Chapter X: Gordon’s Death. Chaos (3)

“At five to Mrs. Howard. She is of opinion that they mean to treat, and treat through me, but of course want it to be supposed the desire is all on the Mahdi’s side. She has seen Leveson, Lord Granville’s brother, who is decidedly for getting out of the Soudan. So I believe is everybody. George, however, is all for war; he means to leave Parliament after this Session. There was news of another battle this morning, in which the English forces were surprised by Osman Digna.

“_24th March._—The fighting of yesterday has been a very serious affair, and I think settles Graham’s campaign at Suakin, not on account of the proof it has given of the courage, skill, and numbers of the Arabs so much as on account of the destruction of the camels, and especially of the camel drivers. No native will now dare go outside Suakin, and the English soldiers will be left to shift for themselves. Whatever else they can do, they certainly cannot manage camels without help. This will stop Graham just as it stopped Wolseley.

“Button, whom I saw to-day in the City, tells me they certainly will send me to treat with the Mahdi. Matters, he says, stand in this way: the Government has sent in an ultimatum to Russia on the Afghan boundary question, and the answer will be given in four or five days—Button thinks it will be refused—and then the Government has made up its mind to clear straight out of the Soudan, and even out of Lower Egypt, except Alexandria, handing over Cairo to the Sultan who will send troops in. In return for this the Sultan will open the Dardanelles and Bosphorus to the British Fleet, which will attack Batoum, with the idea of advancing to Baku and so cut off the Caspian communications. This, however, would not be at once, the campaign being commenced in Afghanistan. They are ready to fight Russia, if necessary, for three years. The chief difficulty will be to prevent Austria from advancing on Salonica; but it has been ascertained that Bismarck will use all his influence to localize the war and prevent Austria from taking part in it. Bismarck is not ready for a solution of the Ottoman question. They will then be only too happy to employ me in making peace with the Mahdi, and my employment would now, Button says, be a popular thing, and it would not much matter whether I succeeded or not. At the end of the summer, having evacuated the Soudan, it would be out of the question their going back there. Only will Russia fight? I doubt it.

“Ibrahim has explained to us Zebehr’s position. The real reason of his arrest, he said, was not so much that he had corresponded with the Mahdi, as his connection with the Senoussis. He has latterly been very intimate with Ibrahim el Senoussi, Senoussi’s relative and agent at Alexandria, and in conjunction with Huseyn Pasha, the Tunisian, he has been engaged in working upon the Senoussi brotherhood to get them to join the Mahdi, and in his name to attack the French in Tunis. Ibrahim Bey says, though he naturally sympathizes with Zebehr, it is nevertheless just as well that this plan has been stopped, as the result would have been to bring about a community of interests between the French and English in smashing the Mahdi.

“_25th March._—It appears that our troops lost over three hundred men on Sunday, besides seven hundred camels and a number of mules and horses, and one hundred and fifty camp followers. Osman Digna is wielding the sword of the Lord this time in earnest, and if there is a God in Heaven he will prevail against the hosts of Mammon.

“Hunted from Barcombe, and had the best run of the season from a wood north of the Chailey brook to Lewes race-course without a check. There the fox was headed, and it took us another twenty minutes to kill him in a gorse cover; I was riding Queen of Sheba, and, though I did not get a very good start, I was first up at the check. There was some good fencing which the mare did admirably, including one very stiff timber jump with ditch beyond, which she raced over. Up the hills she passed them all but four or five, and once on top of the down she had no difficulty in going quite to the front; Anne on Dahma was also well up.

“When we came home we heard that Pompey was dying. Thus is pleasure mingled with grief; Pompey has been nearly eighteen years in my service. He was an admirable servant.

“_26th March._—There are signs of the Suakin campaign being near an end, and I feel certain another month will see the whole thing abandoned. This will be the greatest victory of the Faith since the siege of Vienna. Arabi writes very _à propos_ about the weak things of the world confounding the strong, and the triumph of justice in the Soudan.[110]

“To London and lunched with the Howards and sat on talking politics. George is all for war, but he thinks that Lorne, whom he had just been with, would willingly put himself forward in an agitation for peace, and Mrs. Howard will approach him to that effect. Then I walked down with George to the House of Commons to hear Gladstone make his statement about the Egyptian Finance Convention. This he did so lamely and tamely that I went to sleep over it, as I observed others also did.

“Halim Pasha has written to Ibrahim to say that Ismaïl Jowdat, on his arrival at Constantinople, was met by a message that he was to come to the Palace. There he was kept twelve days and made to draw up a report of everything he had seen, heard, or done while in London, and then was sent home and kept there under arrest. Such is the Sultan’s way.

