alliance between France and Russia was believed to have occupied the attention of the two governments. In 1894, President Car- 56 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY not and Casimir-Perier, who was his Prime Minister, are said to have signed a military convention, preliminary to a definite treaty of alliance. Then came the assassination of President Carnot, and the brief presidency of Casimir- Pdrier, during which negotiations were actively carried on by M. Hanotaux and Prince Lobanoff, his personal friend. When Prince Lobanoff died, his place was filled by Count Muravieff. Next came the Czar's visit to Paris, then the return visit of M. Faure to Russia, whither he went, in the summer of 1897, in a French war steamer, accompanied by a French fleet. The word alliance had been carefully avoided until the treaty should be definitively signed, and the French people were, eager to catch the first official utter- ance that should pronounce that word. At the final ban- quet given on board the French flagship " Pothuau " on August 26, before the French squadron sailed for home, President Faure spoke of " two friendly and allied nations, guided by a common ideal of civilization, law, and justice, uniting in a brotherly manner in a most sincere and loyal embrace." And the Czar, in reply, said : " I am happy to see that your stay among us is binding a new tie between our friendly and allied nations, who are both equally re- solved to contribute by everything in their power to the maintenance of the peace of the world, in a spirit of justice and equity." These words declared to the world that then, if not be- fore, France and Russia stood united by a solemn compact in a common policy of alliance " for the maintenance of peace." It does not appear thus far that the Dual Alliance be- tween France and Russia, if it has its raison d^etre in un- satisfied aspirations, will precipitate war. Both nations may, as sailors say, " Stand by," for their next opportunity. The chief result of the alliance thus far has been to gratify France, which since 187 1 has bitterly felt her isolation, by drawing her back into the concert of European Powers. Another result reached thus far by the Dual Alliance PRESIDENT FELIX FAURE 57 has been to enable Russia to raise much-needed loans from French financiers. The contracting parties in both the Dual and the Triple Alliance have indeed protested that their especial object is to preserve the status quo in Europe, and to maintain peace ; but the French people, under the influence of their hopes, are disinclined to believe them, and indeed it seems possible that though for the present " nothing has come " of these alliances (to use the homely language of the fireside and the nursery), an opportunity may arise in the coming century when the Franco-Russian alliance may re- sult in an attempt to fulfil the hopes with which the con- tracting parties have been generally credited. Meantime the Dual Alliance is by some considered a standing menace to Germany and England. France, after years of isolation and anxiety, feels tolerably safe as to the immediate future. Her whole interest during the past three years has been concentrated on two subjects, — the "Affaire," which was the popular name for the Dreyfus trial, with the attempts at revolution that came out of it, and the Exposition in 1900, the present year. The Dreyfus case will need a sepa- rate chapter, and we must say something about French Pretenders. Meantime there are persons in Paris who thought that they foresaw, in the comparatively peaceful and popular presidency of M. Faure, signs that some sort of secret understanding existed between him and the mixed multitude eager for change. History may hereafter clear up these obscure matters, and vindicate the plain dealing of President Faure, although indeed plain dealing is not a fundamental principle of diplomacy. There is reason to believe that the Marchand Mission sent across Africa, con- sisting of eight Europeans and one hundred and fifty Sene- galese soldiers, owed its inception and support to President Faure. Any one who reads the diplomatic correspondence con- cerning Fashoda loses all perception of what was right and what was wrong in the affair. This much, however, is certain, that Major Marchand's little party in the Fashoda 58 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY swamp was at the mercy of the Anglo-Egyptian army, which had conquered the Khahfa, and won the battle of Omdurman ; that England could not consent to have the fruits of her dear-bought victory at Omdurman snatched from her by a party of French adventurers who had made their way to the upper waters of the Nile ; and that her costly scheme for the irrigation of Egypt depended on her possession of the Nile Valley and the upper waters of the river, to say nothing of her great project for the Cape-to- Cairo Railroad, on the completion of which, an American missionary bishop has lately told us, depends the civilization and Christianization of Africa. France had been warned in good time that any attempt to interfere with the Anglo- Egyptian occupation of the Nile Valley would be resented as an unfriendly act. But the result of Major Marchand's expedition and the hauling down of the French flag raised over a ruined fort at Fashoda, put an end to M. Faure's hopes of checkmating England's aspirations in Egypt, and brought upon his country what Frenchmen were pleased to consider a humiliation. On May 4, 1897, occurred the terrible disaster in Paris at the Charity Bazaar, in the Rue Jean Goujon, which stirred the hearts of all who read or heard of it throughout the civilized world. In Paris ladies of high rank have long been foremost in works of charity. A fair was planned by them which should combine a large number of charitable objects ; and among the leaders of the enterprise were the Duchesse d'Uzes and the Duchesse d'Alengon, a Bavarian princess, widow of the Due d'Alengon, the second son of the Due de Nemours, a lady greatly beloved in the Orleans family. A large frame and canvas building had been put up for the occasion. The ceiling was loosely covered with painted canvas, the walls (or rather the wooden framework of the building) were covered with the same ; the interior was fitted up so as to have the appearance of Old Paris, and antique settles in large numbers were screwed down to the floor. The building had been erected on a vacant lot of PRESIDENT F£LIX FAURE 59 ground, and was surrounded by a high wooden paUng. On one side was a narrow alley, which divided it from a tall building used as a hotel. All fashionable Paris crowded to the Fair ; the streets around were blocked with carriages. The ladies wore their new spring bonnets, all tulle and flowers that year ; and it was the fashion to wear large fluted ruffs of lace or gauze around the neck, a long-obsolete custom of a former century. At four in the afternoon, when the crowd in and around the building was most packed, a cry of fire was raised, and the great assemblage, panic-stricken, rushed to the door. There was but one known entrance ; the building had been planned to prevent intrusion. On leaving the hall, the way divided into two short flights of steps leading to the great outer door. A gasoline lamp, used in the exhibition of some views, had suddenly flared up and the flame had caught some drapery. Almost in a minute the whole building was in flames, and from the ceiling dropped blazing fragments of painted canvas on the heads of tulle and lace that thronged the hall. So rapid was the destruction that there was no time to send for fire-engines. The men-servants, outside with the carriages, exerted themselves nobly to save the victims, but of the selfishness and pusillanimity of ces beaux messieurs in the building, it is better to say nothing. The stories that appeared in all the papers of Europe and America of deaths and of escapes were heart-rending. In half an hour the conflagration was at an end. The great hall and the paling that surrounded it lay a heap of ashes. A few persons made their way into the alley, and were dragged by servants of the hotel through its windows into safety. The Duchesse d'Uzes saved herself because she knew of a small side door leading into a little yard at the back of the building. The Duchesse d'Alengon refused to seek for safety, saying that the managers were bound to see all others safe before they left the hall. These 60 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY were probably her last words, for her death followed almost immediately after. She was so terribly burnt that after long search her remains could be identified only by a ring found among charred fragments of flesh and bones among the ashes. Her death was so great a shock to the Due d'Aumale, her uncle by marriage, who was in Italy at that time for his health, that he did not survive it. There was for some time much fear that Mademoiselle Lucie Faure, the second daughter of the President, was among the victims. She had started for the Fair with a friend, but their carriage had been detained on the way, and they had not reached the building when the fire began. Help and sympathy flowed in from all directions when the peril was over. Enormous sums of money were brought personally, as well as sent, to the bureaux empowered to receive them. Persons were informed that they might either contribute to the general fund, or designate the particular cases to which they wished their money to be applied. Among these were widows who left destitute children, or women so maimed and disabled that they could do nothing for their own support. Many of these received from charitable sympathizers sums large enough to make for them a comfortable provision. For weeks after the fire, Parisians were fearful of entering public places of amusement, and the size of audiences on that account diminished all over the world. There is now a handsome substantial building for the use of future fairs and charitable exhibitions, built on the spot where the disaster occurred, together with a small chapel, both erected by funds contributed by the Comtesse de Castellane, an American lady, formerly Miss Anna Gould of New York. President Faure, besides his great disappointment over the miscarriage of the Fashoda expedition (of which I will tell more in a future chapter) was perplexed and perturbed through the last twelve months of his life by the rising excite- ment over the Dreyfus affair. He could foresee that its settlement would involve a crisis. He does not seem to PRESIDENT FELIX FAURE 6 1 have been able to determine with which party the President of the French Repubhc ought to take sides. If he could only play no part in it, and let those who had the affair in hand bring it in some way to a conclusion, that might, he seems to have thought, be best, after all, and he would stand by to take advantage of unforeseen developments. All through 1898 trials connected with the "Affaire " were going on, — the trial of Zola and of Picquart, andthe ac- cusations of M. de Quesnay de Beaurepaire against the Court of Cassation. President Faure took no part in any of these things, nor did he notice the letters which the prisoner on Devil's Island piteously addressed to him. He was becoming worn out with worry and anxiety. Twice he had been shot at, both times by crazed fanatics, and it requires unbroken health and strong nerves to stand the strain of apprehending every day that a bullet may reach your heart before nightfall. On Feb. 16, 1899, at the age of fifty-six, President Faure, worn out with anxiety and overwork, died in his palace of the Elys^e. He had been signing decrees up to five o'clock in the afternoon, when he complained of feel- ing ill. His secretary placed him on a sofa, and, becoming alarmed, summoned his physician and his family. But he never rallied, and died the same night at ten o'clock. The physicians said his death was due to apoplexy com- plicated with disease of the heart. He was the sixth President of France during the Third Republic. The first was Adolph Thiers, who resigned. The second, Patrice McMahon, who also resigned. The third, Jules Gr^vy, who resigned. The fourth, Sadi Carnot, who was assassinated. The fifth, Casimir-Perier, who re- signed. The sixth, F^lix Faure, who died in office. Let us hope that his successor, Emile Loubet, will safely see the end of his Presidential term. CHAPTER IV THE DREYFUS CASE AT Miilhausen (Mulhouse), in Alsace, lived a Jewish family bearing the not uncommon name of Dreyfus. They were rich manufacturers, and had large factories. In 187 1 the head of the family had several daughters and four sons. When, on the annexation of Alsace to Ger- many, a choice was offered to all persons of remaining Frenchmen or becoming Germans, Jacques, the; eldest of the four, remained in Mulhouse to manage the family fac- tories, but his three brothers, of whom Alfred was the youngest, declared themselves French. Jacques sent four of his six sons to pursue their fortunes in France, whence, by law, they were not to return to their German father's home. The firm had done much business in Chili. It had had an important lawsuit with the Chilian Government, and employed M. Waldeck-Rousseau, another Alsatian, as its agent and counsel. In 1897 Jacques gave up business, and, emigrating to France, was naturalized as a Frenchman. Alfred had been sent to school first in Mulhouse, where one of his school- fellows was Scheurer-Kestner, afterwards Vice-President of the French Chamber of Deputies. Alfred Dreyfus was not popular among his comrades in the French army. Like a certain young Corsican officer a century before, he was too fond of investigating everything. Nothing seemed safe from his inquiries. His brother officers were inert ; he was restlessly energetic, determined to advance himself by activity and by a thorough knowledge of his profession. In September, 1894, an Alsatian, employed as janitor at the German Chancellerie in Paris, brought to Major Henry, THE DREYFUS CASE ^l sub-chief of the Intelligence Department of the General Staff, a paper torn into small pieces, said at one time to have been taken from a waste -paper basket at the Embassy, at another from the overcoat pocket of Colonel Schwartz- koppen, the German military attach^. It is the business of military attaches to collect all possi- ble information concerning military affairs in the country to which their ambassador is accredited and to send it to their government. They are a sort of recognized hon- orable spies; even the American Embassy in 1894 con- tained such a person, who got himself into trouble because he overstepped the limits of etiquette as laid down in professional spydom. The document delivered to Major Henry was the famous bordereau, meaning the outside cover of a number of documents enclosed ; the documents had been taken out, but the cover had an enumeration of their contents written upon it. From some words in the bordereau it was inferred that the writer was an artillery officer on the General Staff, and, from an examination made of the handwriting of all officers so employed, it was also inferred that Captain Dreyfus was the writer ; not that to a foreigner there is much perceptible difference between one French handwriting and another. The leading officers of the General Staff, General Boisdeffre being their chief, and General Mercier Minister of War, consulted M. Bertillon, head of the Crim- inal Intelligence Bureau in Paris. M. Bertillon was the son of a man who had invented the system of measurements now used in all countries by the police. The son was an expert in handwriting with a queer theory based on diagrams, which he afterwards endeavored in vain to explain to judges at the court-martial at Rennes, and to the judges and jury on the trial of M. Zola. The conclu- sion arrived at by Generals Boisdeffre and Mercier was that Dreyfus must have written the bordereau. On Oct. 15, 1S94, Major du Paty de Clam of the Gen- eral Staff Intelligence Department sent for Dreyfus into 64 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY his private room, laying a loaded pistol within his reach upon a table, and then set him to write from dictation a letter containing phrases taken from the bordereau. Not unnaturally (perceiving he was under suspicion), Dreyfus turned pale, and his hand was unsteady. At once he was arrested, and without being told of what he was suspected, he was taken by Colonel Henry to the Cherche Midi mili- tary prison. There Major Forzinetti, the commandant of the prison, was waiting to receive him, for his arrest had been determined on before the test was put to him. Forzinetti, a man of great experience in the behavior of criminals, soon came to the conclusion that this pris- oner was innocent ; and though forced to keep him au secret, — that is, to allow him to communicate with no one but the commandant himself, and those admitted by an order from his superiors, — he gave him his sympathy. Dreyfus had an admirable wife and two little children. His moral conduct, placed, as it were, under a microscope, stood the test of examination better, we venture to think, than that of most young officers in the French army would have done. His wife was left without the privilege of hearing from him, and for some hours knew not what had become of him. Then Major Henry was sent to search his house, and Madame Dreyfus was cautioned that if she revealed to any one her anxiety about her husband, it would bring more trouble upon him. Nothing incriminating was found in the house, unless it were some correspondence between Dreyfus and his sister, from which a theory was afterwards set up concerning the authorship of the bordereau. Dreyfus had given up his keys, saying to Colonel Henry that he might search every place in his house, but he would find nothing there. This was interpreted to mean that he had destroyed all incrim- inating evidence. The suffering of Dreyfus in his cell in the Cherche Midi prison as reported by Major Forzinetti seems to have been horrible. Day after day he ate nothing but some broth. THE DREYFUS CASE 65 He flung himself against the walls ; he sobbed and groaned. Daily du Paty de Clam came on the part of General Mercier to urge him to confess, but nothing but the declaration " I am innocent ! " could be drawn from him. One night du Paty de Clam wished to creep into his cell, and when he was asleep flash a light into his face. Major Forzinetti refused to allow this, but afterwards at the Devil's Island it was one of the means of torture tried. General Mercier made at first a pretence of wishing to save Dreyfus, hoping, I suppose, he would make a false confession ; but ten days before the court-martial he wrote a communication to a newspaper, saying, '•' The guilt of this officer is absolutely certain." The court-martial took place on Dec. 19, 1894, with closed doors, which was not unusual in such cases; but most of the documents on which the accusation was founded were withheld from the prisoner and Maitre Demange, his counsel, but exhibited in secret to the judges. The chief judge declared afterwards in the trial at Rennes that \vz had been too tired to look over them carefully ! Dreyfus was condemned to public degradation, and to solitary confinement for life. He fancied this would be in New Caledonia, where his wife and children, if living on the island, would be admitted from time to time to see him ; but General Mercier, desirous above all things to get rid of him, induced the Chamber of Deputies to pass an especial law sending him to an island on the coast of French Guiana, — the Island of the Devil. I have told of the scene of his " degradation," Jan. 5, 1895, as related by a press correspondent who believed him guilty. We know now that the day before it took place du Paty de Clam had visited him, and had offered on the part of the Minister of War — General Mercier — (who, we cannot but think, had personal motives for insist- ing on the guilt of this unhappy man) to spare him the torture of the public degradation if he would confess his guilt so far as to say that he had given certain worthless documents to a German military attach^, in return for S 66 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY more important ones to be delivered to him in exchange, — a kind of transaction not unknown in the Intelhgence Department. But nothing could be wrung from him. While in great agitation walking up and down a little office at the Ecole Militaire, waiting for the clock to strike the hour when his degradation would begin, he said, muttering to himself: " If I would but have confessed that I had delivered documents of no value in exchange for others of importance, this would have been spared me." The officer on duty, Captain Lebrun-Renault, an honest, thick-headed man, caught these words, and imagined them to contain a confession. To the lie du Diable Dreyfus was sent a month later, protesting his innocence even in his sleep. We have seen how belief in his guilt was accepted by public men, and even by our Annual Cyclopedia. A year passed thus. The prisoner at Devil's Island had been forgotten by the public. His case was a chose jugee ; and according to French military law the chose jugee is a thing finished and disposed of, as unassailable and irrever- sible as a decree of Fate. But in the spring of 1896 Colonel Picquart, a man who had never known Captain Dreyfus, succeeded Colonel Sandherr in the Intelligence Depart- ment of the General Staff. Then a petit bleu fell into his hands. A petit bleu is a sort of sealed postal card, used in Paris, which has the privileges of what we call " special delivery." It was torn, like the bordereau, and had never been put in the post. It had been abstracted from the German Embassy, and was in the handwriting of Schwartzkoppen. On being pieced together, it was found to bear the name and address of Major Esterhazy. This led Colonel Picquart to make some inquiries con- cerning the means and character of Esterhazy. This person, Charles Marie Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, belongs to a younger branch of the great Hungarian family of that name, which had settled in France one hundred years before, where some of its members distinguished themselves in the French army. In later years the father THE DREYFUS CASE 6/ of this Esterhazy did good service in the Crimean War. His son was born after his death, and was educated in Vienna. In 1866 he entered the Austrian service as a cavalry officer, and was wounded at the battle of Custozza. Why he abruptly left the Austrian army and joined the Pope's Roman Legion, has never been known to the public. When the Franco- German war began, he offered his sword to the French Emperor, was made a sub-lieutenant in the Army of the Loire, and, as far as fighting went, served with some credit. He afterwards complained that he had been called by some a Reitcr, a Free Lance, a Condottiere. " It may be so," he cried ; " I glory in it. With soldiers like me men used to win battles, and such as I did not abandon their comrades in the melees These last words were probably in allusion to some personal grievance against French officers, for though he had entered the French service he hated the French army. He said its generals were igno- rant and cowardly. He wished he were a captain of Uhlans, sabring Frenchmen. He gloried in a vision of Paris taken by assault and given over to be sacked by a hundred thousand drunken soldiers. He married a French lady of good family, who had a large fortune. The fortune he spent and then threw his wife back on the hands of her relations. With all this, there was always a charm in his personality. " He was as gifted as he was winning. He spoke nearly every language in Europe, and it is no common man in France who can speak foreign languages at all. He kept up with every discovery in science, was well read in general history, and took great interest in military affairs." When he wanted money (and he was always out of pocket) he used his wits and the charm of his manners to obtain it. In a duel that the Marquis de Mores, a bitter hater of the Jews, fought with a Jewish officer, he offered himself as second to the latter, who was killed, that he might have a claim to favor with the Rothschilds, and get them to make him loans. He obtained the money of a 68 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY young relation to whom he appeared to be playing the part of a friend. In short, he betrayed everybody ; no one brought into contact with him escaped without injury. Schwartzkoppen, by permission of his Government, has frankly deposed that he was a paid spy. There is really no question that he wrote the bordereau. The only reason for any doubt about it is the fact that he has said he wrote it. This reminds me of a conversation I heard in 1849 in the house of a leading philanthropist in Boston, who was visited by two other Transcendental philanthropists to ask him to join in a petition for the pardon of Dr. Webster, convicted of the murder of Dr. Parkman. " But he has confessed he did it," was the objection raised. " Oh ! but he is such a seasoned liar no one can be expected to believe a word he says," was the prompt answer. And so with Esterhazy. It requires corroborative evidence to be- lieve anything he said, even a confession. Once put on the track of discovery, Colonel Picquart compared the handwriting in the bordereau with that of Esterhazy. He was struck with the resemblance. Without saying whose handwriting it was, he showed it both to Bertillon and du Paty de Clam, and they agreed with him that the same hand that had written those extracts had penned the bordereau. Then Picquart consulted the secret dossier to which he had access, as it was in his department in the Intelligence Office. He found in it much gossip, much that was irrele- vant, and saw that the only incriminating documents it contained would apply as well to Esterhazy as to Dreyfus. Meantime one of the morning papers in Paris published a facsimile of the bordereau. When this appeared, M. de Castro, the stock broker of Esterhazy, was struck by its resemblance to his handwriting, and communicated the fact to Matthieu Dreyfus, the prisoner's brother. Though the chose jugee could not be rejudged, the ver- dict of a court-martial became null and void, if it were shown that the proceedings of that court had been illegal. Maitre Demange, therefore, having ascertained that an im- THE DREYFUS CASE 69 portant document bearing on the case had been secretly shown to the judges and not communicated to the prisoner or his counsel, encouraged Madame Dreyfus to petition for a revision of the trial. By this time General Billot was INIinister of War, and although M. Scheurer-Kestner, Vice- President of the Senate, convinced by the proofs laid before him that Dreyfus was entitled to a revision of his case, urged his views upon the new minister, the latter was unwilling to provoke discussion of the subject, and there- fore made an official statement before the Chamber of Deputies that Dreyfus had been legally and justly tried and condemned. Thus the War Office placed itself on record as against those who prayed for a revision of the trial. Colonel Pic- quart, who had shown that trap de zele deprecated by Tal- leyrand in a subordinate, was removed from the Intelligence Department (where Major, now Lieutenant-Colonel Henry succeeded him) and was banished to Tunis, secret orders being despatched to the commander there that he should be sent to a dangerous post in the frontier, where the Marquis de Mores' had been recently murdered by the Arabs. Of other plots to discredit and ruin Colonel Picquart while he remained in Tunis, there is no space to speak here. Neither is it necessary to tell of the trial and acquittal of Esterhazy, nor how the battle for and against revision of the trial of Dreyfus soon engrossed the whole of French politics, entered into family relations, and sundered friend- ships in private life. Esterhazy had a story to tell of a veiled lady who sum- moned him to meet her at night upon a bridge where she delivered to him an important document bearing on the Dreyfus case, which he was to put into the hands of the Minister of War. The "veiled lady" was proved after- wards to be no other than du Paty de Clam. But we cannot here go into side issues of the story. It is at once melodrama and tragedy. Next Emile Zola took a hand in the affair, and pub- 70 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY lished his celebrated letter in the Aurore newspaper, begin- ning every sentence with " J'accuse." For this letter, which Mr. Dooley so amusingly parodied, he was cited to appear before a civil jury ; but the War Office interfered, and insisted that the inquiry must be confined to the charges made by Zola in his letter ; namely, that the find- ing, acquitting the accused in the Esterhazy trial, had been made according to order. Maitre Labori, a hitherto obscure lawyer, was M. Zola's counsel. In spite of his zeal and great ability, so many obstacles were thrown in his way that his client was convicted of libel, but the sentence was subsequently quashed by the Court of Cassation. A second time Zola was tried on almost the same charge, but the proceedings were so unfair to the accused that his counsel threw up his brief, and Zola was condemned by de- fault to a year of imprisonment, and a fine of three thou- sand francs was imposed on him. He fled into Switzerland. His household effects were put up at public auction to pay the fine. The first article offered was a kitchen table, on which some one in the crowd at once bid four thousand francs, which paid the fine and charges. The saddest part of the affair to Zola was that when he fled in haste from Paris he had to abandon his little dog, which died of grief when deserted by its master. The next scene in the drama was that early in July M. Cavaignac succeeded General Billot as Minister of War. Cavaignac has been always considered by his countrymen as par eminence a truthful, honest man ; when, therefore, he made a speech in the Chamber of Deputies assuring the country that he had. not a doubt of the guilt of Dreyfus, or of the honorable conduct of the court-martial that con- demned him, the Deputies, by a vote of 572 to 2, ordered his speech to be printed and placarded in all the 36,000 communes in France. In the course of his speech M. Cavaignac read corre- spondence between Schwartzkoppen, the German military attache, and Panizzardi of the Italian Embassy, quoting THE DREYFUS CASE 7 1 Dreyfus by name as the source from whom certain infor- mation had been obtained. These letters he had taken from the secret dossier. Maitre Demange, three days later, published the fact that at the court-martial neither the prisoner nor his counsel had seen or heard of these letters, — neither had the judges, as we know now. Six weeks later Cavaignac, conceiving doubts of the authenticity of the letters he had quoted, sent for Colonel Henry, who, under pressure, confessed that he had forged them ; but he insisted that he had done so for the good of his country and for the sake of his superiors. He was sent to prison in Fort Val^rien, and was there found the next day with his throat cut, a razor lying beside him. As prisoners are always searched before being committed to their cells, it seemed strange that he should have been in possession of a razor. The evening before he had been visited by an unknown officer. It was thought by those who believed him to have committed suicide that the act might have been prompted by a wish that his widow should receive a lieutenant-colonel's pension, as, having been born a peasant, he had little else to leave her. After this, Cavaignac quitted the War Office, and General Boisdeffi-e, who had recently returned all-glorious from representing France at the coronation of the Czar, resigned his place as Chief of the General Staff. Du Paty de Clam and Esterhazy were both retired from the army. Next the Court of Cassation undertook to investigate the Dreyfus trial. General Zurlinden, who had succeeded Cavaignac as Minister of War, was a bitter anti-Dreyfusard, though an Alsatian. He resigned when the Court of Cas- sation decided to undertake revision. He was succeeded by General Chanoine, whose abrupt resignation filled every one with surprise. In the Chamber of Deputies he had stood up to defend his colleagues in the Cabinet, but suddenly turned and attacked his former friends. The explanation of this strange proceeding seems to be that General Chanoine had just heard that his son had organ- ized and led a mutiny in Central Africa, and he found that 72 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY the Government was not disposed to show him any consideration. Again Picquart was arrested, this time on a charge of having scratched out a name in the address on le petit bleu, and substituted that of Esterhazy. Esterhazy's name had indeed been scratched out and rewritten in different ink, but Picquart declared this had been done by an enemy, to manufacture evidence against him. Picquart was in court, about to be tried upon this charge, when a demand for him came from the War Office, which desired to try him by court-martial ; but before he was handed over, Picquart stood up and asked leave to speak. " This even- ing, probably," he said, " I shall go to the Cherche Midi, and now will be the last time I can say a word in public. If there is found in my cell the rope of Lemercier- Picard, or the razor of Henry, then I shall have been assassinated. Men like me do not commit suicide." Lemercier-Picard was a forger and a spy, employed sometimes by the War Office, through the agency of du Paty de Clam. In December, 1897, ^^ ^'^^ forged certain documents in the interest of Dreyfus, and offered them to M. Reinach, a friend of the Dreyfus family, who, suspect- ing their authenticity, refused to buy them. He then sold them to Rochefort, the most bitter of anti-Dreyfusards, who published them in his paper, with head-lines, to say that " they had been bought from the Syndicate of Treason, devoted to writing up false documents." A month later Lemercier-Picard was found strangled in his own room, and the police for three days did not make his death public. The inquiry into the legality of the methods of the original court-martial, and the demand for revision of the trial in case the proceedings had been unfair, came before the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation. Then M. de Quesnay de Beaurepaire, who was one of the judges, accused his colleagues of being prejudiced in favor of Drey- fus and the Jews. The result was that all the Chambers of the Court of Cassation were in March, 1899, ordered to investigate and publish their decision as to revision. THE DREYFUS CASE 73 Up to this time, though all England and America were ringing with the name of Dreyfus, — a name that five years before not one man in one hundred thousand had ever heard, — Dreyfus himself remained utterly ignorant that any efforts had been made to serve him, or to restore his honor. His wife's letters were not allowed to tell him anything but news of herself and of their children. Not an echo from the disturbance created throughout the world by his unhappy history reached him in his place of imprisonment. Devil's Island is a mass of piled up rocks, without trees or verdure to relieve the eye, a barren waste parched by a burning sun. Convicts were usually allowed to walk about the island, to cultivate a little patch of ground, if anything could be grown in the rugged space allowed them, and each man had to build for himself a little hut upon the spot assigned him. But these privileges were denied to Dreyfus, who was to be kept au secret, being one who might reveal what was damaging to his superiors ; and when the subject of " revision " was agitating France, the rigors of his captivity, supported by the authority of M. Lebon, Minister for the Colonies, were greatly increased. The authorities excused themselves afterwards by saying that a strange ship had been seen hovering in the neighborhood, and they suspected some design to escape. False letters were addressed to Dreyfus on purpose that they might be seized and sent back to France as evidence against him, thus justifying the increase of cruel precautions by the authorities. The hut in which he lived had always been surrounded by a high paling, so that his only view was a little strip of sky. The hut and its surroundings joined a guard-house with a high tower looking out upon the sea, and commanding a view of every corner of the prisoner's plot of ground. When precautions were redoubled, he was chained day and night, a light was flashed upon him when asleep, in the hope that, awaking with a start, he might say something that could be turned against him. When at the second court-martial at Rennes a report 74 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY was read of these cruelties, and of his sufferings in the Devil's Island, Dreyfus burst into tears. The document read was a report from the Minister of the Colonies to the Minister of War, giving extracts from letters of the Gov- ernor of French Guiana describing the dread the prisoner had expressed to the doctor when he feared he was losing his reason. There had been great hopes he would die before "revision." A coffin was sent from France with embalming materials, and orders were given to shoot him at the first sign of an alarm. At the conclusion of the report read at Rennes M. Lebon asked leave to explain. He said, " I do not dispute the accuracy of the report, but it is partial. The doctor never made any communication to me on the subject ; had he done so, I should have given orders to have the prisoner treated like other invalids." Then the President of the Court, turning to Dreyfus, asked, " Have you anything to say in regard to the deposi- tion?" "No, my colonel," was the reply; " I am here to defend my honor. I do not wish to speak here of the atrocious suffering, physical and moral, which for five years I — a Frenchman, and an innocent man — was subjected to on the Devil's Island." When the Chamber of Deputies had received the report of the Court of Cassation in favor of revision, a second court-martial was appointed to be held at Rennes, the ancient capital of Brittany, and Dreyfus was summoned from Devil's Island. A government war steamer, the " Sfax," was sent to bring him home. He was in the position he had been in in October and November of 1894 before the first court-martial. He was an accused man not yet tried. He was kept au secret on board the " Sfax." His wife had sent him his uniform with its lace and stripes restored, but he refused to put it on. Maitre Demange, his former counsel, sent him a copy of the proceedings before the Court of Cassation relating to " revision," which gave him the first idea that any effort had been made to ameliorate his fate, or to vindicate his honor. THE DREYFUS CASE 75 At the same time the most cruel blow that had yet been dealt fell upon him. He was informed that his wife — his noble, his devoted wife — had been unfaithful to him ; that she did not wish for his return to France, and had an infant child. He had all along wondered why, when it seemed to him so simple a thing to prove his innocence, no steps had been taken by his family. He knew nothing of conspiracy, nothing of the way in which the peace of France, to say nothing of the good name of many in high places, was com- plicated in his trial. He had felt confident that General de Boisdeffre would stand his friend and procure his vindi- cation. He did not know that his brother Matthieu had spent half his fortune to that end, and that his faithful wife had exerted herself so nobly in his cause that all the civil- ized world looked on her with sympathy and admiration ; he did not know that Ministries had been upset to secure for him revision ; that the greatest novelist in France had for his sake gone into exile ; that officers had been cash- iered for maintaining he was innocent; that the Foreign Minister of Germany had publicly declared in the German Parliament that none of the agents of the Intelligence Department had ever, directly or indirectly, had any com- munication with Captain Dreyfus or received any com- munications from him, and that the Emperor William had supported this assertion on his word of honor as a sovereign, a soldier, and a gentleman. He was left to believe that the wife he loved, — to whom he had written loving letters, confiding in her affection, though surprised at what ap- peared to him her want of zeal, and her tardiness to deliver him from all that he was suffering, — had not only neglected him, but had disgraced and betrayed him. This lie would stand out as the most diabolical thing in history, were it not that a similar deception had been practised about the same time on a political prisoner in Italy. On July I, the " Sfax " came into port at Quiberon, a small seaport on the coast of Brittany. Dreyfus was landed from an open boat in a great storm of lightning, thunder, and 76 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY rain, and taken in a landau to Rennes, where thousands of people, journalists, soldiers, politicians, gendarmes, police, witnesses, curious spectators, and revolutionists were looking out for him. He was driven to the prison and there awaited trial. He had not known that another court-martial im- pended. He fancied that his case had been settled by the Court of Cassation, and that after some formalities he would be set at liberty. The judges appointed were seven officers of artillery, his own branch of the service ; and seven men of the French army never could have been placed in a more trying posi- tion. We must always remember in considering the Dreyfus case that the object of this trial was not to find out whether Dreyfus was guilty or not guilty, but to condemn or to vindicate the members of the General Staff, — some of the highest officers in the army ; and that this was to be done by the judgment of subordinates, trained by lifelong military discipline to look up to them. The guilt or inno- cence of Dreyfus was a side issue in France. To us in England or America it seemed the one thing for which the court-martial had been assembled. But Frenchmen feared that on the issue of this trial depended the fate of their Republic, the tranquillity of France. What wonder that seven officers of the French army should have shrunk from responsibility? They were brave men, and I think they tried to do their duty. Before noon on the day after the prisoner's arrival, Madame Dreyfus, after a separation of five years, was ad- mitted to see her husband, in the presence, however, of an agent of the Government. All sympathetic hearts had thrilled with anticipations of this meeting, at the happiness of their reunion, and of hope revived. Alas ! we were dis- appointed. The meeting was cold and formal. Dreyfus was still under the influence of the cruel false reports made to him on board the " Sfax," and Madame Dreyfus left the prison in tears. Later in the day Maitre Demange, the prisoner's former counsel, was admitted to see him alone, and doubtless told him what all the rest of the world knew, THE DREYFUS CASE jy that Madame Dreyfus as a devoted wife was the heroine of the last decade of the nineteenth century. The trial was held in the Hall of the Lycee at Rennes, and began at half-past six on the morning of Aug. 7, 1899. At the upper end of the hall, behind the seats of the judges, hung a black cross with the white figure of One whose trial eighteen hundred years before was that of an innocent man who had taken voluntarily upon him the nationality of a Jew, had been accused by false witnesses, hounded to death by those who feared the consequences of his ac- quittal, and concerning whom the testimony of false wit- nesses *' agreed not together." Great exertions were made by members of the press to secure tickets of admission. There were reporters from every civilized nation under heaven. The seven artillery officers, with their President, Colonel Jouaust, whose name up to that time the public had never heard, took their seats. Then a small door opened, and two officers in artillery uniform came out of a side room. One was a white-haired man bald on the crown and tem- ples. In his face was suffering and a strong effort at self- command, but there was also some surprise. Until that moment he had had no conception of the prominence with which he stood before the world, — he, a simple cap- tain of artillery. He answered to his name, "Alfred Dreyfus, thirty-nine years," in a voice so unnatural, so strained, so hoarse, that those who heard it realized that he had hardly spoken for almost five years. The first three days were taken up by an examination in secret of the secret dossier, which contained six hundred documents, of which only about half a dozen had any bearing whatever on the case. In the limited space that can here be devoted to this subject, it is impossible to go through the details of the trial. One of the first witnesses was ex- President Casimir- Perier, but what he said was no evidence in the case. It amounted to a complaint that he, who was Chief of the 78 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY State at the time of the first court-martial, had been told nothing about it. Then General Mercier testified. He was the real prose- cutor. He was more on trial than the prisoner, and the conviction of Dreyfus would be his own defence. At the close of his evidence he turned round in his chair and faced Dreyfus. " ' If I had the least doubt of his guilt,' he said, in his cold measured tones, ' I should be the first to come to Captain Dreyfus, and to say to him that I was honestly mistaken.' " ' You should say that now ! ' thundered the prisoner, in a voice which up to that time the court had heard only in muffled tones, but now it rang out loud and strong. With a cry that will forever haunt the memory of all who heard it in that crowded hall, Dreyfus sprang to his feet, his body bent forward, checked in mid-spring by the officer's hand laid gently on his arm, his fist shaking in the air, his head and livid face craned forward at Mercier, his teeth bared as if thirsty for blood. . . . His cry was half shriek, half sob, — a cry of rage, part anguish, part despair; a cry for pity, too, with a thrill of hope. Henceforward all knew what he was, and what he had endured — was still enduring. In six words he told us all the story of the man on the Devil's Island. " When the echoes of the cry had passed away, came Mercier's voice in a calm monotone, ' I should be the first to repair my error. . . .' 'It is your duty!' cried the prisoner. 