The only possible criticism that could be brought against Lord Lyons as an Ambassador would be that he led too narrow a life, and moved in too restricted a circle. Day after day and week after week he led the same existence; even his holidays were laid out on the same mechanical principle; every year he left his post, much about the same date, took the waters at some spa, and then proceeded on a round of visits in England, chiefly at the country houses of the governing families, such as Knowsley, Chatsworth, Woburn, and Hatfield, but always including a prolonged stay with his relatives at Arundel. He was essentially a diplomatist of the old type, consorting entirely in Paris with the official classes, the Faubourg, and the Haute Finance; keeping the press at arm's length, avoiding everything which did not come within the scope of his duties, and confining himself strictly to his own business. The modern developments of diplomacy; the use of the press, the hasty missions of amateur diplomatists, the gushing speeches which are apparently now considered to be obligatory upon the professional diplomatist—all this would have been hateful and perhaps impossible to a man who could boast that he had spent five years in America without making a speech or taking a drink. But in an impartial survey of the twenty-eight years which Lord Lyons spent at Washington, Constantinople, and Paris, it would be rash to assert that any other man would, under similar circumstances, have retained to an equal extent the confidence of successive British Governments and the esteem and friendship of the long series of Foreign Ministers with whom he was called upon to negotiate questions often of the most vital importance.[31]
The main interest in foreign politics in the summer of 1880 lay in the Balkan Peninsula. Mr. Goschen had been sent out to Constantinople in the place of Sir Henry Layard, and Her Majesty's Government were endeavouring energetically to force the Porte to carry out the provisions of the Treaty of Berlin with regard to the rectification of the Montenegrin and Greek frontiers. The Greek Frontier Question made little way, and the Gladstone Government in their diplomatic campaign on behalf of the Greeks met with little encouragement or support from the other Powers, not even excepting France, who had always been the leading advocate of Greek claims. When M. de Freycinet was asked what he was prepared to do if the Turks resolved to defy the Conference which was then sitting, nothing more satisfactory could be got out of him than: nous marcherons avec vous, or nous ne marcherons pas sans vous, and to the question whether he would go far if necessary, he only made the cryptic reply, peut-être bien. The British Government were hankering after a naval demonstration, and it was disheartening to work with so pusillanimous a comrade.
Lord Lyons to Lord Granville.
Paris, June 21, 1880.
In answer to your private and personal letter of the day before yesterday, I may say that I am not much afraid of the French not being willing to go as far as we are willing to go in coercing the Turks, if they set Europe at defiance about the Greek Frontier. Freycinet seems to shrink from the idea that actual coercion may be required, but his only distinct limit to the action of France is that she will not do more than England.
I myself very much doubt whether the Turks will yield anything to naval or other demonstrations, unless they are quite sure that these demonstrations are the prelude to the actual use of force, and it will not be easy to get them to believe this, unless we are ourselves quite sure that that is what we mean.
Supposing we pushed demonstrations to the point of forcing the Dardanelles, and sending the allied fleets to Constantinople, we might produce a revolution, without obtaining the cession of the territory to Greece. If the populations are in parts really unwilling, the central government may be truly unable to compel them to give in.
Supposing the Greek troops (par impossible) be defeated either by the Turkish troops or by recalcitrant Albanians, the ships of the Powers might not be able to do much to get them out of the scrape.
I am very far from meaning to say, in answer to your question as to the mildest and safest form of coercion, that it would consist in moving troops to occupy the territory. To do so would be neither mild nor safe, nor easy to arrange. But I am afraid we shall find that in the end the treatment must be topical, and that if the Greeks cannot take possession for themselves, we shall hardly be able to obtain it for them by pressure exercised at Constantinople only.
A rendezvous of the fleets at Corfu might have a good effect on the Albanians, and perhaps increase the chance of the Greeks not being seriously resisted.
I see Goschen suggests that the decision of the Conference should be announced to the Porte by an identic note. I think a collective note would have more effect and be more appropriate.
The Turks, however dense they may be in other respects, are usually intelligent enough to perceive whether the Powers are in earnest or not, and as no Government except the British felt much enthusiasm for either the Greek or the Montenegrin cause, they showed no signs of giving way.
Lord Lyons to Lord Granville.
Paris, July 2, 1880.