A.D. 1868.]

one, to be elected under the Reform Act of 1867, for the 10th December. The great public question at issue was the existence of the Irish Establishment; and, on a general view, the verdict of the constituencies was given in favour of Mr. Gladstone's proposals, and disappointed the sanguine anticipations of Mr. Disraeli. There was a gain to the Liberal party, as the net result of the elections, of fifteen seats, equal to thirty votes on a division. But their triumph was chequered by several minor reverses, among which the rejection of Mr. Gladstone for South Lancashire was the most remarkable. Every resource which unflagging industry, careful organisation, and incessant oratory could put in requisition was resorted to, in order to secure the return of the Liberal leader; but all efforts were in vain; the Conservative candidates Messrs. Cross and Turner-were returned at the head of the poll, Mr. Gladstone having two hundred and sixty fewer votes than Mr. Turner, who was about fifty below Mr. Cross. There were two principal causes accounting for this result; one the extreme unpopularity of the Irish in South Lancashire, owing to the increased turbulence, drunkenness, and pauperism which their presence in large numbers occasions; and also, no doubt, to the fact that their competition beats down wages; the other, the influence of the house of Stanley and other great Conservative families in that part of the country. Mr. Gladstone had to console himself with the suffrages of Greenwich, which had generously elected him while the issue in South Lancashire was still undecided. In other parts of Lancashire, the same feeling of soreness against the proposal to disestablish the Irish Church, because it seemed to involve a triumph for the locally unpopular Irish Catholics, produced a similar result. This great and representative county, taking boroughs and shire-divisions together, returned twentyone Conservatives against eleven Liberals. On the other hand, the Scotch electors accepted Mr. Gladstone's proposal with extraordinary favour. Not only did the Scottish boroughs return Liberals without exception, but many counties, which had returned Conservative members for years, were on this occasion carried for Liberals. Of the whole number of members who came up from Scotland, only seven were Conservatives. In Ireland also there was a Liberal gain, though one of less magnitude. At the election for Westminster-to the deep regret of all who could appreciate the profound political insight and philosophical treatment of great questions which were thus lost to the House of Commons-Mr. John Stuart Mill was defeated by the Conservative candidate, Mr. William H. Smith.

By the beginning of December it was abundantly evident that Mr. Gladstone would be supported in the new House of Commons by a considerably larger following than before. Mr. Disraeli thereupon took a bold and a judicious resolution. He would not go through the forms of meeting Parliament as if he were the master of the situation of advising a royal speech which must either omit all mention of the Irish Church, or mention it in a tone at variance with the sentiments of the

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great majority of the House of renewing or seeing renewed a debate which he knew could only end one way. He resolved, therefore, to resign office before Parliament met, and this resolution he communicated to his friends and supporters by a circular dated the 2nd December. This document, expressed in well-chosen and dignified terms, informed his friends that when the Government had been placed in a minority in the spring on the question of disestablishing the Church in Ireland, they had to consider that the policy proposed had never been submitted to the country, and they believed that the country would not sanction it. But to make an appeal to the "obsolete constituency would have been absurd; no course therefore remained open to them but to hasten a much as possible the formal details which must be disposed of before a new Parliament could be elected under the late Reform Bill, and then to make the appeal. Although the general election had elicited, in the decision of numerous and vast constituencies, an expression of feeling which had gone far to justify their anticipations, it was nevertheless clear that the Ministry could not expect to command the confidence of the newly-elected House of Commons. Under these circumstances, the Ministry felt it due to their own honour, and to the policy they supported, not to retain office unnecessarily for a single day; but rather at once to tender the resignation of their offices to Her Majesty than to wait for the assembling of a Parliament in which, as matters stood, they were sensible that they must be in a minority.