'But I say in all conscience,' continued Mercier, ' that my convic- tion of his guilt is as firm and unshakable as ever.' " That day was Saturday, August 13. On Monday it was understood by all that Labori, the great cross-examiner, the junior counsel for the defence, was to take in hand General Mercier. It was likely to be the field day of the trial, for besides the cross-examination by Labori, Casimir- Perier had asked to be confronted with General Mercier, his former Minister of War. A few minutes after six o'clock Labori and his wife (an Australian by birth) left the cottage they had hired on the outskirts of Rennes, and proceeded toward the court- room. They were accompanied by Colonel Picquart and THE DREYFUS CASE 79 another gentleman. Labori had with him the questions he had carefully prepared for the cross-examination of Mer- cier. Suddenly a man stepped from behind a fence, a shot was fired, and Labori fell. His wife had gone back to the house for her ticket of admission to the court, which she had left behind her. Wounded as he was, the great advocate had strength to put his arm across his breast, and to say to his two friends, " I beg you take my papers." In a few moments his wife was with him. He lay on the road with his head in her lap. Some laborers made a feeble effort to stop the would-be assassin, but most of those who saw the crime looked on with bewilder- ment and indifference. The man made his escape, and to this day, in spite of the vaunted intelligence of the French police, he has never been found. After a few moments of consternation and despair, Madame Labori left her husband in the care of his male friends, and rushed herself to the court-house, calling for assistance, and for a doctor. The audience in the Hall of the Lycde had just assembled, when the President of the Press rushed through the crowd, and leaping on a table, cried : " A doctor ! a doctor ! Come quickly to a wounded man ! It is Labori ! " The day before he had been in court in full health, a man of magnificent stature, looking like a viking, — the right arm of the defence, the hope of Dreyfus. It was thought the court would have been adjourned when the junior counsel for the prisoner had been stricken, but Colonel Jouaust, the President, decided to go on. The wish of the Government, and of all concerned, was to get through with the trial, and calm the excitement throughout France as soon as possible. The confrontation of M. Casimir-P^rier and General Mercier produced nothing ; it was not what had been expected. It was mainly an explanation of why the ex- President had thought it right to resign. Meantime Labori had been taken to his own home, where doctors, wife, and friends were day and night in 80 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY attendance on him. Bulletins were issued every few hours, and flew to all parts of the earth over the wires, while telegrams of condolence poured in. Maitre Demange cross-examined General Mercier, but although he confused him and damaged his evidence, there was not the rout there would have been had the assailant been Labori. Four ex-Ministers of War and an ex-Presi- dent gave their witness on the same day, but nothing bear- ing on the case was elicited. All were there to talk about themselves. "The only person," says Steevens, "who appeared to bear the Dreyfus case in mind was Dreyfus. From time to time he made protestations in a thick and colorless voice, — always protestations of innocence. After that one moment's explosion, the upheaval of a continent of passion, he had ribbed himself in his reserve again. He was again the automaton who could speak but one word, — innocent, innocent, innocent ! " The man who was to take upon himself the office of prosecutor against the prisoner, and counsel for the defence, as regarded the officers of the General Staff, was General Roget. The most important witnesses in the case, men who could have told something, might they have spoken, were Esterhazy, du Paty de Clam, Schwartzkoppen, and Panizzardi ; none of these were allowed to give evidence. Esterhazy was safe in London, where he had acknowledged to an English journalist that he had written the bordereati. Du Paty de Clam, no longer an officer in the French army, declined to be confronted with other witnesses, and sent in a doctor's certificate, pleading that he was unable to appear. Schwartzkoppen and Panizzardi were eager to give their testimony in court, and their sovereigns were quite will- ing to give them leave to testify ; but the French Govern- ment decided that foreign testimony in the case was not to be heard. On June 12, 1899, ^^ Cabinet of M. Dupuy had re- signed. It had always set its face against " revision " and THE DREYFUS CASE 8 1 , any opening of the Dreyfus case. A new Cabinet was formed ten days later by the President to undertake the difficult task of dealing with justice to Dreyfus, and steering at the same time the ship of state through a dangerous channel, where Scylla and Charybdis loomed on either side. The new Cabinet had M. Waldeck-Rousseau for its premier. He had been one of the candidates for the office of President in the preceding February, and had given up his votes to secure the election of M. Loubet. He is an Alsatian, a man of great worth and probity ; he was besides a friend of the Dreyfus family, but this made him very careful to avoid personal prejudice in dealing with the " affaire." M. Delcass^, the Foreign Minister, had held office in preceding Cabinets. It had fallen to his lot to recall Marchand from Fashoda, but he had secured in return great concessions from Eng- land in the matter of the French sphere of influence in Western Africa. But the most important Minister in the Waldeck-Rousseau Cabinet was General the Marquis de Gallifet, the Minister of War. He was eminently at that moment the man for the place, — a place that men- aced him with exceptional difficulties. He was a man of great vigor, ability, and courage. He had the confidence of the army. He was a known opponent of disorder and sedition. He had been accounted a Conservative, and was almost the only officer of the French army who chose to be known by his hereditary title ; but no man ever more faithfully served his government than he at this crisis served the republic of France. In a chapter of my volume upon France, which I have called " The Great Revenge," the acts for the suppression of the Commune, in which General de Gallifet took part, came under notice. I spoke of him more bitterly than I usually like to speak of public persons whose characters seem for a moment to be in my hands. I am sorry for this now ; I consider him a man of exceptional zeal, pru- dence, tact, patriotism, and courage. His conduct in the 6 82 LAST YEARS OF THE NIAETEENTH CENTURY War Ofifice while Minister of War seems to me worthy of our highest admiration. He came into ofifice with the most bitter prejudices against him. He was saluted, not only by the mob, but in the Chamber of Deputies, with cries of '' The assassin ! " His belief in the innocence of Dreyfus was well known. But prudence demanded that he should take no part in his favor. The public in France, and elsewhere, held its breath waiting to see how he would dare to deal with an army mutinous against the civil power, and backed apparently by a large part of the nation. He had been a splendid soldier, and the army admired him. He had been wounded in the abdomen in Mexico, and ever after wore a silver plate to keep his intestines in place. The Minister for the Interior was M. Millerand, who was affiliated with the Socialists. Great was the amazement of the public when the composition of the Cabinet was an- nounced, — De Gallifet and Millerand in partnership ! How could they govern France together? All men predicted that such a Cabinet could not last long ; but De Gallifet and Millerand had accepted their portfolios from motives of the purest patriotism. All members of the Cabinet were united on the question of securing justice for Dreyfus, while at the same time it was decided to do nothing that might assist in shaking down the form of government that to many men appeared in this crisis to totter. All honor to the men who for the sake of the tranquillity of their country did not shrink from accepting responsibility at such a time. But we must return to the court-martial at Rennes. It would be most interesting to go through the evidence brought forth on succeeding days of the trial, but space will not permit this. Any one who would like to read a reporter's account of it, can do so in G. W. Steevens's " Tragedy of Dreyfus." ^ 1 I have used this freely, but I had also the reports printed day by day in an American paper, also many in the " Figaro " and Lon- don " Times." Besides pamphlets in French on t\^z affaire, American THE DREYFUS CASE 83 By far the most interesting witness and almost the only one who seems to have spoken to the point was Colonel Georges Picquart. He spoke for two days. The first day, Steevens tells us, for seven hours and a half. ..." He went over the whole ground, from the secret documents to the latest fancies of Esterhazy, and seemed the only man who knew every foot of it. It was a masterpiece of rea- soning, the intellectual triumph of the trial." Among the witnesses was one Major Freystetter, who shortly before had served with distinction in Madagascar. He was a member of the court-martial in 1894, and testi- fied that his conviction of the prisoner's guilt had been formed on the testimony of the expert, and on that of du Paty de Clam and Henry. Only he thought it right to add that he was somewhat influenced by four documents shown to the judges in their private room, all of which it had since been proved were forged or falsified. One was the " canaille de D . . ." document, in another the name Dreyfus had been inserted. On August 28, twelve days after he was shot in the back, Maitre Labori was in his place again. He was full of vivacity and vigor, though he had barely escaped death, and had just risen from a sick bed. Every one welcomed him. General Mercier got up from his seat, walked over, and shook his hand. Did he know who had fired the shot? Who can say? When Labori resumed charge of the case, " the generals laid their heads together, the witnesses gave evidence with one eye on the court, the other on the cross-examiner. The very gendarmes seemed to wake up, and to follow the trial. The very soldiers of the guard outside bunched together, crept nearer, and peered into the hall. ... At the end of that day Dreyfus turned, and for the second time shook hands with his advocate, and for the first time his stony face melted into a smile." A good deal of evidence was brought by the prosecution readers may be referred to books by Conybeare, Hale, Barlow, and the letters of Dreyfus to his wife published by Harper. 84 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY concerning the daily habits of Dreyfus when in the office of the General Staff. When I read it, I smiled to think that almost the same things could have been said one hun- dred years before concerning a young Corsican officer in the French army, had any one had personal motives for fastening on him a false imputation of being a spy. He was a foreigner. He, too, was not popular with his com- rades. He spent his time peering around, collecting all possible information with a view to his advancement. While other men amused themselves, he was always occu- pied in military affairs. He even went out in a boat in the dusk of a summer evening to draw plans of the fortifications of Toulon. Nay, had it been the interest of any one to make him out a traitor, who knows how much these cir- cumstances might have told against him ? He was a friend of the brother of Robespierre. Robespierre, as we know now, was in secret correspondence with Louis XVHI. ; what hindered the young artillery officer from transmitting plans and information through Robespierre to the English and the ^migr^s? Napoleon, it is true, was not a Jew, but in after life he came very near proclaiming himself a Mohammedan. He needed money ; Dreyfus had no temptation of that kind. M. Bertillon, the expert in handwriting, produced his scheme of what he called " gabarits," to demonstrate thereby that Dreyfus had written the bordereau. But though he had easily convinced the court-martial of 1894, the court-martial of 1899 neither believed his theories nor attempted to understand them. There was plenty of counter- evidence. At last, on September 8 came Maitre Demange's powerful speech for the defence. It was to be followed by one presumably even more powerful from Labori, when sud- denly the trial was closed by the government prosecutor, who said he had received orders from Paris that the case was to end. Though Demange's powers of oratory were not equal to those of Labori, his speech was admirable. Two of the judges were at one time moved to tears. " Not THE DREYFUS CASE 85 one word did he say whereby the fiercest partisan against Dreyfus could be offended. He was there not to offend, but to persuade." After a recess of an hour and a half the President of the Court, Colonel Jouaust, with much emotion, pro- nounced the verdict," Guilty, by five votes to two." No one heard the concluding words he spoke, — '' with exten- uating circumstances." " With extenuating circumstances," seemed ridiculous to sympathizers with Dreyfus in England and America. What extenuating circumstances could there be if Dreyfus had been guilty of treason? On the contrary there were aggravating circumstances; his treachery had brought the French Republic to the verge of ruin. We did not know that "with extenuating circumstances," is in French law equivalent to our " with recommendation to mercy." Disheartened and indignant as we were at first by reason of the verdict, I cannot but think now that under the circumstances it was the best thing that could have been done. To pronounce Dreyfus not guilty would have been to bring in a verdict of guilty against his former judges, who had erred not from ignorance, but had deliberately withheld documents or falsified them. It would have set one half of France against the other. It would have roused the Nationalists, already dangerous, with the army and the clericals at their head. As it was, neither party triumphed. The Generals escaped a public trial. The so-called honor of the army was safe ; and the liberation of Dreyfus ten days later by the President's pardon seemed to make matters right for the prisoner, restoring all that he had lost, save only his military honor; for all the earth now knows that Alfred Dreyfus is an honorable, much injured, innocent man. If he is truly a patriotic Frenchman, methinks he will resign without complaint the barren satis- faction of military rehabilitation, sacrificing his heart's desire to the tranquillity of his country. The six officers asso- ciated with Colonel Jouaust were Major de Br^on, Major Merle, Captain Parfait, Captain Beauvais, and two others. 86 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY No one knows how their vote stood, but it is beUeved that Colonel Jouaust was anxious that the verdict should be what it was, since the " extenuating circumstances " clause and the vote of 5 to 2 gave by law full power to the Presi- dent to exercise his clemency. It is said that Captain Beauvais publicly shook hands with Maitre Demange after his speech, that Major Merle was seen in tears, and that De Br6on was seen in a church the night before in long and earnest prayer. When the trial was at an end, France sank, as if ex- hausted with emotions, into what seemed almost a state of apathy, — the calm after a tempest. It was a relief even to anti-Dreyfusards when the President put forth his par- don. Frenchmen were thankful to be spared the ex- pected revolution, and the trial had come to an end so unexpectedly that those who "stood by," watching their opportunity to overthrow the Government, had no time to make their preparations. During the third week of September, ten days after the verdict had been rendered by the court-martial at Rennes, General the Marquis de Gallifet published an order to the corps commanders of the French army, and it was by them publicly read to the troops throughout France. It was also published in the " Journal Officiel," preceding the announcement of President Loubet's decree granting pardon to Dreyfus. In a preface to the order General de Gallifet calls attention to the fact that the health of Dreyfus had been seriously injured, and that he would not be able without danger to undergo further detention. He added that the Government " would not have met the wishes of a country desiring pacification if it had not hastened to efface all traces of the late painful conflict, and that President Loubet, by an act of lofty humanity, had given the first pledge of the work of appeasement which the good of the Republic seems to all men to demand." The order was as follows : — The incident is closed. The military judges, enjoying the respect of all, have rendered their verdict with complete inde- THE DREYFUS CASE 87 pendence. We all, without harboring afterthoughts, bsnd to their decision. We shall in the same manner accept the action that a feeling of profound pity has dictated to the President of the Republic. There can be no further question of reprisals of any kind. Hence, I repeat it, the incident is closed. I ask you, and if it were necessary I should command you, to forget the past, in order that you may think seriously of the future. With you, and all my comrades, I proclaim, Vive VArinee, which belongs to no party, but to France alone. Gallifet, When Dreyfus, waiting in a side room, was informed of the verdict by his counsel, Maitre Demange, who was in tears, he wept at first, and said : " Take care of my wife. Tell her to take courage. Help her to bear this cruel, unmerited blow. I think of her, and my poor children. They will be branded as the children of a traitor. But I am innocent." The verdict was a compromise, intended to save France from the horrors of revolution, and yet to open for the prisoner a door of escape. It was in itself the justifi- cation of Dreyfus, for if the five officers who voted against him had had any conscientious belief that he was guilty, how could they have found any extenuating circumstances in the case, and how have dared to let loose such a double-dyed traitor, who after ten or five years were out, might again disturb the peace of France ? In truth, they all petitioned the Government for clemency. But their verdict was received throughout Europe and America with bitter indignation. The leading newspaper in Russia — the dearly prized ally of France — speaks thus of it : — "They have sentenced a man whose sad fate it is to be the scapegoat for the crimes of the General Staff. Now that the stage has been cleared of its sham guilt, and that the gener- als, spies, judges, persecutors, and lawyers have left the scene, the audience will recognize with quivering hearts all the taw- driness of costumes and crudity of mechanism by means of which the French Republic sought to make us believe its regime perfect. . . . The trial has been a tragic comedy, 88 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY which may end with the booming of cannon under another leadership, and with the participation of other actors." From the fulfilment of this prophecy, France was saved by the courage, prudence, tact, and patriotism of President Loubet and his Minister of War. On September 19 Dreyfus received his pardon. I think the action of President Loubet may have been previously intimated to Madame Dreyfus, for she and Maitre Labori had made their preparations. There had been much talk concerning the probability that Dreyfus would be assassi- nated on leaving his prison ; it was therefore necessary to take great precautions, and to put the public on the wrong scent. Madame Dreyfus hired a cottage at Folkestone, and it is said she sent trunks marked with her name to Liverpool. But the destination determined on was Car- pentras, a little town about twenty miles from Avignon, where Madame Valabrogne, sister of Dreyfus, and wife of a cloth merchant, had a villa. At three o'clock on the morning of Thursday, Septem- ber 20, Captain Dreyfus, after packing his trunk in prison, waited for M. Viguier, Chief of the Secret Service, who was to see him safely on the train and as far as Nantes upon the way to Bordeaux. They left the prison in a cab, which they quitted, however, before they reached the railroad station. There Dreyfus, no longer a prisoner, was safely seated in a sleeping-car, under the care of his brother, Matthieu Dreyfus, his nephew, Paul Valabrogne, and a reporter from the " Figaro," who had obtained leave, some- how, to make the journey with him. What he tells of it I found very interesting, but I fear my extract will be a long one. To save space, however, 1 shall abridge the account occasionally. "The train moves at 8.58 A.M. I am seated opposite to Cap- tain Dreyfus. I am surprised at the effect he produces on me. I had expected to find him hard, mistrustful, gloomy, and bitter. I saw before me a man evidently much broken in health, with fine, regular features calm and mild in expression. The train THE DREYFUS CASE 89 rolls onward. Matthieu Dreyfus looks at his brother with ten- der eyes. ' Well,' he asks, ' are you comfortable ? ' ' Oh ! indeed I am very well,' was the reply. ' And you forget how I am enjoying the sense of freedom, for it is good to feel free, free, free; not to feel people everlastingly around you, spying on each movement, each gesture. That, mind you, is of all the most odious, insupportable thing. Oh ! to have felt a spy's eye always on you for five years ! Oh ! it was horrible ! ' " 'Don't tire yourself too much,' observed Matthieu, timidly. " ' Let me speak,' replied the Captain. ' I feel the want of speaking. I have scarcely spoken for five years. Then, too, I feel so well, no fatigue, no pain, no excitement ; probably to- morrow I shall suffer for it, but to-day I intend to do whatever I like.' " The name of General Mercier was mentioned by chance. '"What impression,' I said, 'did his deposition make on you ? ' " 'He is a malicious man,' Dreyfus said sharply, ' and a dishonest man, but I do not think he is conscious of the extent of the evil he has wrought. He is too intelligent for me to be able to say that "he is unconscious of what he is doing, but if he is mentally conscious of it, he is morally unconscious. He is a man without moral sense.' " As the train rushes on through a beautiful country, Captain Dreyfus says : ' How pretty this country is ! Look at that little village, those chickens, the hens, the tall trees outlined by the mist. Think that for one whole year I saw only sky and sea ; and during four years I saw only the sky, — a square of brilliant blue over my head, metallic, hard, and always the same, without a cloud. And when I came back to France — you know how it was — by night in the midst of a terrible storm, taken from a boat, driven in a carriage to prison. These are the first trees I have seen. How I should like,' he continued, ' to run about those meadows like a child and amuse myself with nothing. I am like a convalescent, coming back to life again.' " He told us of the infinite sorrow he had felt for the death of Scheurer-Kestner, to whom in large part he owed his liberty. 'What fine characters,' he said, 'have displayed themselves in this affair ! I think I have received more than five thousand letters since my return to France, without counting those that my wife has received. Oh ! it has done me good. Even officers upon active service have written to me. One comrade wrote, " Glad at your return. Glad at your approaching reha- bilitation." I suffered from those depositions in which men 90 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY came forward to say things which had no connection with the trial, but which they thought might injure me. I do not think it was out of malice to me, but it was done to please the chiefs. I never could bend myself to such discipline.' " ' How do you explain the animosity against you since 1894 ? ' " ' I think the cause of it is rather complex,' Dreyfus answered. ' In the first place, I was believed to be guilty. It could never have been suspected that they would have plunged so light- heartedly into what they knew to be error. Then there was antisemitism in a latent state, and, lastly, my own behavior may have had something to do with it. My manner was too curt, as I now think, with my superiors. When I entered the General Staff, I paid no visit to any one. In my deahngs with my chiefs I always retained my outspokenness and inde- pendence. If a plan or any piece of work seemed to me to be badly conceived, I did not hesitate to say so. I know superiors do not like that.' '"And what,' I asked, 'do you think of Esterhazy?' He paused like a savant considering an hypothesis. "'I think he is a swindler, — a swindler always in want of money. That was his motive. A crime must have a motive, and that was wanting in my case. No one ever saw me touch a card. I was no gambler. It was said that in my student days I had led a fast life. How then could I have taken the ninth place on leaving the college? Don't people know what arduous work the examinations mean ? How can work be car- ried on with dissipation ? If a man is suspected to be a crimi- nal, the first thing to be done is to find out the motive for his crime. Treason against his country is the greatest crime a man can commit. A murderer, a thief, may find some excuse. But treason has no extenuating circumstances ; it is a crime against collectivity.' "'What effect did the verdict have upon you?' Sadly he answered, ' It was first of all anguish ; then stupefaction ; then very comforting when I learned that two officers had had the courage to declare me entirely innocent. I swear that those two brave officers were right.' " ' What is exactly,' said Matthieu, ' the climate over there, on Devil's Island ? ' " ' One hundred and four to one hundred and twenty-three degrees by day, and never below seventy-seven at night,' was the answer. ' That was the most exhausting thing about it, for one can bear heat by day, provided one breathes a little fresh air at night.' THE DREYFUS CASE 9 1 " ' And you never knew anything of what was being done in France for you ? ' " ■ Never a word. Not a single word. From time to time the rigors were redoubled. I know now this was after speeches in the Chamber from the Ministers of War when they ascended the rostrum and declared I had been legally and justly con- demned. I felt the effect of what they said through the medium of my jailers. They cut off my food, or my reading, or my work, or my walk, or the sight of the sea.' " ' How did you succeed in warding off insanity in 1896 and 1897?' "'As I had resolved to live, I removed from my table the photographs of my wife and children, the sight of whom made me suffer, and weakened me. I no longer wished to see them, and I ended by regarding them only as symbols, without the human figures the sight of which unnerved me. I wanted to live for my wife and children and to preserve my energy, for ' . . . (and he repeated this several times) ' when one has resolved to do one's duty, one must keep on to the end.' " Thus talking like a man awakened from a dream, Dreyfus proceeded on his journey." At Avignon he was met by a carriage from Carpentras, and by other members of his family. There the corre- spondent of the " Figaro " parted from him. He visited him, however, the next day at Carpentras, — a place famous in history for having incurred the fierce wrath of the Convention, which gave orders that all the masons in its department should be called together to raze it to the ground. They likewise gave it a new name, that the old might be forever forgotten. It was by the position of postmaster at Carpentras that M. Thiers in the days of his prosperity endeavored to provide for the prodigal father whom he had never seen. The house of Madame Valabrogne stood in the suburbs of the little city. The Captain's brothers and sisters, with their wives, husbands, and children, were assembled on the porch. The parents of Madame Dreyfus had gone to Paris to bring the children. Madame Dreyfus was upstairs in attendance on her husband. The correspondent asked if the sad story of their father's 92 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY life during the five years he had been absent would be told the children. Those present thought not, but their father must decide. The little girl was hardly more than six, — she would probably not be told ; but the Uttle boy, who was eight, was a precocious and intelligent child, to whom it might be better it should be related. Soon Dreyfus and his wife came down to see their visitor, who remarked in the faces of all the Dreyfus family (the Captain's included) genial kindliness when they smiled. " It seems to me," said Dreyfus, as he seated himself at ease in a wicker chair, " as if I were in a dream. The fact is, I am not sure. I feel I do not yet belong to myself, and I allow myself to be led like a child. I do not yet realize the little details of life." He was asked when he had felt the first gleam of hope on the Devil's Island. " On November i6th of last year," he said, " when I re- ceived the despatch from the Court of Cassation which read, ' Convict Dreyfus is informed that the Criminal Chamber has declared his demand for revision of his trial in 1894 admissible.' But I did not understand clearly what was meant. I regarded the despatch as a sort of acknowledgment of my numerous petitions. And yet hope reached me from that day. I began to feel that there might be a possible ending. Do you understand? Up to that time I could see no end." And here a curtain falls on Dreyfus. We are left to be- lieve him happy — almost happy — with his wife and children, enjoying earth and sky and the free air. But with a haunting wish to be something more than pardoned ; that is to say, to be made an honorable man again in the sight of the French army, and of all the world. But that end has assuredly been attained, if not announced officially ; and his children, to whatever parts of the earth they wan- der, will find all men do them honor when they hear their father's name. CHAPTER V PRESIDENT tuiLK LOUBET 'T^HE death of President Faure was so very unexpected -'- that there was no time to organize revolutionary plots concerning who should be his successor. Some persons have hinted that as M. Faure's views were believed to be in favor of a Plebiscitary Republic, he possibly had indulged in schemes to bring about this change in the Constitution, foreseeing that the chances were that he would be chosen for life as first Plebiscitary President. His somewhat sly scheme of sending Major Marchand across Africa to frus- trate any designs formed by England in relation to the Soudan, miscarried shortly before his last illness, which was attributed by many to mental worry over the failure of his plans. Had they succeeded, he would have won such popularity in France that he might indeed have aspired to her highest reward. There were others who, fathoming this scheme, thought they saw in it a possible change of rulers, and in any alteration of the government of France beheld a chance to place the helm of State, not in the hands of M. Faure for life, but in those of an Orleanist, or a Bonapartist Pretender. As it proved, the " Nationalists " had no time to do anything, — not even to rally their adherents or to issue proclamations. If the army could have been stimulated by intrigue into action, that chance was spoiled by the impatience and tomfoolery of M. Paul D^roulede.^ 1 It pains me to cast slurs on M. Paul Deroulede. I had long admired him as a poet of the same school as M. Fran9ois Coppee, and I translated into English verse, his charming little poem called " Le Sergent." The translation was published in *' Lippincott's Magazine," December, i88i. 94 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY The Presidential election, Jan. 7, 1899, by the joint vote of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, assured the stability of the Republican form of government, and France entered, to all appearance, into a period of peace. The following anecdote concerning the nommation of M. Loubet has been t61d in an article contributed to "Good Words " by Emily Crawford, whose reports from Rennes in the days of the Dreyfus court-martial we all read with deep interest in the summer and early autumn of 1889. M. Clemenceau, as he was going to bed on the night before the Presidential election, received a visit from a friend who was a member of the Chamber of Deputies. " I am," he said, " much perplexed for whom I should vote to-morrow. Bris- son [the Moderate Radical] having been defeated by Duchand for the presidency of the Chamber, has no chance. We must not risk letting Mdhne [the Reactionary] come in, whatever we do. It unfortunately happens that he has every chance, if we put forward a deputy." M. Clemenceau thought a moment, and the name, standing, and qualifications of M. Lou- bet flashed across his mind. "Let it be," he said, " Loubet. All Republicans worthy of the name can agree on Loubet. He is sound on the Dreyfus case from a conviction of innocence, but as he has not had occasion publicly to declare his opin- ions, he has not excited animosity; nor will he before the elec- tion takes place, which will be in a few hours. He has just the temper and mental complexion that are good for the office, and knows the ropes in both Chambers. Yes — let it be Lou- bet." The visitor asked Clemenceau whether the " Aurore " had gone to press ; for if it had not, he would go at once to that journal, giving it the pith of M. Clemenceau's remarks. The latter said : " Try," and then wrote an article which ended in these words " Mon candidat est Loubet.'" He laughed as he wrote them, because he himself was not one of the electors. It appeared the next morning. All the electors read it on their way to Versailles. Every one who wished the Drey- fus affair settled seemed mentally to repeat the words, " Mojt candidat est Loubet^'' And in the afternoon of the same day M. Loubet came back to Paris President of the Republic. In the mountains of the C^vennes (the old Protestant stronghold in the south of France) the name of loubet PRESIDENT LOUBET. PRESIDENT EMILE LOUBET 95 is given to a shepherd dog of peculiar kindliness and sagacity. For five and thirty years M. Loubet was a lawyer, but a lawyer who would neither disavow nor strain an incon- venient truth. He retains something of the accent of his native province, the Drome at the foot of the Alps ; but his manners are courteous, those of an experienced man of the world, though the writer I have just quoted says, " He is primarily rather a citizen than a gentleman." He began his public life by being Mayor of Montelimar, the chief town of his district ; then he was Chairman of the County Council of the Drome, then Senator for that Department, Minister of the Interior in 1892, and then President of the Senate. The Drome, his own department, is devoted to him. In Montelimar, where besides being Mayor he carried on his law practice for thirty-five years, he has never ceased to be called simply Monsieur Emile, nor has his elevation made any difference in his friendly and affectionate relations with his fellow-townsmen. He may not be a great man, but he has been admirable in all the relations of hfe, and has faithfully fulfilled all the duties that have been entrusted to him. His wife, who is now a grandmother, is still a handsome woman. " She has no ambition to shine as a fine lady, but takes her place among the great ones of the world with ease and dignity." When M. Loubet found himself President, he wrote let- ters to middle-class friends and neighbors, saying he hoped his altered position would not lead them to imagine that there could be any change in their friendly relations with himself and with his family. These persons were all delighted with his elevation, but his mother could not be reconciled to his change of fortune. She was sure, good woman ! — that it would not be for his happiness, and that it would interfere with his much-cherished visits to her at the old farm. Some very pretty anecdotes have been circulated con- cerning the President's dutiful obedience to his mother. In the part of France where he was born and bred, mother- 96 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY worship is the strongest of all family ties, but in all the other relations of domestic life M. Loubet has been no less admirable. His taste is for rural life, life on the old home- stead from which his destiny has exiled him. " What I long for, and mean to do," he said to one of his old friends at Mont^limar, " when I quit the Elysee, is to go and end my days on the old farm." i The Comte de Paris, the heir of the royal house of Orleans, was born in 1838 ; and in the midst of the rejoic- ing over this event, Emile Loubet, who was to rule France in his stead, was born. His father and mother were pious people and good Catholics, but not of the ultra-Clerical school. He is a brave man, brave morally and physically. His moral brav- ery he showed in the Dreyfus affair, when every man in office found it needed courage to act on his convictions if he had doubts concerning the court-martial of 1894. M. Faure had not dared to face the question of " revis- ion ; " he dreaded the danger ; and the obloquy of giving presidential approval to a new trial was handed over to M. Loubet. Knowing as we now do the terrible agitation that was to be produced throughout the world, and throughout France, we may hesitate whether to attribute the timidity of M. Faure to patriotic prevision or to pusillanimity. The issue of the new trial would neces- sarily be either the condemnation of Dreyfus for deliver- ing documents to the enemies of France, or his acquittal ; in which case some of the chief generals in the beloved army of France were guilty of worse treachery. M. Faure shrank from sanctioning revision. President Loubet's arrival in Paris from Versailles two days after the death of President Faure was the occasion of a demonstration on the part of the Parisian mob, led by MM. D^roulede, Rochefort, and Marcel Habert; in other words, by men who had played parts in the old Boulangist party, and were ready for any outbreak that 1 It is situated not far from Marsanne whence Madame de Sevigne dated some of her letters. PRESIDENT EMILE LOUBET 97 would either upset or discourage the existing government. The crowd shouted " Panamaist ! " for M. Loubet had been in a Cabinet, in 1892, which it was thought had tried to save France from pubUc scandal by shielding lead- ing men who were compromised in that unhappy affair. D^roulede endeavored, but without success, to rouse the soldiers called out to welcome the new President, and induce them to march on the Elys^e, but, much to his surprise, the action of the troops was restrained by General Roget, on whose sympathy and assistance he had relied. Whatever we may think of Roget when he volunteered to play the part of public prosecutor at the court-martial at Rennes, he was above all things a soldier. He knew his duty and the duty of the troops under his command in the face of a mob. A few days later, President Loubet sent his first message to the Senate and Chamber ; in it he said, " The rights which I possess under the Constitution I will not permit to be weakened in my hands." These words strike the keynote of M. Loubet's policy, and of his character — which is firm. He has gray hair and a gray beard ; some think he bears a strong resem- blance to President Benjamin Harrison. The " reptile " section of the Paris press at once as- sailed the new President with indecent vituperation. If he had been a notorious criminal, he could not have been more shamefully reviled. But through this storm of brutal threats and personal misrepresentation, M. Loubet went serenely on his way. M. Deroulede, the chief agitator, was put under arrest, and the League of Patriots, so powerful when Boulanger was its leader, in his hands made itself absurd. M. Loubet did not at once change his ministers. The Cabinet of M. Charles Dupuy, though it was strongly Anti- Dreyfusard, remained in office until it resigned early in June, when the united Chambers of the Court of Cassation determined on " revision." M, Loubet had made up his mind from the first that it 7 98 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY was time to draw the line between liberty and license, and to check the torrent of abuse and accusation which had swept over France for four years and left the reputation of few men in high office unassailed. Ranged against him were a large number of men, most of them without political convictions, whose only policy was that of overthrowing the government. These called themselves " Nationalists." They were the party of Boulanger bereft of their showy leader. This party had in its ranks Legitimists, Orleanists, \\\&jeunesse doree of society, Bonapartists, a section of the Socialists, Anarchists led by Rochefort, anti-Semites with Jules Guerin and Drumont for their leaders, Communards and Clericals, all, in short, who thought that change might in some way promote their private views or personal ambitions. But there was no cohesion in the miscellane- ous groups of the Nationalist party. They needed a leader, and above all they needed the support of the army. For the latter, they bid high by supporting the generals in the Dreyfus case, and they lost their stake. Among the various Pretenders to the French throne not one was fitted to become a popular idol. For a few days when Marchand reached Toulon from Fashoda, they had hopes of turning him into another Boulanger. But Major Marchand was an honorable soldier and an honest gentle- man ; he slipped quietly into private life out of their hands. The Duke of Orleans (Philippe VII., as he calls himself) is the most prominent of the Pretenders. Louis Philippe's family of five sons and three daughters were men and women of distinguished merit, but their high qualities do not seem to have descended to the third generation. Wit- ness Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria, Prince Henri of Orleans, and Philippe VII. The latter has courted popularity dur- ing the last two years by a proclamation put forth for what he would have called " the defence of the army," expressing the strongest views of an anti-Dreyfusard on the burn- ing question of the day ; and when a vulgar Parisian cari- caturist in " Le Rire " took occasion from the early reverses of England in South Africa to make shameful caricatures of PRESIDENT JiMILE LOUBET 99 the Queen, so dear to all her subjects, the Duke of Orleans forgetting the constant kindness shown in England to his exiled family, wrote a letter of congratulation to the man who had endeavored to hold the venerable lady up to scorn and ridicule.