Chapter X · (continued 2)

“We then talked about the Afghan complication. He said the whole difficulty came from an absurd habit the Foreign Office had of asking a great deal more than they were willing to take. This place, Penjdeh, was outside the real boundary of Afghanistan, but the Foreign Office had asked for it meaning to yield it later as a concession. But the Russians in the meanwhile had seized it, and the concession was rendered ten times more difficult. Button has it (but he made me promise not to repeat it as he was not even to allude to it in the ‘Times’) from a certain source that in view of possible accidents, or at the Amir’s request, Lumsden has received orders to occupy Herat and put it in a state of defence. I told him, however, that the Russians did not really mean war, certainly not war with the Amir, but were making a demonstration in order to detach the Amir from our alliance. This incident will not lead to war.

“In the afternoon attended a deputation to Lord Ripon given by the Indians resident in London. Anne was seated on the daïs next Lord Ripon. The noble Lord made a humbugging speech in which he praised the Nizam for offering to send troops against the Soudanese. He is already corrupted by association with his Whig friends in office. Lady Ripon has asked us to her party next week.

“8th March.—Down to Crabbet, marking trees in Heathy Ground and Burley’s Wood, and laying out a new gallop in the Upper Park. This has been a quiet day, and has done me good, for the excitement of the last week has made my heart ache. We went to see Pompey, who is very ill and cannot last long now. His illness gives him a dignity which is touching, and which I hope we may all have before we die. [Pompey was my black servant who had been with me for eighteen years.]

“9th March.—To London, and called on Lady A., whose son now I hope is safe, at least for the present, as the Buller Division is on its way back to Korti. I did not like to call on her before.

“10th March.—Leonard Courtney[108] writes proposing that I should breakfast with him on Thursday, to talk over possible negotiations with the Mahdi. From all I hear, the Government are ready to jump at any possible arrangement, so it is through anybody else but me. Called on Button, who says war is nearly certain with Russia. But I cannot bring myself to think Russia means to quarrel with the Amir—with us very likely, but not with him. I expect it will blow over. Button advises me to call on Staal.

“11th March.—Saw Hobart at his club. He tells me the Sultan has telegraphed to him expressly forbidding him to do anything about sending troops against the Mahdi. He wanted to know whether the Mahdi was really opposed to the Sultan, and I satisfied him on that point, and we agreed to act together in any negotiation of peace that might be arranged.

“12th March.—Had a long talk at the Russian Embassy with Staal, for whom I have a great affection. We talked the whole political situation over, on my part very frankly, and I told him he must not expect a revolt in India. He of course deplored the prospect of war, which he seemed to think imminent, though I do not. I told him all about the Egyptian War and the Mahdi and Gordon, and the absurdities of our Ministers. He described having been at Walmer, and how he had found Lord Granville surrounded by dispatch boxes, tied up with different coloured string, according as they were pressing or not; the very immediately pressing were tied up with red tape. A proof that the Czar does not mean war is that the Emperor of Germany has written to him asking him to preserve peace, which he certainly would not have done unless he knew the Czar to be willing. For my own purposes I should like there to be a war with Russia, or at least an alarming demonstration. But my conversation with Staal will not have had an otherwise than deterring effect. I told him very plainly that England meant fighting. Nélidof, he said, had been very nearly recalled from Constantinople, but had now been sent back there with renewed favour.

“Breakfasted with Leonard Courtney at 15, Cheyne Walk, and discussed with him and his wife the prospects of negotiating with the Mahdi. I had brought with me the draft of a new letter I was proposing to write to Gladstone. He said it was not definite enough, and urged me to recast it, stating the exact terms which I thought might be accepted as a basis of negotiation. We also talked over the whole situation and the relations of the Mahdi with the Sultan, with the National party in Egypt, and with the Mohammedans of India. His wife is a nice woman and more enthusiastic than he is, and at leaving I urged her to use her influence with him to keep him up to the mark. These Parliament people are absurdly pusillanimous, and though Courtney is the boldest of them he is only half-hearted to speak his mind. Button tells me that he used for years to be on the staff of the ‘Times,’ having only left them when he took office three or four years ago. He was considered one of their very smartest leader writers, but of very dictatorial ways. He is evidently a very able man. When I came home I re-wrote my letter to Gladstone in the sense agreed upon, and, saying bismillah, sent it in.[109] In my covering note to Eddy, I said: ‘The fate of several empires depends upon the reception it receives’—the Russian, the Turkish, the Mahdi’s, and our own—also it is the ‘Ides of March.’

