A history of England

by Charles Oman

The knowledge that the people were growing alarmed and impatient at the military weakness of England, especially after the sudden collapse of France in 1870-71, induced the government to bring in a scheme for improving the national defences. Cardwell, the minister of war, introduced in 1872 a bill to reorganize the army on the short-service system, which had been found to work so well in Germany. For the future, instead of enlisting for the "long service" of twenty years, the soldier was to engage for seven years with the colours and five in the Reserve. The Reserve was only to be called out in time of danger; but when war was at hand it was to join the ranks. Thus the strength of the army could be raised by 60,000 trained and seasoned men on the outbreak of hostilities. It must be allowed that in peace-time the battalions are prone to be filled with very young men, all under seven years' service. But as the reserves, when they have been called out, have always appeared promptly and in full numbers, the change was undoubtedly wise and beneficial. An attempt made at the same time to localize all the regiments in particular districts, whence they were to draw all their recruits, has not been so successful, owing to the fact that some counties supply men in much greater proportion than others. One more military reform, the "Abolition of Purchase," formed part of Cardwell's scheme. It put an end to the system by which retiring officers sold their commissions to their successors—a practice that had often kept poor men of merit for many years unpromoted. The measure was obviously right, but Mr. Gladstone provoked much criticism by putting it forth in a Royal Warrant, instead of passing it through the two Houses in the usual form.

Fall of Gladstone's ministry.

After the rush of legislation in the period 1869-72, the last years of the Gladstone ministry seemed tame and uneventful. In the spring of 1873 they were beaten, on the comparatively small question of a bill to establish a secular university in Ireland. Next winter Mr. Gladstone dissolved Parliament, and, on appealing to the constituencies, suffered a crushing defeat (January, 1874).

Disraeli's ministry.—The Home Rule party.

For the first time since 1846, Parliament was in the hands of a solid Conservative majority in both Houses, and Disraeli, seated firmly in power, was able to display the characteristics of the "New Toryism." He announced that he took office to secure a space of rest from harassing legislation at home, and to defend the honour and interests of England abroad. His first two years of power (1875-76) were among the quietest which the century has known. They were only marked by some excellent measures of social and economic reform, such as the Artisans' Dwellings Act, which permitted corporations to build model houses for workmen; and the Agricultural Holdings Act, which granted to farmers compensation for unexhausted improvements on their land, when they gave up their farms to their landlord. But signs of coming trouble were soon apparent both at home and abroad. In the Commons the ministry was beginning to be harassed by the Irish members, who had latterly banded themselves together, under the leadership of Isaac Butt, to demand Home Rule.

Egypt and Ismail.

This trouble, however, was as yet but in its infancy. A more pressing cause of disquietude was arising in the East, on which England had always kept a watchful eye since the Crimean War. Two separate difficulties were beginning to arise in that quarter. The first was in Egypt, a land which had grown very important to England since the use of the overland route to India by Alexandria and the Red Sea had been discovered, and still more so since de Lesseps had constructed the Suez Canal in 1868. The thriftless and ostentatious Khedive Ismail, by his extravagance and oppression at home and his unwise conquests in the Soudan, had reduced Egypt to a state of misery, and seemed not far from bankruptcy. To get ready money, he proposed to sell his holding—nearly one-half—of the shares of the Suez Canal Company. Disraeli at once bought them by telegram for £4,000,000. The investment was wise and profitable; the shares are now worth five times the sum expended, and their possession gives England the authority that is her due in the conduct of this great international venture.

The Russo-Turkish war.

But a far more ominous storm-cloud was rising in the Balkan Peninsula. England had been very jealous of the action of the Czar in the East since the abrogation of the treaty of Paris in 1870. She had been greatly stirred by the activity of the Russians in Central Asia, where, by overrunning Turkestan and reducing Khiva and Bokhara to vassalage, they had made a long step forward in the direction of India. But now a new trouble arose nearer home, in the shape of sporadic insurrections, which broke out all over European Turkey. The misgovernment of the Porte was enough to account for them; but it was suspected, and with good cause, that they were being deliberately fomented by Russian intriguers with the tacit approval of the imperial government. The rising began in Bosnia in 1875; in the summer of 1876 the princes of Servia and Montenegro took arms to aid the Bosnians, and thousands of Russian volunteers flocked across the Danube to join the Servian army. Next, while the Turks were sending all their disposable troops against the two princes, a rising broke out in Bulgaria. This insurrection was put down by bands of Circassians and armed Mussulman villagers, with a ruthless cruelty which had a most marked effect on English public opinion. Hitherto the government had been showing some intention of resenting Russian interference in the Balkans. But the news of the Bulgarian atrocities so shocked the country that any such design had to be abandoned. Mr. Gladstone, who had given up the leadership of the opposition for the last two years, emerged from his retirement and made a series of speeches against the Turks which had a profound effect, and when in 1877 the Czar openly declared war on Turkey and sent his armies across the Danube, the English government stood aside in complete neutrality. The Turks held out with unexpected firmness; but in the early winter of 1877-78 their resistance broke down, and the Russians came pouring on towards Constantinople.

Attitude of England.