^ He lost the sympathy and confidence of the leaders of the united Orleanist and Legitimist parties when, in 1896, he snubbed the Due d'Audiffret-Pasquier, who had long managed their affairs in France, by telling him that ht knew better than he did the proper course for a king to pursue ; and when he insulted the Royal Family of Eng- land and all Englishmen, by his public commendation of the caricaturist in *' Le Rire," he lost the support and friend- ship of the Due de Luynes, the richest nobleman in France, who had been his familiar friend and chamberlain. When, in 1890, he broke the law of exile and appeared one day in Paris to demand, as a French citizen, to do duty as a French soldier, the escapade produced no effect what- ever on the public, and though he was sent to prison and released a few months later. Frenchmen regarded his for- tunes with indifference. Since then he has amused himself by playing the part of a sham king, publicly touching for the King's Evil, issuing court orders in the style of Louis XIV., etc. ; instead of taking his exile with the dignified composure which earned respect and admiration for his uncles. But when France was agitated by the Dreyfus case, his " Nationalist " followers thought they saw a chance to promote him to be their nominal leader. His party was backed by the Clericals, in spite of the admonitions of the Pope ; its chiefs counted on considerable support from officers of the army; they expected votes and sympathy from electors who were weary of the rule of lawyers, and from those who demanded a vigorous foreign policy for ^ The Prince de Joinville, who died recently in Paris, expressed his deep displeasure at such ungrateful and ungentlemanly conduct on the part of his nephew. I remember when the Prince de Joinville was held by English people to be a fire-eater, the most conspicuous enemy of England in France or elsewhere. LofC. lOO LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY France, which, though it must ruin her finances, might restore her national prestige. Early in 1899 the Duke of Orleans took up his resi- dence in Brussels, and then, for a month, he disappeared from public view. Meantime, while he still lived en evi- dence at Brussels, he appointed M. Buffet his agent-general to manage his affairs in Paris, and word was sent to leading Nationalists throughout France to hold themselves in readi- ness. ■ Deroulede's insane attempt at riot was the first step taken ; it was more an outburst of ill-feeling than a serious attempt at revolution, and its failure wrecked the whole plan. M. Deroulede and his coadjutor, M, Marcel Habert, were arraigned on a charge of inciting soldiers to insubor- dination. Their trial was itself of small importance, but it had a great deal of dramatic and sensational interest. Neither of the accused denied the charge. M. Deroulede seized the occasion to air, in the most jaunty fashion, his an- tagonism to the Government, and declared that what he desired for France was not a Monarchy, but a Plebiscitary Republic. All the defendants and their counsel made orations setting forth their own patriotism, and making bitter attacks on President Loubet. Deroulede, when called to order for his words, repeated them, and invited the judges to send him to prison. The jury, after being out twenty minutes, returned a verdict for acquittal, and M. Deroulede was left to enjoy his triumph. M. Yves Guyot wrote ironically of Ddroulede in the " Si^cle " : " Ddroul^de is admirable. A barrister's son who knows full well the tricks of pettifogging and who does not fail to make use of them, he knows that his prestige is founded on his making himself grotesque. He knows that it is not true in France that ridicule kills if one dares to be audaciously and cynically ridiculous. Ridicule is the best advertisement; it brings one into notice. A hundred serious actions are worth less than the astonishing hat and coat of a half-pay officer in 18 15. Ddroul^de has thought out a new and special role — that of the puppet of patriotism. Some men consider the best way of serving their country is to do deeds that shall increase her glory, her reputation, or her wealth. Deroulede has PRESIDENT JSMILE LOUBET ioi thought that true patriotism may consist in mounting every night on trestles in a ridiculous costume, uttering loud cries and making- frantic gestures." On Sunday, June 7, 1899, three days after the acquittal of this mountebank and his fellow-conspirator, President Loubet went to Auteuil to attend the races. The day was known as that of the Grand Prix. A hostile reception had been prepared for the President by the League of Patriots, the royalist section of the Nationalist party. No sooner was his carriage on the course than its occupants found themselves the objects of a riotous demonstration. In an attempt to defend the President, several policemen were severely hurt, and Count Cristiani struck the Presi- dent over the head with his cane, crushing his hat over his eyes, but happily doing him no further injury. All over the race-course there were small fights between society men and the police, supported by " law and order " Republicans. There was great excitement ; thirty arrests were made ; and some of the fashionable clubhouses were closed on the plea that they were nests of conspiracy. The affair at that time went no further ; the Jeunesse Roy- aliste waited for some future occasion, when they hoped to rally their forces round a prominent royalist general, or possibly some future King or Emperor. In the following week the Dupuy Ministry resigned- It has never been precisely known why the Chamber of Deputies voted its downfall. M. Dupuy was Prime Minis- ter in 1894, when Dreyfus was first accused, tried, and condemned, and many people thought, that foreseeing all the scandals that must be brought to light by a new trial, he was unwilling to take part in a revision which must result in probing the actions of the General Staff, and probably in the punishment and disgrace of many men in high places. It was not easy to form a new Ministry. Leading men shrank from the tremendous responsibility of laying hands upon the helm of State in such a crisis. At last a Cabinet I02 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY of Concentration, as it was called, was formed of some of the best and most patriotic men of all the groups in the Republican party. It included M. Waldeck-Rousseau as Premier, M. Delcasse as Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. Millerand, the Socialist leader who with Jaures had taken the part of Dreyfus, and General de Gallifet, Minister of War. I have spoken of this Ministry in the Dreyfus chapter. General de Gallifet began his rule in the War Office by reprimanding and disciplining a Colonel and a General, the former for having read an " order of the day " to his whole regiment quartered at Rennes, denouncing the Government in vile and bitter language for the part it was taking in securing a new trial for a traitor. Forthwith the offending Colonel was transferred to another department, and Gen- eral Julliard, commanding the whole garrison at Rennes, retorted by another order of the day in which he declared that the offending Colonel enjoyed the full confidence of his superiors. General de Gallifet was not the man to pass over without punishment this direct attack on his authority. He removed, in the same week. General Zurlinden, Mili- tary Governor of Paris, an out-spoken anti-Dreyfusard, and struck terror into the high officers of the Army disposed to insubordination. During the months of July, August, and September, France, and indeed all Europe and America, were in a feverish state of excitement about the Dreyfus trial. I have told of this already, but I have not told of two other strange excitements that during the court-martial at Rennes kept the Parisians in a state of restless anxiety. On August 2 1 the Anarchists, " fighting for their own hand," attempted an emeute, independent of Royalists and the jeunesse doree. Sebastian Faure (no relation of the late President) was their leader. After rioting in the streets and fighting cavalry and mounted police, they attacked churches in the poorer quarters of the city, and smashed their windows. Then they marched toward the Boulevard du Temple, where they forced an entrance into the Church PRESIDENT EMILE LOUBET 1 03 of St. Joseph. They hewed down the oak doors, and, burst- ing in, commenced a scene of pillage and sacrilege ; altars and statues were thrown down and broken, pictures were hacked in pieces, and stones were hurled at the Crucifix, — all this by an anti-Semitic mob ! At last it endeavored to set the Church on fire ; but the police arrived in time, and numbers of the rioters were arrested. Meantime in the office of a newspaper, the " Anti-Juif," 51 Rue Chabrol, M. Jules Gu^rin and his anti-Semitic assistants successfully resisted the police for six weeks. The military and police might easily have taken Fort Chabrol, as it was called, by storm, and killed its garrison ; but the general belief was that the Duke of Orleans, who had been missing from Brussels, was among its defenders. This idea Avas strengthened when the Archbishop of Paris paid a visit to M. Waldeck-Rousseau on Gu^rin's behalf. Provisions, when they ran low, were surreptitiously introduced into the small two-storied house held by its anti-Semitic garrison. The " Matin," which professed to know the Duke of Orleans's whereabouts, wrote thus concerning him : — " Far from the crowd, surrounded by devoted friends who are watching over him, he is waiting the decisive judgment^ that will compel him, perhaps in spite of himself, to leave his mysterious retreat. When his hiding place is discovered, more than one will be surprised, and his lieges will not bear him any ill will for his obligatory silence." On September 20, the day that the pardon of Dreyfus was announced, Gu^rin and his garrison surrendered at half-past four in the morning. The Government had made preparations for a final assault that day, but Gu^rin decided to yield without bloodshed. The Chief of Police and M. Millevoye, a Socialist deputy, approached the door, and after some parley Gu^rin quietly surrendered. When his companions, who were clustered on a porch, offered to yield, the police, without 1 The "decisive judgment" expected was probably the acquittal of Dreyfus, which would have been accepted as a signal for revolution. If so, France owes gratitude to the much-reviled judges at Rennes. I04 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY taking their names or making any investigation as to their persons, told them they were at hberty and could go where they pleased. A number of cabs and fiacres were in waiting, and they were driven off in different directions. There was no proof that the Duke of Orleans was among them, only his handbag was found in the Fort by the police when they took possession. The Duke soon after left Brussels for Turin, and apparently has given up all hopes of a revolution, at least until the Exposition is over. At the time of the Gu^rin surrender, a state trial of twenty-two persons for conspiracy was going on at the Luxembourg. Among the accused was D^roulede on his second trial, together with members of the League of Patriots, of the Anti-Semitic League, of the Society of Anti-Semitic Youth, and of the Society called ih.Q Jeunesse Royaliste. It may be well here to remark that anti-Semitic feeling in France has little (we may say nothing) to do with any religious feeling. It is directed against the Jews as capi- talists, and all the charities of the Rothschilds and other prominent persons of their race, especially during the Siege of Paris, count for nothing in the struggle between capital and labor. As Louis Blanc wrote against the bourgeoisie, so politicians of his stamp write against the Jews. The house of M. Buffet, the representative in Paris of the Duke of Orleans, had been searched, and papers found, some of which, though foolish in themselves, demonstrated that in the winter of 1898-99 an Orleanist conspiracy was being prepared in Paris. Documents were also found which proved that some very illustrious French General had been approached with the most brilliant offers, if he would undertake to play the part of General Monk, and that he had indignantly refused to turn traitor to the Republic. This greatly embarrassed the plans of the con- spirators ; they had counted, as a sure card, on the assis- tance of this General. ■ D^roulede during his trial never ceased to proclaim him- PRESIDENT £M!LE LOUBET 105 self a Democrat (which in France means a Jacobin). But evidence was found that he had spent Orleanist money in getting up emeutes and rousing the mob. " We do not believe," said the London " Daily News," •' M. Ddroulede's disclaimers of alliance with the Orleanists, or his asseverations that he is before all things a Democrat. He did not act alone, nor was M. Gu^rin his only confederate. Ar- rangements of this kind require money, and there is evidence that the money came from Orleanist sources. The Duke of Orleans, it will be observed, has quarrelled with his cousin Prince Henri over M. Arthur Meyer of the Gaulois. M. Meyer is an anti-Semitic politician of Semitic descent, or in the elegant language employed by the head of the House of Bourbon, he is *an unclean Jew.' Prince Henri of Orleans, after having kissed Esterhazy, is naturally not particular in his choice of associates, and he thinks that as M. Meyer is on the right side he ought to be accepted and encouraged. That is no doubt the view that both Princes take of MM. Ddroulede and Guerin." After Philippe of Orleans, the Pretender who ranks next in order is Prince Victor Napoleon, son of Prince Napoleon Bonaparte (cousin of Emperor Napoleon III.) and of Princess Clothilde, daughter of Victor Emmanuel ; but he had long been considered a person of too much tranquillity — some say stolidity — to take any active measures for securing an uneasy throne. Besides, he has made a mor- ganatic marriage, which the Catholic Church would be un- willing to dissolve. The hopes of the Bonapartist party in France, or rather we may say of the group of Bonapartists, have rested on his brother Louis, a Colonel of Artillery in the Russian service, to whom it was believed Prince Victor had resigned his pretensions to an imperial crown. But, in the first week of 1899, appeared in a French newspaper what professed to be an inspired article, forecasting his designs. '' Indiffer- ence and apathy," he said, "have so weakened France, that, if necessary, I will not shrink from a coiip deforce," and he adds that his brother, who will soon be General Bonaparte, will " be found beside him on the day of action." I06 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY That day of action did not occur in the year 1899, but that the idea of it still slumbers in the mind of Prince Victor is proved by a letter he wrote to the Mayor of Ajaccio, in the last week of the same year, being the centenary of the First Napoleon's appointment as First Consul. " By this time," says the London " Spectator," " France has grown suspicious of Pretenders who covet her ; . . . but in all respects Prince Victor has the advantage over his Orleanist rival, whose public appearances must be the despair of his well-wisljers. The Duke of Orleans has neither reserve nor dignity, nor the faculty of intervening to any purpose. Prince Victor intervenes less often, and when he does so, it is in far better style and language." Speaking of late events he said, " The Flag must be above everything, but I do not admit that patriotism can be accepted as an excuse for committing a forgery." His brother Louis, soon to be General Bonaparte, is a trained soldier, high in favor at St. Petersburg, and should the time come when Frenchmen find themselves willing to accept a sovereign from the hand of the Russian Czar, it may be fortunate that so unexceptionable a candidate is at hand. As for Prince Henri of Orleans, second son of the Due de Chartres, and on his mother's side grandson of the Prince de Joinville, he is more like a typical Irish adven- turer than like a prince of the blood royal. He has explored Thibet and Tonquin, and as a French traveller has received from a minister of the Republican Gov- ernment the Cross of the Legion of Honor. Three years ago he went to Abyssinia, partly as a newspaper reporter, and partly on a self-imposed secret mission to induce King Menelik to put himself in opposition to any plans the Eng- lish might form in connection with their successes on the Nile or in the Soudan. In this " well laid scheme " for at- taining popularity in France, he was defeated by the superior diplomacy of the English envoy Mr. Rodd ; but he got into a bitter quarrel with a gentleman of his suite with whom he had lived on terms of intimacy. He also greatly offended the Italians by remarks that he made in his char- PRESIDENT jEMILE LOUBET IO/ acter of correspondent upon Italian officers at the battle of Adowa. For these remarks several Italian officers chal- lenged him ; but as there is some etiquette in affairs of honor about an officer not of royal descent challenging one who has that advantage, the young Duke of Aosta, son of the ex-king of Spain, stepped forward and took the matter into his own hands. The Princes fought with swords near Paris, and Prince Henri received a severe wound. He has since made himself conspicuous wherever there was a crowd to cheer for Esterhazy, or to hurl insults at the Jews, at Picquart, or at Zola. D^roulede availed himself of his second trial before the French Senate, sitting as a High Court of Justice, to make another attack on President Loubet in presence of his judges. He denounced their Court as one of " injustice and infamy," declared the Senators to be " bandits and des miserables,'' and the President of the Republic " un- worthy of France." For all this he was judged guilty of insulting the Court, and was sentenced to two years impri- sonment, which will at least keep him out of mischief till the Exposition is over. Of the policy of " pin-pricks," of the Fashoda affair, and consequent disputes with England, I will treat in another chapter. Since Jan. i, 1900, affairs in France have gone on more quietly than might have been expected after the storms and tempests of the preceding year. But there have been strong hands at the helm, and the Ministry, which calls itself a cabinet for the defence of the Republic, has steered its course carefully for that end. The strongest hand has been that of General de Gallifet. He has dared to give preferment and promotion to Picquart, Freystatter, and other brave French officers who risked their chances in life to secure justice for an unfortunate comrade. He took the question of promotions in the army, which had been usurped by the General Staff, into his own hands ; and in May, 1899, he issued an order not likely to be popular in the army, forbidding the use of such stimulants as absinthe, vermouth, and cognac, among French soldiers. I08 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Since the days when I left Paris in 1848, a great change has passed over Frenchmen in the matter of intemperance. Then, even when the populace was roused into a revolution- ary outbreak scarcely a drunken man was to be seen. French soldiers and French workmen drank only the wines of their country. Since then aperitifs have been introduced, pernicious spirits, which have filled prisons, mad-houses, and sanitariums with their victims. General de Gallifet was resolved not to have the army, which, with all his ability and courage, he was trying to reform and re-organize, affected by the sale of such liquors in camps or barracks. This order was issued early in May. In the last week of that month there was a Cabinet crisis. An official in the Intelligence Department, which had, however, been taken from the War Office and committed to the police, undertook to ascertain who had bribed Cernuschi, the Austrian revolutionist and adventurer who had appeared on the last day of the Dreyfus trial to give entangled hearsay evidence against the prisoner. The result of the inquiry was commu- nicated to the Nationalists by Major Fritch, who when his abstraction of official papers came to the knowledge of the War Office, was dismissed from the General Staff. The matter was brought before the Chamber. The Premier, in his speech, spoke of Fritch as a " felon." For this he was accused of impugning " the honor of the army." A storm arose in the Chamber, in the midst of which General de Gallifet, instead of rising to speak, wrote a short note resign- ing his place in the Ministry, and left the Hall. He was seventy years of age ; his heart was in bad condition ; his physical powers impaired by his wound received in Mexico ; and, to use his own words, he " could no longer stand up under his heavy duties and his emotions." Only by a strong effort of will had he kept himself from fainting in the Chamber. In vain M. Delcass^, sent to him by M. Waldeck- Rousseau, urged him not to remove such a prop from the government. He would not revoke his resignation, but designated Gen- eral Andr6 (who his detractors say is an associate of General PRESIDENT EMILE LOUBET 1 09 de Gallifet's friend Picquart) to succeed him as War Min- ister. General Andre's first acts were interpreted by the pubUc as unfavorable to Dreyfus, but he has followed them by making a clean sweep of the officers in the General Staff. He is a younger man than De Gallifet, and had already given evidence of his determination to preserve discipline in the army. The next week the Senate passed what was called the Amnesty Bill, intended to close the Dreyfus affair. Every- body implicated in it was amnestied ; no further pro- ceedings could be taken against them ; Dreyfus, Mercier, Picquart, Esterhazy, Zola, Roget, Du Paty de Clam, and all the rest were safe from further trial. A motion was made to include D^roulede and his colleagues in this amnesty, but it was rejected. The bill is not satisfactory to the friends of Captain Dreyfus, who regret that he is barred from appeal- ing against the sentence of the court-martial at Rennes, but it is probably the best step that could have been taken to promote the pacification of France. In the elections for a new Chamber, the Government secured a large majority in the Provinces ; while the Nation- alists went wild with delight over their success in Paris, where their most fiery candidates were elected to seats in the Municipal Council. Thus it is once more Paris against France in the Provinces. To use a favorite French expres- sion, when the Exposition is over, " we shall see what we shall see." Meanwhile the bourgeoisie by no means wish the Red Spectre to frighten away strangers. Says the London " Spectator " : " It is well to remember that the actions of France in times of emotion are governed by her brain, which is liable to peri- odic attacks which can hardly be distinguished from accesses of lunacy. The disease of France is, however, more like epi- lepsy, which produces occasional paralysis, but is found consistent with greatness of intellect and a long career." There is one change that has come over a part of France during the last five years, that is beginning to be perceived no LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY and commented on. Alsace and Lorraine have weakened in their attachment to France, and are appreciating the eco- nomic advantages which they have found under the stable government of Germany. Hitherto their interests had drawn them one way, their patriotic pride and their affec- tions in the other direction. But the events of the last eighteen months have greatly changed these feelings. Here are parts of a letter written to the London " Times " by one who professes to know Lorraine and Alsace thoroughly ; he can speak the language of the peasantry, and can hold such familiar intercourse with them as is impossible for a stranger. "In 1890 I found popular feeling in Alsace, more particularly among the peasantry, still very French, adverse to and distrust- ful of Germany. Last year, to my surprise, I found this state of things entirely changed — strikingly reversed in fact, even in those that were reckoned ' French ' districts, and among French-speaking people, with French traditions and French associations. They owned to a feeling of affection for France, as they had known it; they were glad to talk of old times ; but they ' thanked their stars,' as they said, that they had become separated from their old country, and never in the world would they want to be re-united to it. Now for this revolution of feel- ing, no doubt the general unrest and unsteadiness of French politics, the lowering of political fnorale, the loss of head and of aim are largely responsible. ' We have a steady government now, which knows its own mind, and we have law and order,' — that was what I was told. However, unquestionably the Dreyfus prosecution stands for a great deal in this general estrange- ment of Alsatian sympathies. Alsatians do not understand anti-Semitism ; they have always been tolerant to Jews, have attracted them and favored them. ... To the Alsatians, Dreyfus is the Alsatian, the typical Alsatian whose family they know ; a family that in 1870, from what it held to be loyalty and patriotism, elected to stay French, and left its native land. Yet their Alsatian nationality was used as a convenient pretext for making one of its sons a scapegoat under the sway of that peculiarly French delusion, nous sommes trahis! Thus the ' patriotic ' Generals have once and for all estranged Alsatian feeling, and cut off from France the sympathies of those who at one time were her most devoted sons." mvt M RUSSIA AND TURKEY Chapter I. Alexander III. Nicholas II. " II. Railroads and Waterways in Russia. " III. The Peace Congress. The Brother of THE Czar. Finland. " IV. The Sultan and ARiMenia. " V. Crete,' and the War in Thessaly. " VI. In the Balkans. RUSSIA AND TURKEY CHAPTER I ALEXANDER III. NICHOLAS II 'T*HE manuscript of my volume on '•' Russia and Turkey ■*■ in the Nineteenth Century " was nearly completed in September, 1893. Alexander III. was then living, and with all the resources of his vast empire was conscientiously pursuing his policy of bringing all Russians to consider him not only their temporal ruler but their spiritual head. What Moses and Joshua accomplished for the children of Israel, Alexander III. set himself to effect for the people of Russia, sincerely considering himself an instrument in the hand of God for firmly establishing His True Church — /.het, but all were of the race of Koreish, who claimed to be a direct descendant from Abraham. In 15 17 Selim I., Sultan of the Ottomans, conquered Egypt and assumed the position of vicar or successor of the Prophet. He was of an alien race, in no way con- nected with the Prophet's lineage, or with the tribe of 1 82 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Koreish. His only claim to the Caliphate was that when he conquered Egypt the shereef of Mecca presented him at Cairo with the keys of the Holy Cities, and the last Abbaside Caliph, Mohammed XH., made over to him his rights and titles. Since that time the successive Sultans have assumed the title of caliph, and the real caliphs have lived in obscurity in Egypt. The last of them died in 1838. There had been a schism among Mohammedans touch- ing the Caliphate, ever since the death of the last of the four "perfect caliphs." For the Persians refused to accept the authority of the " imperfect caliphs," though these were of the tribe of Koreish. But when Ottoman sultans assumed. the authority of caliphs, and took the title and the functions of Imaum-ul-Muslimin, or Commtoder of the Faithful, the Arabs, the Mohammedans of India, of the Soudan, and of Morocco, repudiated his authority. Even the Moham- medan doctors in Turkey, when called upon to bring argu- ments to establish Sultan SeHm's right to the Caliphate, could only plead that '•' sovereign power must be held to reside in the person of him who is the strongest, who is the actual ruler, and whose right to command rests on the power of his armies." According to the Koran, " All Moslems ought to be governed by an Imaum [the Imaum-ul-Muslimin]. His authority is absolute and embraces everything. All are bound to submit to him. No country can render sub- mission to any other." But the law goes on to say that the Imaum-ul-Muslimin must be of the family of Koreish. In spite of this defect in his title as caliph, Abdul Hamid, soon after his accession, attempted to carry out the policy he had most at heart, which was to assert himself as caliph, as Imaum-ul-Muslimin, and to sacrifice all other interests to those of his religion. He resolved to rally the Mohammedan world around the throne of Othman. Choosing the path of faith rather than that of reason, he sent agents throughout the Mohammedan world, inviting the principal imaums to hold a conference with him at Con- THE SULTAN AND ARMENIA 1 83 stantinople. He awakened their enthusiasm for a revival of energy in the Moslem faith \ but the Arabs, the Persians, the tribes in the interior of Africa, the Mohammedans of India, and the Sultan of Morocco could not be brought to acknowledge the usurper, the man of alien race, — a race unknown to the Arabian Prophet, — as their spiritual head and the Commander of the Faithful. The outcome of the convention must have been no small disappointment to Abdul Hamid, but he has never given up his plan. His Turkish subjects are only a minority in the Mohammedan world. He has his agents at work among all Moham- medans, especially in the sultanates of Central Africa, where it seems possible to stir up Mohammedan negroes against the Arabs. For the Arabs are all ready to assert the right of their own race to the Caliphate, and if opportunity offer, to defend it against the Sultan. Only recently a strong Turkish military expedition has been sent through Tripoli, the Sultan's last remaining African possession, to the southern frontier of Fezzan, to back up the Sultan's claim to suzerainty as caliph over Wadai. We shall hear more of it when this policy comes into collision with French interests. Wadai acknowledges Senoussi (son of the first Senoussi of Jaboub) as its spiritual head, and as the Mahdi. This man is lineally descended from Fatima, the Prophet's daughter, and has therefore the most important qualifica- tion for the Caliphate. Whether Abdullah Ahmed, the late Mahdi of the Soudan, was connected with the Arab tribe of Koreish, I cannot say. For years Turkey has been silently but strenuously combating French influence in North Africa. But of this, in another chapter, I may have more to tell. In the autumn of 1898 the active Kaiser planned a visit to Constantinople and a pilgrimage to Palestine. The Turko-Grecian war was over. Turkey had received sym- pathy and assistance from Germany in the successful con- duct of that war, though Sophia, the wife of the Crown Prince Constantine, was the Kaiser's sister. There were few German officers at the front in command of Turkish 1 84 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY regiments, but it was known that Germany had lent the Turkish War Office great assistance in administrative organi- zation. The Sultan was therefore well disposed to receive Emperor William with due honors, and to further plans for German enterprise in Asia Minor, to promote which was one of the objects of the Kaiser's journey. A long train of German notables accompanied the Emperor. His wife, her court ladies, the household officials, his imperial Majesty's military entourage, and private attendants, in all, about one hundred persons. The clergy of Germany were invited to be present at the conse- cration of the German Lutheran Church in Jerusalem, and to be the guests of the Emperor while in the Holy City. The Sultan received the Kaiser with great pomp and cordiality, and the two potentates (if I may use a homely phrase) at once took a great fancy to each other. The Sultan has always a personal charm for those who approach him, and at the moment of the Emperor's visit, his hopes and spirits had been revived by the issue of the Greek war and European admiration of the excellent conduct of his soldiers. The Emperor William, many-sided, well- informed, and very clever, has also the power of making in personal intercourse a most agreeable impression. The Sultan, after the Oriental custom, made valuable gifts to his guest. From Constantinople the imperial pilgrims went by the Sea of Marmora, the Dardanelles, the ^gean, and the Medi- terranean in the Levant to Hepha, where they were received by young German ladies, all robed in white and adorned with the favorite flowers of the Empress, Marshal Niel roses and lilies of the valley. On October 31, the solemn consecration of the German church at Jerusalem took place. The foundation stone had been laid by the father of the Emperor, when Crown Prince Frederick. For centuries the Roman Catholic, Greek, and Arme- nian churches have been powerful in Palestine, politically, rather than as missionaries, but Protestants had had no THE SULTAN AND ARMENIA 1 85 place among them until the beginning of the nineteenth century. America led the way ; then England and Prussia jointly appointed a bishop in Jerusalem, to be chosen by them alternately. The High Church party in England op- posed this arrangement, as putting bishops who had the"" Apostolic Succession on a par with Lutherans. We may read much about the controversy in Bishop Stanley's Life of Dr. Arnold. The German church, called the Church of the Saviour, now lifts its magnificent spire higher than all the surround- ing domes. After the ceremony of consecration, the Emperor and his party made a tour of three weeks in Palestine and Syria, visit- ing the places of greatest interest, living in tents, and escorted by Turkish soldiers, their transport and commissariat being cared for by the resourceful Cook, the man most experi- enced in such matters. The ladies were very much worn out by the haste with which they travelled, and, for some reason never explained to the public, the Kaiser deter- mined not to go to Spain, though at first he had planned to visit the Queen Regent and pass the Straits of Gibraltar. The party disembarked at Trieste and proceeded by rail to Berlin, where they arrived after six weeks' absence. I have said that one object of the imperial journey was to obtain concessions for railroads in Asia Minor. A great deal of German capital has been invested in that country. German villages are scattered here and there in Palestine and Syria, and, notwithstanding the depletion of the Turkish treasury, large sums have been given by the Government to facilitate the extension of a line of railroad to Bagdad, which is greatly desired by the Sultan. The construction of these railroads cannot but tend to Turkey's economical development, and, as a writer in " Blackwood " says, " If this desirable result is to be brought about under German inspiration, by all means let it have full and free scope. On political and humanitarian consid- erations it deserves the cordial and unselfish support of England." 1 86 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY The same writer goes on to say : — " In a few lines we may sum up the grouping of the six Great Powers in regard to Turkey : Russia never losing sight of, although temporarily suspending, her traditional policy of gravi- tating toward Constantinople ; and France, in gratitude to the Power which rescued her from a depressing isolation, supporting Russia with a half-hearted enthusiasm. On the other hand, we see Germany espousing tlie cause of Turkey, partly from the personal sympathy of its Emperor for the Sultan, but mainly in view of its large stake in the preservation of the Ottoman Empire ; and England, Austria, and Italy co-operating with Germany." [ do not like to close this chapter without allowing Abdul Hamid to speak for himself, which he did in a semi-official interview with Mr. Terrell, the United States Ambassador at Constantinople, in March, 1897, when he especially desired that what he said should be repeated to the American public. This was done in an article in the " Century Magazine " (November, 1897). I think the command " not to bear false witness " applies as much to those who would write history as to intercourse in domestic life. I therefore give the Sul- tan's own words. My readers may credit him, as they think best, with either duplicity or sincerity. The Sultan began by saying that those who knew him per- sonally could never believe him to be cruel. He then spoke of the position of the Armenians in his Empire. As the Ottoman race was a people of war, commerce, finance, and the industrial arts had naturally fallen into the hands of the Armenians, who had prospered and received consideration under Mohammedan rule for four hundred years. Their re- ligion was tolerated and themselves respected. " How could Mohammedans," he said, " murder Armenians only on ac- count of their religion, when the Koran prohibits cruelty and requires that all men who believe in God shall be protected except during war? One of my ancestors, Selim I., once thought that his empire would be stronger if all his subjects professed the same religion. The Sheikh-ul-Islam was asked if it would be lawful for him to kill all Christians who refused THE SULTAN AND ARMENIA 1 87 to be converted to Islam. The Sheikh issued 2, fetva, in which he answered that it would not be lawful, and that Christians who were peaceable must be protected." The Sultan then went on to enlarge on the number of Armenians he and his father had favored and protected, and gave a long list to Mr. Terrell of Armenians who had received money and court patronage. Mr. Terrell alluded to the report sent home by the aged missionary, the Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, to the effect that the Hunchagists had planned to commit outrages on Turks in the Eastern provinces, in the hope that atrocities committed by way of retaliation might rouse the sympathy of Europe and lead to intervention. Lastly, the Sultan spoke with pleasure of the efforts made by Mr. Terrell to introduce the cultivation of sweet potatoes into Syria and Mesopotamia. " To be good to one's fellow- man," he said, "is the best religion. The Prophet once said that if a man is so mean to himself that he gets drunk, and like a hog sleeps by his liquor and cannot get away, it shall be forgiven if he repents, but he who wilfully breaks the heart of a fellow-man may never be forgiven." Again I say — poor Sultan ! No man in Europe prob- ably needs more pity. His empire is honeycombed with secret societies, his treasury is exhausted, his creditors are importunate, and piteous cries come up from his people, complaining of unjust exactions by his tax-gatherers, and oppression by high officials. Above all this, of the six Powers, five at least are to be feared. In Paris young Turkey publishes several newspapers in French and Turk- ish, and it has several organized revolutionary committees. From time to time in his own palace there are shocks and counter shocks of revolutionary feeling. Rumors of a renewal of agitation for the restoration of the charter granted in 1878, dead and inoperative for two and twenty years, from time to time agitate Abdul Hamid. A few years since, Kiamil Pasha, who had ideas of pro- gress, was appointed Grand Vizier at the instance of the English Ambassador, but he was soon deposed, and has 1 88 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY since been sent into exile in Tripoli. Thence, very recently, he escaped on board an English vessel, believ- ing himself to have reason to fear the fate of Midhat Pasha. The offence for which he was deprived of his high office was his opinion, too openly expressed, that the dominant influence in the government of Turkey ought to be that of the ministers at the Porte, rather than that of palace officials. The wild and wicked incursion into the Ottoman Bank at Constantinople, of which I have told in this chapter, has embarrassed the party of reform, and may have set back its cause for a generation. The man who planned it (and was killed in the Bank) had proposed to his colleagues to burn the whole of Stamboul, a quarter of Constantinople which is built of wood. " It would have been even an easier thing," one of his adherents laughingly asserted, when he and his fellow-conspirators were safe in Geneva, " than to take the Ottoman Bank. Oh, yes, a thousand times easier ! " CHAPTER V CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY /^RETE, or Candia, as the island was called when I ^^ learned geography, attracted little attention from Western Europe during the Dark and Middle Ages. Here and there some name or prominent event looms through the mist that shadows its history. We see Idomeneus and Meriones, his friend and charioteer, with the Cretan contingent, acting as allies with the Greeks at the siege of Troy, We know that in the wars waged between Syria and Egypt, after the dismemberment of the empire of Alexander, Cretan mercenaries were employed by both belligerents, and played a large part in the theatre of war. The next thing that the "general reader" learns about Crete is the bad character given to its inhabitants by Saint Paul, who, writing to Titus, the first Christian bishop on the island, and quoting some Greek author, says : " The Cretans are always hars, evil beasts, lazy and gluttonous [" slow bellies "]. This witness is true." This evil reputation, whether just or unjust, has adhered to the inhabitants of Crete to the present day. Only a few weeks since I took up a magazine with an article which proved to be about Crete. It was headed " Among the Liars," and I fancied I was about to read something of the Arabs, who have a legend that Sheitan once carried on" his back a bag of lies for distribution to his followers in many lands ; but passing through one of the provinces of North Africa, a rent came in the bag, and a large proportion of the lies dropped out among the Arabs.^ If this was, indeed, 1 Since the days of " wily Ulysses " men have been found to brag of their proficiency in lying. I heard one of my own domestic servants, a bright mulatto woman, boasting one day that her father was the champion liar of the county in Maryland to which he belonged ! 190 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY the character of Cretans, their proficiency may have been reinforced when the Arabs in the ninth century settled among them, and, taking advantage of the many harbors along their coast, made the island a nest of pirates. Trickery and unveracity is, however, characteristic of all the Levantine peoples, and the habitual untruthfulness of Greek Christians has strengthened the prejudice of Mussul- mans against their religion. In the Levant the trader and the traveller find common honesty only among the Turkish people. My father told me that it was so in his day, and in the old Napoleonic wars he spent nearly ten years of his life on the Mediterranean. All modern travellers say the same thing, always excepting the utterances of the Turkish Government in matters of diplomacy, and the invariable failure of those in authority to keep promises of protection to the Christians wrung from them by the allied Powers, The world, as the Turk views it, consists only of two classes : Mohammedans, who are eventually to triumph, by the bless- ing of God, over our so-called Christian civilization, and non-Mohammedans, who by conversion, tribute, or the sword are in the end to bow their necks to Islam. The Moham- medans by divine right are a privileged people, and unbelievers, so long as they live side by side with them, are to be treated, if unpopular or refractory, like the people of Armenia. We hear little more of Crete until 961, more than one hundred years before the first crusade, when it was conquered from the Arabs by a Byzantine general and restored to the Greek Emperor. When the Latins took possession of Constantinople, 1204, Crete fell to the share of Boniface, Marquis of Monferrat, successor to that Conrad of Monferrat who figures in Scott's " Talisman." Boniface sold it to the Venetians. The rule of the Venetian nobles is said to have been worse than the sub- sequent rule of the Turks, for it was complicated by the cruelties of the Inquisition. Indeed, the history of the island as far back as it can be discerned contains perpetual records of revolts, riots, feuds, massacres, and CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 191 bloody wars. The Turks attempted no conquest of Crete until 1645 ; this they accomplished by a twenty-four years' war, after which little was known of the affairs of the island until the outbreak of the Greek revolution in 1820, save that travellers occasionally spoke of it as the worst gov- erned province in the Turkish dominions. Thousands of its Christian inhabitants apostatized in order to have some share in its local administration, and from these renegades are descended the present Mussulmans of Crete, whose bloody feuds with Christian Cretans have made most of the present troubles. The Sphakiots, a body of Cretan mountaineers, "are," says a recent traveller, " a splendid race, and have often fought for, and always preserved their liberty. They are tall, fair-haired, cheerful ruffians, in face not unlike the typical native of the eastern counties in England.^ Every man carries a rifle and is always prepared to render a good account with it." They took possession of almost inaccessible mountains in the interior of Crete, and not only defeated Turkish armies, but shut up the Turks in their fortified cities. When in 1829 the independence of Greece was acknowl- edged by the European Powers, Crete earnestly desired to be united to the new kingdom, or at least to share the privileges secured to Samos, whose inhabitants have since lived prosperous and happy. But England, Russia, and France consigned her to the powerful Viceroy of Egypt, Mehemet Ali. In 1840, when disputes in the East broke up the entente cordiale between France and England, Crete was given back to the Sultan. Again she protested, asserted her de- sire to be united to Greece, and attempted a revolution. There was a rising in Crete in 1859, another in 1867, when Omar Pasha with a large force was sent to restore 1 There is a large admixture of old Norse (or Danish) blood among the natives of the eastern counties. Can the Sphakiots be descended from some party of Norse rovers wrecked upon their island .'' 