“To a party at Mrs. Earle’s and had some talk with Lytton. He is bringing out his novel in verse, ‘Glenaveril.’ It is to come out in parts, published by Murray.

“13th March.—The Gregorys are back from Paris. He approves of my letter to Gladstone. Then to Labouchere, who tells me the Government are dying to get out of their Soudan campaign. They decided on going to Khartoum in the first excitement of their disappointment about relieving Gordon, and hardly knowing whether he was dead or alive, and they have ever since been repenting. Lately they have been hoping to get out of the Suakin campaign by some pretext of sending on the troops to Afghanistan instead, but they can’t quite get up a case for it. They have never intended making the Berber railway, but only a few miles of it, as far, perhaps, as Sinkat. Now Osman Digna is stronger than ever, and insists upon making raids on Suakin.

“14th March.—Lady Gregory came to tea, and afterwards I walked home with her. On my return I found an answer from Downing Street. Eddy writes that ‘Mr. Gladstone is obliged to me for my letter, but why does not the Mahdi send a representative to England?’ This looks more like business than I had expected.

“Dined with Professor Hunter and half a dozen Radicals at the Reform Club, where it was proposed to me to make a tour of lectures in Scotland. Hunter engaged to get me good audiences at Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and other places. There was also much talk about my going into Parliament with them, but my connection with the Carlton Club naturally stands in my way.

“15th March.—Zebehr has been arrested at Alexandria by Wolseley’s order, just as Button told me he would be six months ago. This is really too bad.

“The Prince of Wales is going to Berlin to try and effect a reconciliation with Bismarck. He considers war with Russia inevitable, ‘and a damned good thing too.’ At least such is Lady C.’s account of what he told her. He had also said that Wolseley was to come back from Korti, and that the Soudan campaign would come to a natural end in a very short time. He was all for making peace with the Mahdi.

“16th March.—To Button, who confirms this news.

“17th March.—An idle day at Crabbet, except that I attended my neighbour Sir Curtis Lampson’s funeral. He was always an excellent neighbour to me, and I sincerely regret him, as I believe most do. I met the funeral just as it was coming through the Rowfant covers, where I have so often shot with him. He was a very good sportsman, and, though seventy-nine, held his gun remarkably straight to the end. He was an American, a member of the Hudson Bay Company, and bought the Rowfant estate from the Bethunes some forty years ago to breed silver rabbits on for his firm. He was made a Baronet in connection with the Atlantic Cable and the Peabody Trust, whose executor he was. R.I.P.

“20th March.—The Mudir of Dongola has been joined by the Kababish and Shaghiyeh tribes, and is going to attack Berber. This is the last we shall hear of him as Wolseley’s ally, but they are such geese they suspect nothing. Ibrahim Bey told me a week ago: ‘You will see that in about ten days the Mudir of Dongola will go over openly to the Mahdi.’ He thought Zebehr’s arrest a stupid move, as he was not really a friend of the Mahdi’s.

“22nd March.—Eddy Hamilton writes, giving a message from Mr. Gladstone, to the effect that, ‘If it is thought the Mahdi is not aware of the instructions to Wolseley about receiving offers of peace, it might possibly be arranged that the Arab gentleman should be passed through the British lines.’ This in answer to a question made on the sixteenth as to whether he would facilitate Ibrahim’s going to Khartoum to arrange a mission of peace from the Mahdi.

“The ‘Observer’ announces severe fighting, and that Graham has retired to Souakin.

“23rd March.—To Courtney, to try to get him to take a lead against the Soudan war, but he said he had left the Ministry too short a time to do this. He thought Morley was the man for it.

“At five to Mrs. Howard. She is of opinion that they mean to treat, and treat through me, but of course want it to be supposed the desire is all on the Mahdi’s side. She has seen Leveson, Lord Granville’s brother, who is decidedly for getting out of the Soudan. So I believe is everybody. George, however, is all for war; he means to leave Parliament after this Session. There was news of another battle this morning, in which the English forces were surprised by Osman Digna.

“24th March.—The fighting of yesterday has been a very serious affair, and I think settles Graham’s campaign at Suakin, not on account of the proof it has given of the courage, skill, and numbers of the Arabs so much as on account of the destruction of the camels, and especially of the camel drivers. No native will now dare go outside Suakin, and the English soldiers will be left to shift for themselves. Whatever else they can do, they certainly cannot manage camels without help. This will stop Graham just as it stopped Wolseley.

