A.D. 1868.]

BRITISH EXPEDITION TO ABYSSINIA.

315

with by the latter. But although it was a Conservative government which ultimately carried the bill, it did so with the aid of the Opposition. A dissolution of Parliament followed, according to custom, which ended in a very large majority for the party headed by Mr Gladstone over that which acknowledged Mr Disraeli as their chief.

We must, however, leave for a while the results which followed the general election of 1868, and refer to the British expedition to Abyssinia.

The reigning monarch of Abyssinia was an energetic, and, for a semi-barbarian, a clever soldier, who had, in 1855, overthrown his legitimate ruler, and usurped the crown. At this time there was a British consul in Abyssinia, Mr Plowden, who, in 1860, while on his way to Massowah, was murdered, and his death was avenged by King Theodore, who probably thought he had thus entitled himself to British favour. At all events, as soon as Captain Cameron, Mr Plowden's successor, appeared in the following year, the king confided to his hands a letter to the Queen of England, asking her Majesty's support against the Turks. For some reason, Theodore afterwards conceived suspicion against Captain Cameron, whom he accused of favouring his foes, the Turks, which broke out in open complaint when he heard of the British consul having gone to the Egyptian frontier. The British Foreign Minister, Earl Russell, being informed of the ill effect produced by the movements of the consul, forwarded to the latter an order to return to his post. This was not enough to satisfy the king, who, when he learned that the order in question was not accompanied by an answer from the Queen of England to his letter, took umbrage at the fancied slight, and, by way of marking his resentment, imprisoned, not only the British consul, but such other Europeans as he could lay his hands upon.

Subsequent diplomatic efforts failing to effect the release of our countrymen, an armed force, under Sir Robert Napier (now Lord Napier of Magdala), was despatched to Abyssinia to compel Theodore to yield up his prisoners. After an arduous march of four hundred miles inland, through a pathless and mountainous country, the British, on Good Friday 1868, en

316

THE IRISH CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT. [A.D. 1868–69.

countered and defeated the Abyssinian army on the plain of Arogee. The king immediately gave up the captives, but as he refused to comply with the terms offered by General Napier, his stronghold, Magdala, was stormed and destroyed, and he was found among the slain.

The favourable result of this expedition impressed the world with a sense of England's resolution, power, and greatness, as well as of her probity; for in that march there was no recourse to compulsory requisitions of food, and not an act of spoliation took place.

The general election of 1868 having resulted, as we have seen, in favour of the Liberal party, Mr Disraeli at once resigned, and Mr Gladstone became Prime Minister. Conspicuous amongst his colleagues was Mr Bright, who took the Presidentship of the Board of Trade, and who, by his great oratorical power and integrity of character, commanded important influence. Mr Lowe was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Clarendon resumed the post of Foreign Affairs, Earl Granville became Minister for the Colonies, and to the Duke of Argyll was confided the administration of our great Indian Empire as President of the Board of Control. Mr Cardwell and Mr Childers, both civilians, were placed at the head of the Army and Navy. The public saw that a government so composed would rest its reputation as much as possible on reforms at home; nor was such expectation to be disappointed.

At the beginning of 1869, Mr Gladstone brought in a bill for the abolition of the Irish Church Establishment, giving it at the same time to be understood that it was to be followed by another for settling the unfortunate relations between landlord and tenant in Ireland.

We have had to make allusion in previous pages to the disturbances to which that part of the United Kingdom was subject. Whoever might be to blame, it was admitted on all hands that there were real grievances which demanded redress. One of these was considered to be the existence of the Church Establishment, to which only a small minority of the people belonged, while the majority, being Roman Catholics, considered it unjust that they should have to pay for the support of a Church

A.D. 1870.]

EDUCATION ACT FOR ENGLAND.

317

with which they were not connected. In order that as little hardship as possible should attend so great a sacrifice, all existing interests were first provided for, and every facility afforded to the Church for its reconstruction as a voluntary body freed from dependence upon the State.

The next measure for Ireland, introduced in the year 1870, was one to reform the unsatisfactory relations between landlord and tenant. As nearly all small farms were held at will, tenants were at the mercy of their landlords, who were free to raise their rents or turn them out at pleasure. Many landlords acted fairly, but others abused their power, and the country was kept in continual agitation and fear by numerous agrarian outrages. By the new law, such protection is afforded to the tenant against injustice as to lead to the hope that, combined with the manifest disposition of the British Legislature to develop the resources of the country, there will come round by degrees a complete union of Ireland with Great Britain.