192 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY order in the island, and was twice defeated by the Sphakiots, at one time with a loss of twenty thousand men ; and the island may be said to have been for sixty years in a chronic state of revolution. In November, 1878, Turkey, under pressure from the Powers, granted a charter of reforms, called the Pact of Halepa. It was to force the Turkish Government to carry out these reforms that the Cretans kept up perpetual warfare. In 1896 began the same racial murders that had deso- lated Armenia. The Governor of Crete at that time was a Greek Christian, appointed, ostensibly, to fulfil the prom- ises made to the European Powers ; but the Turkish Gov- ernment frustrated all his efforts to maintain peace by refusing him money to pay the gendarmerie, while his au- thority was systematically set at nought by Turkish army officers. At length he resigned, and even the Mohamme- dans regretted his departure. After that things went from bad to worse. The Porte sent a military governor to suppress the revolution. Many Mohammedans were murdered and their farms laid waste by guerilla bands of the fierce Sphakiots, who played much the same part in Crete that the Kurdish clans did in Armenia. The Convention of Halepa had been framed to secure justice, toleration, equitable taxation, and some share in the government to Christians, but its conditions were never carried out. Cretan Christians demanded the fulfilment of this agreement, but the Turkish Government desired to quell insurrection in the island, not by concessions, but by force. The consuls in Crete telegraphed to their governments that they must beware how they guaranteed the fulfilment of any Turkish promises. Some of them even requested the presence of warships in Cretan waters. A massacre took place in the city of Canea. Greece was greatly excited, crowds of Cretan fugitives sought refuge in Athens, while hundreds of Mohammedan orphans found asylums CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 1 93 and kind treatment in Constantinople. Loud was the public outcry in Athens that the Greek Government must rouse itself to help the Cretans, and there seemed reason to dread a popular outbreak if the voice of the people were not heard. The Austrian Ambassador wrote to his Government, " The blame for the present situation lies entirely with the Turks themselves, and it will be impossible for Greece to stand aloof if acts of savagery take place in the island." The British consul, Mr. (now Sir Alfred) Biliotti, telegraphed to Lord Salisbury, " Pillage and fire mark the passage of the Turkish troops." By which he probably meant the Bashi-bazouks, a force of irregulars, recruited from among the Mohammedan Cretans, for other authorities speak well of the discipline and good conduct of the Turkish soldiers of the regular army. Prince Lobanoff, the Russian Foreign Minister, in- duced Austria to propose to the other Powers a blockade to prevent arms and volunteers being imported from Greece to help the insurgents. But Lord Salisbury objected, saying that this would be intervening in opposition to Cretan insurgents, who had very solid grievances to complain of; he also added that ** after what had occurred during the winter in Armenia, it would be difficult to count on the moderation or clemency with which the Turkish Govern- ment would be likely to use any victory it might achieve, and her Majesty's Government therefore shrank from tak- ing part by material intervention in the work of restrain- ing the activity of the Cretans." A strict blockade of the coast of Crete was therefore given up. Nothing could be done, because no promises were binding on the Turk- ish Government, and foreign guarantees were therefore useless. In June, 1896, Berovitch Pasha, a Christian, was made Governor of Crete. The scheme of settlement he was to introduce was one of partial autonomy. A commissioner was to be appointed to reform the law courts, and another to reorganize the gendarmerie. Elections were to be held 13 194 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY to send delegates to an assembly, and for a few weeks on the island there was a period of calm. The Christian deputies issued an appeal to both Christians and Mussul- mans. " Children of the same country, belonging to the same race," it said, " let the work of peace go on without strife." Christians who had fled to Greece began by thousands to return, but Mohammedans had taken possession of their farms, and disputes very naturally arose among them. However, there seems to have been a real desire in the minds of both parties to leave off fighting, because the olive crop that year was a very fine one, and prosperity they hoped would come with peace, though it was far from cer- tain that the promised reforms would be put in working order; for the new Christian governor found himself treated as a nobody. The Turkish officials received private orders from Constantinople. Word too was passed among the Mohammedans that they were to resist the reforms. In the summer of 1896 when the six Powers and a repre- sentative of the Sultan reached a settlement. Consul Biliotti wrote home that " both Christians and Mohammedans seemed happy to be led out of the untenable position in which they were placed," though he thought " more good- will towards the proposed settlement was to be expected of the Mohammedans than of the Christians, in carrying out the proposed organization." Hardly was this written when a massacre took place near Canea of Christian villagers, who had returned to their homes on an assurance that they would enjoy security and protection. Next came murders, atrocities, and the burning of vil- lages. Christians sought refuge in the mountains, Moham- medans in cities on the coast, and the European Powers sent their warships to \Vatch events. Before long there was another massacre in Canea, the city was set on fire, and the warships sent their fire-engines to extinguish it. The Christians in Canea crowded on board the foreign vessels, and not one Christian was left in the city. CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 1 95 All over the island the Mohammedans were m arms. The day after the assembly met, it voted for the annexation of the island to Greece. The Greek flag was hoisted, and Cretan Christians took an oath of allegiance to King George. The population of Athens was roused to a frenzy of enthu- siasm. It insisted that its king must send troops to help the Cretan Christians. Accordingly, Colonel Vassos with four battalions was despatched to raise the Greek flag over the island. The promised autonomy had never been carried out ; the scheme had broken down ; but the Powers pro- fessed themselves much displeased that Greece should interfere to mar their plans. Colonel Vassos, however, landed his men successfully. It seemed hard that Christian Powers should treat as enemies a Greek force that had come to Crete to assist fellow Christians, but the Peace of Europe, which was of more importance to the world than satisfying the aspira- tions of a third-rate power, was involved in the settlement of the Cretan question. There was indeed no reason to think that Greece, unquiet herself, and financially embarrassed, would be able effectively to restore order in what M. de Pressens^ calls " this Ireland of the ^gean Sea, with its fierce racial and religious conflicts, and with a Moham- medan minority exposed to the hate and vengeance of a Christian majority, for after 1896 the massacres in Crete were not of but by Christians ; not by but of Mohammedans." The six Great Powers, unwilling to be befooled and defied by " a small state, their ward and their spoiled child," in- sisted that Greece must withdraw her troops from the island, and when the Greek flag was flaunted in the face of their warships from heights around Canea, the hills and blockhouses from which it floated were shelled. "This," said Mr. Gladstone to his countrymen, " was filling up our measure of dishonor." Lord Salisbury then resolved to try another scheme of pacification and autonomy. Crete was to remain under the nominal suzerainty of the Sultan, but to have a Christian 196 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Governor-General, and a popular Assembly, entirely inde- pendent of Constantinople. The Greek soldiers were to be withdrawn, but the regular soldiers of the Sultan might remain to act as a military police until order was restored upon the island. Greece was notified that the Powers would not consent to her annexation of Crete. But Colonel Vassos was not recalled until the Greeks had ex- perienced reverses in the war that broke out with Turkey, on the northern frontier of Greece. By that time most of the Greek officers in Crete had resigned their commissions, to go to the front as volunteers. Early in 1897 the Mohammedan Cretan population, driven from their farms and olive orchards, were shut up in two or three fortified cities, round each of which a cordon was drawn, which neither they nor their flocks could pass without forfeiting international protection. The Christians, for the most part, found refuge in the mountains. The Mohammedans, imprisoned in the cities, suffered severely from privation, for by this time the Cretan coast was blockaded, and supplies of provisions were cut off from them, as well as arms and ammunition from the Christians. Disputes went on between the Porte and the admirals con- cerning the withdrawal of Turkish troops from the island, and these might have continued longer, had not an attack been made by Cretan Mohammedans and Cretan Bashi- bazouks upon some English marines, sent by Admiral Noel to Candia to carry out a scheme appointing a Cretan to collect the agricultural taxes. The killing of British marines brought matters to a crisis. A party of the Sea- forth Highlanders was landed to restore order, of whom an officer and several men were killed. It became evident that " peace and prosperity, truth and justice, religion and piety," could not be established on the island so long as Turkish garrisons remained in the towns. England, having been attacked in the person of her soldiers and marines, asserted her right to take the foremost part in settling vexed questions concerning Crete at Constanti- nople. Up to that time the dissentient powers had been CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 1 97 Germany and Russia, both, strange to say, connected by marriage with the royal family of Greece. Finally it was arranged that Turkey should renounce all right to rule in Crete, retaining only a nominal suzerainty. The Turkish troops were embarked, and the Cretan Mo- hammedan Bashi-bazouks were disarmed, giving up their weapons to the Turkish soldiers. Several rulers were proposed for Crete. England said she would accept any, provided he were not an English- man or a Turk. A Dane was suggested, a native of Lux- embourg, and a Montenegrin prince ; but Russia, much to the surprise of the other Powers, proposed Prince George, the second son of the King of Greece, the companion of the Emperor (when Czarevich) upon his travels, and his defender when the insane Japanese fanatic attacked him in the street of Otzu. The Porte objected for some time to this choice, saying that the appointment of Prince George would be only preliminary to the annexation of Crete to Greece. Prince George renounced his claim of succession to the throne of his father, and at last the mat- ter was satisfactorily arranged. Very satisfactory it has proved thus far. " Crete, torn for twenty-five years by civil war, foreign conquest, and oppression, has suddenly attained liberty and good govern- ment under a ruler of her own race and language." The autonomy scheme of Lord Salisbury was not popular in Crete at first ; so many schemes of autonomy that had been made had come to nothing. The Mohammedans imagined that autonomy meant the rule of the Christians and the loss of their own privileged position. They also dreaded that the Christians when in power would call them to account for past atrocities. After a long period of suspense, caused by the inaction and indecision of the Great Powers, real autonomy was established in Crete. The Christians, about five-sevenths of the population, had shut up the Mussulmans in the maritime cities, and, owing to the blockade by the navies of Europe, they were wofully short of supplies. Moham- 198 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY medan villages had been burned by the insurgents, and Christian villages with their olive orchards had suffered wholesale destruction. Edhem Pasha, who had been made Turkish Governor of Crete, after the war in Thessaly, had promptly disavowed the attack made at Candia on British troops. But Eng- land refused to be satisfied until Turkish soldiers were withdrawn from the island. This took place accordingly, and Prince George at last with the consent of Turkey was made High Commissioner of the Four Powers in Crete. This meant that he was invested with regal au- thority for three years and that disputes between the Powers were suspended. The enthusiasm of the Cretans knew no bounds when on Dec. 21, 1898, Prince George entered Canea. His work has been to build up a civilized state from ruins. Many persons thought him wholly unqualified for such a task, but the Sphakiots, those warlike mountaineers, whom no author- ity had been able to tame for half a century, submitted at once to the young Greek ruler. The Mussulmans were less amenable, but Prince George has done his best to reconcile them to the new state of things ; agents, however, from Constantinople at first actively opposed his plans and induced large numbers of Moslem peasants to emi- grate rather than submit to his authority. Seventy thou- sand Cretan Moslems, misled as to the intentions of their ruler, are said to have emigrated to Asia Minor. Some, however, soon became weary of exile, and desired to return to their homes. The town Mussulmans and the Turkish landed propri- etors have now become enthusiastic supporters of the Prince and his government. Recently the Queen of Greece (a Grand Duchess of Russia) paid a visit to her son, and increased his popular- ity among Moslems of distinction by returning in person all the visits she received from the ladies of their harems. The Prince too from time to time pays visits to the mosques, and his Secretary of State (or " Counsellor," as PRINCE GEORGE OF CRETE. CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 1 99 he is called) is a Mohammedan, who has charge of the Public Safety and of the gendarmerie. Crete has been provided with a Constitution and with a popular Assembly, which, while it alone can pass laws, impose taxes, and regulate public expenditure, cannot interfere with the executive. The Prince has a council of ministers through whom he governs. Though he exercises kingly, or presidential power, his position, style, and title are somewhat anomalous. He is the High Commissioner of the Four Powers. His appointment will expire at the close of 1 90 1 ; but his administration has been so satisfac- tory that there can, it is thought, be little doubt of its renewal. In a recent article in the " Nation," signed by a Greek name, are the following remarks, which seem worth consideration. "The unusuallv ample power given to the Prince, and the limitation of the national representation to mere legislation, were a necessity, in the case of a passionate and excitable race of political infants, even if Crete were not materially ruined by long centuries of anarchy and misrule. In Greece proper the premature introduction of parliamentary government has en- gendered a sad compound of political jobbery and demagogue rule. Universal suffrage has led to the utter prostitution of parliamentary institutions. Even worse were the results of a similar regime in Crete, for eleven years, under the Halepa Convention of 1878. Not only was autonomy but an ignoble scramble for the sweets of office, but the minority habitually conspired against the majority with the Turkish Governor- General, and against the latter with his personal enemies at Constantinople, and the majority invariably drove the minority out of the towns and plains into the mountains by force of arms. In the absence, therefore, of the self-restraint indispensable to the working of parliamentary institutions, and with so much waiting to be done for the country's material and social regen- eration, Crete needs a strong central government, independent of popular whims, passions, and imperfections, for some time to come." ^ The war in Thessaly will probably be known in history as the Thirty Days' War, for actual hostilities lasted only from 1 "The Nation," Nov. 23, 1899. 200 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY April i6 to May i8, 1897. It was undertaken against what we might call the absolute commands of the six Powers, — England, Germany, Russia, Austria, France, and Italy, who had undertaken, with exasperating diplomatic deliberation, to settle the affairs of Turkey, Greece, and the Cretan question. Both parties had been actively making preparations for a fight. Turkey had mobilized eighty-two thousand men, prin- cipally Redifs, or Reservists, drawn from Asia Minor. Greece had called upon all Greeks in foreign countries to join her standards ; a large number of them sailed from New York ; a body of Garibaldian red-shirts, whom the liberation of Italy had thrown out of employ, came, under the command of Ricciotti Garibaldi ; and enthusiasts from every part of the world lent Greece, if not their support, at least their cordial sympathy. The opinion of the civilized world, and that of the Greeks themselves, according to G. W. Steevens, was as follows : — " That the Turkish army was a mob of starving, half-naked, diseased, disorderly ruffians, who could never stand a day before the forces of civilized Greece. It seems incredible now, but it is indisputable, that thousands of Europeans, who could talk glibly of Japan and China, believed that the Turks would have no chance against the Greeks. The Greeks were glad enough to accept this opinion. Meantime the Turks were arming. The Government issued daily statements of the number of troops that had gone up to the front, but these statements were not believed by the general public, as no foreigner was allowed to go with them and see them ; so the newspaper reports gave the impres- sion that there were more troops on paper statements from the war office than there were facing the enemy. As a matter of fact, however, the statements from Constantinople were true, and the men very decently cared for. The mobilization worked slowly, — but it worked. No doubt it would have been improved on in Ger- many, but it was well in advance of anything Turkey had done before. The thanks for that were due to the new direct railway from Constantinople to Salonica. Had the Sultan kept his fleet in any order, this line could have been dispensed with. But the Greek fleet, trumpery as it was, commanded the Archipelago, and neither men nor stores could be sent bv sea. So that but CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 20I for the Constantinople-Salonica line the Asiatic reserves could not have been got to the front for weeks and weeks." The war was brought on by the Ethnike Hetairia, that revolutionary society which organizes agitation wherever there are Greeks to be influenced by its committees. The population at Athens had been growing very restive in view of the dilatory action (or non-action) of the Powers in settling the affairs of Crete ; and when the six Powers per- emptorily forbade the annexation of that island to Greece, blockaded its coast that Greece might send no troops or food or ammunition to the insurgents, — nay, even fired on Greek flags when a body of insurgents flaunted them in the face of the allied squadron, — the people were not to be restrained. They threatened revolution and the de- thronement of King George, unless he would defy all Eu- rope and declare war against the Turks. At last he placed himself at the head of the national movement, under dread of losing his crown. When the frontier of Greece was settled in 1830, Thes- saly and Epirus were not given to the new-made kingdom. At Berlin, when the Congress in 1878 was engaged in set- tling the affairs of Eastern Europe, Greece conceived her- self to have secured a promise that these provinces, to- gether with Macedonia, should be taken from Turkey and given to her. The Powers had either not meant to make this promise, or refused to carry it out. But the importu- nity of Greece became so great that in 188 1, by especial treaty, Thessaly was made over to Greece, in hopes of pre- venting the incursion of Greek brigands into Turkish terri- tory. The Powers in 1897 notified Turks and Greeks that, whichever should begin the war (undertaken against their advice and approval) should gain nothing by success. The Greeks counted on the prestige of the Grecian name and on the bitter feeling roused against the Sultan by the Armenian massacres. They looked for moral support from Christendom. They did not believe that popular opinion in Christian countries would suffer Turks to invade their land, to massacre, to pillage and destroy them, without 202 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY giving them assistance. They called upon all sons of Greece to rally to the defence of their once glorious country, regardless of the repeated declarations of the Powers, that the settlement of the Cretan question was an international affair, which they intended to keep in their own hands. Early in the spring of 1897, Greek troops were hurried to the frontier, the Turks stationed an army corps at Salonica, and both moved men up to the moun- tains which formed the Greco-Turkish frontier. Edhem Pasha, who was made commander-in-chief of the Turkish army, was a good man and an excellent general, except that he had no "push," — that restless activity so conspic- uous in Christian civilization, so opposed to that of the Orient. A Turkish proverb, " Deliberation is of God, haste is of the devil," was conspicuously illustrated in Edhem's strategy. English and American newspapers sent their correspond- ents to the seat of war. Richard Harding Davis was among those who joined the Greeks ; while with the Turks were, amongst others, G. VV. Steevens and Bennett Burleigh. Each of these gentlemen has published in book-form his experience and his impressions. The Turkish correspondents rendezvoused at Salonica, described by them as a city of Spanish Jews, the chief part of its inhabitants speaking the old tongue that their fore- fathers brought with them when expelled from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella and the Inquisition. Salonica is the city that Austria desires (and expects) to acquire when any fresh partition of the territories of Turkey shall be found advisable. While the correspondents were growing weary of inaction at Salonica, they employed themselves in wondering at the strange efficiency of the Turkish transport service. Every- thing brought from Constantinople by rail was carried to the front on the backs of little ponies, which in long lines crawled over mountains and crossed the dry beds of water- courses, bearing boxes of ammunition, and biscuit, forage, and stores of all kinds for the supply of an army of fifty CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 203 thousand men. The correspondents also visited the Turk- ish hospital, where they found cleanliness and good order. On its outside was a clock with an inscription saying it had been presented by the English Government in acknowledg- ment of the skill and kindness there shown to British sailors attacked by small-pox. At last the correspondents were allowed to go to the front by especial permit from Constantinople ; and soon after, March 28, 1897, came news of a raid of Greek brig- ands over the frontier. But the Turkish army lay inactive at the foot of the mountains that divide Macedonia from Thessaly, awaiting a telegram from Yildiz to say that the war was to begin. The headquarters of Edhem Pasha were at the little town of Elissona at the foot of a long range of hills, on the summit of which was the frontier, with Greek and Turkish block-houses planted within sight of each other, in many instances the occupants of each provision- ally keeping up social intercourse en attendatit the decla- ration of war. There were two passes through the mountains from Macedonia to the plains of Thessaly, Meluna and Reveni. A second time a large band of Greek irregulars calling themselves bandits, but led by Greek officers in disguise, made a raid into Macedonia with no result. For such raids the Greek Government declared itself not responsible, and threw all the blame on the Ethnike Hetairia. On April 16, came orders to Edhem Pasha to assume the offensive. But the day before, the Greeks and Turks had disputed some neutral ground on the summit of a mountain called Analipsis, which dominated the Meluna Pass that led into Thessaly, near the base of Mount Olympus. In this struggle on the top of Mount Analipsis the Greeks gained the advantage. Edhem Pasha, having received permission to advance, commenced an artillery engagement to secure the Pass of Meluna. Riza Pasha was in command of the artillery, which was admirably served. The other Turkish generals of distinction were Neshat Pasha, Memdukh Pasha, Sey- 204 L^ST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY foullah, Hamdi, and Hairi Pashas. Neshat had been bred in Constantinople, and he brought from Adrianople three admirably equipped, well-drilled battalions of young Al- banians. He had no idea how to lead them into action. When his chance came, he charged with them up a moun- tain on the top of which were Greek batteries and earth- works, while other batteries were so posted as to take them in flank. Nearly all the gallant little band perished at Do- moko. Memdukh Pasha was a veteran soldier, a splendid fighter, beloved and honored by his men, but he was as ignorant of the art of war as he was of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Hairi and Hamdi were dilatory and incapable officers, always behind time when their divisions were wanted, while SeyfouUah, who had been attached to the Turkish embassy at Athens, knew all the Greek officers and every foot of their country, and was of invaluable assistance to his commanders. Prince Constantine, the Greek Crown Prince, was com- mander-in-chief of the Greek army ; his staff was composed of gay young men, his friends, conspicuous in social circles in Athens. With him was his brother Nicholas. The " big, bluff, rollicking sea-dog, Prince George," was with a flotilla off the coast of Crete. The first day's fight at the Pass of Meluna broke off when the Turks had gained the summit of the hills that com- manded it, and night fell. In the morning they expected to resume the fight, but they found the Greeks were gone. They had fallen back on Larissa, the chief town of Thessaly. The Reveni Pass, where General Smolenski, and under him the best native general, Mavromichali, commanded the Greeks, was far better defended. There was fought what was called the battle of Mati, and the Greeks showed bravery ; but Smolenski's forces were ordered by the Crown Prince to fall back on Larissa, a movement indeed inevit- able, for their position was surrounded. The Turks poured by both passes into the plain of Thes- saly, advancing on Larissa. To their surprise they found it evacuated by all the Greek troops and most of the inhabit- CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 205 ants, who had persuaded themselves that nothing but mas- sacre and pillage could be looked for from the Turks. Here is Steevens's description of how he entered Larissa, and his account of what he saw is confirmed by other writers : — "Never could there be seen more hopeless, handless, head- less confusion. Saddles and harness were strewn in heaps ; regimental papers flew before the wind in clouds. There was a knapsack, here a cap, there an artillery ammunition wagon hanging over the ditch, with the wheels broken and the traces cut; there — shame! — a little pile of cartridges. A soldier may throw away much, and there is still hope for him ; once he begins to throw away cartridges, there is none. And there by the roadside were a couple of dead Greeks, their swollen faces black with flies ; they had been killed by their comrades in the stampede. . . . " As the dominant impression of the town was the sweet smell of laburnums in the public places, of roses and sweet peas in the gardens, so the impression of the occupation of the town was fragrant and kindly. The entry of the Turkish troops into Larissa was the sweetest and most lovable thing I had seen during this week of war. That the Turkish army entering a town taken from the enemy should be a pleasant sight, should be almost a kind of Sunday-school treat, will be surprising information to many Englishmen. But I have eyes in my head, and I saw it." So did others, who tell us the same tale. The Greeks on their retreat had paused first at a small town called Tyrnavo, from which they fled in a panic on Friday night. The Crown Prince came that same evening into Larissa, but quitted it at two in the morning. Frightened troops, who had lost all order and discipline, came rushing tumultuously into the town all night, and the next morning were off for Pharsala, letting loose two hundred convicts from the prisons, and putting arms into their hands. There " had been smashing and stealing and shooting all Saturday night. On Sunday morning came the Turks. . . . Town and fortifications, guns and ammunition, clothing and provisions and fodder, — the Greeks had taken to their heels and left it all ! They had lost everything — including honor. 206 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY They had not been beaten ; they had scuttled for their Uves after two days of desultory shell-fire, that, on their own showing, had killed next to nobody. . . . And their flight was headed by their commander-in-chief, the King's son ! " There were strange stories told of the way in which officers of his staff provided for his personal comfort and luxury in his railway carriage ; and even Greeks ventured on the taunt that a Greek peasant won the race from Marathon, and a Greek crown prince won the race when his army left Larissa for Pharsala. Not all Greeks shared, however, in this disgraceful flight. Twelve thousand men under Smolensk! had come through the Reveni Pass, and were stationed along the railroad south of Larissa which runs from Volo ^ to Pharsala. On this road, Velestino, forty miles from Larissa, though an insignificant village, was an important position. At Phar- sala, a big village rather than a town, about sixty thousand Greek soldiers were assembled ; the position was one well capable of defence. But Greek tactics in this war seemed to be to defeat the best-laid plans of Edhem Pasha, by running away just as he had made his preparations for a hard fight and a brilliant victory. The Greeks had an admirable position at Pharsala ; some said that " an army that was bent on fighting might have searched half Europe to find a better." Three times on different days the Turks attacked Velestino, and were repulsed, for Smolenski's men had not lost heart and had confi- dence in their commander. A fourth time, on May 4, they returned with ten thousand men and four field batteries. The second battle of Velestino lasted a day and a half. On May 5, the Crown Prince and his army retreated from Pharsala to Domoko, and ordered Smolensk! to rejoin him. Turks burned the village of Velestino as they passed through it on their march to Volo. "Smolenski's name had been more potent than five thousand men held in reserve. His seven thousand men 1 Volo, the terminus of an important railroad, with its harbor occupied by Greek warships and those of the allies. CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 20/ for two days lay in the trenches repulsing attack after attack of the Turkish troops, suffocated with heat, chilled by sudden showers, and swept incessantly by shells and bullets, maintaining their position partly because they were good men and brave men, but largely because they knew that somewhere behind them a stout, bull-necked little man was sitting on a camp-stool, watching them through a pair of field-glasses." The retreat from Pharsala, at which place the Crown Prince was the first man to leave the army, was more orderly than the flight from Larissa. The Foreign Legion formed the rear-guard, keeping good order, stubbornly firing, and marching swiftly, but without breaking into a run. After this the Greeks under Sinolenski could not hold Velestino, and Velestino lost meant the loss of the railroad and of Volo. Most amusing is Mr, Steevens's account how he and three other correspondents, two Englishmen and an American, with a Turkish captain, one of the Sultan's aides-de-camp, two Albanian cavasses, and a stray cavalry trooper whom they picked up on the way, took the import- ant city of Volo. Absurd as the whole thing was, it h^d an element of tragedy, for Captain Nedjib Bey carried with him news of life or death to the inhabitants, and all of them expected the latter fate. The invaders on their way met a deputation from the foreign consuls in Volo, each carrying its national flag ; among them an English jack-tar bore the Union Jack. They were on their way to implore Edhem Pasha to show clemency and protection to the people of the city. All the people of Volo seemed to the handful of invaders most horribly afraid of them, but as the party advanced toward the centre of the town, and it was found that so far they had not murdered anybody, the populace grew somewhat reassured, and began to think they might still have a chance. The Sultan's young aide-de-camp and his seven followers pushed through to the town-hall, where they had much difficulty in finding any man willing to act as represen- tative of the Mayor, and sign the surrender of the city. 208 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY When this was accomplished, a proclamation from Edhem Pasha was read from a balcony to the people, of whom there were about a thousand in the street, looking up timorously. " But as they listened, their cowed faces lightened. They were spared ! They lived again. And then a Greek on the balcony called for three cheers for the Sultan. How they rang ! All the Greeks who had called him a monster at dawn that morning emptied their lungs with a relish." It was a comfort to them to learn that they need no longer expect to be robbed or killed. From Pharsala the Turkish army marched on Domoko, a place very strongly defended by a river, hills, and earth- works. It was there that Neshat's three battalions of young Albanians, in new uniforms and with Mauser rifles, were led up to their death by a commander wholly ignorant of what could be reasonably expected of them. They never flinched, however, but marched on, leaving behind them a long line of dead and wounded. Domoko is at the foot of the Othrys Mountains, a range that on the south bounds the plain of Thessaly. Its pass is the Furka, leading down to Thermopylae, which it ap- pears is not a pass at all, but a stretch of sandy beach, on one side of which is the sea, and on the other the high cliffs of a range of mountains. The retreating Greeks were driven down the Furka Pass by a wild contingent of Albanians. These were men, or mostly boys, who did not serve for pay, but for the fun of fighting and the hope of loot. Of this last in this cam- paign they were sorely disappointed, but disappointment did not cool their zeal or dash their courage. When the Turks got through the Furka Pass, their advance was met by a white flag, which Greek officers were carry- ing to Edhem Pasha with news that an armistice preliminary to peace had been agreed on by the contending parties. Thus ended, on May 20, the Thirty Days' War in Thessaly. But in Epirus another branch of the war (if I may so ex- press myself) had been simultaneously going on — I was about to say " it raged " around the Gulf of Arta (part CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 209 of the Ionian Sea, which leads into the Adriatic), but there was no raging about it. It was the story of Thessaly over again, — advance of the Turks, retreat of the Greeks, and little or no fighting to speak of. On one occasion the Greek army marched for a day and a half toward a place called the Seven Wells, where they expected to encounter the enemy, but before they reached it, they met a force of their own men in full flight, and the account of their rough-and-tumble retreat to the Greek shore, over a long, high, narrow bridge at Arta, is amusingly told by the Amer- ican correspondent of the London " Times." The Gulf of Arta has one shore in Greece, the other in Turkish territory. On the latter is a little white fort called Prevesa, which was bombarded with little or no result by Greek warships from April 18 to the close of hostilities. Mr. Richard Harding Davis, whom I have already quoted, says also, — " It is a question whether the chief trouble with the Greeks is not that they are too democratic to make good soldiers, and too independent to submit to being led by any one from either the council-chamber or the field. Perhaps the most perfect example of pure democracy that exists anywhere in the world is found among the Greeks to-day, — a state of equality the like of which is not to be found with us nor in the Republic of France. Each Greek thinks and acts independently, and respects his neighbor's opinion just as long as his neighbor agrees with him. . . . The country was like a huge debating society. When these men were called out to act as soldiers, almost every private had his own idea as to how the war should be conducted, and as his idea not infrequently clashed with the ideas of his superiors, there were occasional moments of con- fusion. . . . Too many of the Greeks went forth to war with a most exaggerated idea of the ease with which a Turkish reg- iment can be slaughtered or made to run away ; and when they found that very few Turks were killed, and that none of them ran away, the surprise at the discovery quite upset them, and they became panic-stricken, and there was the rout to Larissa in consequence." There was an impression in the army and elsewhere in Greece that the Greek campaign was much influenced by 14 2IO LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY letters which passed between the King and his relatives in various courts of Europe. The Greek soldiers at one time fully believed that they had been betrayed by their King, and that the Crown Prince had received secret orders not to give battle but to retreat continually. There certainly was much danger in Athens of an attempt at revolution. It would have been much more to the King's credit had he told his people firmly from the first that they were wholly unprepared for war, instead of assuring them from the balcony of his palace that if war should come he himself would lead them into Thessaly. But King George was un- fortunate in having been carried beyond his depth by a wave of excitement got up among a people who seem as easily moved as those of a Spanish-American republic.'^ It was not until December that a treaty of peace was signed, and Turkish troops were withdrawn from Thessaly. The Powers found it very hard to agree upon the terms, and Turkey and Greece were equally dissatisfied with their propositions. Germany struck the most discordant note in the European " concert." Her Emperor was anxious to conciliate Turkey, and yet so arrange the indemnity to be paid by Greece that the outlay should not imperil the interests of German capitalists who had put much money into Greek loans. England insisted that Turkey should not be allowed to keep troops upon Greek soil until the indemnity (or part of it at least) was paid ; Russia was very anxious to arrange for its satisfactory payment, and she intended to press for payment of the war indemnity accorded to her twenty years before by the Treaty of Berlin, when the Sultan should have money in his hands. Finally all was arranged. Turkey was forced reluctantly to give up Thessaly ; Greece was forced to let an inter- national committee preside over her financial affairs. So great was popular indignation in Athens that the Premier, foreseeing that the treaty would be rejected by an immense majority in the Boule (or Legislative Chamber), made 1 See " A Year from a Reporter's Note-Book," by Richard Hard- ing Davis. CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 211 some pretext for its being signed without submitting it to the representatives. Briefly speaking, Turkey gave up Thessaly, but there was "a rectified frontier" laid down between Thessaly and Macedonia. From 1881 to the war the frontier had been on the summit of the mountain range which separates Greece from Turkey. The new frontier left Turkey the hills and the passes, Mount Olympus, Ossa, and Pelion, and was drawn at the base of the dividing range. An indemnity of 152,000,000 drachmas, or four million Turkish pounds, was to be paid by Greece. She was also to renounce all schemes of annexing Crete. Some villages on the frontier, inhabited by Christian Wallachs (Roumanians) petitioned to be annexed to Turkey rather than to Greece. Their peti- tion was granted. Greece also renounced her treaty-right to have her subjects, if guilty of any offence while in Tur- key, tried by their own consuls, and not by Turkish law. Since this treaty was concluded, the world has heard little from Greece except what relates to archaeological discoveries. In 1896 the Olympic Games were revived in Athens, and were largely attended by athletes and enthusiastic students of classical Greek literature all over the world. It was pro- posed to hold these games every four years. Greece claimed that they must be held at Athens, but Paris in 1900, dur- ing the Exhibition, was the place and time preferred. The matter, however, seems to have been dropped. Greece has been out of heart since 1896, and Paris during the Exhibition year has been too crowded with attractions. A CHAPTER VI IN THE BALKANS WRITER in the " Economist," November, 1899, speaks thus of the situation in the Balkans : — " Politics in the Balkans at the present time must be very- like what politics were in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. The entire peninsula is divided, as Europe was then, among separate states which have no bond except their com- mon creed, and are governed by princes, each of whom is occu- pied in getting the better, by fair means or foul, of all the others. Each state is inhabited by people who have in the main only two occupations, agriculture and fighting, and who agree with their princes, that in the domain of politics, laws, consciences, and agreements are almost equally burdensome. The regular means of aggrandizement are war and intrigue, but if individuals, whether princes or statesmen, are too much in the way, the people or their princes resort to assassination without the slightest scruple." These words read like a resiatie of the events that took place in Bulgaria after September, 1893, when I concluded my account of "Russia and Turkey in the Nineteenth Cen- tury," and of the petty states that had been successively torn from the Ottoman Empire and granted autonomy under the sovereignty, for the most part, of alien princes. I concluded my account of Bulgaria (a tiny principality no larger than Scotland and Wales combined) with these words : — " Prince Ferdinand has been fortunate in his prime minister, M. Stambuloff, who was president of the provisional govern- ment during the change of princes. His fortunes are bound up with those of Prince Ferdinand, for whose acceptance of the Bul- garian throne he is mainly responsible. He is extremely popular in the country. That Russia is bitterly opposed both to him and IN THE BALKANS 213 his prince is probably an additional reason why they are beloved by the Bulgarians." " I do not envy the man who may be called to fill the place of Prince Alexander," wrote an old resident of Con- stantinople, when the choice of a new prince was yet to be made. " If he attempts to rule in the interests of Bulgaria, he will be subjected to every insult and thwarted at every step. If he is simply a Russian satrap, he will be hated by his people." Such has been the history of Prince Ferdinand and of his principality since 1893. During the first years of his reign Ferdinand of Saxe- Coburg had little hold on the sympathies or affections of his people. He was a foreigner and a Catholic. He knew nothing of the country ; he was even ignorant of its lan- guage, though it must be said to his credit that he studied it with great diligence, and before long overcame this dis- advantage. But "his chief, if not his only, hold upon his people was that he was believed to be the safeguard of their national independence, while the main ground for this belief lay in the fact that he was the nominee of Stam- buloff, and was supposed to enjoy the full confidence of his nominator." Stefan Stambuloff, the Bismarck of Bulgaria, was born in the small fortified city of Tirnova, the ancient capital of the Peasant State, on Jan. 31, 1854. His father was an inn- keeper. He had two brothers who, during his days of power and prosperity, never attempted to rise above their original station, but Stefan from his earliest years was ambitious, and the first step to a rise in life was to obtain instruction. His father apprenticed him to a tailor, but he sought every opportunity of acquiring knowledge. Midhat Pasha, who was at that time Vali or Governor of Bulgaria, had been at pains to establish good schools in his vilayet, and Stefan contrived to receive private lessons at night from one of the schoolmasters. In 1866, news of a Cretan revolt excited the Christians in Bulgaria. Revolutionary committees were formed in the chief towns, and Stambuloff, 214 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY while still pursuing his studies, joined one of these com- mittees. Next, much against the wishes of his father, he obtained, in consideration of his zeal for learning, an op- portunity to pursue his studies at the University of Odessa, where he proposed to himself to study for the priesthood. Odessa was at that time overrun with Nihilists. Out of three hundred students in the University, not more than thirty or forty were free from taint. They held secret meetings in cellars and lone places ; but at last they were all arrested, and the Bulgarians among them were ordered to go back to Turkey in twenty-four hours. Stambulofif chose that part of Turkey which is now Roumania ; thence, however, as he was looked upon as a revolutionist, he was sent to his own province of Bulgaria. It is strange that after this he was offered by the Turks an appointment as schoolmaster in one of the government schools. . But he preferred to become a book-peddler, and in that character to act as the " walking delegate " of revolutionary com- mittees, while disseminating revolutionary literature. He had many dangerous adventures in this part of his career, and often suffered greatly from cold and hunger. At length he found himself in Constantinople, where Ignatieff, the Russian Ambassador, who favored risings and revolts in Turkish territory, gave him a Russian passport to Odessa. But the chief Revolutionary Committee at Bucharest sub- sequently lost confidence in Stambuloff. He was not of the stuff that makes thorough-going Nihilist conspirators. Russian officials facilitated his escape, both from the Turks and from the Nihilists. In the various confusions of that time, in the Turko-Servian war, and in insurrections against the Turkish Government in Bulgaria and Roumania, Stam- buloff acted with Russia. At one time he undertook to organize insurrection against the Turks among the brigand bands of Macedonia, and grew thoroughly disgusted with their self-seeking and unreliability. In the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, he served with the Russian soldiers, who proclaimed themselves the deliverers IN THE BALKANS 21 5 of their Bulgarian brothers from the yoke of the infidel. When the war ended, Stambuloff was selected to carry an address of gratitude, with two hundred and fifty thousand Bulgarian signatures, to the Russian Emperor ; but before he could deliver it, he learned that the Treaty of San Stefano had been abrogated by the Powers, that Bulgaria was not to possess Roumelia, and was not to become an appendage of Russia, but was to continue under the suz- erainty of the Sultan as an autonomous principality. Stambuloff then retired to Tirnova, and began practice as a lawyer. Since independence — or semi-independence — had been granted to Bulgaria by the Powers, it became the object of his life to maintain her nationality, and to fit his countrymen for self-government ; meantime, under the rule of Alexander of Battenberg, he took no active part in pub- lic affairs. When Bulgaria found herself deprived of a sovereign by the abduction and abdication of Prince Alexander, there was wild confusion throughout the country, but everywhere among the people popular feeling was with their lost Prince. There were doubts, however, whether all the army could be trusted, and Russian agitators were everywhere at work in Bulgaria and Roumelia. A provisional regency was. appointed in which Stambuloff took the lead, and, as I have told in " Russia and Turkey in the Nineteenth Century," the choice of the Regents fell upon Prince Ferdinand of Saxe Coburg. As the young Prince was inexperienced in the art of government, and wholly unacquainted with the language of the people he was called to rule, Stambuloff may be said to have taken him at once under his patronage and protection. At the point when my narrative broke off in "Russia and Turkey," Ferdinand had been on the throne five years. It was the earnest desire of Stambuloff to see him mar- ried, for he felt that the independence of Bulgaria depended on a permanent dynasty. The Constitution permitted the people of Bulgaria to elect a prince not of the Orthodox Greek Church, but insisted that his successor must belong 2l6 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY to the national religion. Stambuloff exerted himself to have this clause of the Constitution changed. The birth of a male heir to Prince Ferdinand (who had married Princess Maria Louisa of Parma) was hailed with rapture by the Bulgarians ; for the first time for many cen- turies a Bulgarian prince was born on Bulgarian soil, and he was to bear the name of Boris, the national hero of Bulgarian legend. Old residents in Bulgaria declared that they had never witnessed such a display of enthusiasm among a singularly undemonstrative people as that which greeted the news of this prince's birth. " From that time Prince Ferdinand felt, with some amount of justice, that his title to the throne rested on grounds independent of his great minister's support and favor." Stambuloff, having obtained a repeal of the article in the Constitution of Bulgaria which made it essential that Prince Ferdinand's successor should be of the Orthodox Church, incurred thereby additional distrust and more personal dislike from Alexander III., whose dearest hope was to spread the Orthodox faith among Slavs. Prince Boris was born Jan. 30, 1894, and was baptized a week later by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulgaria. His godparents (who were both present) were Prince Robert of Parma, his maternal grandfather, and his paternal grandmother, the Princess Clementine of Orleans. He received at the same time the title of Prince of Tirnova. There had been rumors in Bulgaria that Prince Ferdi- nand might apostatize and declare himself a member of the national Orthodox Church. When this rumor reached his ears, he replied, " Rather than apostatize I would renounce my crown and my life ! " " Noble words ! " cried a French abb^, writing early in 1895 on the affairs of Bulgaria. Alas ! Prince Boris when two years old was rebaptized in the Orthodox Greek Church, the Czar being invited to be his godfather. It was a keen disappointment to the Catholics of Bulgaria, IN THE BALKANS 21/ of whom there are a large number. It was also a surprise, for Ferdinand had written with enthusiasm to Pope Leo on his marriage, that he hoped to found a Cathohc dynasty in Bulgaria. The crook in Prince Ferdinand's lot was that he had never been officially recognized by other European sover- eigns ; for the Treaty of Berlin required the formal assent of the six Great Powers, as well as that of the Sultan (the suzerain of Bulgaria), to make a prince's election valid. England, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, and Italy had assented without difficulty, but not Russia. " To a man like Ferdinand, fond of court ceremonies, vain of his personal position and morbidly susceptible as to his own dignity, the constant slights and rebuffs which his non-recogni- tion entailed were more galling than they would have been to common mortals. But apart from this, a less sensitive prince might well have considered that not only his own prospects, but those of his dynasty were seriously imperilled by the reluc- tance of his ministers to take any steps to force on his recognition." It was even intimated to him from trustworthy sources that Stambuloff, being considered the friend of Turkey, and the archenemy of Russia, no reconciliation with that power could take place, and no recognition from the Czar could be expected, unless the man who held the helm of state could be thrown overboard. The Princess Maria Louisa was very ill for weeks after her son's birth ; when she grew better, she was removed for change of scene to the neighborhood of Vienna. Her husband went with her, and in his absence Stambuloff, as usual, was appointed regent. A very serious dispute occurred at this time (1894) with the Sultan concerning the appointment of Christian bishops in Macedonia. It was a conflict between the Greek, Bul- garian, and Servian nationalities in that disordered province, each hoping to increase its importance and influence by control of religion and the schools. Stambuloff" took it upon himself to visit the Sultan in 21 8 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Constantinople, and succeeded so well in his personal com- munications with Abdul Hamid that two extra bishops of the Bulgarian Church were appointed in Macedonia, thereby giving increased authority to the Bulgarian clergy. This triumph over Orthodox Greek Christians greatly increased Stambuloff's popularity among his people. Mass meetings and torchlight processions were held in his honor, and he was wildly cheered when, in a speech to the crowd, he declared that the interests of Bulgaria would be best pro- moted by cordial and loyal co-operation with the suzerain. But while the people of the Peasant State were wild with enthusiasm for Stambulofif, Prince Ferdinand's feeling was the reverse. " That so important an arrangement had been concluded without his approval, and concluded in such a way that the whole credit of its conclusion devolved on the premier, rankled in the Prince's mind, and later on furnished one of the chief pretexts for the Minister's dismissal." Meantime while Stambuloff, confident that he was abso- lutely indispensable to his royal master, believed that that master knew him to be indispensable, Prince Ferdinand was growing more and more anxious to escape from his leading strings and to lean for support instead upon the arm of Russia. This feeling grew stronger when Alexander III., whose personal animosity he never could have ap- peased, gave place to his son Nicholas upon the Russian throne. I cannot enter into an account of the conspiracies, assas- sinations, false accusations, executions, and intrigues, that disturbed the court and capital of Bulgaria, before Russian agents, with the sympathy and connivance of Prince Ferdi- nand, accomplished the great minister's fall. Falsehoods affecting his moral character, and falsehoods to the effect that torture had been inflicted by his orders on political prisoners were freely circulated. The most obvious and, per- haps I may venture to say, the most national way of getting rid of him was to kill him. Several methods were tried with this intent. One was a duel with a M. Savoif, who, with no IN THE BALKANS 219 shadow of evidence, accused M. Stambuloff of an intrigue with his wife. But, the matter being placed in the hands of seconds, they unanimously decided that Savoff was insanely jealous, and could show no cause whatever for demanding satisfaction from the prime minister. A surer way seemed to be to resort to assassination. As Stambu- loff was walking home from his club one night in company with M. Beltscheff, the Finance Minister, a shot was fired from behind a wall. It was intended to hit Stambuloff, but it killed his companion. Prince Ferdinand had had in his hands, since his dissatis- faction concerning the bishoprics in Macedonia, an undated resignation, signed by Stambuloff. He had hesitated to use it. But now, the ignorant and fickle populace being sufficiently roused against the great minister, who had sought his country's good, he was dismissed from office and virtually imprisoned in his own house, where even his fast friends were denied free access to him. Unfortunately his sense of wrong got the better of his discretion. He was editor of a paper, in which he attacked his enemies, including Prince Ferdinand, with great bitter- ness and persistency, and he was unfortunately led to un- bosom himself to a German newspaper reporter, who, of course, in the columns of his journal made the story of the wrongs that the great minister had received from Prince Ferdinand as sensational as possible. After this, every kind of persecution of Stambuloff and of his friends was carried on with the approval, if not at the instigation, of the court of Sofia. In vain the fallen minister implored the intercession of his Prince to save him from his enemies, or to grant him leave, as his health needed a change of climate, to retire from Bulgaria. But Ferdinand refused " to risk his own prospects of reconcili- ation with St. Petersburg in order to serve the minister who had served him so faithfully." "This was," says Mr. Edward Dicey, " according to the well-known saying, ' worse than a crime, it was a blunder,' and for blunders of this kind there is no place for repentance." 