“Button, whom I saw to-day in the City, tells me they certainly will send me to treat with the Mahdi. Matters, he says, stand in this way: the Government has sent in an ultimatum to Russia on the Afghan boundary question, and the answer will be given in four or five days—Button thinks it will be refused—and then the Government has made up its mind to clear straight out of the Soudan, and even out of Lower Egypt, except Alexandria, handing over Cairo to the Sultan who will send troops in. In return for this the Sultan will open the Dardanelles and Bosphorus to the British Fleet, which will attack Batoum, with the idea of advancing to Baku and so cut off the Caspian communications. This, however, would not be at once, the campaign being commenced in Afghanistan. They are ready to fight Russia, if necessary, for three years. The chief difficulty will be to prevent Austria from advancing on Salonica; but it has been ascertained that Bismarck will use all his influence to localize the war and prevent Austria from taking part in it. Bismarck is not ready for a solution of the Ottoman question. They will then be only too happy to employ me in making peace with the Mahdi, and my employment would now, Button says, be a popular thing, and it would not much matter whether I succeeded or not. At the end of the summer, having evacuated the Soudan, it would be out of the question their going back there. Only will Russia fight? I doubt it.

“Ibrahim has explained to us Zebehr’s position. The real reason of his arrest, he said, was not so much that he had corresponded with the Mahdi, as his connection with the Senoussis. He has latterly been very intimate with Ibrahim el Senoussi, Senoussi’s relative and agent at Alexandria, and in conjunction with Huseyn Pasha, the Tunisian, he has been engaged in working upon the Senoussi brotherhood to get them to join the Mahdi, and in his name to attack the French in Tunis. Ibrahim Bey says, though he naturally sympathizes with Zebehr, it is nevertheless just as well that this plan has been stopped, as the result would have been to bring about a community of interests between the French and English in smashing the Mahdi.

“25th March.—It appears that our troops lost over three hundred men on Sunday, besides seven hundred camels and a number of mules and horses, and one hundred and fifty camp followers. Osman Digna is wielding the sword of the Lord this time in earnest, and if there is a God in Heaven he will prevail against the hosts of Mammon.

“Hunted from Barcombe, and had the best run of the season from a wood north of the Chailey brook to Lewes race-course without a check. There the fox was headed, and it took us another twenty minutes to kill him in a gorse cover; I was riding Queen of Sheba, and, though I did not get a very good start, I was first up at the check. There was some good fencing which the mare did admirably, including one very stiff timber jump with ditch beyond, which she raced over. Up the hills she passed them all but four or five, and once on top of the down she had no difficulty in going quite to the front; Anne on Dahma was also well up.

“When we came home we heard that Pompey was dying. Thus is pleasure mingled with grief; Pompey has been nearly eighteen years in my service. He was an admirable servant.

“26th March.—There are signs of the Suakin campaign being near an end, and I feel certain another month will see the whole thing abandoned. This will be the greatest victory of the Faith since the siege of Vienna. Arabi writes very à propos about the weak things of the world confounding the strong, and the triumph of justice in the Soudan.[110]

“To London and lunched with the Howards and sat on talking politics. George is all for war, but he thinks that Lorne, whom he had just been with, would willingly put himself forward in an agitation for peace, and Mrs. Howard will approach him to that effect. Then I walked down with George to the House of Commons to hear Gladstone make his statement about the Egyptian Finance Convention. This he did so lamely and tamely that I went to sleep over it, as I observed others also did.

“Halim Pasha has written to Ibrahim to say that Ismaïl Jowdat, on his arrival at Constantinople, was met by a message that he was to come to the Palace. There he was kept twelve days and made to draw up a report of everything he had seen, heard, or done while in London, and then was sent home and kept there under arrest. Such is the Sultan’s way.

“Dined at Sydney Buxton’s,[111] where I sat next Mrs. Courtney. She talked about her work in the east of London, and said she had succeeded because she had no system. She did not seem clear that it was possible to improve the condition of the lowest class of people by anything but individual effort. She thought education might help them to help themselves; wasn’t sure whether teatotalism was a good thing. To me all these matters are absolutely hopeless; system has interfered with the natural law of society, and unnatural misery is the result. Mrs. Buxton, on the other side of me, told me a story of Hartington having lately written to a friend to say he could not make out why they were fighting the Mahdi, as he, the Mahdi, seemed to be the only man who was carrying out the policy of Her Majesty’s Ministers. Francis Buxton was there, and we talked about Dilke’s connection with the Joint Note of January, 1882, and he cited, à propos of it, a conversation he had had with Dilke at the end of the previous year. He had told Dilke that the Liberal party would never consent to the annexation of Egypt; to which Dilke had replied that Egypt might be annexed without calling it at all by that name. There is no doubt he played all through for annexation.

