A history of England

by Charles Oman

Jameson's Raid.

This dispute was in full career when a much more dangerous question was opened, by the mad and piratical "Jameson raid." Ever since Mr. Gladstone had granted independence to the Transvaal Boers, after the defeat of Majuba Hill, [67] the condition of affairs in South Africa had grown progressively worse. The two races of white settlers in that region nourished incompatible ambitions. To the British colonist it seemed natural and proper that all the southern end of the "Dark Continent" should some day federate itself under the Union Jack. The Dutch had another ideal, that of a Republican South Africa, in which their own nationality should be dominant. It was shared not only by the burghers of the Transvaal and the Orange River Free State, but by the larger part of the Dutch-born inhabitants of Cape Colony. These rival ideals were inevitably bound to lead to a collision. The Boers were much incensed at our annexations to the north of their homes, which in 1889 made Matabeleland and Mashonaland British, and cut off from them the power of expanding towards the interior. The main agent in this advance had been Mr. Cecil Rhodes, the founder of the "British South African Company" which first seized and exploited the coveted territories: this brought upon him much indignation from the Boers, and he was soon to merit more. Meanwhile the British section in South Africa also had its grievances. The discovery of rich gold-reefs in the Transvaal brought to that land a large mining population, mainly of British extraction, and led to the founding of the "golden city" of Johannesburg. Willing to profit from the discovery of the mines, but frightened and angered by the influx of aliens, the Transvaal Government refused the settlers any of the duties and privileges of citizenship. Their autocratic ruler, President Kruger, a clever but narrow-minded and unscrupulous old man, made it the keystone of his policy to keep down the miners and refuse them all political rights. His corrupt and retrograde government irritated the "Uitlanders," and in 1895 they formed a conspiracy to rise at Johannesburg and win their desire by armed rebellion. When the plot had come to a head, Dr. Jameson, a trusted lieutenant of Mr. Rhodes, crossed the British frontier with five hundred mounted police, and dashed for Johannesburg. He was surrounded, beaten, and captured with all his followers, whereupon the "Uitlander" malcontents also laid down their arms. On inquiry, it was found that Mr. Rhodes himself had a guilty knowledge of the plan, a thing utterly incompatible with his position as British premier of Cape Colony. President Kruger imprisoned his captives for some time, and then fined them and let them go. The British Government cashiered the officers concerned in the plot, but did nothing to Rhodes, though he soon lost his premiership at the Cape. An unwisely worded telegram of congratulation sent by the German Emperor to Mr. Kruger caused considerable indignation in England, and led to a temporary coolness between Berlin and London. But this was the smallest of the evil results of the "Jameson Raid," which embittered to an intolerable degree the already existing feud between the British and the Dutch inhabitants of South Africa. Yet it was to be nearly four years more before this deep-lying hatred led to open war.

Meanwhile there was a delusive interval of quiet, during which there took place the second "Jubilee" of Queen Victoria, who had now reached the sixtieth year of her reign and the seventy-eighth of her life. It was celebrated (June 20, 1897) with the deepest personal devotion to the aged sovereign, and with an even greater display of imperial sentiment all round the British world than had been seen in 1887. Ere three years had elapsed, it was to be proved that this display of loyalty to the crown and the empire from the British colonies was no vain show, but the manifestation of a very real solidarity of sentiment and interests.

Death of Mr. Gladstone.

Domestic politics meanwhile remained barren and uninteresting; the Government carried through nothing more than a few small measures of social reform, and an Irish Local Government Act (1898) of doubtful expediency. But their opponents showed no rallying power. Mr. Gladstone died on May 19, 1898, at the great age of eighty-eight: after his decease his late followers were more divided than ever, and seemed unable to formulate any common political programme, or to discover any means of appealing to popular sentiment. The Radical party changed its leader twice in three years, and could never make up its mind whether "Home Rule was dead," or whether it had to be resuscitated as a war-cry with which Irish allies might be lured back to the fold.

Reconquest of the Soudan.

The Fashoda incident.

Meanwhile foreign affairs once more grew threatening, and in 1898 we were to be upon the brink of a struggle with our nearest European neighbour. Ever since the Gladstone ministry in 1885 abandoned the Soudan to the fanatical followers of the Mahdi [68] the southern frontier of Egypt had been exposed to the raids of the wild Soudanese. To end this nuisance the Salisbury Government resolved to undertake the reconquest of Khartoum and the destruction of the Mahdist power. In 1896 the first step was taken, when Sir Herbert Kitchener subdued Dongola and the northern provinces which obeyed the "Khalifa" Abdullah, the successor of the Mahdi. In 1898 an Egyptian army, strengthened by a large British contingent, marched under the same commander to complete the work. In a great battle outside Omdurman the hordes of the Khalifa were routed, and he himself forced to fly into the desert, where he perished a year later in a small skirmish. But when Kitchener took over the administration of the reconquered lands, he was surprised to find a French force on the Upper Nile, at Fashoda, above Khartoum. A small expedition under a Major Marchand had pushed across from the Congo, and established itself in the middle of one of the old Egyptian provinces, where the tricolour had been hoisted, apparently with the intention of setting up a claim to territorial acquisitions in the Soudan. The French Government had been warned long before that an invasion of this region would be regarded as an unfriendly act. It was now summoned to withdraw Marchand or face the consequences. For a moment war seemed probable, but fortunately the ministers of the republic faltered and withdrew their claim. This was a happy chance, as Great Britain a year later was to be engaged in another struggle, which would have taken a very different turn if we had already been engaged in hostilities with a great European power.

In 1899 the South African problem, which had been growing more and more dangerous since the "Jameson Raid," came to a head. President Kruger had spent the time in accumulating enormous stores of arms and munitions of war from Europe, in concluding an offensive and defensive alliance with his neighbours of the Orange Free State, and in establishing relations with the discontented Dutch colonists of the Cape. This last was the most disquieting feature of the situation: an association called the "Africander Bond" organized the Colonial burghers into almost openly avowed hostility to the British connection, and manifested effusive sympathy with Kruger's policy. The old president's rule over the Uitlanders had become more oppressive than ever since the "Raid:" he very naturally regarded these aliens as enemies, refused them any concessions, and maddened them with monopolies, corrupt legislation, and insulting speeches. In April, 1899, a great petition signed by 21,000 British subjects in the Transvaal was sent to the Queen, setting forth their unhappy condition, and begging that an inquiry might be made into their wrongs.