220 LAST YEARS OF THE NINE TEE ATTN CENTURY During the year 1895, the persecution of Stambuloff, his friends, and his adherents went steadily on. A mihtary court actually issued an order for his arrest on the charge that he had himself murdered his friend Beltscheff, while the real murderer, who had confessed the crime and had been committed for five years to prison, was released. The mob, eager for excitement, clamorously approved of these proceedings. Adherents of Stambuloff to whom he had given official positions were summarily dismissed, and officers whom he had promoted were turned out of the army. On July 15, as Stambuloff was driving home to his own house, attended by a friend and by his faithful body ser- vant, his carriage was attacked by four bravos, whose leader was Tufekcheff, a man who had been sentenced to death in Constantinople for the murder of Dr. Vulkovich, the " diplomatic agent of Bulgaria." He was at large, however, for the Bulgarian Government had claimed him as its sub- ject from Turkey, and had taken him under its protection, Vulkovich having been a friend and appointee of Stambu- loff. Two of the assassins shot, and two stabbed their victim, besides inflicting wounds upon all those who at- tempted to assist him. The police, instead of at once arresting Tufekcheff and his fellow-ruffians, allowed them to escape, and arrested instead Stambuloff's devoted servant and the friend who was with him in the carriage. He died in his own house three days after the attack, denouncing his murderers, and forbidding his wife to accept any favor whatever from his ungrateful sovereign. At the funeral a rabble danced, and sang ribald songs over his grave. Stambuloff died a poor man. He had neglected the care of his own fortune in his zeal to promote the best interests of his country. He was stern and sometimes savage in his dealings with political criminals, and with a just view of his own importance to the government of his Prince and of his country, he took little pains to conciliate a sensitive and vain man who for some years had been IN THE BALKANS 221 growing extremely jealous of him, and very restive under his tutelage. Stambuloff left three young children, a baby boy and two little girls. Prince Ferdinand was out of the way when the murder took place, and he was in no hurry to get back and face public opinion. No one, I think, was punished for the murder. At once the Prince set himself to carry out his private policy, to conciliate the new Czar, and to obtain recognition of his title to the throne of Bulgaria. In March, 1896, the " conversion " of Prince Boris having taken place as a pre- liminary, the Czar's consent was gained to his recognition as Prince of Bulgaria, that of the other five Powers needed no negotiation, and the Sultan granted his firman for Prince Ferdinand's investiture. Stambuloff, when in the plenitude of his power, said to Mr. Edward Dicey that in his opinion the consent of Russia to the recognition so much desired by the Prince, and its accomplishment, would be a national calamity. The recog- nition would be of no practical value, but were it once accomplished, a Russian minister would be sent to foment disturbances at Sofia, and Russian consuls would become centres of disaffection in every little town. Indeed, in that event all public men who since Prince Alexander's downfall had governed the country might have reason to tremble for their lives. These prognostications have been in great measure ac- complished. It would be useless here to tell of the anarchy and discord, the intrigues, assassinations, and conspiracies, that have since prevailed in Bulgaria. During the Turko-Grecian war, Bulgarians made raids into Macedonia, but these were not encouraged by the Government, for the Prince and his counsellors well knew that Russia and Austria had planned, when any division of the " Sick Man's " property should take place, to give at least part of Macedonia to Austria- Hungary. The great object of Prince Ferdinand, now that he has been officially 222 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY recognized as a European sovereign, is to curry favor with the two emperors at St. Petersburg and Vienna. He has made repeated visits to the young Czar, who is not sup- posed to Uke him personally, and has always returned home the recipient of many courtesies, but of no material advan- tages. The Emperor of Austria was far from pleased at what is called " the conversion " of Prince Boris, but Prince Ferdinand continues his visits to Vienna. Recently he is said to have been much wounded by finding himself while there treated as only a prince, while the Kings of Roumania and Servia took precedence of him. He is now reported to be making great efforts to secure a "kingly crown." Meanwhile his peasant people are growing discontented, and when the Emperor of Russia visits Bulgaria, as it was said he proposed to do after he had been to Paris to attend the Exposition, he may find its peasant population in open armed revolt. Prince Ferdinand certainly has lost no opportunity of in- gratiating himself with the Russians. He has recalled from exile all Bulgarian refugees and army officers implicated in the abduction of Prince Alexander, or convicted of taking part in other'Russian- Bulgarian conspiracies. Not only this, but these officers have been restored to their military rank, have received pensions for good service, and have been promoted over the heads of those who have been always faithful and loyal. To the Prince of Montenegro, who is understood to be high in favor at the court of Russia, Prince Ferdinand is effusively cordial. Not only this, but he has endeavored to bring back the National Church of Bulgaria into the ranks of the Orthodox Greek Church. The differ- ences between these churches are political and not doc- trinal. In this, however, he has not succeeded. His people no sooner got wind of the project than they declared that it would be a renunciation of Bulgarian political interests in favor of Greece ; and the matter was dropped in consid- eration of almost general opposition. Prince Ferdinand is now a widower. His young wife, Princess Maria Louisa of Parma, died early in 1899, and IN THE BALKANS 223 the Prince seized the occasion to have as many crowned heads as possible come to Sofia, and do him honor by being present at her funeral. Roumania officially declines to be counted one of the Balkan States. She says that geographically she has no connection with the peninsula ; that she has an aristocracy, which Bulgaria, Servia, Macedonia, Bosnia, and Hertzego- vina have not ; a settled government and a people attached to their own sovereign. But there seems no other way in which to class a kingdom made out of the Turkish pro- vinces of Wallachia, Moldavia, and Dobrudscha. Of the history of Roumania before 1893, I have told at length in " Russia and Turkey in the Nineteenth Century." Since May 23, 1 88 1, when Charles of HohenzoUern, its prince, was crowned with an iron crown made from cannon cap- tured from the Turks at Plevna, his kingdom has been one of those fortunate countries which may be said to have had no history. Roumania has gone on increasing in prosperity and strength, and has silently developed her resources. When firmly seated on his throne, King Carol I. turned his attention to his country's peaceful development. As unhappily he and his charming wife. Queen Elizabeth, known in literature as Carmen Sylva, have no living child, he selected Prince Ferdinand of HohenzoUern, the second son of his elder brother, to be Crown Prince of Roumania and his heir. This choice was confirmed by the Parliament of Roumania in 1889. In 1893 this Prince married Marie, daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.^ Her mother was the Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, daughter of Alexander II. I'here have been no events connected with foreign policy to mark King Carol's reign. As a HohenzoUern and as a soldier, he has devoted much attention to his army. Sir Charles Dilke said of the Roumanian troops, after their deeds in the Russo-Turkish war of 1 87 7, that as war mate- rial they were not inferior to British soldiers, and it has been 1 Prince Alfred died July 30, 1900. 224 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY their monarch's care to train them, and to discipline them, to the highest mark of military efificiency. He does not con- tent himself with merely watching the behavior of his troops at the annual manoeuvres, but keeps in constant touch with their officers, and masters every detail that may tend to in- crease their efficiency and raise their standard. Meantime no efforts to promote education have been neglected by himself or by his wife ; both are indefatigable in their efforts for the welfare of the national schools and for the culture of the daughters of the nobility. Agriculturally Roumania might be one of the richest countries in Europe. Of its inhabit- ants, a recent French writer has said that they are " bril- liant, intelligent, less given to work than to spend, seldom looking ahead, and too ready to run into debt to gratify their momentary caprices." Occasionally a ripple of domestic trouble disturbs the peace that seems to brood over this favored land. At one time it was an ecclesiastical difficulty. Roumania had origi- nally belonged to the Orthodox Greek Church, which was governed by the Patriarch at Constantinople, and in ritual and in doctrine it still adheres to the same form of Chris- tianity. While heartily attached to the Greek Church as governed from Constantinople, it was bitterly opposed to the Russian form of the Greek Church, which holds the Czar to be its national head. In former days (say as far back as the early forties, when I was in Paris as a young girl) no Roumanian would enter the Russian Greek Church in the Rue Neuve de Berri, be married or buried or baptized by one of its ministers ; but in 1882 Roumania severed its con- nection with the Patriarchate at Constantinople, selected an exarch of its own choice to be its spiritual head, conse- crated its own holy anointing oil, and in 18S5 the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople acknowledged its independence. In 1897 the Prime Minister, who was inclined to Radical- ism, brought much odium on himself by his arbitrary treat- ment of the Metropolitan Primate Gennadius, who, for polit- ical reasons and under government pressure, was tried by the Holy Synod on charges of violating some of the funda- IN THE BALKANS 225 mental precepts of the Orthodox Church and of misappro- priating ecclesiastical funds. He was deprived of his digni- ties and sentenced to retire to a monastery ; but the people were indignant at what they considered political persecu- tion, and the affair ended by discrediting the Ministry. The sentence on Gennadius was annulled, and he was restored to the dignity of Metropolitan Primate, which he at once resigned. Another difficulty was caused by a bill that was brought forward by the Radical party, not only to prevent ahens from buying land in Roumania, but even from owning real estate, if it came to them by inheritance. The extremists thought it ought, in that case, to be forfeited to the State ; the more moderate wished that the alien inheritor should have power to sell his land and to pocket the proceeds. This compromise was afterwards adopted. In 1897 arose also a great anti-Semitic movement, which was popular throughout the country. The Jews had been admitted to citizenship in 1879, when nine hundred Jews, who had served in the Roumanian army, came forward and claimed the franchise. In 1897 a persecution began. An attempt was made to deprive them of certain privileges, especially admission into the higher schools or colleges. The Jews in Roumania, as in Germany, Austria, and Russia, had created great jealousy by carrying off a disproportionate number of school honors and prizes. This was visited on their humbler co-religionists. Riots occurred all over the country ; in Bucharest the mob attacked Jewish shops and houses ; in Galatz more than a hundred and sixty Jewish shops were sacked, and though many of their owners were severely wounded, the police did not interfere. Nevertheless Roumania was able officially to congratulate herself that she was " free from the fer- mentations " of other States in the Balkan Peninsula. The present Emperor William of Germany, writing to King Carol in 1891, thus expressed himself: — " Five and twenty years have elapsed since your Majesty was first summoned to undertake the government of the Roumanian State, and a decade will have passed on the 22d of this IS 226 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY month since that memorable day on which your Majesty was able, after a regency victorious in war, and proved in peace, to receive a royal crown for Roumania and your illustrious house, from God's altar, by the unanimous desire of the Roumanian nation. Thanks to your Majesty's wise and vigorous rule over a richly endowed and sober nation, Roumania has become an equal and respected member of the Council of the nations, and under your Majesty's sceptre every Roumanian can rejoice in the proud consciousness of belonging to a State which, as warden of an old-world civilization, enjoys the sympathetic good-will of all civilized nations. " Since our houses are so closely connected, it is my heart's desire to express my warm congratulations to your Majesty on this joyful occasion, and also the hope that as the bonds of our personal friendship, so also the firm political relations of Rou- mania to the German Empire may be preserved in time to come, such as they have been in past years, under the enlight- ened government of your Majesty. " Your Majesty will place me under an obligation by laying my sincere congratulations before her Majesty the Queen, who has earned undying honor by your side, in cultivating Art and the Ideal, as well as in the formation of the Roumanian nation." Of Bosnia and Hertzegovina since 1893 there is nothing to be said. They have lived peaceably and prosperously under the rule of the Emperor of Austria, but a few words may be added concerning Montenegro and Servia. Montenegro, or Tchernogora, as its people call it, though the smallest European state that can be recognized as a state by other nations, with a population not exceeding that of a third-rate United States city, has had, as I have said in " Russia and Turkey," a most interesting history. Mr. Gladstone said that it might have risen to world-wide and immortal fame, had there been a Scott to learn and tell the marvels of its history, or a Byron to spend and be spent on its behalf. Its hardy inhabitants have for centuries held their Black Mountains against the Turks, and have sturdily maintained their independence. It has of late years made some long IN THE BALKANS 22/ Strides in the march of progress, in large part due to its Prince Nicholas (or Nikita) who has reigned over it for forty years. His rule is a paternal despotism, well suited to the wants and disposition of his people. Under a tree near his palace he sits in public to hear of grievances and dispense justice. He is a man of good education, and of many accomplishments. He has given his subjects a writ- ten code of laws, made roads, built bridges and school- houses, and has organized a standing army, though of the very smallest kind. His popularity is great, and is not confined to his own dominions. Alexander HI. spoke of him as " Russia's only ally," and some persons in Austria and in Servia indulge hopes that if anything should happen to change the dynasty of Servia, it may be Nicholas of Montenegro who will be called to fill the throne. Several of the beautiful, well-trained, and stately daughters of this prince have made marriages in royal families of Europe, and these alliances have given much importance to their family and its little state in the eyes of the world. The Princess Elena married the Prince of Naples, and is now the Queen of Italy ; and in another century Europe may see offshoots from the princely line of Montenegro presiding over other courts. But Servia, unless it can find means to offer Nicholas of Montenegro its kingly crown (in which his now gray head would lie uneasy) must continue to endure the intrigues of ex-King Milan, the most disreputable man and most contemptible sovereign at present in the world. When I broke off the history of Servia in " Russia and Turkey," the boy-king Alexander had anticipated his legal majority, and by a clever coup d''ctat had taken the reins of government into his own hands. He is the son of King Milan of the Obrenovitch family, who when a boy succeeded his uncle, Prince Milosch, an able ruler, who was assassinated. During his minority a regency governed the country well, while Milan was sent to Paris for his education. He came back thoroughly accomplished in all that the worst side of Parisian life 228 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY could teach him. He married a Russian lady who became his Queen Natalie, and their conjugal disputes agitated Eastern Europe for several years. I have told something about them elsewhere. In 1889 King Milan was forced to abdicate, receiving an immense sum of money to pay off his gambUng debts and to start him in a new career of fast life in European capitals, but he made in return a promise that he would never show his face again in Servia. After the coup d'etat of 1894, when young King Alex- ander upset the ministry and suspended the Constitution, the poor boy grew weary of governing his unruly subjects, and became unpopular.^ His father took advantage of his friendlessness and inexperience to persuade him to invite 1 "The marriage of King Alexander of Servia calls attention to the remarkable history of that country so far as the Obrenovitch dynasty is concerned. Not three-quarters of a century ago, Milosch Obrenovitch was a swineherd. Milan, his descendant, the father of King Alexander, was himself King of Servia until eleven years ago, when his dissipations not only cost him his throne, but forced Queen Natalie to divorce him. After his abdication in favor of his son, then only thirteen years old, Servian history went on with greater placidity, the ministries as a whole coping not incapably with the situation. In 1893, however* two events occurred which changed this course. The King's majority was proclaimed, and a formal recon- ciliation took place between Milan and Natalie, though each has since pursued a separate and certainly a nomadic way of life. The Queen had as one of her ladies-in-waiting Madame Maschin, the widow of a mining engineer. Madame Maschin was apparently much beloved by the Queen, and also fascinated the impressionable young King by her beauty and her mental ability. An intimacy followed which did not seem to excite any great comment in Servia, but when the young King, having had his marriage proposals refused by every royal princess to whom he paid his addresses, proposed to make Madame Maschin the Queen of Servia, the announcement was received with not a little amazement and severe criticism throughout Europe, except, strangely enough, in Servia itself. The people of that coun- try had seen quite enough of the tutelage of King Milan, who had, unfortunately, returned to Servia two years ago, having induced his son to appoint him Commander-in-chief of the Army. The general opinion therefore was that a change in tutelage could not be for the worse. The new Queen of Servia is said to be thirty-eight years old. Let us hope that her influence may be for good in that strange coun- try where heretofore grotesqueness and tyranny have been so preva- lent." — " The Outlook," Aug. 11, 1900. IN THE BALKANS 229 him to return to Belgrade, and there act as his adviser. He came back, therefore, to Servia in 1894 in this capacity, and at once put himself in opposition to the Radical party, which he deemed the party of Queen Natalie, whom he had illegally divorced and whom he was now forced to take back again. In 1898 King Milan was made Commander-in-Chief of the Servian Army, and caused the Radical leader, M. Pasich, to be tried for high treason, for disaffection to him. M. Pasich was, however, acquitted. Next King Milan took his son away with him to show him the world, and to increase his own influence with him, for the ex-king is a man of delightful manners and very considerable informa- tion and intelligence. Soon after the two kings got home to Belgrade, a man named Knezevich fired in the street at ex- King Milan, who was not hurt, but having escaped the bullet, thought it a good occasion for arresting all his opponents. Their trial was taking place in Servia while the Dreyfus court-martial was going on at Rennes, and I found it curious to read day by day, in the I^ondon "Times," the reports of both trials. Day after day in Servia no evidence whatever bearing on the case before the court was produced. Knezevich confessed his crime, and made various contradictory statements, but the object of the trial was to prove a conspiracy which should impli- cate the Radicals and Prince Peter Karageorgevitch, a young man who has lately published a very interesting book on India. All that was brought forward bearing on this subject was some evidence that Knezevich — a former member of the Belgrade Fire Brigade, who was in search of employment — had met on board a steamer on the Danube a strange gentleman, name unknown, who might have been Prince Peter Karageorgevitch, if he was not somebody else. Evidence against others who were arrested for conspiracy, and were in danger of their lives, was such as this ; for example, that one had been known to shake hands with Pasich ; that another had in his possession a proclamation put forth by Alexander 230 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Karageorgevitch, son of the founder of the Karageorgevitch family, in 1883; and there were other accusations of the same irrelevant and trivial kind. But even a packed court could not convict King Milan's forty detractors on a capital charge of conspiracy to assassinate him. Russia and Austria also stepped in to prevent the wholesale judicial murder of the accused, some of whom in political disputes were their adherents. At the close of the trial in September, 1899, the " Economist," an English paper, thus summed up the proceedings : — " The evidence proved nothing except that Knezevich did shoot at King Milan, and that a great many people wished he had succeeded in his object, but the court, which palpably believed none of the evidence, sentenced the majority of the accused to penal servitude for twenty years. Even the forms of justice were scarcely observed. Among the accused was the mistress of one of the implicated officers. There was no particle of evidence against her, but the court held that if she had not known of the plot (supposing there had been a plot) she ought to have known it, and on the strength of that cynical opinion involved her in the general sentence. There is no resistance from the people, because the soldiers are with King Milan, and the people dislike being shot, and there is no one to whom to appeal except the Emperors, who only intervene to preserve their adherents' lives, leaving them to suffer any lesser penalty which their jailers, who are in fact their accusers, may think it expedient to inflict. These penalties will be grave or light, according to the amount of support which the accused, if released, can offer to King Milan." ENGLAND Chapter I. The Diamond Jubilee. " II. The Queen's Ministers from 1880-1900. " III. Frontier Wars in India. " IV. India, the Plague and the Famine. ENGLAND CHAPTER I THE DIAMOND JUBILEE " T^NGLAND," the third volume of my Historical ■*--' Narratives of the Nineteenth Century, carried the story through my own lifetime (I may almost say through that of Queen Victoria), up to the close of 1894. It began in 1822, during the reign of George IV., and its last chapter contained an account of the Queen's Jubilee in 1887, when she had reigned for half a century. It is from 1894 to the close of 1900 that I have now to write, and, except as regards the Diamond Jubilee of 1897, when the Queen's reign had lasted sixty years, there were no picturesque events in England (on her own soil) dur- ing these years. All stirring events in English history hap- pened out of England, mainly in Africa, and these must be related in the fourth part of this volume, which, taking up the history of Europe in Africa from 1895, will bring it down to the present time. The history of England during the ten years that elapsed from the Golden Jubilee in 1887 to the Diamond Jubilee in 1897 was almost entirely parliamentary; its interest has lain not with individuals, — not with their achievements or with biography, — but with the working out of English in- stitutions, the deepening in men's hearts of English feeling, of loyalty to their mother-land, and, above all, to their Queen. June 22, 1897, was the Great Jubilee Day. The Government 234 LAST YEARS OF THE NINE TEE NTH CENTUR V had been especially desirous to make it an occasion on whicli the representatives of Greater Britain should join with the English people in demonstrating at once their loy- alty to the mother-land and their devotion to the Queen.^ Hitherto Great Britain had been accused of apathy and in- difference to her remote dependencies and her colonies ; this time the great princes of India were bidden to the festival, and the premiers of the self-governing colonies were invited to bring with them detachments of their colonial troops, and leading men from their colonies. Mr. Richard Harding Davis on this remarks : — " There was much reason to envy these happy few who were chosen to represent the different British colonies and posses- sions at the Jubilee. . . . They were probably worthy young 1 As I was born a subject of Queen Victoria, and all my ancestors for more than two hundred years had been born English subjects in Virginia or Massachusetts, I felt that in any account I might give of the Jubilee, I might either have to suppress what I felt, or be suspected by my American readers of a too effusive loyalty. I have therefore co])ied what I have to say from sources no one can look on with suspicion. The details of the day are partly from Mr. Richard Harding Davis, an American, partly from an account of how much foreign nations were impressed and affected by the Jubilee, from M. Francis de Pressense, a Frenchman, and partly a resume of a state- ment of the changes wrought during the Queen's reign in England, from the pen of Mr. W. T. Stead, the free-lance editor of the " Pall Mall Gazette," and the English " Review of Reviews." The passages I quote are taken from an account telling how he, a boy brought up in a non-conformist family in the north of England in all the traditions of the old Cromwellian days, became convinced that monarchy under Queen Victoria was something very different from what he had been taught to think "kingship" was, by his stern old father in North Country Independent schools. Probably no one not born and brought up a subject of the Queen can understand anything of per- sonal feelings entertained for her by such persons in all parts of the world. Not long since at a dinner table where many people were present, a lady made some disparaging remarks about the Queen, and, turning to me, added, " Don't you think so, Mrs. Latimer?" I an- swered, " You do not understand — you cannot understand. If you had said such things of my own father and mother, you could not have pained me more." My questioner was a /adv, intelligent and kind-hearted. " I am sorry," she said — and no more. This was far better than apology. THE DIAMOND JUBILEE 235 men, but at home they were part of a whole regiment, and of no more honor in their own country than so many policemen, while in their eyes London was the capital of the world. . . . These men found, when they reached the great capital, that they were as gods and heroes, and their strange uniforms passed them freely into theatres and music halls and public houses, and women smiled on them, and men quarrelled to have the privi- lege of standing them a drink. Banquets and special perform- ances, medals and titles, were showered upon them according to their rank and degree, and they in their turn furnished the most picturesque feature of the spectacle when it came." For six miles the fronts of all houses in the London streets along which the procession was to pass were hidden behind pine scaffolding (the price of lumber and of labor rose daily higher and higher), but on the day of the pro- cession the scaffoldings were hidden by red drapery, and adorned with flags, emblems, and pots of flowers. All London had worked to make the occasion a success. And indeed the festival of the Jubilee was a success without a drawback. Even the skies were kind. The weather, which when day dawned had been doubtful, brightened a few minutes before the Queen left Buckingham Palace. As she passed the gates, she touched a button which sped her message to every government under her sway : " From my heart I thank my beloved people. May God bless them." Answers to this message came back over the wires from Australia, Canada, and the Cape, before the Queen reached London Bridge. Says the London '' Spectator " : — " The words of the Queen's message are the simple thanks a mother would give to her children who had been paying her a compliment ; but imagine how every other sovereign in the world would have announced that message ; how stilted it would have been, how cautious, how suggestive of a head slightly turned with adulation. The Queen, who we know had been described by John Bright, as well as Ministers of State, as 'the most truthful woman in England,' said nothing but what it rose in her heart to say, and in her outburst as in her self-restraint 236 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY thanked her people more warmly than if she had employed any amount of literary skill in framing her message." All over England and in all the colonies there were responsive Jubilee celebrations. Ireland alone refused to join. Two thousand five hundred bonfires blazed upon hill-tops through England, Wales, and Scotland on the night of the Jubilee. If any one looks over a file of London papers of the month preceding the Jubilee he will find forebodings of falling stands and sudden panics, of fires and of mobs, of people crushing each other to death as in Paris and Moscow. It is said that with cautious foresight in the week previous to the Jubilee eight thousand coffins had been shipped to London. *' That no accident happened was perhaps the most remark- able and interesting fact of the whole Jubilee, but English con- servatism, and the English regard for the law, and the wonder- ful management and executive ability shown in organizing the procession, and in disciplining the spectators, prevented it. The chief credit is undoubtedly due to the head of the police, and to the fact that when he had decided which was the best way to regulate the movements of the people, the people were willing to abide by his decision. . . . This route over which the Queen was to drive, and which was guarded so admirably, and made beautiful by the display of such loyal good feeling, held in its six miles of extent more places of historical value to the English-speaking race than perhaps any other six miles that could be picked off on a map of the world." After the Queen the one of all the individuals in the pro- cession most cheered by the people was Lord Roberts of Cabul and Kandahar, on his white pony, decorated with six war medals hanging from its breast-strap. That pony had carried its master nineteen days from Cabul to Kandahar. The crowd saluted their hero with shouts of "■ God bless you, Bobs ! " and every now and then during a halt the General would rein up and speak to some soldier in the line who had served with him in India. The Queen was in an open landau drawn by the eight GENERAL KELLY-KENNY. THE DIAMOND JUBILEE 237 cream-colored State Hanoverian horses. With her on the back seat of the carriage were two young princesses in white, her grand-daughters. The Queen, as usual, wore black, but had a large white parasol. " The procession with its mile and a half of carriages, European and Asiatic Princes, Colonial Premiers, British troops, Colonial troops, and black, brown, and yellow aux- iliaries, passed to St. Paul's Cathedral and afterwards by the south side of the river back to the Palace, without a delay or an accident ; though the crowd amazed foreigners and the Queen was accompanied along that six mile route by that continuous roar of enthusiastic acclaim which is like no other sound on earth, and which no one who has heard it ever forgets. The scene before the great Cathedral moved the Queen to tears and ended, as it should have done, in a spontaneous and irresistible outburst of the National Anthem, — an unrehearsed and there- fore most magnificent effect. The vast crowds were more than gratified, they were deeply moved ; and neither during the pro- cession nor at night, when London was illuminated as it never had been before, was there any violence or an)^ disobedience to the police, who maintained their great rules for the guidance of the endless streams of humanity more easily than on any previ- ous occasion. 1 " Rising from the lowest step of the Cathedral was a great tribune separated into three parts, and back of this, red-covered balconies hung between the great black pillars like birds' nests in the branches of a tree. " Below them the vast tribune shone with colored silk and gold cloth, and radiated with jewels like a vast bank of beau- tiful flowers. Among these flowers were Indian princes in coats sewn with diamonds that hid them in flashes of light ; there were archbishops and bishops in robes of gold that sug- gested those of the Church of Rome, ambassadors in stars and sashes, with their official families in gold braid and decorations. In the centre was a great mass of smiling-faced choir-boys, like cherubs in night-gowns, and two hundred musicians picked from the bands of many regiments, and wearing many uniforms. On the lowest step were dignitaries of the Church in the pink and crimson capes the different universities had bestowed upon them, and the Bishop of Finland, the representative of Russia, and the Bishop of New York, and, what was perhaps the most 1 London " Spectator," June 26, 1897. 238 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY striking example of the all-embracing nature of the celebration, a captain from the Salvation Army with his red ribbon around his cap. There were Judges in wigs and black silk gowns, and Chinamen in robes of colored silk, and Turkish envoys in fezes, and Persian envoys in astrakhan caps. . . . There were rows of beef-eaters in the costume of the Tudors, and Blue-coat boys in the costume of Edward VI. " The ceremony that followed upon the arrival of the Queen was a very simple one, but it was the most impressive one that could have been selected for that moment in the history of the Empire. It consisted of the Te Deum, the National Anthem, and the Doxology. . . . The last was probably sung as it was never sung before . . . for there were ten thousand people sing- ing ' Praise God from Whom all blessings flow,' as loudly as they could, and with tears running down their faces. . . . There was probably never before such a moment, in which so many races of people, of so many castes, and of such different values to this world, sang praises to God at one time, and in one place, and with one heart. And when it was all over, and the cannon at the Tower were booming across the water-front, the Arch- bishop of Canterbury, of all the people in the world, waved his arm and shouted, 'Three cheers for the Queen!' and the sol- diers stuck their bearskins on their bayonets and swung them above their heads and cheered, and the women on the house- tops and balconies waved their handkerchiefs and cheered, and the men beat the air with their hats and cheered, and the Lady in the Black Dress nodded and bowed her head at them, and winked away the tears in her eyes."^ Thus the Jubilee appealed to noble sensibilities and to generous natures, and moved them to their depths. Said M. de Pressens6, speaking of the Jubilee and of the effect it must have produced upon foreign nations : — " A great people have celebrated worthily the great reign of a justly beloved Queen. It has been not only the glorification of their sovereign, it has been also the self-glorification of her peo- ple. . . . England has been right in extolling the public and private virtues which have so much altered public feeling. Eng- lishmen have not been slow in thankfully acknowledging how much the last sixty years have owed of their prosperity and glory to what Queen Victoria has done, and yet more to what 1 R. H. Davis : " A Year from a Reporter's Note-Book." THE DIAMOND JUBILEE 239 she has been. Truly this is enviable praise ! Yes, by what she has done and what she has left undone, Queen Victoria has been a perfect constitutional queen. She has never been an inch below her duties or above her rights. She has known how to be a loving, dutiful, obedient wife in her home, and a sovereign lady by her own birthright in her kingdom. . . . London has solemnized a kind of semi-secular retrospect. Its people have passed in review with a sort of proud contentment sixty years of change, — of radical, thorough-going, organic change, of revolution political, social, and moral, which have been also sixty years of perfect internal order, peace, and pros- perity. They have above all become sensible of a new fact, the Empire in its greatness. . . . But Great Britain ought not to forget that Imperialism is not empire ; that the Empire has been created not by Imperialists, but by those healthy, vigorous, liberal-minded generations who took for their first duty the con- quest and preservation of freedom at home and abroad, and that perhaps the worst foes of England's greatness might be so- called Imperialists trying to tighten purely ideal bonds, which cannot be shortened or materialized without becoming shackles." From Mr. Davis, the American, and M. de Pressens^, the Frenchman, both writing on the Jubilee, we turn to Mr. William T. Stead, who asks us to think of him as an ex-non- conformist bred up in the north of England in ideas utterly opposed to monarchy and monarchical institutions. Contrasting England now (in the June number of "Review of Reviews," 1897) with what she was when Queen Victoria in her girlhood mounted the throne, he says, after dwelling on the extraordinary improvements science and art have effected in the conveniences of our daily life : — "To-day the poor man gets more for his penny than sixty years ago the rich man got for his shilling; and besides that each penny goes twice as far, he has twice as many pennies. He has all London — and such a London ! — a city of glory and splendor compared to what it used to be, kept in cleanliness and order for him, as his own, with its museums, libraries, and art galleries. Free baths and wash-houses are in every district, and schools are almost at his own door. He is free of the parks as if they were his own demesnes. He has more constant 240 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY work, and much higher wages, with cheap bread, cheap sugar, and cheap tea. He has shorter hours of labor, bank holidays, and half holidays on Saturdays; the hospitals provide him with free medicine, the work-houses with free shelter. Pure water is laid on in every house, and the magnificent drainage system carries off all the sewage. All this is new since sixty years ago. Besides all this, a half -penny post-card will carry his mes- sage to John O'Groat's House, or the Land's End. A half- penny will bring all the news of the earth fresh to his own door, and a workman's ticket on any line to and from his work is a half-penny a mile. For sixpence the lightning will carry his message to any part of the United Kingdom, in the twinkling of an eye, and for another sixpence the sun will take his portrait in a flash of light. " ' But the poor and the vicious are with us all the same,' objected young Rip (for this was an imaginary conversation in which Rip Van Winkle, who had slept for sixty years, made note of the changes from 1837 to 1897). 'Last year,' he con- tinued, ' there were nearly five thousand criminals in our prisons.' ' How many did you say?' cried his father. ' Fifty thousand?' 'Good heavens, no ! Five thousand.' 