From the Scène de Triumph in the Grand Anglo Turkish Ballet d’Action, executed by the Earl of Beaconsfield and the Marquis of Salisbury.
The resolute attitude of the Queen’s Government found an echo in the country, and the chorus of a popular music hall ditty supplied a nickname, the exact equivalent of the French term chauviniste. Everybody at this day understands what is meant by the “Jingo party” or the “Jingo policy,” though perhaps the origin of the phrase may come to be forgotten. It is found in the lines shouted by enthusiastic audiences in the early months of 1878:
“We don’t want to fight, but, by Jingo! if we do,
We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men, we’ve got the money too.”
It was the policy of England in a nutshell, and it had its effect abroad. The Russians had suffered heavily in the war: they were in no spirit to renew it with a powerful, wealthy, and fresh enemy. They agreed not to occupy Gallipoli, provided the English fleet withdrew from the Sea of Marmora. |The Berlin Congress and Treaty.| Both nations were disposed to accept Prince Bismarck’s proffered mediation, and it was agreed to submit the Treaty of San Stefano to a Congress of the Powers at Berlin. This famous Congress, at which Great Britain was represented by her Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary—Lord Beaconsfield and Lord Salisbury—effected a re-arrangement of the Danubian provinces, a rectification of the frontier of Greece, the cession to Russia of Batoum and Kars, with that part of Bessarabia which had been taken from her by the Treaty of Paris, and the occupation by Great Britain of the island of Cyprus, coupled with an obligation to defend Turkey in the possession of her Asiatic dominions. If it was not a settlement containing the elements of durability, nor conveying much direct advantage to Great Britain, at least it prohibited that which Great Britain was determined not to allow—the handing over to Russia of the key of the Mediterranean, the highway to India—and Beaconsfield was entitled to claim, as he did on his return before a rapturous crowd in Downing Street, that Her Majesty’s Plenipotentiaries had succeeded in securing “Peace with Honour.”
Sir J. E. Millais,
Bart., P.R.A.] [By permission of
the Garrick Club.
SIR HENRY IRVING.
Henry Irving was born at Keinton, near Glastonbury, in 1838. He made his first appearance on the stage at Sunderland in 1856. His connection with the Lyceum dates from 1866, and his management of that theatre from December 1878. He was knighted in 1895.
But terrible news arrived before the close of the year. History—the disastrous history of 1841—repeated itself with extraordinary exactness. Sir Louis Cavagnari had been sent as envoy to Cabul early in 1878 to watch and, if possible, counteract the effect of the persistent advance of Russia towards the frontier of British India. He was lodged with a small escort, in comfortable, but defenceless, quarters in the Bala Hissar or citadel of Cabul. The Amir Yakoob soon began to show impatience at the presence of the British in his capital. He was in difficulties also with his own troops, who were clamorous for arrears of pay. On September 3 a riotous mob collected in front of the British Embassy; blows were struck and shots fired, and soon Cavagnari and his household were closely besieged. He had with him a secretary, a surgeon, and Lieutenant Hamilton, commanding the escort of twenty-six troopers and fifty men of the corps of Guides. These made a brave defence, but at last the buildings were set on fire, and the envoy and every soul with him perished in the flames. |Massacre at Cabul.| The Amir represented to the Viceroy that this was the result of a mutiny against his own authority, and this seems to have been the case; he was powerless to prevent what perhaps he did not greatly deplore. Not the less necessary was it to exact punishment for the massacre. General Stewart, who had just evacuated Candahar under provisions of the recent treaty, re-occupied it; General Baker advanced by the Shutar Gardan and seized Kushi. On October 6 General Roberts (now Lord Roberts), acting in concert with General Baker, defeated a large force of Ghilzais, with artillery, on the heights of Chardeh, and then fought his way to Cabul, which he entered on the 12th.