The Government did not confine itself to Irish questions. It took up that most important of subjects, the state of Education in England, which was found to be very defective as compared with that of Scotland, and even of Ireland. By the bill introduced by Mr Forster (Vice-President of the Council on Education) and successfully carried through, it may be said that the means of education are brought home to the door of every child in the kingdom. Mr Forster avowed his desire to be, that education should be made compulsory; and although the law stops short of actual force, it makes such ample provision, and endows local authorities with powers so full, as to leave little doubt that it will be carried into full effect.

A measure intimately associated with the above was effected by the direct authority of the Government, namely, the opening of all branches of the Civil Service to public competition, excepting that of diplomacy, the members of which require special training and certain social advantages. By this measure a vast mass of private patronage in the hands of members of both branches of the Legislature was cut away, in order that young men of all conditions of life should be encouraged to trust to their own exertions.

318

ENGLISHMEN MASSACRED BY GREEK BRIGANDS. [A.D. 1870.

It was while Parliament was thus debating on the best means of extending instruction to all classes, that there occurred in Greece an outrage of the most barbarous character. Lord Muncaster, the Hon. Mr Herbert, Captain Vyner, Mr Lloyd (with his wife and daughter), and Count de Boyl, Secretary of the Italian Legation, were returning from a visit to the field of Marathon, when they were waylaid by an organized band of brigands, who, having shot down the two gensdarmes who accompanied them, carried off the whole party prisoners. They allowed Mrs Lloyd and her daughter to return, but carried off the rest. They demanded a large ransom, and lots were drawn in order to decide which of the prisoners should go to procure the money. The lot fell upon Lord Muncaster. As the Government of Greece insisted upon pursuing the brigands, and as the latter distinctly announced their determination, if pursued, to put their prisoners to death, instructions of the most express kind were forwarded by telegraph from Lord Clarendon to have the prisoners rescued at no matter what cost. For some reason the Greek authorities or their subordinates pursued the brigands, who carried their threats into execution by murdering all their captives.

This was almost the last public act in which Lord Clarendon was engaged. His death followed soon after, to the regret of the nation, who relied upon his conciliatory disposition, tact, and judgment in dealing with foreign powers. He was succeeded by Earl Granville, upon whom devolved the duty of compelling Greece to atone for this iniquitous outrage.

Although happily Great Britain was not involved in the conflict, it is impossible to record the events that constitute the history of 1870 without some reference to the stupendous war between Prussia and France, which broke out in the month of July of that year. The rapid aggrandizement and growing ascendency of Prussia threatened the predominance of France on the Continent, and Napoleon III., after the battle of Sadowa in 1866, desired to obtain some accession of territory as an equivalent. He was unsuccessful, and much jealous feeling between the nations resulted. This became intensely excited in France when a proposal was made that the vacant

A.D. 1870.]

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR.

319

throne of Spain should be filled by a Prince of Hohenzollern. On the protest of Napoleon his candidature was withdrawn, but the Emperor insisted on further guarantees to secure the future against a German dynasty in Spain. These were refused by Prussia, and, notwithstanding the good offices of Lord Granville, the English Minister, France, on the 15th July, declared war against Prussia. Two days thereafter Great Britain offered to mediate between the nations, but both powers rejected the offer. The King of Prussia led the German forces in person, while General von Moltke, the great strategist, directed the order and movements of the campaign. On the French side, the Emperor Napoleon placed himself at the head of his army, only to lose several great battles, and be utterly overthrown and captured at Sedan within a single month from the commencement of hostilities. These calamities to the French monarch encouraged the revolutionaries of Paris to throw off their allegiance to the Empire, and on 4th September they deposed the Bonaparte dynasty and proclaimed a Republic. The march of the German armies westward was rapid and victorious, and ere the Republic was two weeks old, the gates of the capital had to be barred against friend and foe. The investment of Paris was followed in succession by the capitulation of all the great fortresses of France, and ere the year closed the invaders were in undisputed possession of about 42,000 square miles of French territory.

The vastness and completeness of the German triumphs, and the utter collapse of the military power of France, excited universal surprise; and while the attention of the world was concentrated upon both belligerents, the Italians availed themselves of the opportunity to get possession of Rome as their capital, and to dispossess the Pope of his temporal power.

Prince Amadeus, second son of the King of Italy, was elected by the Cortes to the throne of Spain, and his arrival at Carthagena was hardly announced when Marshal Prim, the author of the Hohenzollern proposal, and the main instrument in the election of the Italian Prince, was assassinated in his carriage. His death, at the close of the year, added one more tragedy to the many of its history.