Mr. Disraeli and his colleagues accordingly resigned, and the Queen, of course, sent for Mr. Gladstone, as the recognised leader of the party, and the ablest exponent of the policy, of which the majority of the constituencies had just recorded their emphatic approval. Mr. Gladstone became First Lord of the Treasury, and the principal offices were thus filled up :-Lord Chancellor, Lord Hatherley (late Sir W. Page Wood); President of the Council, Lord de Grey and Ripon; Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Lowe; Home Secretary, Mr. Bruce; Foreign Secretary, Earl of Clarendon; Colonial Secretary, Earl Granville; Secretary for War, Mr. Cardwell; Secretary for Ireland, Mr. Chichester Fortescue; Secretary for India, Duke of Argyll; First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. Childers; President of the Board of Trade, Mr. Bright; Chairman of the Poor Law Board, Mr. Göschen; Vice-President of the Council, Mr. W. E. Forster. The new ministers, having necessarily vacated their seats on taking office, were not present at the meeting of Parliament on the 10th December, and the only proceedings then taken were of a formal character, including the re-election of Mr. Evelyn Denison as Speaker, and the swearing-in of the new members, who were more than 200 in number. Parliament was then adjourned to the 29th December, at which dete, the reelection of the new ministers having been in no instance opposed, the House re-assembled, with ministers all in their places, but only to be again immediately adjourned to the 16th February, 1869.

CHAPTER XXVIII. The Abyssinian Expedition-Early History of Abyssinia-Embassy of Major Harris-Mr. Plowden appointed Consul-Rise of Kasa, afterwards Theodore: Sketch of his Career-Deaths of Plowden and Bell-Mr. Cameron appointed Consal-Theodore's Letter to the Queen-Mr. Cameron visits Bogos and Kassala: Returns to Abyssinia-Despatches from England-Theodore imprisons Mr. Cameron and his suite: they are sent to Magdala-The British Government resolves to send out a Mission to obtain Cameron's release-Mr. Rassam selected as the head of the Mission-The Mission goes to Korata-Mr. Rassam is arrested at Zagè-Mr. Cameron and the other Captives re-arrested-Mr. Flad sent to England-The Captives are all sent to Magdala-Lord Stanley resolves to send out Artisans and Presents to Theodore-Recommendations of Colonel Merewether-The Captives being still detained, an Expeditionis decided upon--Sir Robert Napier appointed

to the Command--Sir Robert Napier arrives at Annesley Bay-The

Abyssinian Chiefs friendly to the Expedition-Sir Robert's inter

view with Kassa-Strength of the British Forcea-The Army arrives within sight of Magdala-Description of the Fortress Theodore's March from Debra Tabor to Magdala-Interview with Mr. Rassam-Massacre of the Native Prisoners-Concentration of the British Army on the Beshilo-March of Sir Charles Staveley -Action under the hill of Fala-Slaughter of the Abyssinians in the Dam-Wanz Ravine-Theodore sues for Peace-Theodore's First Letter-He releases the Captives-Last Interview with Mr. Rassam-Theodore's Second Letter-He sends all the Europeans to the English Camp-Attempts to Escape from MagdalaAdvance of the Troops-Magdala is cannonaded and stormedDeath of Theodore-Burning of Magdala and Departure of the English Army-Sir Robert Napier is made a Peer.

THE successful expedition to the highlands of Abyssinia in 1867-8 has been more than once incidentally referred to in these pages, and some indication of the chain of events which led up to it was given in Chapter xiv. In

the present chapter we propose to give a connected view of the expedition, including an analysis of its causes and a survey of its results.

The sequence of events which terminated in the death of the Emperor Theodore and the storming of the rock fortress of Magdala, commenced with the conclusion of a treaty of amity and commerce, in 1818, between Queen Victoria and Ras Ali, the ruler of central Abyssinia. This treaty was the work of Lord Palmerston; and to understand his motives it is necessary that the reader should have some general knowledge of the previous history of Abyssinia. The natives of this portion of the ancient Ethiopia-which, though within the tropics, enjoys a healthy and delightful climate, on account of its great elevation above the sea-were converted to Christianity by St. Frumentius, sent from Alexandria by the great Athanasius in the fourth century of our era. They have never since then, for any long time together, broken their connection with Egypt; for centuries, down to the present day, the Abuna, or Patriarch, of the Abyssinian Church has been appointed, whenever the dignity falls vacant, by the Coptic Patriarch in Egypt, and submissively obeyed by the Abyssinian Christians. Unfortunately, the Copts in Egypt having ages ago adopted the heresy of the Monophysites, the connection between the two countries has propagated the same heresy in Abyssinia, and has thereby raised in some degree a barrier between the Abyssinians and the rest of Christendom. But the motive which originally induced the Neguses, or Emperors, of Abyssinia to seek the head of their Church from Egypt was wise and laudable; they saw Mohammedanism spreading all around them, cutting them off from all other Christian countries; and they hoped by this ecclesiastical arrangement to guard in some measure against the fatal effects of that isolation.