“27th March.—Gave Wheeler a translation of Arabi’s letter; I think its publication will do good. Dined at Mrs. Charles Buxton’s, and had some talk with Lord Chancellor Selborne. He was ready to admit they ought never to have gone into Egypt, but thought them bound now to stay and repair the wrong done. I told him, certainly, they had wounded the man, and must now take care he was not left to be robbed by every passer-by. This à propos of the Financial Convention being debated to-night.

“28th March.—To Button, who showed me a letter he had just got from Wolseley, dated ‘Camp Korti, March 2,’ narrating his vexation at being forty-eight hours too late to save Gordon, and his anger with Mr. Gladstone. He then recounted how his plan had been upset by Burnaby’s death. He had intended Burnaby to succeed Stewart if anything happened to Stewart, and had told him his plan, but both of them got killed; and the rest of ‘our London captains,’ Wolseley said, were good for nothing to take command of the expedition, so the whole thing had broken down. History, he said, would judge where the fault lay. He was evidently sorry for himself and down on his luck. Button tells me it was all in reality Wilson’s fault, as he wasted three days bombarding Metemmeh and Shendy; also he ought certainly to have sent in a man with the flag of truce offered him by the Mahdi. But Wolseley did not mention Wilson’s name in the letter I saw. Button said he wished he could show me one Wolseley had written to Gordon about the Government. Wolseley was very angry now with them all. Button considers the campaign over. They can’t possibly get further than Tamaï, and war with Russia is almost certain.

“On to Stanley, whom I found in bed, and gave him the news; and then to Hassan Fehmy, who did not seem aware of all that was happening. But when I explained he was of course delighted. ‘When we get the Ottoman troops to Cairo,’ he said, ‘it will be time to proclaim the Mahdi a rebel, but we have refused to have anything to do with it from Constantinople. That would not have looked well, and one should never threaten unless one can execute. We will put down the Mahdi when we are at Cairo.’ This was not of course my idea, but I left him to his plans, feeling quite sure the Mahdi would be able to take care of himself.

“30th March.—A letter has come from Downing Street in explanation of the offer already made, and I have sent my answer to Eddy. Went to bury Pompey at Crawley and then to London, and heard Hartington announce the news of a peaceful character from Russia. This is unfortunate for our plans.

“31st March.—Eddy now writes that Mr. Gladstone has left London for Easter, and so it is impossible I should see him—he is really at Brighton—and proposes to communicate the substance of my last letter to Hartington, his locum tenens.

“Hunting again, a wonderful scent. The fox took us from Danny to the top of the hill near the Wind Mills, and along the edge of the downs to the Dyke, a very severe run, as we went up and down the downs fairly three times, the last pull up the Dyke Hill stopped every horse but Queen of Sheba and a thoroughbred carrying eleven stone and Payne the huntsman. Rode into Brighton and so up to London in time to dine at the Howards. William Morris was there in morning dress, for he eschews tail coats, and did most of the talking on his own special subjects—socialism, the evil of capital, and the rest. This he does excellently well. Mrs. Howard advises me strongly to see Hartington if I get the chance. He is quite honest, she says, being a Cavendish, and no Cavendish was ever able to lie. Humph!

“1st April.—Button promises to find out Hartington’s ideas about peace from Brett, in case I hear any more from him.

“Lunched at the Carlton, in the vicinity of members of the Fourth Party. Wolff tells me that Randolph is expected home on Tuesday.

“2nd April.—Went to see Lord Lorne at Kensington Palace. I find him very pleasant, and sufficiently intelligent about Egyptian affairs, and we talked for an hour. My object was to get him to take the lead in demonstrations against the Soudan war, but I could not get him to promise anything definite. He is going to stand for a Metropolitan Borough, however, and says he will lose no occasion to oppose the war in his electioneering. This kept me so late that I almost missed my train for Birmingham, where I had to attend a meeting on the same subject. But I just hit it off, made my speech, and was back in London by midnight.

“3rd April.—A letter came yesterday, while I was away, from Downing Street, and I went to ask Button’s advice about it. It said that the policy of the Government was one of freedom for the Soudan, and I was inclined to take it as a mere phrase, but Button strongly advised me to accept it in all seriousness, so as to pin the Government down to their declaration, and dispatch Ibrahim to carry the news to the Mahdi. So I have written my answer in Button’s sense, and shall go to Paris to-morrow to set things going. Bismillah!

