The English government, though prevented from interfering in behalf of the Sultan by public opinion, had been watching the advance of the Russians with much anxiety. When the victorious armies of Alexander II. approached the Bosphorus, Disraeli—who had now taken the title of Earl of Beaconsfield and retired to the Upper House—began to take measures which seemed to forebode war. He asked for a grant of £6,000,000 for military purposes, and ordered up the Mediterranean squadron into the Sea of Marmora, placing it within a few miles of Constantinople. If the Czar's troops had struck at the Turkish capital a collision must have occurred, and a general European war might have followed. But the Russian ranks were sorely thinned by the late winter campaign, and their generals shrank from provoking a new enemy. Instead of attacking Constantinople they offered the Sultan terms, which he accepted (March 3, 1878).
The Treaty of St. Stefano.
The treaty of St. Stefano gave Russia a large tract in Asia round Kars and Batoum, and advanced her frontier at the Danube-mouth to its old position in the days before the Crimean war. Servia, Roumania, and Montenegro received large slices of Turkish territory; but the great feature of the treaty was the creation of a new principality of Bulgaria, reaching from the Danube to the Aegean, and cutting European Turkey in two.
The Berlin Conference.
Persuaded that the treaty of San Stefano made all the states of the Balkan Peninsula vassals and dependents of Russia, Lord Beaconsfield refused to acquiesce in the arrangement. He called out the army reserves, hurried off more ships to the Mediterranean, and began to bring over Indian troops to Malta by way of the Suez Canal. In view of his menacing attitude, the Czar consented to a complete revision of the treaty of San Stefano. At the Berlin Conference (June-July, 1878) its terms were modified: the new Bulgaria was cut up into two states, and its frontier pushed back from the Aegean. The Sultan undertook to introduce reforms into his provinces, and England guaranteed the integrity of his remaining Asiatic dominions. In return for this, Abdul Hamid placed the island of Cyprus in British hands, though retaining his nominal suzerainty over it.
Lord Beaconsfield returned triumphant from Berlin in July, 1878, claiming that he had obtained "Peace with Honour" for England, and had added a valuable naval station to our possessions in the Mediterranean. But the advantages which he had secured were in some ways more apparent than real. He had checked and irritated Russia without setting up any sufficient barrier against her. He had pledged England to introduce reforms in Turkey, a promise which she was never able to induce the Sultan to perform. Cyprus turned out harbourless and barren—a source of expense rather than profit. Later events showed that the partition of Bulgaria was a mistake, and that the creation of a strong principality on both sides of the Balkans would have been the most effective bar to a Russian advance towards Constantinople.
Fall of Lord Beaconsfield's ministry.
The scarcely averted war between England and the Czar had a tiresome and costly sequel in the East, the Afghan war of 1878-80, which we describe in Chapter XLIV.—a struggle which was not without its disasters, and formed one of the chief reasons for the gradual loss of popularity by the Beaconsfield cabinet in the years that followed the treaty of Berlin. A similar result was produced by the mismanaged Zulu war and the disaster at Isandula (1879), [66] while at home the ministry was kept in perpetual difficulties by the obstructive tactics of the Irish party, who were now headed by the astute and unscrupulous Charles Stewart Parnell. They wasted time and provoked perpetual scenes. In June, 1880, Lord Beaconsfield dissolved Parliament, and a Liberal majority of 100 was returned to the House of Commons from Great Britain, while in Ireland the Home Rulers swept almost every constituency except those of Ulster.
Gladstone's second ministry.—The Boer war.
Mr. Gladstone now took office for the second time, pledged to pacify Ireland, and to carry out a policy of peace abroad, and of reform and Liberal measures at home. But the years 1880-84 were full of costly and unsatisfactory wars. Scarcely was the new cabinet installed when the Boers, the inhabitants of the recently annexed Transvaal, revolted. The small English force in South Africa suffered a crushing defeat at Majuba Hill, whereupon the government, ere reinforcements could arrive, made peace with the rebels, and granted them independence (1880-81).