“Dined at Sydney Buxton’s,[111] where I sat next Mrs. Courtney. She talked about her work in the east of London, and said she had succeeded because she had no system. She did not seem clear that it was possible to improve the condition of the lowest class of people by anything but individual effort. She thought education might help them to help themselves; wasn’t sure whether teatotalism was a good thing. To me all these matters are absolutely hopeless; system has interfered with the natural law of society, and unnatural misery is the result. Mrs. Buxton, on the other side of me, told me a story of Hartington having lately written to a friend to say he could not make out why they were fighting the Mahdi, as he, the Mahdi, seemed to be the only man who was carrying out the policy of Her Majesty’s Ministers. Francis Buxton was there, and we talked about Dilke’s connection with the Joint Note of January, 1882, and he cited, _à propos_ of it, a conversation he had had with Dilke at the end of the previous year. He had told Dilke that the Liberal party would never consent to the annexation of Egypt; to which Dilke had replied that Egypt might be annexed without calling it at all by that name. There is no doubt he played all through for annexation.

“_27th March._—Gave Wheeler a translation of Arabi’s letter; I think its publication will do good. Dined at Mrs. Charles Buxton’s, and had some talk with Lord Chancellor Selborne. He was ready to admit they ought never to have gone into Egypt, but thought them bound now to stay and repair the wrong done. I told him, certainly, they had wounded the man, and must now take care he was not left to be robbed by every passer-by. This _à propos_ of the Financial Convention being debated to-night.

“_28th March._—To Button, who showed me a letter he had just got from Wolseley, dated ‘Camp Korti, March 2,’ narrating his vexation at being forty-eight hours too late to save Gordon, and his anger with Mr. Gladstone. He then recounted how his plan had been upset by Burnaby’s death. He had intended Burnaby to succeed Stewart if anything happened to Stewart, and had told him his plan, but both of them got killed; and the rest of ‘our London captains,’ Wolseley said, were good for nothing to take command of the expedition, so the whole thing had broken down. History, he said, would judge where the fault lay. He was evidently sorry for himself and down on his luck. Button tells me it was all in reality Wilson’s fault, as he wasted three days bombarding Metemmeh and Shendy; also he ought certainly to have sent in a man with the flag of truce offered him by the Mahdi. But Wolseley did not mention Wilson’s name in the letter I saw. Button said he wished he could show me one Wolseley had written to Gordon about the Government. Wolseley was very angry now with them all. Button considers the campaign over. They can’t possibly get further than Tamaï, and war with Russia is almost certain.

“On to Stanley, whom I found in bed, and gave him the news; and then to Hassan Fehmy, who did not seem aware of all that was happening. But when I explained he was of course delighted. ‘When we get the Ottoman troops to Cairo,’ he said, ‘it will be time to proclaim the Mahdi a rebel, but we have refused to have anything to do with it from Constantinople. That would not have looked well, and one should never threaten unless one can execute. We will put down the Mahdi when we are at Cairo.’ This was not of course my idea, but I left him to his plans, feeling quite sure the Mahdi would be able to take care of himself.

“_30th March._—A letter has come from Downing Street in explanation of the offer already made, and I have sent my answer to Eddy. Went to bury Pompey at Crawley and then to London, and heard Hartington announce the news of a peaceful character from Russia. This is unfortunate for our plans.

“_31st March._—Eddy now writes that Mr. Gladstone has left London for Easter, and so it is impossible I should see him—he is really at Brighton—and proposes to communicate the substance of my last letter to Hartington, his _locum tenens_.

“Hunting again, a wonderful scent. The fox took us from Danny to the top of the hill near the Wind Mills, and along the edge of the downs to the Dyke, a very severe run, as we went up and down the downs fairly three times, the last pull up the Dyke Hill stopped every horse but Queen of Sheba and a thoroughbred carrying eleven stone and Payne the huntsman. Rode into Brighton and so up to London in time to dine at the Howards. William Morris was there in morning dress, for he eschews tail coats, and did most of the talking on his own special subjects—socialism, the evil of capital, and the rest. This he does excellently well. Mrs. Howard advises me strongly to see Hartington if I get the chance. He is quite honest, she says, being a Cavendish, and no Cavendish was ever able to lie. Humph!

“_1st April._—Button promises to find out Hartington’s ideas about peace from Brett, in case I hear any more from him.

“Lunched at the Carlton, in the vicinity of members of the Fourth Party. Wolff tells me that Randolph is expected home on Tuesday.

“_2nd April._—Went to see Lord Lorne at Kensington Palace. I find him very pleasant, and sufficiently intelligent about Egyptian affairs, and we talked for an hour. My object was to get him to take the lead in demonstrations against the Soudan war, but I could not get him to promise anything definite. He is going to stand for a Metropolitan Borough, however, and says he will lose no occasion to oppose the war in his electioneering. This kept me so late that I almost missed my train for Birmingham, where I had to attend a meeting on the same subject. But I just hit it off, made my speech, and was back in London by midnight.

