LIEUT. GEN. SIR FREDERICK S. ROBERTS, G. C. B.

FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY THE LONDON STEREOSCOPIC CO.

BLACHIF & SCN. LONDON. OLASCOW & EDINBURGH

waiting for an exact decision either there or at home, proclaimed the annexation. It undertook to arbitrate on Cetewayo's claim, and after finding in his favour sent out Sir Bartle Frere, who, as lord commissioner, instead of doing prompt justice, kept back the award, treated the Zulu chief with marked dislike, and at length, after having exasperated him, and aroused his suspicions by delay, demanded as a condition of the award that the Zulu troops should be disarmed and disbanded, and return to their homes. This demand not being immediately complied with Zululand was invaded by British troops; but we had undervalued the ability of Cetewayo and the strength of those whom we had converted into enemies.

nized. On the north side, beyond the Limpopo | out Sir Theophilus Shepstone, who, without river, the Transvaal bordered on the vast wilderness of the interior, where Moffat and Livingstone visited the Bechuanas and other great tribes. Next to the Orange State lay Basutoland and Natal, under British rule, and bordering on Natal the country of the Zulus. The inability of the Boers of the Transvaal to defend themselves against the Zulu Kafirs induced the British government to offer to take charge of the additional territory in the presumed interest of the European population as against the numerical superiority of the natives. Some of the native tribes were sufficiently organized to be regarded rather as uncivilized communities than as mere savages, and though we had in 1874 put down a so-called insurrection under the chief Langalibabele, and punished him with imprisonment, it was thought by many that we acted in a high-handed manner.

It may be mentioned here that Dr. Colenso, the Bishop of Natal, was deeply and conscientiously interested in the wellbeing of the Zulus, and repeatedly denounced, while he more than once mitigated or prevented, the injustice and misunderstanding under which they suffered.

The Boers of the Transvaal had been defeated by one chief, Secocoeni, and were in constant peril from the Zulus, and yet they would not treat them with consideration. Judging from recent events it would seem that some of the Zulu chiefs, Cetewayo, for instance, was little less worthy of respect and conciliation than the subjects of the South African Volksraad; but Cetewayo, as the greatest chief and ruler of the Zulus, detested the Boers, who had, he believed, injured him, and who held territory which he with justice claimed to belong to his people, while he was frankly anxious to be on friendly terms with the English, and to pay allegiance to the English sovereign. Under these circumstances the British government made what appears to have been the greatest possible mistake with respect to both parties. In response to some vague representation it proposed to the Boers that the Transvaal should be annexed to British territory that it might have due protection, and sent

VOL. IV.

News of a defeat at Isandula came here at a time when the pendulum of public opinion was about to swing back. The spirits of those who had been boasting and singing, and declaring "by Jingo," felt a little dashed at the disaster; and though, when Lord Chelmsford, who was in command, retrieved his position so completely that on the arrival of Sir Garnet Wolseley the war was over, and Cetewayo was quickly made a prisoner, the blow loosened the hold of the government, and "imperial policy" was spoken in lower tones. One event which gave a darker shadow to the war in Zululand was the death of the young prince imperial, the son of the late Napoleon III. and the widowed Eugenie, ex-empress of the French. The youth, who was of good and fair promise, had studied in a military school at Woolwich, and offered to serve as a volunteer on Lord Chelmsford's staff. He went out with a small reconnoitring party, which was surprised by the enemy, who slew him with their assegais.

The determination to annex the Transvaal met with no better result than the invasion of Zululand. The soldiers who came to reinforce the Boers found themselves among enemies, and friendly annexation was interpreted into armed invasion, ending in defeat which it would have been ignominious to avenge. The mistakes of 1877-79 had to be remedied by another government, by the long-deferred release and restoration of Cete

84

wayo, and the abandonment of hostilities against the people of the Transvaal, who had apparently been the victims of misrepresentation.

Before passing from the Eastern question a word must be said about Egypt. One of the earlier manifestations of the policy afterwards adopted by the government was the purchase from the khedive in 1875 of the 176,000 shares which he held in the Suez Canal. There were 400,000 shares altogether, and he held nearly half of them, but he was nearly ruined by extravagance and debauchery, and they came upon the stock - exchange, where the British government bought them for £4,000,000 sterling. A few people there were who had grave doubts of the wisdom of the investment, but the majority first thought of it as a subtle thing, an artful move of Disraeli's, and afterwards as a rather bold, characteristic way of showing foreign nations that we meant to keep our hold upon the road to the East. As a matter of fact it was, perhaps, worth while to give to England a large interest in a commercial undertaking in which our trade was certain to play a prominent part, and to be able to hold some influence over M. de Lesseps, a somewhat self-assertive and arrogant personage, as recent events have shown.

solicitation of France, and because of the appeals of the prodigal khedive. Subsequently the affairs of this involved exchequer required the appointment of an extra liquidation commission, and in 1881 the capital debt under various "loans" amounted to above £98,000,000, with a floating debt of £5,000,000. It will readily be understood that the administration of many of the chief offices by Europeans gave rise to much dissatisfaction. How far this may have influenced the commencement of the insurrection under Arabi Pasha in 1882 it would be difficult to say.

The dual control virtually ceased to exist when France held back from supporting the authority of the khedive against the rebel general, with whom it was believed he was treacherously in accord till the insurrection in Alexandria rendered it necessary for our gov ernment to send a fleet under Admiral Seymour to protect European residents, and the acts of the insurgents compelled us to suppress what had by that time become a rebellion.

We must now return to affairs in parliament and the country which have marked the progress or the vicissitude of later years. Reference has already been made to the Irish party and the Home Rulers, who were directed in parliament by Mr. Butt until his death. Had he lived it may well be believed that their proceedings would have been less unreasonable, and in a parliamentary sense more reputable; but they had already begun a "policy of exasperation," as he himself had named it, and it was marked by wilful and irrational obstruction of the whole legislative business of parliament for the purpose of coercing the government or of perpetuating the confusion and disaffection by which professional political agitators seek to profit. The conspiracy to obstruct the business of the

But we soon had a more distinctive influence in Egypt by what was known as the dual control, which gave to France and England the administration of the financial affairs of the country in the interests of the European creditors. In 1876 Mr. Goschen and a representative of France unravelled the tangled skein of Egyptian finance, arranged the loans so that creditors could be paid at some sacrifice, placed the khedive on a fixed allowance, and brought the whole of Egyptian finance under European control, taking the regulation of railways, the collection of the revenues, dis-government first conspicuously succeeded in bursements of the state, care of the funds, and payments of debts, the Egyptian minister of finance being quietly deposed. This arrangement concluded by the appointment of controllers-general by England and France. The scheme was opposed by Lord Derby, but was agreed to by Lord Salisbury at the pressing

1877, on the 31st of July, when the house, determined not to be controlled by a handful of men who endeavoured to pervert its forms, voted over and over again against repeated motions for adjournment, and sat for twenty-six hours.

In 1879 the O'Conor Don introduced a bill

A GENERAL ELECTION.