On the 8th August, the battalion of the Black Watch left Malta for Gibraltar in H.M.S. Himalaya, and disembarked at the Rock on the 13th, taking up their quarters in the south barracks. The regiment had a prolonged stay of nearly three years at Gibraltar, but during that period Colonel Wauchope, in addition to his being home several times on furlough, had frequent opportunities of making visits in Spain and on the coast of Algiers and Morocco. His actual term of foreign service only extended to February 1891, when he returned to Scotland to take the command of the 2nd Battalion at Maryhill Barracks, Glasgow.
During his residence at Gibraltar in 1890, he twice over occupied for a time a rather unusual position, being called upon to take command of the garrison. While actually in charge of only a company, he also commanded the battalion owing to the temporary absence of Colonel Gordon on leave. The major-general having been called away at the same time, Wauchope, by virtue of his army seniority, took over the command of the infantry brigade of four regiments as well. None were quicker than himself to see the possibilities of this peculiar situation. As he put it, with a humorous smile—'Now, suppose a man of my company has a complaint to make, and I decide against him, as I probably should: his remedy is to appeal to the officer commanding his regiment, and he gets Andrew Wauchope again to judge the case. His next appeal would be to the general, and again he comes before Andrew Wauchope; but being only human myself, I fear he would find the decision confirmed, and he would go away with the reflection, that it was "Andrew Wauchope all along the line!"'
It is needless to say this problematical contingency never arose, and so he was saved from acting in any such triple capacity.
CHAPTER VII
THE MIDLOTHIAN CAMPAIGN
'A Scot of the Scots,' General Wauchope was a man of many parts. Great in arms, he was equally great in the arts of peace; and in the political world, strangely enough, he carved out for himself a reputation quite unique. Though his countrymen were naturally proud of his distinguished services as a soldier, they knew him also, it has been well said, as the man who by pertinacious pluck and sweet conciliation brought down Mr. Gladstone's majority in the county of Midlothian. Liberal politicians both in England and Scotland will not have forgotten the horrified astonishment with which they read the figures of the poll in that county at the General Election of 1892.
Mr. Gladstone had been returned for the metropolitan county of Scotland in 1880, after his great campaign, by a small majority against the present Duke of Buccleuch, at that time Earl of Dalkeith. That was under the old and restricted franchise. In 1885, when the miners and farm hands had largely through his influence obtained votes, he defeated Sir Charles Dalrymple—a man respected by all who knew him, and by many who did not—by two to one, and something over. Nobody thought any more about Midlothian. It was regarded as Mr. Gladstone's stronghold, and the Liberals went to sleep in the comfortable assurance that the seat was theirs so long as he lived. Nor were their slumbers disturbed by the unopposed election of July 1886, when throughout the country the Liberal party suffered a serious defeat consequent upon Mr. Gladstone's attempt, as Prime Minister, to pass what was popularly known as the Home Rule Bill for Ireland. Mr. Gladstone retained his seat, but was obliged to resign his position as First Lord of the Treasury; and the Home Rule Bill in course of the next six years, under the administration of Lord Salisbury, became practically a thing of the past. During that time remarkable changes were effected in the constituency. In Edinburgh the Conservative party had rallied. Its leaders did not lack courage, even under the most hopeless circumstances, and they resolved to bring forward one whose determination and courage had been well tried, though in an entirely different field. At a meeting of the Midlothian Liberal Unionist Association in Edinburgh on the 18th November 1889, the proposal of the committee to adopt Colonel Wauchope of Niddrie as their representative was unanimously carried.