The arms of a great and growing empire are seldom allowed to rust from disuse, no matter how pacific the intentions of its rulers may be. Parliament was called together in November 1867 to vote supplies for an Expedition which it had been found necessary to send out to Abyssinia, under the command of Sir Robert Napier. Theodore, King of Abyssinia, a passionate and semi-barbarous despot, had cultivated amicable relations with Great Britain for a number of years, chiefly on account of his friendship for Mr. Plowden, formerly English Consul at Massowah. But Mr. Plowden was dead—killed in an encounter between Theodore and his rebellious subjects; and Captain Cameron, who succeeded to the Consulate at Massowah, had not succeeded in ingratiating himself with the King. Theodore appealed to Queen Victoria to help him against the Turks, and on receiving no immediate reply to his letter, lost his temper and threw all the British subjects he could catch into the cavernous dungeons of his capital, Magdala. Among these captives was Captain Cameron. Mr. Rassam was sent on an embassy to remonstrate with Theodore, who, however, was not inclined to listen to reason. On the contrary, he had the envoy seized, with his companions, Lieutenant Prideaux and Dr. Blane, loaded with chains, and thrust into prison. Lord Stanley now sent to demand the release of the prisoners within three months, and declared that immediate invasion would follow if this were refused. It was a delicate business to convey despatches to the tyrant in his rock fortress, and Theodore never received the ultimatum. The expedition set out: 400 miles of very mountainous country had to be traversed, but everything had been admirably prepared in the matter of transport and commissariat, and Napier was an experienced commander. The ease of the victory which awaited him has done something to diminish the fame which is really his due for accomplishing a very difficult task. He encountered the Abyssinian army under the walls of Magdala on April 10, 1868; the King’s soldiers fought with headlong gallantry, and fell in heaps before the terrible fire of British Infantry. Charge after charge was repelled, until Napier found that his enemy had vanished, leaving some 2,000 dead and wounded on the field, while in his own force the casualties amounted to no more than nineteen wounded. The fierce old King so far bowed under chastisement that the captives were released, but he refused to surrender. It then became necessary to enforce the lesson that, if Great Britain does not take up arms lightly, neither does she lay them down without exacting all her demands. Napier determined to take Magdala by assault. Perched high on a precipitous rock, it occupied a position which, in old times and without modern appliances, must have been pronounced inaccessible. But there are few places to which courage equipped by science can be denied admission: the northern gate was stormed, and lying within it was found the old lion King. Preferring death to dishonour he had perished by his own hand.
From a Photograph] [by G. W. Wilson & Co., Aberdeen.
SEARCHING TABLES AT THE DE BEERS’ DIAMOND MINE, KIMBERLEY, SOUTH AFRICA.
Lord Derby’s health had given him repeated warning that the time had come when he must seek release from public duties. He retired from office in February 1868, and Mr. Disraeli became Prime Minister. “The time will come when you will hear me.” Few—very few—who had heard that vaunt shouted across the House in 1837 were there to witness its complete fulfilment in 1868. It was a position of the highest honour, but not one of great power to which Disraeli had succeeded, and he was not called on to occupy it long. He could not reckon on a majority on any question upon which the Opposition should act together under a resolute leader. Such a question and such a leader were soon found.
From a Photograph] [by J. H. Murray, Pietermaritzburg.
TOWN HALL, DURBAN.
Durban, the largest town in Natal, had a population in 1894 of 27,984. Natal has an estimated area of 20,461 square miles, and a population (1891) of 543,913. Imports, from Great Britain (1895), £1,602,023; exports, to Great Britain, £716,645.
|The Irish State Church.|