'It was fifty thousand in my time,' said his father, 'with only half the population,' " The greatest change brought about in Queen Victoria's reign is that men and women are now anxious to share what they have with other people. Sixty years ago, the leading idea was exclusion and privilege. Now, in England it is said, whatever we have we share. When the Queen ascended the throne, cable messages were but projected, now they link together the whole world. In the first five years after the Queen ascended the throne, there was no reason to think that her reign would be prosperous. "A succession of bad harvests since 1836," says Sir Theo- dore Martin, "had sent up the price of provisions to an alarm- ing extent, while languishing manufactures and a general stag- nation of trade had so greatly lowered the scale of wages as to make the pressure of high prices all but intolerable. "Serious insurrections all over the country as late as 1842 required to be put down by military force. . . . Disorderly mobs traversed the country, forcing their way into mills and manufactories, destroying their machinery, and compelling by THE DIAMOND JUBILEE 24 1 threats and intimidation those who were willing to work to cease working and join in their riotous demonstrations." . . . Canada, too, when the Queen came to the throne, was in incipient insurrection. There is now no more loyal colony under the flag of England. In the non-conformist churches, as well as in the Established Church, there has been a great revival of real religion, obscured, it may be, sometimes by sectarianism or formalism, but in all de- nominations tending to increased activity and benevolent interest in the ignorant and poor. " Not at any previous period," adds Mr. Stead, " have there been so many good men and women, stout-hearted Englishmen and clear-souled Englishwomen, living and praying and toiling for the com- mon weal." Of course the poet-laureate, Mr. Alfred Austin, did his duty on the occasion, and was thought by London critics to have produced one very fine line. The Queen says, speaking of her people, — "Their thoughts shall be my thoughts, their aim my aim, Their free-lent loyalty my right divine." But the poem that went to the nation's heart was Mr. Kip- ling's Recessional. Even more striking to my mind were some verses republished in the " Daily Chronicle," in the week of the Jubilee. Some one had dug them out of an old play, " The Royal Convert," by Nicholas Rowe, but not pubHshed until 1774, when he had long been dead. Thus prophesies a sage who peers into the future : — " Of Royal race a British Queen shall rise Great, Gracious, Pious, fortunate and wise : To distant lands she shall extend her fame, And leave to later times a mighty name. Tyrants shall fall, and faithless kings shall bleed, And groaning nations by her arms be freed. But chief this happy land her care shall prove And find from her a more than mother's love. From hostile rage she shall preserve it free, Safe in the compass of her ambient sea ; Though famed her arms in many a cruel fight, 16 242 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Yet most in peaceful arts she shall delight; And her chief glory shall be to Unite. Picts, Saxons, Angles, shall be no more known, But iJritons be the noble name alone. With joy their ancient hate they shall forego, While Discord hangs her hateful head below, Mercy and truth and right she shall maintain, And every virtue crowd to grace her reign : Auspicious Heaven on all her days shall smile, And with eternal Union bless her British isle." I will add to these poems on the Jubilee a sonnet, called by its author " An American Echo of the Jubilee," which I have thought extremely beautiful : — August, 1897. Even in a palace life may be lived well. Marcus Aurelius. " Queen of the home, and Empress of the earth ! Where'er to-day her fettered lightnings run, Girdling the world more swiftly than the sun. They tell her love, her sympathy, her worth Through sixty years of mingled dole and mirth, Since that benignant, splendid reign begun, — Since the slim girl first heard that first glad gun Which lit the fire upon her sacred hearth. Not to the Monarch, — to the mighty Queen Whose sceptre sweeps the farthest seas to-day, Whose standard floats where'er a wave is seen, — Men kneel in homage, — from all lauds they come. And bow in reverence to that loftiest sway — The Mother-Queen, the high ideal of Home." ^ Perhaps the most beautiful and suggestive exhibition during the Week of Jubilee was the naval review and illumination of the ships at Spithead. No contrast can be greater than that of the state of feeling among English seamen in 1797 (the year of the great mutiny at the Nore and at Spithead) and the feeling of loyalty to Queen and country that animated every seaman who took part in the naval exhibition at the Jubilee, My father always said that seamen in the English navy had had great grievances to complain of when they muti- ^ William P. Andrews. THE DIAMOND JUBILEE 243 nied at the Nore and at Spithead in 1797. It was the year he entered the service, and he used to tell how even in the midshipmen's mess, when a biscuit was broken, weevils would try to run away with the crumbs. The result of the mutiny (though for the sake of discipline the ring-leaders were severely punished) was to make great changes for the better in the food and comfort of English seamen. In almost every particular the sailors of 1797 had been ill used. Impressment, pay, food, personal ill-treatment, all were causes of the mutiny. Nelson, who was always solicitous for seamen, thought their grievances very real. The result was that in May, 1797, the mutiny broke out, — the greatest danger possibly that England had had to face since the Armada sailed up the Channel. Yet the spirit of the sailors was such that the following noble words formed part of the remonstrance of the mutineers at Spithead : "We agree in opinion that we should suffer double the hardships we have hitherto experienced before we would suffer the Crown of England to be in the least imposed upon by any Power in the world." The mutiny alarmed the country and gave rise to excep- tional legislation, which went far to reduce the wrongs of which the seamen complained. " Now what have we seen at Spithead within the last few days ? " writes a correspondent to the London " Spectator,"— " a magnificent fleet, a contented and disciplined navy, — a har- vest from the culture of the seaman as liberal as it has been fore- seeing. The Jack Tar of 1897 glories in his duties ; his brother of 1797 did his duty, but revolted from his treatment by his country. It is something to dwell upon with pure satisfaction." Brilliant as a spectacular display and cheering as a dem- onstration of friendliness from the world's Great Powers, the naval review was perhaps the most interesting feature of the jubilee celebration. The Queen was not present ; it was necessary at her age that she should rest after the strain of the great day in London. The Prince of Wales therefore took her place. 244 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY There were twenty-five miles of battle-ships arranged in five parallel lines, each five miles long. The foreign ships were on the outside lines. The Prince and Princess of Wales, with the royal visitors, went through the lines in the Queen's yacht, the " Victoria and Albert," about ten o'clock, amid royal salutes and cheers. Then the Prince held a reception on the " Victoria and Albert " for the admirals, who all came in steam-launches except the Rus- sian and American ones; and these made far the most nautical and picturesque effect as they were rowed up in their long-boats by their own blue-jackets, who saluted with their oars. At nine o'clock the Prince gave an electric signal, and instantly every ship burst into a blaze of illumi- nation. Again the Prince went through the lines. The " Brooklyn " represented the United States, and it was agreed on all hands that her illumination was the most beautiful. What was very singular in connection with events a few months after, she was moored not far from the Spanish "Vizcaya." There have been few events that concerned the royal family of England during the last ten years. From time to time, one or another of the princesses, grand-daughters of Queen Victoria, has been married. Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, and Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, lost his only son, who died in the Tyrol, February, 1899, while on a journey in search of health ; and the Prince himself died at Rosenau Castle, 30 July, 1900, from paralysis of the heart. He had been suffering from cancer of the tongue and larynx. The next heir to the dukedom of Siixe- Coburg was the third son of Queen Victoria, Arthur, Duke of Connaught ; but the people of Saxe-Coburg insisted that their Duke must be brought up as a German, live in Saxe- Coburg, and be educated in a German university. The young Prince, son of the Duke of Connaught, preferred to be an Englishman. The succession was then offered to the posthumous son of Prince Leopold, the deceased Duke of Albany. He accepted it, and is being educated to succeed his uncle. THE DIAMOND JUBILEE 245 The Duke of York, son of the Prince of Wales, who mar- ried his second cousin, the Princess May of Teck, is a thor- ough sailor, though not the typical rough sailor of the old school. He is a genial, kindly, well-educated man. His wife, betrothed at first to his brother, the Duke of Clarence, is a great favorite with the English people. Her mother, Princess Mary of Cambridge, wife of the Duke of Teck, was always popular. The Englishmen on the street called her Aunt Mary. The Queen was very fond of her. She was the typical good Englishwoman. Her husband's family was never illustrious, but it was a family of shrewd sense and high integrity. The Tecks were a branch of the VViirtem- berg family. They began in a small way as country gentle- men. In the thirteenth century they were Counts of Teck, owning a strong castle and ruling over a small valley. They were men of enterprise and capacity, and many of them sought fortune in other lands. Their castle and their county, however, at last came into possession of their relatives and rivals, the family of Wiir- temberg, whose chief in the fifteenth century was Duke Eberhard, who said, on some occasion when at a feast of princes each boasted of his principality : " Of my land I can say but this : there is not a Swabian shepherd in it on whose knees, when weary, I could not lay my head and sleep, knowing he would protect me to the last drop of his blood." Eberhard without solicitation was made Duke of Wiir- temberg and Teck by the Emperor Maximilian in 1495. By virtue of his will, VViirtemberg and Teck enjoyed for three hundred years a more liberal government than any other German principality. In 1805, the Duke of Wiir- temberg and Teck was made King of Wiirtemberg by Napoleon. His brother Louis left a son Alexander, who entered the Austrian service. His son was made Duke of Teck. He married the English Princess Mary in 1866, and has since resided in England. Princess Mary was proud of her royal birth, but, says the " Spectator " : — 246 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY " Like a royal personage in a fairy story, she went through life shedding royal smiles and royal kindnesses on great and small. And the best of it was that her royal smiles were en- tirely human, and her royal kindnesses — most of them — the simplest acts of charity and courtesy, such as any human being with a heart as warm, and a sympathy as alert, may render to another."! Her daughter, Princess May, now Duchess of York, will in all probability be some day Queen of England. The Duke of York has never taken any part in politics, but recently he has begun to make speeches on public occa- sions, as is expected of his father, the Prince of Wales, — a duty which did much to wear out the frail constitution of his grandfather, the Prince Consort. The Queen, who when she first came to the throne was looked upon as delicate, is now in her eighty-second year, with every prospect that she may yet live some years longer. Part of each winter she has been accustomed of late years to pass at Nice or in Italy. She is always received with cordiality when she passes through France. In 1897, a few weeks before the Jubilee, my son saw her at Nice, and stood near her as she was setting out for a drive. She noticed his bow and smiled ; the smile, he said, brightening up her face and giving it a wholly changed ex- pression. She has been earnestly desirous to conciliate her excitable Irish people. It was very brave on her part to pay her visit in 1900 to Ireland, which had shown itself so hostile to her on the occasion of her Jubilee, while the Irish Members 1 Among the homely anecdotes told of her and her children is how they helped a poor woman to pick up sticks in Richmond Park ; how she pushed a perambulator for a nursemaid in difficulties ; how they cleared the road of broken glass to save the feet of horses ; how, caught in a heavy rain in Kew Gardens, she and her daughter shared their cloaks with two little girls in a similar plight, but who had no cloaks ; how one Christmas Eve the Duke, who was looking from his window, ran out of the house to buy up all the nuts and apples of an old woman in the street, that she might have a happy Christmas Day. THE DIAMOND JUBILEE 247 in the House of Commons kept up persistent and virulent demonstrations of undisguised disaffection both to England and their Queen. But in Dublin the Irish people received her with enthusiasm. Her visit was regarded as a royal recognition of the splendid services of her Irish troops in the Transvaal, and of such Irishmen as Lord Roberts, Sir George White, Gen- eral Kelly- Kenny, and others. The Queen spent three weeks in Ireland, showing herself daily to her people, everywhere treated with cordiality and cheers. On one occasion she had driven some way into the country in an open carriage when a thunder-storm broke over her ; she refused to turn back, saying that people along her route were expecting her. Any other woman of eighty-one would certainly have avoided being wet through, but the Queen kept bravely on, and happily without any serious hurt. She also visited a Roman Catholic convent a few miles from Dublin. The Queen's love of children has been long well known, and probably nothing in her visit was more impressive than the review in Phoenix Park, when children numbering according to Irish newspapers more than fifty thousand, many of them brought by train from long distances, were collected to meet their sovereign. It was a kind thought, but it was also an eminently wise one ; it was cer- tain to appeal powerfully to the parents, and at the same time to imprint on susceptible child-natures a vivid memory never likely to be obliterated. The Queen's last act in Dublin was to address to the Lord Lieutenant one of those warm and grateful letters " which," says an English newspaper, " her subjects have learned to look for from their sovereign. When her Maj- esty says that, ' during the three weeks she has spent in this charming place she has been received by all ranks and creeds with an enthusiasm and affection which cannot be surpassed,' she is using no mere words of course. Her visit to Ireland has been an absolute and perfect success." The visit might have had its very tragic side had the 248 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY attempt to assassinate the Prince of Wales in Belgium suc- ceeded. On April 14, the Prince, on his way to Copenhagen, had taken his seat in the railroad carriage, when a boy named Sipido, who had bought a penny ticket which admitted him to the platform, jumped on the step of the Prince's saloon carriage, and fired at him with a revolver. The weapon twice missed fire, and two bullets fortunately missed the Prince, who proceeded quietly on his journey. Sipido declared that he wished to kill the Prince "because he was an accomplice of Chamberlain in killing Boers ; " but a quantity of Anarchist rubbish was found in his pocket, and it is probable he was an ordinary shallow-brained boy ex- cited by attending meetings where he had heard vitriolic speeches, the natural effects of bitter journalism. How Dr. Leyds could have so far imposed upon the Flemings as to raise up the sympathies of the clerical party in favor of a state which, alone of all Christian states, now disfranchises and persecutes Roman Catholics, it is not easy to say. He has, however, saturated them with hatred of England, and this boy's insane attempt was the outcome. Sipido seems to have been one of a group of lads whose minds had been unwholesomely affected by their attendance at an Anarchist club, and who revelled in blood-and-thunder speeches. He had been taunted with want of courage by two of his com- panions, and to prove his manliness went and shot at a scion of royalty. In consideration of his youth (sixteen), he was com- mitted to a reformatory, but after three months, he either escaped or was released unconditionally. CHAPTER II THE queen's ministers FROM l8So TO I9OO T^HE Disraeli Ministry of 1874 which in 1S78 laid the ■*- foundation of bitter enmity to England on the part of Russia, by its action at the Congress of Berlin, went out of ofiEice in 1880, and Mr. Disraeli was succeeded by Mr. Glad- stone. The Disraeli Ministry had made few changes in the domestic policy of England, as transmitted to it by the Liberal party, but its foreign policy was one of complete change, and was followed by severe conflicts, of which the evil effects endure to the present day. England barely escaped a war with Russia ; she became involved in war with the hill tribes in Afghanistan. The country began to dread the imperialism of a ruler who cherished Oriental ideas, and Mr. Gladstone came into power to reverse, if possible, the policy of his predecessor. The Transvaal and the Soudan were surrendered, to avoid war ; Gordon was abandoned at Khartoum ; and the price of Mr. Glad- stone's policy is being paid by England at the present day. The policy pursued in Egypt ended in a relief expedition to Khartoum, which, arriving too late to save the life of Gordon, stirred the hearts of Englishmen ; and although Mr. Gladstone had greatly enlarged the franchise, and both hoped and expected to find support among the rural popu- lation, he was defeated in Parliament. He found himself too ill supported to govern the country, and on his resigna- tion Lord Salisbury became prime minister. A general election took place to test whether the country would sustain a Liberal or a Conservative Ministry, the result of which was, that while a host of new electors cast their ballots for the first time, and Mr. Gladstone appealed to 250 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY English voters to give him a majority which would relieve him in an emergency from relying in Parliament on the votes of the Irish members, he secured Liberal supporters only in the North of England, Wales, and Scotland ; the rest of England was far from voting according to his wishes. It was a great disappointment to Mr. Gladstone, and it caused him for the future to take Home Rule in Ireland for the main feature of his policy. To Englishmen the scheme of Home Rule, which would separate Ireland from the United Kingdom, seemed what Secession had seemed to our Northern States, which opposed the break-up of the Union. But Irish Home Rule had another danger ; namely, that if England were ever involved in war, Ireland, as she did in 1798, and aimed to do in 1848, would side with the enemies of England and give them a base of operations if they attempted invasion. Supported, however, by the party of Home Rule in the House of Commons, Mr. Gladstone expected to return to power, but he broke up his own party in England. His former followers, who refused to support his Irish policy, became what are now known as Liberal Unionists. Mr. Gladstone was prime minister from February to August, 1886, after which the Conservatives came back to power. But although Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule policy lost him his support in Parliament, his personal popularity was hardly impaired. To those who ask the question, " Why should not Ireland have her own Parliament and rule herself as successfully as Canada, the Cape, or the Australian colonies?" the answer is as I have said, that Ireland being the Ireland she is, is too near England to be trusted. If she were two thousand miles away in a distant sea, the experiment might be tried ; but even then England would probably hesitate to commit the fortunes of one-third of her population (the Protestants of Ulster, who have looked to the mother country for protection for three hundred years) to enemies whose national character is so excitable, turbulent, and unrestrainable as that of Irishmen. But Mr. Gladstone's THE QUEEN'S MINISTERS 25 I splendid courage, his great learning, his persuasiveness, and his wonderful powers of oratory excited enthusiasm among all those brought personally into contact with him. '•' No man could be thrown into his society without feeling the magic of his personal influence," " Had he died," says one of his critics, '' at the age at which Sir Robert Peel was killed, he would have been acknowledged, beyond all question, as the greatest minister of his age." ^ When the massacres in Armenia took place in 1895, Mr. Gladstone was not in office, — he was not even in Parlia- ment, — but he used all his powers of eloquence, both by speech and by his pen, to rouse his countrymen to active intervention. It was Gladstone -like to have at one time inaugurated a peace policy at any cost, and to have urged a war policy upon his country at another time. I have spoken in a former chapter of that Eastern crisis, and in the light of events may presume to consider that Mr, Gladstone was in the wrong. He always wanted to hurry up reforms. Armenia is now practically at peace ; Crete is prospering under Prince George, the Commissioner of the Four Powers ; Greece has measured her strength against that of the Turks, and to the surprise of the civilized world the glory of the Thirty Days' War, both for courage and good discipline, lies with the Moslems. In 1S97 the Sultan was shorn of his gains by the action of the Powers. The result of Lord Salisbury's foreign policy, in very difficult circum- stances, was that no nation gained much advantage, or suffered much loss. England, indeed, learned, and will doubtless remember, that the Sultan absolutely cannot 1 Mr. Gladstone's literary interests were multifold. But his pre- vailing attachment was to the works of Homer. Ten years ago I gave lectures, intended especially " for those who knew no Greek," on the Iliad and the Odyssey. They have never been published, but I have reason to know that they have e.xcited great interest in Homer in the minds of young people to whom, from time to time, I have imparted them. In preparing these lectures I felt myself brought under the influence of Mr. Gladstone, and I can never feel grateful enough for the pleasure and profit his writings on Homer have given me. 252 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY keep his promises ; therefore nothing is to be gained by exacting them. Mr. Gladstone's vigorous vitality during his long and laborious career is one of the most remarkable things in modern history. Palmerston, Bismarck, and Pope Leo as statesmen, Radetzky and Von Moltke as generals, did much of their life-work after the age of seventy ; but Mr. Glad- stone, after he had passed that age, developed a perfectly new phase of oratorical power ; and from being a great parliamentary debater, whose speeches abounded in states- manship, and classical or literary allusions, he became a great master of the oratory of the platform and the open air. But his success in this branch of oratory tended during the later years of his life to injure him as a statesman and a thinker. It seems strange that a man of eighty should have become more boy-like as he advanced in years, and should have been carried away by the responsiveness of a large and uncritical audience. In the House of Commons his impulses must have been often placed under restraint. " I cannot but think," says Mr. Richard Holt Hobson, in the " Contemporary Review," " that a good deal of Mr. Glad- stone's rasher policy during the last few years of his life has been due to that higher estimate of vague popular sentiment, and the lower estimate of trained official knowledge, which he has insensibly inhaled from the popular audiences over which he has acquired an influence so powerful and so exhilarating. " During Mr. Gladstone's early parliamentary career, Mr. Bagehot described him as a 'problem.' He became more and more a problem as his life and his work went on. But through all his changes, his indiscretions, and his inconsistencies, he has the right to claim ' integrity of purpose' and a 'desire to learn' (and, indeed, to unlearn). Many of his most cherished early convictions he lived to unlearn, and at the same time im- posed his altered opinions somewhat forcibly on others. ' He could even speak with passionate condemnation of political creeds and political policies which, but a few months before, had been his own;' for his deeply religious mind regarded the opinions he took up as convictions sent to him from heaven. In some of his chief lines of policy he brought England over to his own views; and Mr. Hutton, whom I have already quoted. THE QUEEN'S MINISTERS 253 gives a long list of what his foreign policy accomplished, — for Neapolitan prisoners, for Italy, and for Greece. But he adds, ' On the other hand, Mr. Gladstone's audacious donning of the penitential white sheet on behalf of his country at the time of the retrocession of the Transvaal, just after the defeat and disgrace of Majuba Hill, — perhaps his boldest act of public humiliation, although it was not altogether unpopular with the working classes at the time, — probably did more to undermine his influence as an English statesman than to confirm it.' " These lines were written in 1894, before the world had any prevision of the terrible sequel to that act of national altruism, — an ideal which the great leader pursued in that case, and in others, with a blind and indiscriminate zeal which risked all consequences. But those who most lament the occasional indiscretions of the Grand Old Englishman of the Nineteenth Century, cannot but acknowledge the benefits that he conferred upon his country during his four administrations. For some of these he was personally responsible. He secured to trav- ellers whose means are limited what in England are called parliamentary trains ; he made the railroads take children at half price ; he abolished the stamp duty on newspapers, the sixpenny tax on every advertisement, and the tax on paper, and thus enabled the workingman to take his daily newspaper ; he lightened the burden of taxation, and im- proved the relations between tenant and landlord in Ire- land. He disestablished the English Church in Ireland, which had been one of the standing grievances of the Irish people. Earnest Churchmen acquiesced in its disendow- ment, believing that church work would not prosper unless a manifest wrong had been repealed. Now the principle that prevails in American churches has been introduced into Ireland ; the congregations of the Anglican commun- ion support their pastors. The ballot was bestowed on voters, though it may not fulfil all that was hoped by those who considered that its adoption would put an end to fraudulent voting and intimidation. Education among the masses was promoted by the influence of Mr, Gladstone. 254 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY He was a great reader, an enthusiastic horseman, and a good musician. We all know how he felled trees in the park at Hawarden. But I have told of his private life elsewhere.-' In April, 1898, the public knew that Mr. Gladstone was dying, and Lord Salisbury was reported very ill at the same time. Mr. Gladstone's last illness was long and very pain- ful ; it was a case of tumor in the face, which at first had been diagnosed as cancer, but he earnestly requested that no bulletins should be issued, and no details of the prog- ress of the disease given to the public. He named Mr. John Morley his literary executor. He died May 19, 189S. His coffin was carried to London, away from the home he had so dearly loved, and was placed upon a dais in the centre of Westminster Hall, where it lay in state for three days. Two hundred and fifty thousand people, it is thought, passed reverently through the hall to take their leave of what was mortal of the great Englishman. All was very simple, but the more impressive. A few days later, when the United States was listening for the first echoes from the guns at Santiago, Mr. Glad- stone was buried in Westminster Abbey. His most inti- mate friends attended the coffin, and Lord Salisbury, Lord Rosebery, and many others, both political opponents and personal friends. The Prince of Wales and the Duke of York brought up the line of pall-bearers. Representatives from the House of Commons, from the diplomatic corps, from the universities, from the army and navy, and many other public bodies, filled the great cathedral. Among the hymns on the occasion was " Rock of Ages," all the congre- gation joining in it as it was sung. It had been an especial favorite with Mr. Gladstone, and he had made a translation of it into Latin verse. At the close of the service, read by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Prince of Wales, who stood near Mrs. Gladstone, bent over and kissed her hand. " This admirable lady had been so intimately associated with the work and personality of her husband that in popular esteem ^ "England in the Nineteenth Century," pp. 40S-410. MRS. GLADSTONE. The QUEEN'S MINISTERS 255 and affection they were almost one. For sixty years of their married life she was constantly shielding him from bores, in- trusion, over-exertion, exposure to fatigue, and all sorts of minor troubles, anxieties, and annoyances. " In a letter written by Mr. Gladstone in 1S55, he spoke with shrewd self-knowledge of his own ' vulnerable temper and im- petuous moods.' To soothe that temper, to modify those moods, was the main part of Mrs. Gladstone's work in life. Her husband was screened from every breath of annoyance. No ' evil report ' was, if it was possible to intercept it, allowed to reach his ear. If a generally friendly newspaper ventured on an occasional criticism, it was conveniently mislaid. If the conversation at dinner took a distasteful turn, it was promptly interrupted by some artless inquiry about the children's whoop- ing-cough, or the decorations of the dinner-table. Eager lis- teners, who saw the great man's eyes begin to lighten, and hoped to hear him thunder, were immensely disgusted, and ascribed to silliness what was really a carefully organized and long practised system of tactics. The system had its obvious drawbacks, but it was the deliberate opinion of one who knew both wife and husband well, that but for the unremitting solicitude which warded off all of the minor and most of the major troubles of life, — all the imaginary ones and most of the real, — the ' vul- nerable temper' would long ago have been mortally wounded, and the ' impetuous moods ' would have wrecked the political career." Nor is this most beautiful side of Mrs. Gladstone's woman's life the only one that claims at once our sympathy and admiration. Outside her own family, and beyond the confines of Hawarden estate and parish, which always occupied the first place in her loving nature, she did other practical and patient works for the good of her fellow men and women. She was one of the first supporters of the House of Charity for Distressed Persons, founded in Soho, London, in 1846. In this house she may be said to have graduated in the art of administering relief to the needy of the metropolis, and there she first learned how much misery there is outside the ranks of the raggedly poor or obviously destitute. Having occasion to observe, in connection with another House of Charity intended for a different class, how many 256 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY applications for shelter after nightfall had to be refused, Mrs. Gladstone threw herself into the work of raising funds to hire and fit up a large block of disused buildings in the neighborhood of Leicester Square, and there to provide temporary accommodation for the houseless, for in 1863 the work-houses in London had no " casual wards." This, which was then a novel form of charity, proved singularly successful, and Mrs. Gladstone was by all regarded as the founder and mainspring of the movement for founding refuge homes. It was in consequence of the interest thus attracted to the condition of the outcast poor in London streets, that the Homeless Poor Act became law, and Lon- don work-houses became bound to make special provision for tramps or casual travellers, at the cost of a rate levied on the whole metropolis. When cholera prevailed in Eng- land in 1866, it found in Mrs. Gladstone a brave and practical foe. She went almost daily to Whitechapel, into the horrible hospital wards, with sympathy and cheering words and flowers, giving fresh courage by her presence and example not only to the sick, but to doctors and nurses. When all was at an end she took a large part in securing a house at Clapton for boys left orphans by the cholera ; while Mrs. Tait, wife of the Archbishop of Canterbury, established a similar orphanage for girls at Fulham. This set the example of attaching to nearly all the hospitals of London " Free Convalescent Homes for the Poor." It is impossible here to enumerate half the works of be- nevolence in which Mrs. Gladstone actively interested her- self. Almost everybody knows of her Orphanage at the gates of Hawarden Castle, and her almshouse for aged women. Some one recently bore witness that in respect to one of the charities that I have not found space to mention, Mrs. Gladstone's connection with its management was so thorough and consistent that it might have been supposed it was her only charity. She died at Hawarden Castle in June, 1900, and was buried beside her husband in Westminster Abbey, accord- THE QUEEN'S MINISTERS 257 ing to a promise made her by the Dean of Westminster at the time of Mr. Gladstone's funeral. One drawback to Mr. Gladstone's active exertions in his latter years (and yet he did not allow it seriously to impair his activity) was that he suffered for a while from cataract, caused by an injury inflicted upon one of his eyes by a hard ginger cake thrown at him by a woman in a crowd. An operation was performed when the eye was in the right condition for the knife, and, like most modern operations for cataract, it was attended with little pain, and was entirely successful. Lord Salisbury, like many other Englishmen prominent in public life, has changed many of his views since he entered into politics, but it must be remembered that the condition of things in England since 1854 has changed too. He has passed through three marked stages in his poHtical career. He has been the independent Tory of the old school, the foreign minister in Lord Beaconsfield's imperialistic cabi- net, and is the present head of the Conservative party. " As such, he is said to be ready to play many cards once held by his political opponents. He favors measures that will lighten the burdens on agriculture, he inclines to grant allowances and pensions to the aged, and he would like to see each English laborer attached to the land of his birth by owning his own home. It is also thought that he would further a joint organiza- tion that might unite employers and employed. If he, or his successor, can carry out these things, ' they will render no mean service, not only to English Conservatism, but to the Conserva- tism of Europe ; to all, indeed, who hope and trust that society may be served without recourse to the rough surgery of revolu- tion.'" But on three things Lord Salisbury is absolutely conserva- tive : he will have no tampering with the constitution of the United Kingdom ; no party and no nation shall flout the English flag ; and he will not consent that the conduct of foreign affairs shall pass out of the hands of the Foreign Office into those of the Fourth Estate, or even those of the Third. 17 258 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Lord Salisbury's first sjjeech was made in Parliament when he was Lord Robert Cecil, in 1854. For a short time, some years later, he sat in the House of Commons as Lord Cranbourne, until, by the death of his father, he became Marquis of Salisbury, and passed into the House of Lords. His parliamentary experience in the House of Commons has been of the greatest value to him, as it is to every other English statesman who aspires to take a prominent part in the government of his country. As I have just said, the condition of things in England during the half-century or more that Lord Salisbury has been a prominent politician has changed — " changed even to the point of making men like Lord Salisbury advocates of measures which they formerly condemned. Lord Salisbury, indeed, became the opponent of certain bits of legis- lation to which he once appeared tenderly attached. But his convictions have remained as unshaken in the main as the general lines of his character." From a very early day he acquired the reputation of saying indiscreet things in public speeches ; and in the present year, when all England was enthusiastic over Irish generals, Irish fusileers, and the reception of the Queen in Ireland, he took the opportunity to assure the Irish that they need not expect especial legislation in favor of their aspirations. He first occupied a prominent political position when he accompanied Mr. Disraeli to the Congress of Berlin as his colleague and supporter. Disraeli had a genius for selecting men of ability, and for furthering their advancement, and in Lord Salisbury he seems to have felt great confidence, though more than once the "noble Lord " had been opposed to him in political emergencies. Lord Salisbury, on his return to England, was sent to con- fer with other statesmen at Constantinople, after which he succeeded Lord Derby at the Foreign Office in Lord Bea- consfield's cabinet, and entered on an active and arduous career. The Beaconsfield cabinet went out of power before THE QUEEN'S MINISTERS 259 he had been in it three years, but in 1S85 Lord Salisbury became Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary. In the mean time Mr. Gladstone had abandoned the Soudan, and had made a free gift to the Boers of their South African Repubhc, exacting only the condition that, in their foreign relations, they should acknowledge the suzerainty of the Queen. Lord Salisbury, in accepting the Premiership vacated by Mr. Gladstone, could not undo the work of his predecessor. He had to accept it and its consequences, and to shape his policy accordingly. " He assumed the liabilities and embarrassments of Mr. Glad- stone's administration, paying debts which he had not contracted, continuing to repose confidence in agents whom he had not chosen, and trying to solve problems which he had not set." But, prudent and fortunate, Lord Salisbury's administra- tion seems to have been a success. In the present war with the Transvaal the people support him with enthusiasm. The honor of England is at stake ; and what Englishman will not make any sacrifice to uphold it? He insisted that the French expedition should retreat from Fashoda, and not render nugatory the Sirdar's victory at Omdurman, and he directed Sir Edmund Monson, the English Ambassador at Paris, to make an after-dinner speech assuring the French public that England would endure no more pin-pricks from either the French press or the French Government. He made large concessions to France, how- ever, in Nigeria, and has left the French to struggle alone with the coming Mohammedan problem in Central Africa ; he has not interfered with their unhappy policy in Madagas- car, nor with their claims in Siam. In the Venezuela Question, started on the world when the attention of all men was occupied by what was passing in the East, and which some people think withheld the English Government from taking a more active part in Cretan and Armenian affairs, Lord Salisbury appears to have acted in a very conciliatory spirit, though in December, 26o LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 1895, ^^ ^^5 confronted by a sharp despatch from Secretary Olney and a similar message to Congress from President Cleveland, — a man far less likely than Lord Salisbury to in- dulge himself in a public document with incautious words. The boundary dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana was a very ancient one, and, as neither party cared much for the territory in dispute, it had been hanging on unsettled for a number of years. But gold had been dis- covered on the border, and the few miles of disputed land became valuable, especially to English gold-seekers. A dis- pute arose between these strangers and the Venezuelans, in which Englishmen conceived themselves to be wronged, and they appealed to their government. It was a great sur- prise to all when Mr. Cleveland sent his message to Con- gress, and his Secretary of State addressed a letter to Lord Salisbury, demanding, as the guardian of Venezuela under the Monroe doctrine, an immediate settlement of the dis- pute. In all subsequent proceedings on the subject, " Mr. Cleveland showed himself," says Mr. Justin McCarthy, " the same cool^ sensible, conciliatory statesman he had proved himself to be in all his previous career." Nevertheless, the affair for some weeks stirred up a little ferment in both countries ; and, as I have said, it is thought to have im- peded vigorous action on England's part on the Armenian and Cretan questions. However, the affairs of Armenia and Crete came all right in the end, and so did the boundary dispute between British Guiana and Venezuela, which was settled by a conference in which United States Commis- sioners, all men of high standing and great worth, took part as the advocates of Venezuela. By the time the Conference gave its decision, October 3, 1899, few persons probably cared much which party might be favored by the award. For some years Venezuela has been in such a chronic state of revolution that she can have taken little interest in a matter which at one time threatened strife for her sake between two great civilized nations. I repeat that all that is most interesting in the history of England during the last years of the nineteenth century THE QUEEN'S MINISTERS 26 1 may best be related in that part of my book which con- cerns " Europe in Africa." Lord Salisbury, like Mr. Gladstone, was most fortunate in a wife. Lady Salisbury was the invaluable helpmeet of her husband, and was deeply regretted by all who knew her. Probably the last months of her life were clouded by anxiety for her son, Lord Edward Cecil, who was one of the force besieged in Mafeking. " It was for her friends and family she lived, and she had her reward in their unstinted love and admiration. . . . To lose such a partner after more than forty years of happy wedded life is to suffer a bereavement which is irreparable. . . . She was her husband's helpmeet in the truest sense of the word, not by virtue of mere incurious silence, but by active gifts of intelligent counsel and advice." It is not a little significant of the great changes that have taken place in England during the reign of Queen Victoria that the great statesmen of the present day have, with hardly an exception, changed, or greatly modified, their early po- litical views. Mr. Gladstone began life as a disciple of George Canning ; at college he became a Tory of the old school ; then a Conservative ; then a Liberal ; and toward the end of his life he broke up his party on the Irish ques- tion of Home Rule and was accounted a Radical. Lord Salisbury was in 1S54 an aristocrat in politics and an uncompromising Tory. He is still a Conservative, but a Conservative who advocates liberal measures that were considered almost revolutionary when he entered the House of Commons. Mr. Chamberlain boldly proclaimed himself an advanced Radical, was at one time, together with his friend. Sir Charles Dilke, a supporter of Home Rule for Ireland, broke away from his party in 18S6, and is now, in a Con- servative Cabinet, Secretary for the Colonies, over whose loyal adhesion to the mother country he persists in keep- ing a firm hand. Lord Rosebery, now Liberal leader in the House of 262 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Lords, began by opposing liberalism. He belongs to a great family, and was born to a large estate. He married a daughter of the house of Rothschild. He has a lordly house near Edinburgh, another in London at the West End, and a beautiful English country residence. His social powers are very great. He is a charming host, a brilliant and sympathetic conversationalist, an admirable lecturer, an accomplished writer, a skilled yachtsman, and his horses have won two Derbys on the turf. To him many have long looked as the man who might steer England through all her dangers, but as yet he has not found that opportunity. A born orator, it was his mis- fortune to have missed valuable training as a debater in the House of Commons. He too early succeeded his grandfather in the peerage, and he had to begin his polit- ical career in the House of Lords. Anxious in some way to be useful to his country, he early devoted himself to municipal aiTairs. London outside " the City " (which is but a small patch in the great metropolis) was governed by old-fashioned parochial vestries, and, to a certain extent, by a more recent institution called the Metropolitan Board of Works. Lord Rosebery, joined by Lord Randolph Churchill, reformed this system, and succeeded in displacing it in favor of the London County Council, — an elective body responsible to its constituents and to the public. " I think," says Mr. Justin McCarthy, " that it would be hardly possible for a man of Lord Rosebery's rank and cul- ture and tastes to give a more genuine proof of patriotic pub- lic spirit than he did when he threw himself heart and soul into the business of the Municipal Council." When Mr. Gladstone resigned on the question of Home Rule in 1894, the Queen sent for Lord Rosebery and wished him to form an administration ; but there were keen jealousies among the Liberal leaders. Sir William Vernon Harcourt thought he had won for himself the right to succeed Mr. Gladstone as Prime Minister. Lord Rose- bery, however, accepted the post offered him, but his THE QUEEN'S MINISTERS 263 premiership lasted a very short time ; he was defeated in ParHament on a vote of supply ; and as this was virtually a vote of censure on the Secretary of State for War, the min- istry resigned, Parliament was dissolved, and a General Election followed. Then was seen the full force of the reaction which had begun to set in against the policy of Mr. Gladstone. "The Conservatives came into power with a large majority. Lord Rosebery became merely the leader of the Liberal party in opposition, and even this position he did not long retain. Some of the most brilliant speeches he ever made in the House of Lords were made at this time, but somehow people began to think that his heart was not in the leadership, and before long it was made known to the country that he had ceased to be the Liberal commander-in-chief." Some said that Lord Rosebery did not see his way to agitating the country as Mr. Gladstone would have done on the question of Turkey and Armenia ; others thought him unwilling to adopt the policy of Mr. Gladstone in South Africa, as tending to weaken the supremacy and prestige of his country. Lord Rosebery is now classed as an Imperialist. Sir William Vernon Harcourt, Mr. John Morley, and their followers are termed by their opponents Litde Englanders. " The Litde Englander," as