[142] Nineteenth Century, March, 1879.
[143] Sir M. Hicks-Beach censured Frere for not sending his ultimatum home for approval before delivering it. In fact, Frere’s claim was virtually that a Colonial Governor had the right to declare war without consulting the Crown or Parliament. The majority that supported the Government in the Lords was 61. In the Commons Sir C. Dilke’s motion was defeated by a majority of 60.
[144] Mr. Parnell was not formally elected leader. After Mr. Butt’s retirement, in 1878, the Irish party elected, not a leader, but a Sessional Chairman. The office was filled by Mr. Shaw during 1879.
[145] Hansard, Vol. CCXLVII, p. 53.
[146] It must be mentioned that Lord Hartington had in a previous speech haughtily repudiated all responsibility for the action of Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Hopwood, and other Radicals who had now allied themselves with the Parnellites.
[147] These warnings were published at Lahore from Persian newswriters in Cabul. They showed that even as far back as the 16th of August the Ameer had implored Cavagnari not to ride about the streets, as he ran the risk of being murdered. At this time Lord Lytton was assuring the Government, on the authority of messages which he alleged he had received from Cavagnari, that all was going on well in Cabul.
[148] Colonel Osborn, in an article in the Contemporary Review for October, 1879, estimated that a British army 40,000 strong would be needed to occupy Afghanistan.
[149] His “settlement” of Zululand organised the country into thirteen provincial governments, a British Resident controlling them all. Native rights, laws, and customs were to be respected, and Europeans prohibited from emigrating into native territory.
[150] This is clear from the censure passed by the Duke of Cambridge on Colonel Harrison, Assistant Quartermaster-General. The Duke blamed Harrison for not impressing on the Prince “the duty of deferring to the military orders of the officer who accompanied him.” Of course, if Carey had been in command, there would have been no need to have impressed on the Prince (who had graduated in the military school at Woolwich) the necessity for obeying the orders of Carey, who would, in that case, have been his superior officer.
[151] The gap torn out of the bridge—the whole length of which was 10,612 feet—measured 3,300 feet. Of the eighty-five spans, the first twenty-seven from the Fife coast were left intact. Then came thirteen of which only the stonework remained, everything else being swept away. This left forty-five spans on the northern side standing. The bridge had been tested and certified as safe by Government inspectors. An inquiry was ordered into the disaster, which showed that the bridge was, in the words of Mr. Rothery, one of the Court of Inquiry, “badly designed, badly constructed, and badly maintained.” For the mishap the engineer—Sir Thomas Bouch—was held “mainly to blame.” The bridge, which from a distance looked like a long plank set up on pipe-shanks, cost £500,000. It was opened on the 30th of May, 1878.