“To-day being a Bank Holiday, Button and I, like two clerks, rode out to Putney and Coombe and back again. The day was fine and enjoyable. We are expecting a great battle to be fought to-day at Tamaï.

“4th April.—Osman Digna has made an April fool of Graham, who marched his whole army of twelve thousand men ‘to the top of the hill,’ and then found no enemy, and marched them down again. They will have to evacuate Suakin without a victory. This is just what we most want.

“To Paris by the tidal train, and travelled as far as Dover with Lord Lorne and his sister (Lady Constance Campbell), who are also going abroad. We talked on many subjects besides Egypt, such as the Crofter question in Scotland, the Land question in England, Riel’s revolt in Canada, and the Irish question. Lord Lorne was very sympathetic on Eastern matters, advising me only not to mix up Arabi with the Soudan peace agitation.

“I forgot to say that Button told me yesterday that the Russian answer about the Afghan frontier is, after all, far from satisfactory. Dufferin has been given carte blanche to treat with the Amir, who demands a guarantee for his dynasty, as well as for his dominions.

“Dined at the Hotel Wagram with Jemal-ed-Din, to whom I read the whole of my correspondence with Downing Street. He approved the line taken, but insists that the English Government must write a letter to the Mahdi for Ibrahim to carry. He will think the matter over, however, and decide in a day or two. There is no hurry just now, as the Mahdi can much better afford to wait than Mr. Gladstone.

“5th April, Easter Sunday.—Breakfast with Bitters in the Rue Mazarine, and in the afternoon coming home I stopped at the Embassy and had a talk with Sheffield, who was communicative as usual. Among other things, he told me that Gladstone had been very much in favour of having the Turkish Pashas in Egypt made to pay up the arrears of taxation. But Baring and Northbrook had persuaded him that government would be impossible if they offended these gentry, so they have gone on screwing the money out of the fellahin, and have raised this ridiculous joint loan.

“6th April.—Breakfasted again with Bitters and Godfrey Webb. The French have been without a Ministry for the last week, but to-day Monsieur Brisson has formed one; I know too little about French politics to guess what it portends. Everybody, however, is very angry with Ferry, the late minister, on account of the Tonquin defeats. The lesson given to Ferry will not be lost on Gladstone, and will be in favour of peace in Africa.

“7th April.—Jemal-ed-Din and Sanua breakfasted with me.

“8th April.—Breakfasted once more with Bitters, and once more to the Jeu de paume, where there was a great gathering: old Villeplaine, Brinquant, O’Connor, and the Henneseys, besides Elcho, Arthur Balfour, and Bungo Herbert. The Elchos are at the Hotel Mirabeau with Godfrey Webb and the Miss Tennants, Laura and Margot.

“9th April.—Breakfasted with the Wagrams. They say peace has been arranged between France and China. Then to the Hotel Mirabeau. Arthur Balfour was there, and we talked about the Afghan and Soudan questions, and while we were talking Elcho came in, having been at the Embassy and having heard there of the Battle of Penjdeh. We all agreed that this means war. The newspaper boys on the Boulevard were calling out this evening, ‘Guerre Russo-Anglaise—grande Victoire Russe.’

“13th April.—Jemal-ed-Din came early, and I read him a new and unsatisfactory letter I received last night from Downing Street. He insists that the Government must write a letter to the Mahdi if they want him to treat; and he says he will come over to England if necessary to arrange about it, if only I will guarantee his not being arrested there. I told him there was no danger of arrest, but his experience in India has made him suspicious of the English Government. He says there is no reason whatever now that Arabi should not come back to Egypt if the opportunity offered of a reconciliation with Tewfik. Tewfik is so feeble and discredited as to be no longer dangerous, and Arabi would rapidly regain all his lost influence.

“Back by the tidal train to England.”

N.B.—My correspondence with 10, Downing Street of this date will be found in Appendix C, and is worth reading. It would have been still possible that spring to arrange terms of peace directly with the Mahdi, who was not the impracticable personage he has been represented to be by our official historians. Under his successor, the Khalifa Abdullah el Taïshi, all negotiation became much more difficult. But, unfortunately for both Egypt and the Soudan, the opportunity was let slip and became final through the Mahdi’s death in July. It was probably Lord Cromer’s influence, as in the previous year, that decided it.