Mr. McCarthy describes him, "believes that England's noblest work for a long time to come will be found in the endeavor to spread peace, education, and happiness among the people who already acknowledge England's supremacy." Again, in concluding a brief sketch of Lord Rosebery, the same impartial writer ends it with these words : "Though he became Prime Minister only to be defeated, and leader of the Liberal party only to resign, he is at this moment the one public man in England about whom people are asking one another whether the time for him to take his real position is not near at hand." But among leading statesmen in England at the present day the most prominent is Mr. Joseph Chamberlain. Lord 264 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Rosebery has political opponents, but may be said to have no enemies ; Mr. Chamberlain has many, both political and personal. He is the son of a manufacturer in Birmingham, which in his youth was the most violently Radical great city in England. It also had the distinction of being the city where municipal affairs were the most admirably managed, and it was in connection with the city government of Birmingham that Mr. Chamberlain won his first fame. When elected to Parliament it was as an advanced Radical, a democrat of the levelling order, a more aggressive demo- crat than Mr. Bright or Mr. Cobden had ever been. Here are the impressions of one who heard him make his first speech in the House of Commons : — "Judging from his previous political speeches members had set him down as a wild republican, and they expected to see a rough and shaggy man, dressed with an uncouth disregard for the ways of society, a sort of Birmingham Orson, who would probably scowl fiercely at his opponents in the House, and deliver his opinions in a voice of thunder. The political opin- ions which his speech expressed were such as every one might have expected to come from so resolute a democrat, but their quiet, self-possessed delivery greatly astonished those who had expected to see and hear a mob-orator." Ever since then Mr. Chamberlain has proved himself one of the ablest debaters in the House of Commons. He disappointed the Home Rule party by breaking away from it and resigning his place in Mr. Gladstone's government. He ranked himself thenceforth not only as an opponent of Home Rule, but as a Conservative and anti-Radical. The change took place in less than three months. Mr. Glad- stone began as a Tory and grew by slow degrees into a Radical, but Mr. Chamberlain's conversion was accom- plished with the suddenness of a miracle ; yet no man has ever dared to say that it was prompted by any selfish motive, or that it was not the work of genuine conviction, such as in the language of theology is called " a change of heart." CHAPTER III FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA A MONG the most brilliant wars in the latter half of the ■^^- nineteenth century (by "brilliant" I mean the most remarkable for courage, daring, and resources) have been the Frontier Wars of India ; yet as they led to no visible success that the general public can appreciate, they are very little known. Those who fought in them, and the correspondents who recorded them, sometimes complain that deeds of far less personal prowess have received world- wide recognition, medals and honors, while heroes of the frontier have been overlooked and forgotten. It is impossible here to give anything like a complete account of what took place in northwestern India in 1895, 1897, and 1898. I cannot even spare space for an abridged account of all the military operations. I think it best therefore to select one event, — a very important one. It was the outbreak of the Frontier War ; and many persons think that had the British Government taken no part in the dispute concerning succession among those who aspired to the Mehtarship of Chitral, England might have been spared a great loss of gallant lives, and the Government of India an expenditure of many millions of pounds. The northwestern frontier of India is very little known to most of us, I humbly confess that until recently my own ideas upon the subject were by no means clear. We all know in a general way that British India on the north touches Afghanistan and much recently acquired Russian territory, from both of which it is divided by almost impas- sable chains of mountains, — the Hindoo Koosh and the Himalayas, 266 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY The Punjaub, we all know, is the great province of north- ern India; northeast of it, under its own Maharajah, is Kashmir. But the mountains and their valleys to the north and west are inhabited by wild tribes, splendid fighters, men of great intelligence, who have never made submission to the Ameer of Afghanistan or to any of the rulers of India. They are known under the common name of Pathans, as the inhabitants of the Scotch mountains were all known as Highlanders. They are divided, like the Highlanders, into numerous tribes or clans, Afridis, Swatis, Mahmonds, Ozakais, Hanzu, Chitralis, etc. ; and some of the tribes are divided and subdivided. For instance, the Afridis have eight clans. Constantly at feud among themselves, they unite at once to oppose a common enemy. It is thus that G. W. Steevens opens his chapter on the fron- tier question in his little volume entitled " India " : — " The frontier question is like the frontier country. ToilfuUy surmount one branch of it, and it is commanded and controlled by another. Struggle through the pass of one problem, and it opens onto a worse tangle of others. Take a typical case, — Chitral; at the first reconnaissance nothing could be simpler. Obviously, for a host of reasons, we ought to keep clear of Chitral. An invasion of India in anything like force from that side is all but inconceivable. The country, as well as all the country between it and India, is infernal, the inhabitants devilish. Before we began to meddle they were content to ex- ercise their devilishness upon each other. Our interference brought on us two costly wars. . . . Decidedly we ought never to have gone to Chitral ; ought never to have stayed there ; ought, if we must stay there, to have communicated with it, as orig- inally, from Gilgit. The whole business is a palpable, costly, ghastly blunder. " Thus triumphantly we crown that height, and then, unfortu- nately for our comfort of mind, we begin to observe fresh heights to be crowned above us. . . . The more you look at it, the more it mazes you — point topping point, and argument crossing ar- gument. And that is only the very tiniest fraction of the whole frontier question. There are a dozen places like Chitral, each with a tangled problem of its own, and above all are the greater questions, — the influence on India proper, the defence against FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 26/ Russia, — with all their branches. And the peculiarly exas- perating feature of these difficulties is that every action we take seems to leave them more confounded than before." The Pathans are all Mohammedans, but they are not all of the same sect. The men of most influence in these tribes are the mullahs, holy men who are supposed in some way to have attained especial sanctity. Some ten years ago I read an amusing article, making fun of appre- hensions felt by the Government of India concerning the Alkund of Swat. Who or what, it was asked, could the Alkund of Swat be? He was one of these mullahs; and England in the past six years has had abundant reason to know him and his fellows. Now, England, ever since I can remember, has had jealousy of Russia on the brain. She conceived it her duty, when a scientific frontier between India and Afghanistan was laid out, to extend her " sphere of influence " over the mountain tribesmen, and to establish British outposts along the frontiers. The Chitralis had a country close up to Afghanistan, and a pass of their own over which no army could transport guns, baggage, and ammunition. Their chief town was Chitral, and it had a small fort very badly situated on the bank of a river, and completely commanded by hills. The Chitralis were good fighters, bold riders, and strong swimmers, loving polo and the dance. Their country is surrounded by magnificent mountains and their valleys pro- duce abundantly fruit and flowers. The ruler of Chitral was called the Mehtar ; his residence was in the little fort with his wives and their families. In 1892, Aman-ul-Mulk, the "Great Mehtar," died. It was a thing not before known in the history of Chitral that a Mehtar should die a natural death ; according to the custom of the country, he should have been assassinated. But Aman-ul-Mulk had been greatly respected by his people, and had reigned many years. He left as many sons by different wives as Phrygian Priam, but of these only four were considered of sufficiently royal lineage to succeed him as Mehtar. Their 268 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY names were Nizam, Afzul, Amir, and Shuja ; the last a little boy. Nizam, the eldest, was visiting British India when his father died, so his place as Mehtar was seized by Afzul, his next brother ; and Nizam sought protection at Gilgit, two hundred and twenty miles east of Chitral, where lived an English agent in charge of a British garrison. Afzul-ul-Mulk had no fears of his brothers, Amir and Shuja, — the one was weak, the other a child; but he had not bethought him of his uncle Sher Afzul, who had for years been living as an exile at the court of Cabul. He came suddenly to Chitral, and tried to enter the fort secretly by night ; the guards, however, opposed him. Afzul-ul-Mulk, the reigning Mehtar, hearing the noise, came from his chamber, and was shot in the back. At once Sher Afzul seized the reins of government. But as suddenly as he had arrived from Cabul, came Nizam from Gilgit. The troops collected to oppose him went over to his side at once, and his uncle Sher Afzul went once more into exile. Nizam was a cultivated man, and friendly to the English Government, which sent a mission to offer him the support formerly given to his father. His subjects were, however, not well pleased with the civilized ideas he had acquired in British India, and while he was out hawking, his brother Amir, or some of his followers, shot him dead. It is supposed that this murder was suggested by Umra Khan, lord of the neighboring country of Jandol, who was father-in-law to Amir, and who, after making a tool of that weak young man, was ambitious of acquiring for himself the Mehtarship of Chitral. Umra Khan was a formidable chief. He was a hand- some man, and a man of marked ability. An English political officer was at Chitral with an escort of eight Sikhs when Nizam was murdered, and Amir insisted that he should, on the part of the British Government, recognize his right to the throne. This, Lieutenant Gurdon refused to do. He would write to his superior officer at Gilgit on the subject if Amir would forward the letter. This, Amir de- clined to do, and Gurdon continued to maintain that he FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 269 had no right to pledge his government to give the usurping Mehtar recognition. Matters became such that Gurdon, the English political agent, moved into the fort with his eight Sikhs, where he received a reinforcement of fifty Sikhs of his own escort, whom, not apprehending danger, he had left at Mastaj, sixty-five miles from Chitral. Nothing but the coolness of Gurdon saved him from being slain, for the Chitralis were maddened by excitement. Meantime, as Umra Khan had hoped, his son-in-law called upon him for assistance. As soon as Mr. Robertson, the British agent at Gilgit (which is an outpost in the northern part of Kashmir), heard what was taking place at Chitral, he started for it with two hundred and eighty men of the Kashmir Rifles, and thirty-three Sikhs under Lieutenant Harley. He was also accompanied by Captain Baird, Captain Campbell, and Dr. Whitchurch. At once, as Gurdon's superior officer, he wrote to Umra Khan to leave Chitral territory and return to his own country of Jandol. A wealthy native of Chitral assisted the English to provision the little fort for a siege, and moved into it himself with about eighty Chitralis. The English professed to recognize Shuja-ul-Mulk as Mehtar, and to have deposed Amir-ul-Mulk for treachery. Both these princes were in the fort, but the latter was a prisoner. Shah Afzul meantime had come back from Cabul, and was in alliance with Umra Kahn. News at the close of March was brought to the fort that it was to be besieged. The little garrison decided to send out a party to reconnoitre. It was a most unhappy decision. The p^rty consisted of two hundred men of the Kashmir Rifles, who had never been in action, a few Sikhs, hospital assistants, and stretcher- bearers. Captain Campbell was in command of the party. Captain Baird, Lieutenants Townshend and Gurdon, and Dr. Whitchurch accompanied him. Harley and his Sikhs were left to guard the fort. There were only half a dozen white faces in the little band. It met with disaster. The Chitralis and Jandolis were 270 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY around them on the hills' in force, and strongly posted. Baird was shot down ; Whitchurch at once hastened to his side. The wound was mortal, but he was placed in a dooly and carried to the rear. Both sides fought bravely, but soon the officer in command of the British force found his enemy in so strong a position, behind stone breastworks, that there was nothing for his little party, which was with- out support, to do but to retreat. Captain Campbell was wounded in the knee, but insisted that he must be lifted on his horse and go back into the fighting. The native hospital assistant remonstrated with him, but these were his last words. A bullet went smashing through his head, and he lay dead beside the horse of Captain Campbell. The little party, now retiring, were two miles from the fort. It grew dark when they reached the Chitral village. The inhabitants, seeing them retreat, and anxious — both men and women — to be on the winning side, turned against them. Robertson, a solitary horseman, galloped to the fort to get a handful of Harley's Sikhs to assist them. Fired at with bullets and assailed with sticks and stones, Robertson happily was not once hit. On nearing the fort, " Fifty Sikhs to cover the retirement ! " he shouted. At once they marched out of the gate, ready for action, with Harley at their head. There is a touching story of Gurdon's syce, who brought him his pony from the fort, which he refused to mount, and the faithful groom was shot dead while leading it away. At last all were in the fort. Then came the inquiry, " Where is Baird? Where is Whitchurch, the doctor? " Baird had not been brought in ; Whitchurch was nowhere ; Campbell had fainted from his wound. The wounded were all asking for the doctor. Baird was a great favorite. His genial, kindly ways had endeared him to every one. Hampered by the dooly, the small hospital party, con- sisting of the doctor, a dozen of the Kashmir troops, and four stretcher-bearers, had been left behind. Darkness was coming on. They lost their way. They perceived that FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 2J\ fighting was going on in advance of them. " There 's another way to the fort, — a roundabout way," some one cried out. " But it is three miles round." " Then a weak voice called the doctor from the stretcher. "'I am only hindering you. It's all up with me, I know. Leave me, and look after the safety of those brave fellows, and your own. ' " ' What say you, my men,' cried the doctor, repeating the dying officer's request ; 'shall we leave your wounded officer in the field, to look after our own skins ? ' " ' We 'II take the river bank, sahib ! ' was the quick response of the stretcher-bearers; and not one dreamed of laying his burden down. " But the enemy soon perceived them. One after another was killed, and as a stretcher-bearer fell, one of the soldiers, without a word, took his place. " At last all were gone. It was impossible to carry the ^<^cher further ; the Sepoys were all wanted to fight. Then ..c doctor put his arm firmly round his patient's waist and lifted him from the stretcher. " ' Whitchurch ! I protest against it ! Whitchurch, are you mad ? For God's sake, save yourself ! Leave me ! leave me ! ' " But the doctor would not give him up, and carried him as best he could, over the rough ground in the darkness, wounded himself by a bullet in his heel. But the}^ reached the fort. The gate was flung open, and they staggered in." And that was how the V. C. — the Victoria Cross — was nobly won by the doctor. " It was never won more splendidly," said Baird, as with almost his dying breath he reported all that had taken place to Mr. Robertson. From that time for forty-two days the fort was closely invested. The enemy could fire into its enclosure and pick off any man who showed himself. An attempt was made to burn the watch-tower ; twice the covered way by which the garrison drew water was nearly destroyed. The besieged knew that relief would be sent to them. Upheld by the confidence of the English officers and that of the undaunted Sikhs, all felt sure that it was coming, — 2/2 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY but would it come in time ? Already the poor fellows looked pinched and hollow-eyed from insufficient food, as only half- rations were served out to them. What little rum they had was reserved for the Sikhs. " Brave fellows ! they deserve it," said their officers. To the Kashmir Rifles a little tea was served out every second day. The British officers, early in the siege, had killed and salted their ponies. The Sikhs could not touch such food. They ate only their cakes of flour and water, and went back uncomplainingly to their posts. At last the enemy took possession of a summer house in a garden, about eighty yards from the fort. Day and night, for two nights and two days, they kept up a hideous din with yells and tom-toms. The besieged began to suspect that the enemy were digging a mine, and that the noise they made was to deaden the sound of their picks, as they worked under ground. Harley and his Sikhs made a sortie, drove off the workers, entered the mine, and blew it up, or rather, an accident after they entered it blew it up ; but happily none of the party was injured by the explosion. All was silent the next night ; the yells and tom-toms ceased, when at midnight came a cry outside the fort, " News ! news ! Important news ! " For some time, dreading treachery, they hesitated to let in the messenger. But the news was true. A relieving force was at hand. When the first excitement was over, " I suggest a good square meal ! " cried an officer ; and double rations were served out all round. It was Colonel Kelly who had come two hundred and twenty-five miles from Gilgit to their relief, over mountains deep in snow. He had with him his own splendid regi- ment of Sikhs, the Thirty-Second Pioneers. He had altogether only about five hundred enlisted men and two guns of the Kashmir Mountain Battery. Three years be- fore, the English had been fighting the Hunzas, a people inhabiting a mountain district very close to Kashmir. The Hunzas had since appeared loyal, but it seemed almost too much to hope that they would join the English Relief Ex- FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 2/3 pedition. Nevertheless, on its being suggested to them, their prime minister marched into Gilgit with two thousand men, bringing with them a fortnight's rations. And the Rajah of the Punials, another mountain tribe of " men as agile as cats, and as sure-footed as goats," came with a large party of his followers. The Hunzas are a light-haired, blue-eyed race, and claim descent from the soldiers Alex- ander left behind, when he pushed on into the Punjaub with his main army. I cannot tell the whole story of this marvellous march. It must suffice here to say, that when they reached the Shangar Pass, the mules that carried the guns (which with their carriages were divided for transport into sections) were up to their bodies in snow, and, laden as they were, the poor creatures could hardly stagger along. " They '11 never do it ! " cried one of the officers. " Sahib, they cannot,''' answered one of the drivers. To advance without the guns would be worse than folly. The guns were needed to shell the enemy on the heights, and to drive their marksmen from their positions. "Without the guns the expedition would be hopeless. And the garrison at Chitral was possibly in extremity. " But the pioneers knew their coloners face. They saw his anxiety. " Said one of them to his fellows : ' We must not march with- out the guns.' . . . "There was a pause among the Sikh soldiers. ' Purity, chas- tity, and charity' — is the motto of their race, and when lived up to, it cannot but make men brave to endure. " ' Brothers, could not we carry the guns ? ' Another breath- less pause, and then came the hoarse, determined chorus : ' If the Commanding Sahib permits, we shall 1 ' " No sooner said than acted upon. They sought their native officers. The case was laid before them, and the spokesmen added, ' Beg the Commanding Sahib that we may carry the guns.' As the message was being delivered to Colonel Kelly, a native officer of the Kashmir Rifles came up also to say that his men volunteered to take part in the arduous task. "Colonel Kelly was moved. His eye kindled as he gave his answer, ' Tell my men I thank them.' " i8 274 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY The next day all was bustle ; cheerfully and with deter- mination the men equipped themselves for their task. An awful task it proved, especially the next day in the steep- est part of the pass, which was three feet deep in snow. It was dark before they had staggered to their stopping-place, having made only five miles' progress in one day. On the next day, which was bitterly cold with a fierce wind blowing, an advance party went forward to try to break a track, but many of the men suffered from snow- blindness and from frost-bite. As it was growing dark, the poor fellows, who kept slip- ping and falling under their loads, seemed so exhausted that their officers were fearing they must camp out that night in the snow, when suddenly from the advance guard a shout was heard. They had unexpectedly reached the end of the pass, and the descent would be comparatively easy. All this time the relief column had had little or no fighting. Nature had been their enemy. Umra Khan had never dreamed that British and Sikhs would attempt to come over the pass in such weather. When they were through the pass the worst was over. They marched on without much opposition, relieved Mas- taj, a fort about two days' march from Chitral, where Lieu- tenant Moberly and a small body of men were besieged. When the force surrounding Chitral received news of the relief of Mastaj, it melted away. On the arrival of the force under Colonel Kelly, Shuja-ul-Mulk was recognized as Mehtar. His brother Amir was sent to India as a prisoner, and Umra Khan was dispossessed of his dominions, though, to do him justice, he had behaved with magnanimity to some English officers belonging to a relief party who, on the way to assist Fort Chitral, had fallen into his hands. Another reUef column under General Gatacre was coming up from the west and through the Malakand Pass, which no white soldiers had ventured to do before. This forcing the Malakand, and its being held by the English after the relief of Chitral, was highly displeasing to the tribesmen, FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 275 who, in 1897, fought the fiercest fight of the war to expel the invaders. The force that first traversed it for the reUef of Chitral did not reach its destination as soon as Kelly's. A few days after its arrival General Gatacre read the burial service over a new grave in the Fort Garden, where were interred the remains of Captain Baird, and an officer of the expedition put up a stone to his memory, and with his own hands carved on it the story of his death. Six months' extra pay was given to the Sikhs and Kashmir Rifles. Mr. Rob- ertson was made Sir George Robertson, and has written an interesting account of the siege. Other officers received promotion and honors ; and the V. C., as poor Baird with his dying breath had hoped, was given to the doctor,^ From the summer of 1895 to the summer of 1897, all seemed quiet along the frontier. When Colonel Warburton (Sir Robert Warburton) quitted Peshawar on the after- noon of May 10, 1897, a crowd of Afridi chiefs and head men came down to the railroad station to see him off, and, as he says, " to take a last look at one who had been asso- ciated with them, off and on, for nigh eighteen years." And who was Colonel Warburton? We know him from his own book, " Eighteen Years in the Khyber," published after his death by Murray in 1900; but we will turn to what was said of him in 1893 by the well-known traveller and correspondent, Mr. Spencer Wilkinson, premising that the principal passes through the Hindoo Koosh are the Khyber and the Malakand. There are here and there also some mere goat tracks from Afghanistan, one of which leads down to Chitral. Thus, says Mr. Wilkinson : — " The only road by which traffic is possible follows the Khyber Pass, and Peshawar is the mart for all trade between India and Central Asia. "Jellallabad belongs to the Ameer, and Peshawar to Great Britain, but the Khyber block of mountains belongs to the ^ It may be well to say that my account of the siege and the relief of Chitral is taken from a little book called " The Heroes of the Siege of Chitral," which I commend to the perusal of any readers I may have among my friends, the boys. 2/6 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY tribes who inhabit it, — independent Afghans, or, in border lan- guage, Pathans. These Khyber Pathans can raise but scant crops from their native rocks. They cannot 'live on their holdings,' and must needs have some other resource with which to eke out their sustenance. This additional source of revenue is the pass. From time immemorial, they have taken toll from all who go through. Being poor, uncivilized, and accustomed to fight, their methods of levying what they conceived to be their due were formerly rough and irregular. But, from their point of view, the dues are their traditional, inalienable right. They are, however, very business-like people. Their point is to receive the money. Accordingly, they were open to contract for the tolls. During the first Afghan war, they took a rent in lieu of pass dues from the British, and caused trouble only when they believed they were being defrauded. Since the last Afghan war the same arrangement has been renewed. Each tribe receives an annual payment from the British Government, in return for which the pass is free to all authorized travellers on certain days in the week. There is also a modern device by which the good relations between the British Government and the tribes are increased. A corps of troops, called the Khyber Rifles, is recruited from the tribesmen, and is employed to guard the pass on the open days, and to supply escorts for caravans and travellers. The pay of the men, of course, found its way into their villages, and the whole population grew ac- customed to a sort of respect for British authority. All these arrangements had been many years in the hands of Colonel Warburton, whose official title was * Political Officer, Khyber Pass.' His position as paymaster of the tribes made him a sort of half-recognized king. He often settled their disputes, and by the exercise of a delicate tact and an immense personal in- fluence, for years he kept the whole Khyber border — a thou- sand square miles of hills — in comparative order. The cost of the whole business — the rent charge in lieu of dues, the Khy- ber Rifles, and Colonel Warburton — did not exceed ^10,000 a year." Colonel Warburton was eminently the right man in a very difficult position. He was the son of an English officer of good family, who, while at Cabul before the great disaster of 1841, married an Afghan lady of high rank, a relation of Dost Mohammed. The marriage was witnessed by Sir Alexander Barnes, Colonel Street, and Colonel FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 277 Jenkins. But when the English were driven away from Cabul, the lady's relatives became very much angered by her marriage. Her husband's house was burned down, and for months the soldiers of Akbar Khan sought everywhere to find her. " But Providence sheltered her through all her trials and vicissitudes," says Sir Robert Warburton, " and in the midst of it all, in July, 1842, her son, myself, was born." Thus Colonel Warburton, though an accomplished English gentleman, was allied to the Afghans and Afridis, and possessed personal influence over them, such as is rarely attained by a European over Orientals. The government of the hill tribes is intrusted to the Governor of the Punjaub, not to the General Government of India. Colonel Warburton ventured to think that it would have been more advisable to put the hill tribes under one English official who, under the General Govern- ment of India, could act on his own authority. Meantime he earnestly entreated the Punjaub Government to give him an English assistant whom he might train up to take his place when his term of service expired. But the Pun- jaub Government was not willing to incur additional ex- pense, and a man to fill the post was hard to find, seeing that it seemed banishment to an English gentleman to be stationed at Peshawar. Peshawar is a place of immense bustle and trade, entirely inhabited by eighty thousand natives. The English and their troops live in cantonments about two miles out of the city ; and a few miles away from it, frown the foot-hills of the Hindoo Koosh. When Colonel Warburton left Peshawar in May, 1897, the Afridis complained of no grievances. There was occa- sionally a little grumbling about minor matters, but nothing to presage the revolt which in the month of August broke out among their tribes. All accounts attribute it to the same cause. In 1896 and 1897 the English papers were full of bitter invectives against the " unspeakable Turk " and " the great 2/8 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY assassin at Constantinople." Now, although legally the Sultan is not Caliph, and the larger part of the Mohamme- dan world will not accept him as such, — to those who belong to one division of the faith and call themselves Sun- nites, he occupies the place of defender of the faith. He is the great Mussulman potentate, the most important per- sonage who holds the faith of Islam. Afghanistan, " the God-granted kingdom," is the bulwark of Islamism in Southern Asia. Its ruler and its people are Sunnites ; and when the abuse showered in England on the Sultan of Turkey had caused deep indignation in the hearts of many Mohammedans, a propaganda was attempted. England might be attacked where she was most vulnerable. Of course tribesmen on the Peshawar Border were not likely to know (and not knowing would not care) what was said in the English Parliament or in the English papers, but it could be brought home to them if political missionaries inflamed their minds against the infidel and preached a holy war. Such an agent was sent to the Ameer of Afghanistan, who sent at once for all the noted mullahs of his faith, in- troduced them to this agent, and after telling them to go to their homes and preach a religious war, advised them to make arrangements for a reserve force to be called out when all should be ready. The Ameer also wrote and cir- culated a pamphlet to the same effect. Among the hill tribes, there were three formidable mullahs (holy men, generally priests) who were held in especial estimation, — Sayad Akbar, who lived in the beauti- ful valley of Tirah, beside the simple, unostentatious mosque which was the meeting-place of seven Afridi clans ; the Hadda Mullah of Jarobi ; and the "Mad Fakir" of Swat. Of these, Sayad Akbar was the least respected, — he was worldly and avaricious ; the Haddah Mullah lived a quiet life, and had a great reputation for sanctity ; the Mad Mullah was the successor of the Alkund of Swat, and was an insane fanatic. Each of these men raised a lashkar, or army. In one of these lashkars, there were, it is said, no less than fifteen hundred mullahs, all preaching a holy war FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 2/9 against the infidels ; and a report was circulated that the Turks had fought the infidels, invaded their country, and completely got the better of them. The "infidels" so conquered were the Greeks, but of course ignorant moun- taineers in a remote part of the world were not likely to know the insignificance of Greece. It was enough for them that the Children of the Prophet had triumphed upon unbelievers. Why, if Allah had lent them His assistance, might they not do so again? The lashkar under their mullahs attacked and burned British posts all along the frontier. Then of course the English Government assembled its forces, and la revanche began. The first expedition undertaken was against the Mah- monds ; it lasted barely six weeks, and the troops suffered much from the extreme heat. The Mahmonds were forced to acknowledge themselves conquered and to accept the terms offered by their enemies. These included rupees, grain, and, above all, three hundred of their rifles. Now to a hill tribesman his rifle is dearer than his wife ; in fact, he could buy several wives for the price it would cost him to purchase one rifle. Therefore for many years rifle-stealing from British camps, outposts, or even British sentries, has been a national industry, — a source of great profit where it could be carried on with success. This is why the hill marksmen have of late years grown so formidable. In the hill campaigns of 1897 there were hardly any fights, but a continual picking off, or "snip- ing " of men and officers, often at very long range. " Like all Pathans the Mahmonds live in a constant state of blood feuds, and the country is covered with towers of refuge. These are generally circular, and a rope ladder hangs from the entrance, which is in the top storey. The fugitive, hard pressed, reaches the tower and enters, haul- ing the ladder up after him. He then from the loopholes fires down on his pursuers. His women folk may bring him bread and meat, for no Pathan will fire on a woman." ^ 1 " Indian Frontier War, 1897." Lionel James. 28o LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY But the great end and object of the war was the Tirah Expedition. These were the orders issued in the '' Gazette " : — " The general object of this expedition is to exact reparation for the unprovoked aggression of the Afridi and Orakzai tribes on the Peshawar and Kohat Borders, in the attacks on our frontier posts, and for the damage to hfe and property which had been inflicted on British subjects and those in British service. " It is beheved that this object will best be attained by the invasion of Tirah, the summer home of the Afridis and Orak- zais, which has never before been entered by a British force." It was October 9, 1897, when the English army, about thirty-two thousand strong, of which ten thousand were British soldiers, and the remainder chiefly Sikhs and Gourkas, entered the beautiful Tirah Valley, where in summer the Afridis pastured their flocks and made their dwellings. The valley is so fertile and so beautiful that part of it has long been called by the Mohammedan tribesmen, " The Garden of Eden." It is surrounded by rugged mountains, whose tops in October were covered with snow, and whose passes glittered with ice. It cost the British some severe fighting before they could get into the valley. It had never before been entered by any army, and had been scarcely seen by a white man. Its peaceful beauty and its air of pastoral comfort and prosperity touched the hearts of the English who had come to lay it waste, tear down its cottages, and replenish their commissariat with all things eatable that its inhabitants, who had fled, had left behind. The house that the Mullah Seyd Akbar had constructed for himself, at great cost of money and labor, was razed to the ground, and small respect was paid to the mosque that stood near it, which owed none of its importance to its architecture, but which had been long the meeting-place of the chiefs of the Afridi clans when in council assembled. It was the po- litical character of this place, where Seyd Akbar had preached his Holy War, that made it of importance. At that council he also encouraged his followers by a miracle. FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 28 1 In a dream he had been reminded of a legend which said that in a certain spot a clay jar had been anciently buried. If on the eve of a war with Kafirs, that jar were dug up and found unbroken, the invaders of Tirah would retire discom- fited. Instead of that, the invaders burned and destroyed all that was associated with Seyd Akbar, but when they afterwards descended into the Valley of the Swat, they respected the shrine of the Alkund of Swat, and even allowed their Mohammedan soldiers to pay their devotions at his tomb, for he had been considered a man of great sanctity. I may here say that the Sikhs are not Mohammedans, nor do they worship the gods of the Hindoos. Their religion is a compromise between Brahminism and Mohammedanism. They worship one God, without a mediator and without the use of images ; they look upon the eating of beef as a deadly offence, but they eat other kinds of animal food. Their first pontiff was Nanak of Lahore, who flourished about 1500; their last and most influential was Govind, who was assassinated in 1708. He instructed them to eschew superstition, to practise strict morality, and to live by the sword ; but since his days their morality has degen- erated. However, they are still regarded as a kind of Hindoo Puritans. " From Puritans," says Steevens, "they became Ironsides, praying and fighting with equal fervor." They made themselves masters of the Punjaub, and under Runjeet Singh were the greatest power in India. I have told of the war waged against them by Lord Gough and Sir Charles Napier,^ — a war well within my memory. The English though conquerors have been always very friendly to this splendid people ; especially have they treated their religion with tolerance and respect. During the mutiny (only ten years after they had sub- mitted to English rule), they rendered splendid service to their conquerors; and it is only necessary to name the Sikhs to remember at once that they are worthy to fight 1 See "England in the Nineteenth Century," pp. 212-216. 282 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY side by side with the Gordon and Seaforth Highlanders, some of the noblest soldiers in the world. Their sufferings from the cold and those of other soldiers in the Tirah campaign were terrible. The Sikhs had never before experienced frost and snow, their uniforms were ill calculated to protect them, and the bitter blasts that came down from the mountains are dwelt upon by ofificers and correspondents who have written accounts of the cam- paign as having been almost intolerable. Yet these men had tents and blankets, and all appliances and means that could be procured in such a country to enable them to keep out the cold. There had been many Afridis enlisted as soldiers in the English army, but they were sent away to garrison other places. The temptation to desert with their rifles it was thought might be too great if they were brought face to face with their own tribesmen. Yet some who stayed with their old masters acted with great fidelity. The best brief account of the war may be found in a Gen- eral Order issued April 4, 1898, when happily it was over. " From the beginning of October to the end of January the force was engaged in active operations, and seldom brave troops have been called upon to endure greater fatigues, and to meet a more vigilant and enterprising enemy. After long marches in cold and wet, harassed by distant rifle-fire, and by assaults at close quarters, the places where they bivouacked had to be protected by men strongly posted on commanding heights, and these pickets were always liable to sudden attack, and to molestation on withdrawal. There was, in fact, little or no rest for the force, the most carefully chosen camping-ground being generally open to long range-fire from scattered in- dividual marksmen armed with the most accurate weapons." Sir Robert Warburton was with the army, it being thought that he would exercise more influence over the Afridis than any other man when the time came for proposing peace. He went through the campaign on foot. His heart bled for the desolation wrought in the Happy Valley ; but he says : — FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 283 "The Tirah campaign brought out the finest qualities of the British generals and British soldiers, and of the native army and India troops; and this campaign made me respect the Afridis greatly, not only as fighting men, but as friends." ^ Indeed, it was with great reluctance that the Afridis broke their alliance with the English, threw up the pay and privileges they had earned in the British service, and be- came the enemies of their former friends. All said — and it appears to have been the truth — that they were forced into the war by their mullahs ; that they dared not disobey their mullahs, especially when these men had issued a proclamation threatening with excommunication any one of the clans which should separately make terms with the infidels. Having ravaged the Valley of Tirah, the English army left it at the close of November and descended into the Beza Valley watered by the Swat River. They marched through ravines and over bowlders, often knee-deep in icy water, fighting all the while a continuous rear-guard action with skilful marksmen who had rifles of the latest pattern, and who fired down on them from high cliffs among the hills. The generals, Sir William Lockhart and General 1 An amusing instance of the old unregenerate nature that still lay beneath the discipline of the Guides, the trusted soldiers of Lumsden, was once offered to him on the occasion of the inspection of his corps by Sir John Lawrence, when Governor of the Punjaub : " Sir John, though cordially relying on Lumsden's judgment, spent two or three days in cultivating a personal knowledge, as was his habit, with all who came before him; and thus it seemed to the men of the Guides that their leader was harassed by explanations instead of being with them as usual in the field or at sports. The night be- fore Sir John was to march with his retinue from Murdan, Lums- den, after Sir John had gone to bed, went outside and sat on the parapet of the fort. After a while an Afridi orderly, who always attended him in sport or fight, crept up to him and said : ' Since the great Lawrence came, you have been worried and distressed. Many have observed this ; and he is always looking at papers, asking ques- tions, and overhauling your accounts. Has he said anything to pain you ? Is he interfering with you ? He starts for Peshawar to-morrow morning ; there is no reason why he should reach it.' " — " Litmsden of the Guides" by Sir P. Lumsden. 284 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY VVestmacott, had said that they would not propose terms of peace till they announced them in the Tirah Valley. All winter negotiations were carried on. The terms were not severe. The English demanded submission, fifty thousand rupees, and five hundred breech-loading rifles. We may imagine the difficulties and the cost of that cam- paign when we think that its transport demanded sixteen thousand camels, forty- five thousand mules, and twelve thousand bullocks. If the English left desolation in the valley, they at least left it good roads, made by the sappers and miners of the pioneer corps, where before the invasion there had been only goat paths, barely practicable. Peace was definitely concluded April 4, 1898. And in the summer months of the same year, this is how Mr. Steevens writes of the Khyber country : — " Frowning over your head, slipping away from under your foot, letting in vast perspectives of more khaki-colored rock and black bush, shutting up the world into two cliffs and an abyss, the Khyber is a mere perplexity of riotous mountain. You would say that these savage hills could support nothing but solitude, yet here are tlie mountaineers. A couple of lithe, aquiline young men in khaki and sandals rise out of a heap of stones as you pass, and shoulder Snider muskets. On the hill above, under the mud-walled blockhouse, loll half a dozen more. These are of the Khyber Rifles, — Afridis who, now that the war is over, have returned, without malice and without abashment, to their old service of guarding the pass. They start out of nothing at every turn of the road ; on all the lower summits you can just make out khaki pickets against the khaki country. The pass is now, or was then, open two days a week, which means that it is picketed by Khyber Rifles while the caravans go through. Twice a week they go up towards Cabul ; twice a week they come down into India, needing the whole day to make the pass." . . . As you find the pass opening out on the Afghan side of the mountain, you see a white encampment, and a quad- rangular fort with towers at the angles of its loopholed walls. Ov'er it flies the Union Jack. It is at Landi Kotal, the very edge of British India. GENERAL LOCKHART. FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 285 " Here are three battalions and a mountain battery and sap- pers under the best-trusted brigadier in India. . . . The surround- ing population is obedient in large things and sportive in small. The Shinwari villagers are thoroughly friendly. The very Afridis southward submit to the general as their arbiter. They have a custom when they plough, of meeting mjifgah, and there each man lays a stone before him. While the ploughing lasts the stones are down, and all blood feuds sleep. The other day, the war with the Sirkai being over, and a feeling abroad that their rifles had been silent too long, they came to the General Sahib for permission to lift the stones and open the each-other- shooting season. ' The first village that begins will be de- stroyed,' said he ; and they went away sorrowful, but obedient. Only in small things they are a law unto themselves. You could hardly expect them to deny themselves the exercise of rifle-stealing with a whole brigade of Lee-Mitfords and Mar- tinis before their very eyes. So on dark nights the promising young Afridi creeps down towards the sentry, who, if he is sleeping, will be found next morning with a knife in his back instead of a rifle." ^ This is a long extract, but taken in connection with all that had come before, I think it a very interesting one. The Afridis fought a good fight, and they are proud of it. The game is over, and they bear no malice. They are as ready to discuss the subject with absolute calmness and impartiality as they would be the points in a game of polo or football. When may we hope to witness such a state of things among the Filipinos? 