The Russo-Turkish War and the Congress of Berlin

The new interest in India, and Disraeli's desire to maintain the Mediterranean route thither, almost brought on a war with Russia in 1878. In 1875 the Christian peoples of Turkey rose in revolt against the oppressive measures of the Turkish tax-gatherers. The atrocious methods employed by Turkey to suppress the uprising aroused the indignation of the people of western Europe. Gladstone, who had withdrawn from public life after 1874, emerged from his retirement, and in pamphlets and speeches on the “Bulgarian atrocities" scored the policy of Disraeli for its inhumanity in supporting the Turk. The Czar Alexander (1855-1881) came out definitely in support of the oppressed peoples of Turkey, and, after the powers had failed in all attempts at mediation, declared war on Turkey, April 24, 1877. Public opinion in England, stirred by Gladstone's speeches, forced Disraeli to remain strictly neutral. The Turks fought bravely during the winter of 1877-1878, and in the siege of Plevna checked for a time the advance of Russia. But their efforts were vain, and in January, 1878, Russian troops succeeded in penetrating to the confines of Constantinople.

ALBERT EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES,

IN 1877.

From a photograph.

The British, ever suspicious of Russia, now believed that the long-dreaded occupation of Constantinople was at hand, and were ready to take up arms should Russia advance a step farther. Happily the danger was averted by Russia's remaining where she was; but, unfortunately, the Russian envoy, Ignatieff, compelled the Sultan to sign the treaty of San Stefano, which practically dismembered the Ottoman empire and left the Sultan with little territory in Europe. Immediately Great Britain and Austria declared that they would not accept the treaty, and demanded that it be submitted for revision to a general congress of the European powers. The Czar yielded, and in June, 1878, the congress met at Berlin. There Disraeli and Salisbury carried on a diplomatic war with the Russian representative, Gortchakoff, and came off victorious on nearly every point. Turkey was left in possession of the main part of her territory, though Servia, Rumania, and Montenegro were declared independent, and Bulgaria, though remaining under Turkish authority, was given powers of self-government. Great Britain obtained the right to occupy Cyprus. Disraeli returned to England, "bearing peace with honor." But in general it cannot be said that the treaty of Berlin accomplished all that it might have done for the solution of the Eastern question.

Wars in Afghanistan and South Africa

War, thus narrowly averted in the southeast, was provoked in Afghanistan and Africa. The war in Afghanistan was due to the old rivalry between Russia and Great Britain. Disraeli viewed the appearance of a Russian ambassador at Kabul in 1878 as evidence of Russia's determination to obtain control of Afghanistan. Deeming this act a breach of the neutrality of that country, he sent an army in November and compelled Russia to withdraw. But the massacre of the British residents in Kabul, in September, 1879, provoked a continuation of the struggle, and ended in the placing of Abdurrahman, a friend of England, on the throne as ameer of Afghanistan.

In South Africa, the discovery of the diamond fields of Kimberley led England to annex West Griqualand in 1887 and the Transvaal the same year. The latter state had been founded by the Boers in 1848, but by 1876 it had, as a Transvaal newspaper well said, "an empty treasury, an unsuccessful war, an increasing debt, a total loss of credit, an obstinate president, and a discontented people." Therefore, believing the condition of the state to be a source of common peril, Great Britain annexed the Transvaal in 1877, and for four years, whether rightly or wrongly, occupied it. The governor, Sir Bartle Frere, next undertook the subjugation of the neighboring Zulus, but met with an unexpectedly stubborn resistance. Not until 1879 was the war successfully completed, and then only after reinforcements had arrived under General Wolseley.

Disraeli's policy not only proved expensive, but savored somewhat of ostentation. It led to the neglect of home interests, to half-hearted measures of reform, and to widespread discontent in England.

gland. When, therefore, the general elections of 1880 were held, the Conservatives were driven from power, and the Liberals, with a parliamentary majority of one hundred, returned to office.

The Crisis in Ireland

The second Gladstone ministry was significant for two reasons. In it appeared for the first time two members of the Radical party Joseph Chamberlain and Sir Charles Dilke, the first of whom was to become famous in the years that were to follow.

JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, IN 1885.From a photograph.

The growing importance of the Radicals was due largely to the reform of 1867, which had given increased voting privileges to the boroughs where lay the strength of their party. Equally significant was the appearance in the House of Commons of eighty Irish members, under the leadership of Charles Stewart Parnell, an able, but unscrupulous, champion of the Irish cause. The Irish were now seeking, not independence, but home rule; that is, independent self-government for Ireland. In order to gain attention, Parnell began to employ new tactics of obstruction in parliament, while other leaders in Ireland organized the Irish National Land League (1879), for the purpose of fighting the landlords by defending evicted tenants and of obtaining, if possible, a reform of the Irish land system.

The League encouraged the employment of all legitimate methods to injure the landlords. Among them was the “boycott," used for the first time against Captain Boycott, an English agent of Lord Ernein County Mayo, who had served notices on Lord Erne's tenants. But the, followers of the League did not always show self-control, and the burning of farms, the mutilation of cattle, and even murder became the order of the day. The government decided on coercion, and, in spite of the obstruction tactics employed by the Irish members in parliament, succeeded in passing a coercion act, February 25, 1881. So bitter was the Irish opposition to this policy and so distressing the operation of the act, that Gladstone finally changed his tactics. He began to treat with Parnell and other leaders, who had in the meantime been shut up in Kilmainham jail, and offered to compromise. But the good results of these overtures were destroyed in May, 1882, when, in Phoenix Park, Dublin, a band of conspirators of the lower classes, who wished to render conciliation impossible, murdered Lord Frederick Cavendish, the newly appointed secretary for Ireland. A second coercion bill was passed, but it did little to abate the agitation.