[182] These intrigues grew so dangerous that in 1879 Prince Bismarck concluded a Secret Treaty with Austria, which bound each Power to defend the other if attacked by Russia, or if Russia gave aid to any other Power which was attacking them. Though Prince Bismarck, as he said in his speech in the Reichstag (6th of February, 1887) really acted at the Berlin Congress as the fourth plenipotentiary of Russia, the Russian War Party were of opinion that he ought to have done more for them. Their attacks on Germany in the Press were incessant. Russians of rank like Gortschakoff and Skobeleff, notoriously carried on intrigues with France for an alliance against Germany. Indeed, Russian troops began to mass themselves on the German frontier in 1882. Curiously enough, of the four men who could have done most to thwart Prince Bismarck’s League of Peace with Austria—only one (Garibaldi) died in circumstances free from suspicion of foul play. Garibaldi’s death rendered it easier to bring Italy into Prince Bismarck’s anti-French combination. These four men it is curious to note passed away most opportunely for Prince Bismarck. Garibaldi died in June, Skobeleff on the 7th of July, Gambetta in December, 1882, and Gortschakoff on the 11th of March, 1883. Germany breathed freely after the death of Gambetta, who, said Prince Bismarck once, worked on the nerves of Europe “like a man who beats a drum in a sick room.”
[183] The history of this compact is as follows:—After the Treaty of Berlin was signed Lord Salisbury bought off the opposition of France to the occupation of Cyprus, first by promising not to oppose an extension of her influence in Tunis, and secondly, by paving the way for her sharing with England the control of Egypt. Prince Bismarck also left on M. Waddington’s mind the impression that Germany was indifferent to the fate of Tunis, knowing well that French interference there must brew bad blood between France and Italy. In the spring of 1881 the French discovered that the mysterious “Kroumirs” were menacing their Algerian frontier. To punish them they invaded Tunis, and though they never discovered any “Kroumirs,” they compensated themselves for their disappointment by forcing the Bey to sign the Bardo Treaty. It converted Tunis into a French dependency. Italy remonstrated in vain against this violation of the guaranteed integrity of the Ottoman Empire, and finally sought for safety against further French encroachments on her interests, in an alliance with the German Powers. M. Gambetta’s aggressive policy caused King Humbert, on the advice of Prince Bismarck, to visit the Emperor of Austria at Vienna, in the autumn of 1881. Prince Bismarck was ostentatious in expressing his friendliness to Italy, and exchanged effusive compliments with Signor Mancini. (See Mancini’s Speech in the Italian Senate of December, 1881.) In October, 1882, Count Kalnoky declared that King Humbert’s pilgrimage of conciliation to the Hofburg had identified Italian and Austro-German interests, and Signor Mancini announced the existence of the Triple League on the 11th of April, 1883. On the 17th of March, 1885, Mancini, when questioned as to his Red Sea policy, told the Senate that in all his negotiations with England he had made it “clear that Italy could enter into no engagement which was contrary to the agreements concluded with the two Empires.” Through negotiations carried on by the German Crown Prince, Spain was next drawn into the net of the Triple League, and France utterly isolated.
[184] Though writers like De Tocqueville have laid it down that the civilisation and development of a State can be always measured by the social status and independence of its women and the equality of the sexes before the law, one curious exception may be noted. From various reasons, the northern kingdom of Scotland has for many centuries remained appreciably rougher in manners and less polished and refined in culture than England. The women of Scotland, too, like those of Germany, have always been compelled to render their families harder domestic service than English women, who, during the greater part of the Victorian period, led lives of comparative ease and luxury in most respectable households. Yet it is strange that in Scotland the law has always been jealous in guarding the rights of women. For example, it secured to a woman a third of her husband’s property after his death, so that he could not disinherit her by will. It enabled her, through a simple and cheap legal process, to protect her earnings from seizure by her husband. It was at pains to preserve to women in the direct line of succession their right to baronies and peerages after the males in that line were exhausted. The divorce law, too, did not, like that of England, recognise any inequality in the position of the sexes. The effect of the improved legal status of women in Scotland was curious. Though living in a ruder society, and under the pressure of harder conditions of life than their more luxurious and polished English sisters, they seem in all ages to have enjoyed by custom a position of authority in the family, scarcely even yet conceded to their sex in England. Arduous household service was, however, the price they had to pay for their privileges. It may also be added that whilst in England, till very recently, parents were more particular about the education of their sons than their daughters, such a distinction between the sexes was rarely made in Scotland at any time in its history.
[185] The occasion was a banquet given to him in the Town Hall in celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his connection with Birmingham. Mr. Bright said:—“And, what is worse, at this moment, as you see—you do not so much see it here as it is seen in the House—they [the Conservatives] are found in alliance with an Irish rebel party (loud and long-continued cheers), the main portion of whose funds, for the purposes of agitation, comes directly from the avowed enemies of England, and whose oath of allegiance is broken by association with its enemies. Now, these are the men of whom I spoke, who are disregarding the wishes of the majority of the constituencies, and who, as far as possible, make it impossible to do any work for the country by debates and divisions in the House of Commons. I hope the constituencies will mark some of the men of this party, and that they will not permit Parliament to be dishonoured and Government enfeebled by Members who claim to be, but are not, Conservative and Constitutional. Our freedom is no longer subverted or threatened by the Crown or by a privileged aristocracy. Is the time come—I quote the words from history—is the time come to which the ancestor of Lord Salisbury referred three hundred years ago, when he said that ‘England could only be ruined by Parliament’?”
[186] It enacted that to cause an explosion not leading to loss of life was a felony punishable by penal servitude for life. The attempt was punishable with twenty years’ imprisonment. To be found in the possession of dynamite, failing proof that it was held for a lawful purpose, entailed fourteen years’ imprisonment.
[187] For an account of this sect, see a curious article in The Spectator, 17th March, 1883.
[188] Brown, it was said in 1883, had left a diary for publication. This was not quite true, for immediately after his death all his papers were impounded by Sir Henry Ponsonby on behalf of the Queen.
[189] The Hon. Mrs. Stonor died on the 14th of April in London, from the effects of a carriage accident. She was a daughter of Sir Robert Peel, and was married to the third son of Lord Camoys. Few ladies of the Court stood higher in the favour of the Queen, and she had been lady-in-waiting to the Princess of Wales since the formation of her household in 1863.
[190] When England advised Egypt to abandon the Soudan, the Khedive’s Ministry under Cherif Pasha refused to take the advice. The defeat of Hicks Pasha caused England to substitute insistance for advice, and when the Egyptian Government was told it must abandon the Soudan, Cherif Pasha resigned. Here was an excellent opportunity for establishing a Protectorate; and it is not generally known that Sir Evelyn Baring strongly recommended the appointment of English Ministers for a period of five years. He was overruled, and Nubar Pasha was made Cherif’s successor. See Mr. Edward Dicey’s convincing plea for a Protectorate, in the Nineteenth Century for March, 1884. In passing it may be well to warn the reader that he cannot form any correct conception of Anglo-Egyptian relations till he has mastered Mr. Dicey’s numerous papers on the subject, notably his “England and Egypt” (Chapman and Hall, 1881). The central idea of Mr. Dicey’s policy is that the true interest of England in the Eastern Question lies in the Valley of the Nile, not in the Bosphorus; and that the Isthmus of Suez forms the key-stone of her position as an Imperial Power.
[191] His expenditure he estimated at £85,292,000, and his revenue at £85,555,000.