Only son of Lord Lytton, the novelist. Viceroy of India, 1876–1880; Ambassador to France, 1887–1891. Known in literature as “Owen Meredith.”
Meanwhile, the Eastern Question had burst out again. Insurrections in the Turkish provinces of Bulgaria, Servia, and Montenegro had been suppressed by the Porte with that ferocity so characteristic of Turkish misrule; Russia had begun moving troops towards the Danube, and a large section of the English public avowed sympathy with her, or with any other Power that would put an end to the sickening brutalities in Bulgaria. |The Bulgarian Massacres.| Mr. Gladstone threw Homer and theology to the winds, and the country rang with his denunciations of “the unspeakable Turk.” Those who accuse Disraeli of undue solicitude for popularity should study the course he steered in the storm that was raging round him. But before it came to its height, he had spoken his last words in the House of Commons. On August 11, 1876, Mr. Evelyn Ashley charged the Government with negligence and the British Ambassador at Constantinople with mischievous and dilatory tactics, in their dealings with the Porte and their toleration of massacres. Disraeli replied in one of the most effective speeches he ever delivered, concluding with the words: “What our duty is at this critical moment is to maintain the Empire of England. Nor will we ever agree to any step, though it may obtain for a moment comparative quiet and a false prosperity, that hazards the existence of that Empire.” Next morning the Prime Minister’s place on the Treasury Bench was filled by Sir Stafford Northcote; a well-kept secret was revealed; Mr. Disraeli, on whose health the stress of forty years of active Parliamentary life had told with serious effect, had accepted a peerage, and gone to the House of Lords as Earl of Beaconsfield. Not, however, to escape responsibility. Throughout that autumn and winter the Government was vehemently denounced in the country for their toleration of Turkish misdeeds, but Lord Beaconsfield remained firm in his resolution to refrain from embarrassing the Porte or countenancing the designs of Russia. Before Parliament met, cooler counsels had begun to prevail, and when the Czar declared war against the Sultan, on April 24, the Bulgarian atrocities faded out of sight, and British sympathy flowed out towards the weaker combatant. |The Russo-Turkish War.| The gallantry of Osman Pasha’s troops, his double victory over the Russians at Plevna in July, and the heroic defence of the Shipka Pass, brought our old Crimean allies into high favour; but it was when the tide of victory had turned, when the Turkish armies had been crushed under the resistless preponderance of the Northern Power, when Russia was at the gates of Constantinople, and the Porte forced to accept an armistice, sent a Circular Note to the Great Powers, and a special appeal to Great Britain, praying for help in her extremity, that the policy of Beaconsfield was brought to the test.
Val. C. Prinsep, R.A.] [From the Royal Collection. Reproduced from Photographs by Mr. Hollyer, by permission of the Artist.
THE IMPERIAL DURBAR AT DELHI, January 1, 1877: PROCLAMATION OF HER MAJESTY AS EMPRESS OF INDIA.
The Viceroy (Lord Lytton) is seated on the dais, with Lady and the Hon. Miss Lytton behind him, and surrounded by his Secretaries and Aides-de-Camp. Major Burns, Chief Herald, stands on the steps, and a group of heralds occupies the centre. In the circle, amongst the native Princes, sit Sir R. H. Davies (Lieut-Governor of the Punjab, immediately to the left of the Chief Herald, and Sir R. Temple, Lieut-Governor of Bengal), and the Duke of Buckingham (Governor of Madras) to his right. The two native Princesses are the Begum of Bhopal and the Rana of Dholepore; of the latter only the head is seen, on the extreme right.
Parliament was summoned hastily on January 17, 1878, and Northcote gave notice that a Vote of Credit for £6,000,000 would be moved for immediately, for the Cabinet had decided to defend the Sultan’s capital against the Czar. |Secession of Lord Carnarvon and Lord Derby.| The British fleet was ordered, on January 15, to enter the Dardanelles, a step which caused the instant resignation by Lord Carnarvon of his seat in the Cabinet, followed a couple of months later, by that of a far more important Minister—the Foreign Secretary. To send warships into the Dardanelles would have been an empty menace unless it had been supported by corresponding preparation of land forces, but calling out the Army Reserve, the occupation of Cyprus by a British force, and the dispatch of 7,000 Indian troops to the Mediterranean, proved too much for the nerves of Lord Derby; he resigned his office, and two years later severed his connection with the Conservative party and accepted office in Mr. Gladstone’s Second Administration.
Sir J. Tenniel.] [From “Punch.”
THE PAS-DE-DEUX,