1 " In India," by G. W. Steevens. CHAPTER IV INDIA, THE PLAGUE AND THE FAMINE '"PHERE are two classes in India which, restless and dis- ■^ satisfied, cannot reconcile themselves to the rule of England. One of these is composed of the most fanatical Mohammedans, who detest the supremacy of the infidel (though the infidel officially treats their religion with re- spect) ; the other is the half-educated Hindoo Babu with his veneer of Europeanism. There is also one especial city where disaffection seethes continually. This is Poona, a city beautifully situated on high ground in the Presidency of Bombay. Poona has as its excuse for turbulence and disaffection the fact that for one hundred years, during the empire of the Mahrattas, it was their capital; in 1818, after a brief succession of in- competent and cruel rulers, the Mahratta empire was over- thrown, and Poona fell into the hands of the English. Other provinces in India were ceded to England or con- quered from some alien ruler who had established his authority over them by force ; " but the Mahrattas have never forgotten how high they were less than one hundred years ago, and who it was that brought them low. They lost more than others, and they feel the loss more." Besides this, Poona is the stronghold of what we might call the High Church party of the Hindoo faith. The Brahmins who inhabit it cannot tolerate the infidel. Each feels that his empire, his supremacy, his nationality, his religion, his honor, and even his beautiful language are now lost, — the English invader has taken them all. As he looks upon Englishmen, he says in his heart : " These men, who will be burning in hell, while I am enjoying heaven, have at present INDIA, THElPLAGUE AND THE FAMINE 287 the power to rule me, and I cannot shake them off; neverthe- less, what I can do to obstruct their plans and worry the officials in whom they trust, that will I do." So anything that the English Government is supposed to support meets with opposition in Poona, and the influence of Poona through its Brahmins spreads more or less over the whole land. In 1896 the bubonic plague broke out in Bombay, where it still exists. A few isolated cases have appeared in Western lands, but there its advance has been opposed by science and law; and possibly law and science might have dealt with it in India with some success, had they not met with persistent opposition. But the native population of Bombay looked with apathy upon the plague while they violently resented the intrusion of medical men and health officers into their houses. They were resigned to the pros- pect that one-tenth of the population of their city would die of it before the year 1904, when by some superstitious cal- culation they believe its visitation will cease. The English Government was not so minded. Human life may be held cheap in India, but even the lives of coolies are not worth- less in the eyes of Englishmen. So house visitations were ordered, and were made by doctors, escorted by sailors or soldiers. But the natives — Hindoos and Mohammedans — were so appalled at the idea of interference with their religious customs, their caste rules, or their domestic proprie- ties, that they systematically opposed all precautions that the Government attempted to take to prevent the plague from spreading. The Government then endeavored to persuade Brahmins and Mohammedans of influence to accompany the health officers and see that nothing was unnecessarily done to vio- late religion or domestic decencies. At first it was very hard to find men of consideration willing to take any interest in the work. What was it to them if the poor man died, or if he lost caste, or any other misfortune happened to him ? But after a time some Brahmins and Mohammedans of the better sort came forward to assist in the saving of poor wretches whose friends were unwilling to allow them to be 288 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY saved if preservation of their lives involved the risk of in- curring loss of caste, or if women's apartments were to be searched in Mohammedan houses. No notions of sanitary conditions exist in India, and, to say truth, nothing excites peasants, or people who live in slums, even in Christian countries, so much as the enforcement of the laws of health by municipal or government authority. Sanitary reforms and the domiciliary visits of public functionaries had been resisted in Bombay ; but when the plague spread to Poona, they were held to be intolerable. On the evening of the day of the Queen's Diamond Jubi- lee, June 21, 1897, a party of conspirators in Poona (high- caste Brahmins, one of whom had been educated in Eng- land and had studied at an English university), murdered Mr. Rand, a doctor, and Lieutenant Ayerst, who was accom- panying him on a round of inspection. The gang fell into the hands of the law, and four of them were hanged ; but they were hardly more guilty than the writers who had in- cited them to the deed, writing in Hindoo and Mohamme- dan papers against all those engaged in plague work, and disseminating endless calumnies about the behavior of British soldiers in private houses. " Compared with Orientals," Mr. Steevens says, "we Western people do not know what religion is. Hindooism prescribes and enters into every single act in the lives of those who profess it. It tells them what to eat, what to drink, wherewithal to be clothed, whom to marrj', whom not to touch with so much as their shadows. You may call it unspiritual, — religion fossilized into unmeaning, stupid custom, — yet it is their all, and they prize it beyond life." It stands, too, in the way of all modern improvements that the English are trying to introduce into India. A simple thing like riding in a tram-car is enough to defile a high- caste Brahmin if a defiling person is in the car too. All modern improvements that Western civilization is introduc- ing into India are a fertile source of religious offence to those who lay claim to sanctity. The most rigid and fanatical INDIA, THE PI AGUE AND THE FAMINE 289 Brahmins constantly endeavor to overload religion with more and more onerous observances, in the hope that these one day may lead to strife. To them the visitation of the plague in 1897 and the employment of British troops in house-to-house examinations was a golden chance. They might have protected their religion from Western ignorance of the laws of caste, and saved the lives of their countrymen, had they been willing to aid the government officers in their work, but for many months after the plague appeared all were apathetic. The system of house visitation has now been discontinued ; it was found impossible, without rousing the susceptibilities of the people, to carry it out. The bubonic plague is believed to cease at the approach of the hot weather. It is a germ disease, and its bacilli are thought to have been discovered by a Japanese physician ; as yet, however, no successful mode of prevention has been devised. Since 1897 the plague has been succeeded by cholera in India, and by the terrible Indian famine. As far back as 1892 the Government began to accumulate a famine fund, and it has spent in the past two years _;,^6o,ooo,ooo for the relief of sufferers; but an immense sum will still be needed, if by irrigation throughout the country, future famines are to be avoided. India is not the land of gold and diamonds, as it is popularly supposed to be. The government is poor, its expenses enormous, and its employes by no means richly paid. Nabob uncles who come home to England bringing lakhs of rupees wrung from the natives of India are now only heard of in novels. Government is sometimes accused of overtaxing the agricultural population, but it must be remembered that the money paid in taxes is paid back to the people in material improvements. It is not squandered on favorites, or laid up in vaults as hidden treasure ; it helps to provide for the maintenance of law and order in the districts, now no longer ravaged by internecine wars, and to protect the people from the high-handed spoliation which in past times was carried on by native officials. The famine is now almost over ; but the poverty and 19 290 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY desolation it must leave behind cannot but be lasting, and will call for help either from the Imperial Government, the Indian Government, or private sources, for many years. I will give my readers a specimen of what, in spite of all that has been done to help the sufferers, must have been the case for many months all over India. The account appears to have come from a safe source, and tells of the condition in a country district while the bread-winners were away in the relief camp working for pay that had not as yet reached their homes. "On the fourth instant I visited Dohad, a large native town about one hundred miles east of Anand in Gujarat. I am somewhat at a loss to know how to begin anything like a perfect description of this visit. On reaching the station I was informed by the station-master that large numbers of the people that had been employed on government relief works there had been, ten days before, removed to another place twenty-five miles distant. ' But,' said he, ' if you wish to see something of the work of the famine, you have only to step down there by our first signal, and you will see the bodies of two persons who starved to death there two days ago.' He deputed a porter to act as our guide through the native city, where we went first. Such sights met our eyes ! We had never thought that such a state of affairs ever existed in India ! On every hand were the dead and dying. Sometimes it was an aged person, some- times a youth or an infant. The sun beat down almost unbear- ably. The wind carried the sand in clouds. There was scarcely any noise, though there were many people. They sat, or lay, quietly in groups of from five to fifty beneath the trees by the roadside. Often one had fallen alone, and was left there to die as he had fallen. The living, the dying, and the dead were all together. If one died in the centre of a group, no one attempted to remove the body. Why should they 1 All have sat or lain down there to die, and one by one they meet death ; they all wait for it. They are all hopeless. They say there is no one who will give, so they resign themselves to their awful fate. Passing on through the city about one mile, we came to its eastern boundary. In the bottom of the dry river-bed and on its banks were scores of dead bodies. In many parts of the city unburied bodies were also to be found. They have what they call a municipality at Dohad, but its members do not care. INDIA, THE PI AGUE AND THE FAMINE 29 1 The heartlessness of rich natives who could help if they would, and are within a stone's throw of the sufferers, is very manifest. Many we found dying of thirst within half a minute's walk of some rich Mohammedan or high-caste Hindoo who, unless almost forced to do it, would not turn a hand to alleviate the sufferings of the dying. " It was dreadful to look upon the faces of the small children who had starved to death. Marks of infant beauty intermingled with those indicative of a painful death were traceable. What deaths they have met ! And near them on every side sat others enduring the same terrible suffering and awaiting the same terrible end. Is any one responsible, and will any one have to answer and say why it was permitted to be so ? The mission- aries are doing much, and would do more if they had the means. . . . We saw many who we were sure were too weak to raise a hand, and who we were certain could not defend them- selves in the event of an attack from a jackal or hungry dog. . . . One of the bravest acts we witnessed was that of a little girl about seven years of age, attempting the care of her two little brothers after the mother had given up hope, and had lain down near them to die. She was feeding a fire which burned beneath a broken pot in which simmered the almost rotten bones and feet of a dead animal. The scene was the most heart-rending we ever witnessed. It cannot be painted too black. No account we have ever read of any famine would picture the state of things at Dohad." ^ This account might be supplemented by many others ; for instance, by one from the pen of Pundita Ramabai, well known in America, and another written by Julian Hawthorne. But the subject is too painful, and if we cannot send them any help, " let us not speak of them, but, having glanced, pass on." Famines in some part of India or another were of almost yearly occurrence a hundred years ago, and the English Government congratulated itself on what appeared the greatest triumph of the English regime ; namely, that it had made it possible to bring the surplus food of one district to the relief of starving people in another, when, alas ! the 1 The " Times," London. Letter copied into the " Catholic World," New York. 292 LAST YEARS OF THE NTNETEEMTH CENTURY present famine, due to the drought that for three years has extentled over three-fourths of the land in India, has taxed government resources to the utmost, and has pre- sented difficulties that no facilities in transportation have been able to overcome. Year after year, since 1897, rains have almost ceased. They are due twice a year, about Christmas and in June. These rains generally accompany the monsoon ; but for two years past the rainfall has failed. In the spring of 1897 the Indian Government was doing all it could to meet the threatened disaster. It had half a million of people employed upon relief works ; but it was feared (which proved too true) that no expenditure of care or money would be able to prevent the deaths of thousands, or of hundreds of thousands, in the coming years. India raises two crops annually. The first is sown in May and June, the second from September to November. Then it is expected that the summer and the winter rain will nourish the blade as it comes up out of the ground. In the last three years the grain has lain simply buried in the ground. The people became wholly discouraged. "Dust — dust — " says an observer, writing from Raj- putana in Jime, 1900, — "dust is everywhere. And here are lean cattle with sharp, knife-like backs, and each rib standing out in a gaunt semicircle, wandering feebly over the barren plains, where there is not a green leaf or a blade of grass that they can eat. So far as one can see there is no more for them to eat than they would find in a paved street." In one district an official report said that a mil- lion of cattle had died of starvation. As the cattle, though never used for food, are absolutely essential in every phase of Indian agriculture, this will prove a more lasting blow than the failure of the crops. Government bought up whole herds of these emaciated creatures, and sent them to hospital farms in other parts of the country, where it is hoped they may recover their vitality. Lord George Hamilton, the Secretary of State for India, told the House INDIA, THE PLAGUE AND THE FAMINE 293 of Commons last spring that even if Central India had this summer abundant rains, it would take it six years to re- cover from its loss of livestock. When farming operations should be renewed, men and women would have to draw their ploughs. The situation up to June, 1900, when the monsoon rains were expected, grew more and ai)palling, and the rains were late this year; instead of coming by the loth of June, they were delayed several weeks. In spite of all the efforts of the Government, no less than forty millions of people were reported to be actually famine-stricken, while twenty millions were suffering in a greater or less degree from the scarcity of food. In Central and Western India, over a tract of three hundred thousand square miles, there was no money to buy grain, even if grain could be procured to reach the suffering people. It was feared that the famine might be even worse than that of 1877, when six millions of people died from want. Cholera too broke out in the relief camps, where men, women, and children were huddled together under the worst sanitary conditions. India has four times the population of the United States with about half the acreage. Thirty millions of people have to be fed from their own crops. The country in good years produces little more food than can be eaten by its inhabitants. In northern India those crops are wheat, barley, and some other grains ; in the south rice and millet! The first great Indian famine of which western history has any record was in 1770, when ten millions of people died in Bengal alone. It was then calculated that great famines might be expected twice in a century, but the English Government in India hoped that with its large Famine Fund and increased facilities for transport such calamities might be prevented in the future. Government has done its best to assume the responsi- bility of feeding the starving millions. It has undertaken igreat works to give destitute people a chance to earn their living. It apportions funds to feed those who cannot 294 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY work, and appoints Englishmen to look after them. The case of Dohad, which I have reported, was in the dominions of a native prince ; but it must be said that many of these native rulers, stirred up by the example and exhortations of the English Government, have endeavored to do their duty ; they are, however, not accustomed to organize relief work, and the supply of Englishmen is far too small to minister adequately to the wants of millions of people. The tasks of laborers on the relief works are made very light, and the pay that they receive, though it seems infini- tesimal to us, is enough in India to support them day by day. Many have to travel a hundred miles on foot to reach the place where work and pay can be obtained, — three cents a day for men, and less for women and children. In addition to the Famine Fund, which, as I have said, has spent ;^6o,ooo,ooo, charitable contributions are now flowing in. At first the Indian Government, relying on its own resources and unwilling to ask help, discouraged the efforts to raise private contributions. But as the evil increased, the Lord Mayor opened a fund at the Mansion House, which has now amounted to about ;^i, 000,000. Religious bodies throughout England, Canada, and the United States have raised large sums which they have placed in the hands of their missionaries. Kansas and Nebraska, in 1897, offered to load a ship with corn for Indian sufferers ; and quite recently Governor Stanley, re- siding at Topeka, has been foremost in encouraging his people to raise funds. One religious newspaper received contributions which purchased twenty thousand bushels of corn, sold to it at half price by Western farmers. The Government chartered a steamer, the "Quito," for its trans- port, and on the loth of May it sailed from New York with directions that its cargo should be divided among missionaries, without any distinction of denomination. Sir Edwin Arnold, in the "North American Review," speaks thus of the effects of starvation and of the Indian famine : — INDIA, THE PLAGUE AND THE FAMINE 295 "Officers of keen ability and devoted energy have been appointed to administer the affairs of the Famine Department, to watch, inspect, inquire, and report constantly and ubiqui- tously, doing a work which no conqueror, or power, or maha- rajah ever before attempted in India; for the Christian Govern- ment of the Queen-Empress stands self-pledged before Heaven to 'save life by all available means in its power.' ^ . . . Starva- tion is essentially a slow disease, the crisis of which rarely arrives early, and ofttimes is unsuspected by its victim and by his would-be helpers. The physical condition of the Hindoo race is not a strong one ; it is imperfectly fitted, we may fear, for a crisis by a vegetable diet, which must be consumed in large bulk to get adequate nourishment. Under daily stress of hunger, the mucous membranes become impoverished, and their functions impaired. The little store of fat in the tissues wastes quickly away. The poor thin blood lacks current and substance to feed the failing limbs ; and the man or woman has really died weeks before that day upon which — walking skeletons of bone and shrunken skin — they have found the government distributor, and have taken with lean fingers the food they can no longer digest, and which poisons instead of nourishing them." ^ Government's official declaration in a Blue Book. part ^W EUROPE IN AFRICA Chapter I. Egypt. II. The Dongola Campaign. " III. Atbara and Omdurman. " IV. Fashoda. End of the Khalifa V. Transvaal and Kruger. " VI. Jameson Raid. " VII. Ladysmith. " VIII. Pretoria. " IX. Other Notes on Africa. EUROPE IN AFRICA CHAPTER I EGYPT TN my account of Egypt and the Soudan, in " Europe in -^ Africa in the Nineteenth Century," I broke oif in 1895 when Slatin Bey (now Slatin Pasha) had escaped from the Dervishes. The EngUsh had then retired from the Sou- dan ; their most southern outpost — or rather the most southern outpost of the Egyptian army — was at Wady Haifa on the edge of the dominions of the Khahfa Abdullah (or AbduUahi), who had succeeded the Mahdi, Abdullah Ahmed, in 1885. The Nile, on its course from Khartoum to Wady Haifa, makes two extraordinary loops or bends. Having passed Berber and reached Abu Hammed, it turns to the south- west, flows between two deserts to Old Dongola, and then takes a tolerably direct course northward to the sea, passing Wady Haifa at the second cataract. It was at Assouan, an Egyptian outpost on the Nile north of Wady Haifa and close to the first cataract, that Slatin made his appearance on his escape from the land of his captivity. I have al- ready told the story at some length,^ but here is an account of his arrival, as related by eye-witnesses to Mr. Winston Spencer Churchill. "Early on the i6th of March, 1895, a weary, travel-stained Arab, in a tattered ^/^(5a: and mounted on a lame and emaciated 1 "Europe in Africa," pp. 107-109. 300 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY camel, presented himself to the commandant. He was received with delighted wonder, and speedily conducted to the best bath- room the place afforded. Two hours later a little Austrian gentleman stepped forth, and the telegraph hastened to tell the news that Skitin, sometime Governor of Darfur, had escaped from the Khalifa's clutches. Here at last was a man who knew everything that concerned the Dervish Empire; . . . and while his accurate knowledge confirmed the belief of the Egyptian authorities that the Dervish power was declining, his tale of 'Fire and Sword in the Soudan' increased tlie horror and anger of thoughtful people in England at the cruelties of the Klialifa; and public opinion began to veer toward the policy of the reconquest of the Soudan." I told of desultory fighting in 1SS3 between Osman Digna and tlie small European and Egyptian force stationed at Suakim on the shore of the Red Sea. But although I spoke of the brave fight made by General Sir Gerard Graham and his British troops at El Teb, on their way home from India, I find no mention in my narrative of the name of Herbert Kitchener, — the man who to English and American readers is foremost after Gordon in con- nection with the history of the Soudan. Horatio Herbert Kitchener, the eldest son of a lieutenant- colonel, was born in 1850. He was educated at no public school, but when old enough was appointed a cadet in the West Point of England, the Military Academy at Woolwich, He did not apparently distinguish himself at the Academy, but' in 187 1 he obtained his commission, and for ten years remained an obscure officer performing his routine duties to the satisfaction of his superiors. During that time, how- ever, in 1874, he was employed with a surveying party in Cyprus, and w-ent afterwards with the exploring expedition in Palestine. Always eager for knowledge, while there he learned Arabic, " though in those days Arabic was supposed to be of no more practical advantage to an English officer than proficiency in Patagonian." For Kitchener it laid the foundation of his future fortunes. In 18S2, when the British fleet was at Alexandria, he obtained a furlough, and started for the scene of action. But to his mortification LORD ROBERTS. EGYPT 301 and disappointment, he found that his leave would run out before the crisis came. It had already been extended once and he could not hope to receive the same favor again. " However, as a last chance, he applied for a further extension. He felt that it would be refused, and it was at the suggestion of a newspaper correspondent that he added that he would as- sume it granted unless he was recalled by telegraph. The telegram came with promptness ; but it fell into the hands of the friendly newspaper correspondent, who did not manage to deliver it until the weekly Cyprus mail had left, and compliance with its order was for the time impossible. Thus a week was gained. Much might happen before the week was out. The event was fortunate. Four days later Alexandria was bom- barded. Detachments from the fleet were landed to restore order. The British Government decided to send an army to Egypt. An officer who could speak Arabic was indispensable. Thus Kitcliener came to Egypt, and set his foot firmly on the high road to fortune."^ When Lord Wolseley came out to Alexandria, he was glad to avail himself of the services of an active officer who could speak Arabic. Kitchener was one of the twenty- six Europeans who undertook to form the " rabble rout " de- feated at El Teb into an Egyptian army. Of \h.e fellaheen in 1883 their unfortunate commander, Valentine Baker, said : " They do not even know how to handle their guns. They can just load and pull the trigger. It is ridiculous to call them soldiers." In twelve years from that time the Egyptian army was the pride of the Englishmen who had formed it ; and it did splendid service in the Omdurman campaign. In 1886, Major Kitchener was made Governor of Suakim, but he was not a successful civil administrator. Osman Digna^ in 1887 reappeared, and for a couple of years 1 " The River War." W. S. Churchill. 2 It is said that the father of Osman Digna was a Scotsman who married a French lady. He died after the birth of a son, and his widow then married an Arab sheikh who adopted her child, and brought him up as a Mussulman to become a distinguished Dervish leader. 302 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Kitchener, with his small force, carried on guerilla war- fare. In a skirmish he was severely wounded in the face. After that he was made Adjutant- General of the Egyptian army. There he was in his element, — preparing for war, organizing all kinds of army reforms, transport reforms, and other miUtary preparations. In 1892, he was made Sirdar; that is, Commander in Chief of the Egyptian army. Sir Evelyn Baring (now Lord Cromer), had great confi- dence in his zeal and his ability, and looked upon him as the military officer most capable of reconquering the Soudan, as soon as the English Government should give the word " forward ! " The Soudan campaign had ample time to prepare for the transportation of stores, for the construction of its rail- ways, and for utilizing the work of the Intelligence De- partment. The campaign in the Transvaal has had none of these advantages. It has no Nile, no concentration of its forces ; its communications required the defence not of one line of railway, but of several. The Dervishes fought as an army, not behind bowlders as guerillas. It is easy to imagine the trials of Lord Kitchener, who, after his glorious campaign as commander-in-chief of a victorious army, was made second in command, and Master of Trans- portation, to forces in South Africa which had to advance under all these disadvantages. In "Italy in the Nineteenth Centur}^" I told of the Italian invasion of Abyssinia, of the battle of Adowa, March I, 1896, and of the withdrawal of the Italians from their expensive and unprofitable colony along the shores of the Red Sea. With the consent and encouragement of other European Powers, England resolved to make war upon the Khalifa, and to draw nearer to Khartoum. But although prepara- tions for this war had been making for a long time, the resolution to advance was sudden, and created much sur- prise. Mr. Gladstone's party, which had just gone out of office, opposed any resumption of authority over the Sou- dan. But the movement was popular. " The man in the EGYPT 303 Street " cried, " Let us avenge Gordon ! " the military spirit in England was aroused, and the country, with bated breath, waited the outcome of the expedition. Public feeling in ten years had undergone a remarkable reversal. The country had always in its heart regarded the evacuation of the Soudan with regret and shame. This was increased when the reports of Father Ohrwalder and Slatin Pasha revealed the character of the ruler to whom England had delivered over some millions of human beings. "These considerations gradually triumphed over the fear and hatred of Soudan warfare which a long series of profitless cam- paigns had created in the minds of the average English tax- payers. The reconquest of the Soudan became again, as far as English public opinion was concerned, a practical question." Over Egypt, during the English occupation of the coun- try from 1882 to 1898, hung, like a threatening cloud, dan- ger from the Soudan. The constantly hostile Dervish power upon the frontier of Egypt was a perpetual menace, more wearing, more costly, than any campaign. " Egypt will never quite sit down beneath our rule," said poor George Warrington Steevens, at the beginning of 1898, " so long as we have an enemy unbeaten on the south, and the very being of Mahdism forbids the possibility that the enemy should ever be a friend." What is the English rule in Egypt? Logically speaking, it is a queer anomaly. The occupation has lasted since 1882, in spite of Mr. Gladstone's vague assurances that it would be held only until England could establish order, and Egypt be fitted to take care of herself. " Before the British occupation, Egypt had become virtu- ally bankrupt. Fifteen years ago she was rebellious, mis- erable, depressed, defeated. To-day she is solvent, orderly, prosperous, well governed, and victorious." There are classes in Egypt who profess to desire the de- parture of English troops and the restoration of " Egypt to the Egyptians." The most powerful of these is the aristo- 304 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY cratic class, headed by the Khedive. Under their rule Egypt would go back to its former vile condition. It would not mean "Egypt for the Egyptians," for the official class is all of foreign birth or foreign lineage. The strength and weak- ness of Arabi's rebellion was in the fact that he was an Egyp- tian. The statesmen of the official class were Armenians, the military officers were Circassians. Naturally the Khe- dive desires to be reheved from tutelage, and the old official class desire offices ; but all, however they may gird or grumble against British rule, are agreed that if the English were to leave the country to-morrow, they would leave it too. " The wise, with their property, would go," said a certain Pasha, " in the last boat before the English took their departure ; the unwise, despoiled of their wealth, would leave Egypt in the first boat that followed it." " If you English went to-morrow, it would be ruin," said an- other Pasha to Mr. Steevens, while almost in the same breath he was grumbling at the hardship of having to sit still and obey English masters. The most clear and concise account of the English rule in Egypt that I have met is in the little book called " Egypt in 1898," where, in his own amusing style, in a very few pages, G. W. Steevens makes us understand what was the condition of things in Egypt de facto and de jure, three years ago.* In theory, Egypt belongs to Great Britain no more than Shepheard's Hotel belongs to the traveller who puts up there. British garrisons in Cairo and Alexandria are sup- posed to be there to maintain the authority of the Khedive and to restore order. In fact, they are there to maintain British authority, which protects the Khedive and maintains order. Egypt is now as orderly a country as exists on earth, and without English authority the Khedive might soon find himself overthrown by his suzerain, the Sultan, or by another Arabi. The real suzerain of the Khedive of Egypt, as every one knows, is Lord Cromer, but in theory Lord Cromer is not 1 My account is an abridgment of that of Mr. Steevens. EGYPT 305 even an ambassador, but just a consul-general. He is called a British agent, an office which has no authority, and may mean anything or nothing. There is also a class of English- men in Egypt not in the service of Lord Cromer (by whom they are controlled), but in the Egyptian service, — the Khedive's judicial adviser, his adviser as to public works, his advisers in affairs of the interior, the treasury, and educa- tion. There is also the Sirdar, the English commander-in- chief of the Egyptian army, at his war office. In theory, all these men are subordinate to the Khedive's Cabinet : they can only suggest reforms ; but the Ministers and the Khedive know perfectly well that they are expected to approve of them. There are, besides this complication of de facto and de Jure, two very great difficulties in the way of a satisfactory government in Egypt, — the Caisse de la Dette, and the Capitulations. Before the English occupation, Egypt had been made bankrupt by maladministration and the reckless extrava- gance of Ismail Pasha. So in the interest of her creditors and foreign bond-holders Europe set up the Caisse de la Dette. Over this preside six personages, each one the representative of some Great Power. The revenue of Egypt is divided into two nearly equal parts : one half goes into the Caisse, to pay the bond-holders; the other half is for Egyptian uses. But however short of money the Egyptian Government may be, and however great the surplus in the hands of the Caisse, the Government cannot touch a cent of it, unless the six representatives who pre- side over the Caisse agree to it unanimously. Hitherto France and Russia have always objected, although the needs of Egypt have been pressing, and the surplus (when bond-holders were all paid) has amounted to six or seven millions of pounds sterling. The capitulations are a system forced by civilized coun- tries on semi-barbarous peoples ostensibly for the protec- tion of their subjects or citizens. A year or two since Japan, vehemently protesting that she was civilized, forced 306 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY the Powers in her case to do away with the capitulations. By virtue of them, if a foreigner commit an offence in a half-civilized country, the offender must be tried by his own consul, under the laws of his own land, and not under those of the country in which the offence was committed. " For example," says Mr. Steevens : — " If I were to go out of Shepheard's Hotel now and shoot an Egyptian, and then go into a Frenchman's house, the Egyptian police could not enter the house without the presence of the French Consul, and could not arrest me without the presence of the English Consul, and by him I should be tried. " Egypt is full of foreigners, especially of Greeks. The Greek courts, which formerly used to aid and abet their country- men in all manner of crimes, have lately become much more judicial, but it is in the power of Greece if she refuse to convict her subjects, to let them go on assaulting and burgling at large throughout Egypt unconvicted of any crime." Another grievance is that by the capitulations Egypt is deprived of the power of taxing foreigners in the same ratio as she can tax her own people ; and as many of the wealthiest men in Egypt are foreigners, and many foreign- ers are the most rascally people in the country, the capitu- lations add a new perplexity to the task of government. However, by sheer unconscious English genius for rule, during the past nineteen years marvellous things in Egypt have been accomplished. The man at the head of all these improvements is Lord Cromer, a member of the great banking family. Baring Brothers, so long associated with American affairs. Mild, gentlemanly, soft-voiced, and fluent of speech, he would not seem a man cut out by nature to exact obedience from an Oriental ruler. But " velvet as long as he can, steel as soon as he must, — that is Lord Cromer. ... At his back he has had England ; only too often it has been an England that did not know her own mind. But his own mind Lord Cromer has always known, and when things went too far, his opponents came to know it too." In the spring of the present year 1900, Lord Cromer EGYPT 307 made his annual report on Egyptian affairs, in which he tells us that " for the past year Egypt has had a revenue of over $55,000,000, and a surplus of over $2,000,000. The surplus would have been larger but for the sinking-fund requirement, imposed by the International Control of Egyptian bond-holders. The sink- ing fund now amounts to nearly $40,000,000. In attaining this signal success. Lord Cromer has benefited not only the financial, but also the industrial and social worlds. He has not obtained his augmented revenues by augmented taxation; on the con- trary, the fellahin are not burdened by the oppressive taxation which existed before the English came into power in Egypt. Further to help the fellahin, the Consul-General recently carried into effect a scheme of government loans at ten per cent; the fellahin had been paying four times that percentage to usurers. When Lord Cromer assumed authority in Egypt, only the slow- moving dahabiya was a means of communication; now there are hundreds of steamers on the Nile, and the country is grid- ironed with railways. An excellent postal service, which in- cludes a telegraph service, has been established, and the returns from both the State railways and the postal departments show a surplus. The Nile has been the lowest on record during the past season, but the treasury is strong enough to meet the loss arising from this source ; in olden times a low Nile would have meant famine. In a few years the great Assouan dam now building promises a continuous distribution of the river-flow. As in the case of General Wood's reforms in Cuba, all of these improvements have been carried out with but a part of the bur- den of taxation which the Khedives once levied to support their useless civilization and their make-believe government. "^ 1 Outlook, May 5, 1900. CHAPTER 11 THE DONGOLA CAMPAIGN AT midnight on March 12, 1896, the Sirdar received '^^ orders to reopen hostihties with the Dervishes in the Soudan and with their master, the Khalifa Abdullahi, by marching with his Egyptian army into the province of Dongola, which lies south of Wady Haifa on the right bank of the Nile. Dongola, the most fertile province of the Soudan, is contained in a great loop between Abu Hammed and Wady Haifa, made by the mighty river. March was not a favorable season for the advance, for the Nile was low, but operations had been delayed by the difficulties arising from the refusal of the Caisse de la Dette to grant Egypt any money from its surplus of ;^6,ooo,ooo ($29,000,000) for war expenses. However, England made up the deficiency ; and although the army that made the Dongola campaign was always straitened for funds, the work went on. To strengthen the force under Kitchener, all available troops were drawn from the unhealthy island station of Suakim on the Red Sea, and an Indian brigade, the flower of the native Indian army, a force partly com- posed of Sikhs, landed at Suakim. They were full of enthusiasm, for the Sikh soldier, no less than his officer, heartily enjoys being sent on foreign service ; for when he returns to his village the fact that he has made a foreign campaign procures him the deference of his inferiors and the respect of his equals. They had not expected to do garrison duty in a miserable, pestiferous, cholera-stricken town on the Red Sea. They thought that they were to be sent forward to the front to fight the Dervishes. But a dispute had arisen between the Indian THE DONGOLA CAMPAIGN' 309 and the Egyptian governments concerning their pay. The former contended that being on foreign service they must be paid by the Egyptian (in other words, the English) Government ; the latter, already short of funds, said that as the Indian Government must pay and feed its own troops anywhere, Egypt was responsible for only their trans- portation and war expenses. Besides this, bitter disputes arose between the men and officers of the Indian con- tingent and the men and officers of the small remnant of the Egyptian force still left at Suakim in garrison. The Indians jeered at the Egyptians, and cast up against them the record of their countrymen under Hicks and at El Teb. The Egyptians and their officers resented this, and the dis- pute became so bitter that when in a few months the Indian contingent — decimated by malaria and cholera — was ordered home to India, " the Egyptian Government terminated a policy of studied slights by neglecting to give the farewell salute which the customs and courtesies of military service prescribed." It had been planned that the garrison of Egyptian troops removed from Suakim should march on Kassala, now in possession of the Dervishes, and thence form a junction with the Sirdar's army when it should reach Abu Hammed, But in the end the Egyptians were ordered to cross the desert and join the miscellaneous force concen- trating at Wady Haifa for the Dongola campaign. The Sirdar's army was composed of about ten thousand in- fantry, nine hundred cavalry, one thousand men in the camel corps, two thousand engaged in transportation, and some Arabic irregulars. In the transportation service were probably included the eight hundred men of the Railway Battalion, — navvies, in short, with military discipline and pay. This branch of the service was popular with the Egyptian fellahin. The fellah had been born and bred to work with a shovel in sand and mud. All the fatigue duty, so little liked by white soldiers, but that somebody must do in every army, was undertaken by the fellah with industry and cheerfulness. He is not like the black soldier 310 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY from the Soudan, a fighting animal by nature ; he is not even trained to love any kind of sport. Conscripted into the railway service, he had to shovel for his country, instead of fighting for her, with better treatment and better pay (a piastre, or five cents a day) than he could earn by shovelling in his native village. He is strong, patient, cheerful, industrious, and obedient, and has been con- verted by British officers and careful drill sergeants into an admirable soldier, proud of his service and deeply attached to his white superiors. In the Dongola campaign three-fourths of the army were fellahin. The cavalry were all Egyptians, for it was found that the Soudanese blacks would not care for their horses. The native regiments were for the most part officered by young subalterns drawn from the English army, doing work in the Egyptian service ; none in the Egyptian army were under the rank of Bim- bashi (that is. Major), A colonel was a Bey, which signifies a Commander. Assuredly these men vindicated the right of youth to be intrusted with command and responsibility. Some of the regiments, however, had native officers ; for the most part these were Turks, Circassians, and Armenians who had entered the Egyptian service. Far back in the days of Ismail, the ruinously extravagant, but progressive Khedive, a railway had been projected from Cairo to Khartoum. It was to follow up the right bank of the Nile to Wady Haifa, and there was talk that it then might strike across the desert to Abu Hammed, but all men of experience conceived this to be an impossibility. The Sirdar did not think so. He revived the project. Ismail's railway had been broken up from Sarras, a place upon the Nile south of VVady Haifa ; and from Sarras to Akasha, which was as far as surveys had been made in Ismail's time, even the embankments had been destroyed. Three or four young English engineers under a French Canadian, Bimbashi Girouard, took this railroad in hand. The line was to be restored and put in working order as speedily as possible. All Haifa was turned into railway storehouses and workshops. The greatest difficulty was THE DONGOLA CAMPAIGN 311 with the engines. There were none but old broken-down derelict locomotives, many of which had lain rusting and out of service for many years. These had to be patched and repatched every time they went up or down the line. After the Dongola Campaign, during which the railroad had to make the best of what it could get, some new engines were sent out from England and from Baldwin's shops in Philadelphia, and Steevens tells us it was amusing to watch the black sentry looking up to one of them in admiration, and then warily around lest anybody should be upon the watch to steal it. The Sirdar's force was concentrated at Wady Haifa by the middle of April. Then it marched to Akasha ; the Nile and the railroad, so far as possible, carrying its supplies. It was four days' march to Akasha. Thence its objective point was Firkeh, near the bottom of the great loop formed by the Nile around Dongola, the most fertile province in the Soudan. There was a sharp engagement at Firkeh on the 7th of June. The Dervishes were taken by surprise. At first they fought desperately, but soon, finding themselves attacked both in front and flank, they retired from the field, leaving in Firkeh their camels, ammunition, and many of their women. As soon as the black Soudanese riflemen of the Dervish army saw the Baggara horsemen ride off, together with their two principal Emirs, they ceased to fight. The Sirdar's army won a complete victory, and the conduct of the Egyptian soldiers received the highest praise. The ranks of the Soudanese regiments were recruited from among their late enemies, who gladly took service with their country- men in the Egyptian army, and the inhabitants of Firkeh welcomed their new masters with enthusiasm. The next stage in the army's advance was to march on New Dongola, the capital of the province, where the Der- vishes had laid up large stores of grain, and to which the Emir Wad Bishara, defeated at Firkeh, had retired. In accounts of this campaign we meet on every page names that have now become familiar to us as household 312 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY words, — Hector MacDonald, General Hunter, Colonel Broadwood, and others. But while the army waited in camp upon the Nile, expec- tant of the river's rise, which was very late that year, and with- out which they could not get their gunboats or transports over the Second Cataract, cholera broke out among them. " The violence of the battle may be cheaply braved, but the insidious attacks of disease appall the boldest. Death moved continuously about the ranks of the army, — not the death they had been trained to meet unflinchin