“_3rd April._—A letter came yesterday, while I was away, from Downing Street, and I went to ask Button’s advice about it. It said that the policy of the Government was one of freedom for the Soudan, and I was inclined to take it as a mere phrase, but Button strongly advised me to accept it in all seriousness, so as to pin the Government down to their declaration, and dispatch Ibrahim to carry the news to the Mahdi. So I have written my answer in Button’s sense, and shall go to Paris to- morrow to set things going. _Bismillah!_

“To-day being a Bank Holiday, Button and I, like two clerks, rode out to Putney and Coombe and back again. The day was fine and enjoyable. We are expecting a great battle to be fought to-day at Tamaï.

“_4th April._—Osman Digna has made an April fool of Graham, who marched his whole army of twelve thousand men ‘to the top of the hill,’ and then found no enemy, and marched them down again. They will have to evacuate Suakin without a victory. This is just what we most want.

“To Paris by the tidal train, and travelled as far as Dover with Lord Lorne and his sister (Lady Constance Campbell), who are also going abroad. We talked on many subjects besides Egypt, such as the Crofter question in Scotland, the Land question in England, Riel’s revolt in Canada, and the Irish question. Lord Lorne was very sympathetic on Eastern matters, advising me only not to mix up Arabi with the Soudan peace agitation.

“I forgot to say that Button told me yesterday that the Russian answer about the Afghan frontier is, after all, far from satisfactory. Dufferin has been given _carte blanche_ to treat with the Amir, who demands a guarantee for his dynasty, as well as for his dominions.

“Dined at the Hotel Wagram with Jemal-ed-Din, to whom I read the whole of my correspondence with Downing Street. He approved the line taken, but insists that the English Government must write a letter to the Mahdi for Ibrahim to carry. He will think the matter over, however, and decide in a day or two. There is no hurry just now, as the Mahdi can much better afford to wait than Mr. Gladstone.

“_5th April, Easter Sunday._—Breakfast with Bitters in the Rue Mazarine, and in the afternoon coming home I stopped at the Embassy and had a talk with Sheffield, who was communicative as usual. Among other things, he told me that Gladstone had been very much in favour of having the Turkish Pashas in Egypt made to pay up the arrears of taxation. But Baring and Northbrook had persuaded him that government would be impossible if they offended these gentry, so they have gone on screwing the money out of the fellahin, and have raised this ridiculous joint loan.

“_6th April._—Breakfasted again with Bitters and Godfrey Webb. The French have been without a Ministry for the last week, but to-day Monsieur Brisson has formed one; I know too little about French politics to guess what it portends. Everybody, however, is very angry with Ferry, the late minister, on account of the Tonquin defeats. The lesson given to Ferry will not be lost on Gladstone, and will be in favour of peace in Africa.

“_7th April._—Jemal-ed-Din and Sanua breakfasted with me.

“_8th April._—Breakfasted once more with Bitters, and once more to the Jeu de paume, where there was a great gathering: old Villeplaine, Brinquant, O’Connor, and the Henneseys, besides Elcho, Arthur Balfour, and Bungo Herbert. The Elchos are at the Hotel Mirabeau with Godfrey Webb and the Miss Tennants, Laura and Margot.

“_9th April._—Breakfasted with the Wagrams. They say peace has been arranged between France and China. Then to the Hotel Mirabeau. Arthur Balfour was there, and we talked about the Afghan and Soudan questions, and while we were talking Elcho came in, having been at the Embassy and having heard there of the Battle of Penjdeh. We all agreed that this means war. The newspaper boys on the Boulevard were calling out this evening, ‘Guerre Russo-Anglaise—grande Victoire Russe.’

“_13th April._—Jemal-ed-Din came early, and I read him a new and unsatisfactory letter I received last night from Downing Street. He insists that the Government must write a letter to the Mahdi if they want him to treat; and he says he will come over to England if necessary to arrange about it, if only I will guarantee his not being arrested there. I told him there was no danger of arrest, but his experience in India has made him suspicious of the English Government. He says there is no reason whatever now that Arabi should not come back to Egypt if the opportunity offered of a reconciliation with Tewfik. Tewfik is so feeble and discredited as to be no longer dangerous, and Arabi would rapidly regain all his lost influence.

“Back by the tidal train to England.”

N.B.—My correspondence with 10, Downing Street of this date will be found in Appendix C, and is worth reading. It would have been still possible that spring to arrange terms of peace directly with the Mahdi, who was not the impracticable personage he has been represented to be by our official historians. Under his successor, the Khalifa Abdullah el Taïshi, all negotiation became much more difficult. But, unfortunately for both Egypt and the Soudan, the opportunity was let slip and became final through the Mahdi’s death in July. It was probably Lord Cromer’s influence, as in the previous year, that decided it.