Ages rolled by, and the troubles of Abyssinia continually thickened. Once, before Mohammed arose, she had had the command of the Red Sea, and had subdued the southern portion of Arabia, where her dominion for a time promised to be permanent. Gibbon speculates on the strangely different course which human affairs might have taken, if the Christian rulers of Abyssinia had been able to subjugate the whole of Arabia, and stifle Islam in its cradle.* But the Crescent rose higher and higher in the heavens; the Turkish power gradually extended itself along the shores of the Red Sea, and about 1570 succeeded in permanently occupying Massowah and other points on the west coast, thus cutting off Abyssinia from the sea. A still worse infliction came on the unfortunate country about the same time, in the invasion of tribes of savage and heathen Gallas from the south. They came again and again; though often defeated and driven out, they still returned in greater numbers and with greater ferocity than before. Their incursions may be compared to those of the Danes into England in the ninth and tenth centuries; like them, they blasted civilisation and refinement wherever they came; like them, they permanently wrested a large part of the country from the natives, and inhabit to this

Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," chap. xlii.

day a broad strip of territory running across the centre of Abyssinia, and severing the province of Shoa from the rest of the country. These intruding Gallas have become Mussulmans; while the Galla tribes to the south remain, as they have ever been, heathens.

The Portuguese, soon after they had discovered the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, conceived a high idea of the importance of Abyssinia as the key of North-eastern Africa, and opened diplomatic and commercial intercourse with its rulers. For about a century and a half this heroic little nation, partly by its soldiers, partly by its Jesuit missionaries, maintained a close and constant communication with Abyssinia. The Mohammedans were sometimes pressed back through Portuguese aid; and a Jesuit father, in the seventeenth century, obtained so great an ascendancy over the reigning Negus that he declared himself a Roman Catholic. His son, however, shared the very decided and bigoted preference for the Coptic rather than the Roman form of Christianity which animated the mass of the population, and he expelled the Jesuits from Abyssinia. This was about the year 1640. About the same time the Portuguese power, succumbing to some mysterious law of national decay, began everywhere to decline. Thenceforward, till official relations were opened between England and Abyssinia, near the beginning of the century, it does not appear that any European nation had any intercourse with the country except through the visits of individual travellers or adventurers. The ancient royal family, which bore the sovereign title of Negus (properly "Nagash "), was deposed about 1770, shortly before the visit of James Bruce, the celebrated traveller; and since then Abyssinia has been nearly always split up into three or more independent states, the chief of which are Tigré, Amhara, and Shoa. Official communication was first opened between England and Abyssinia in 1810, when Mr. Salt, the English envoy, paid a formal visit to Ras Walda Selassye, the Prince of Tigré, at Antalo, and presented him with two three-pounder field-guns and other presents. But Mr. Salt's visit was an isolated act, and led to nothing. Nor was the visit of Major Harris to the King of Shoa, in 1841,* undertaken by the orders of the Bombay Government in order to arrange a treaty of commerce with that potentate, productive of more lasting consequences; although it furnished the materials for one of the most popular and interesting books of travel that the last generation produced. The visit of Walter Plowden, a private Englishman, who first found his way to Abys sinia in 1843, led eventually to more important consequences than either of the official visits just mentioned. After a residence of nearly four years in the country, he returned to England, bearing some presents from Ras Ali, then chief of central Abyssinia, to the Queen. While in London he submitted several memoranda on Abyssinian affairs to Lord Palmerston. The intelligent clearness with which these were written, and the prospect which they held out of extending British trade and influence in those parts of Africa, appear to have made a strong impression on Lord Palmerston, and he appointed Mr.

Harris, "Highlands of Ethiopia." Longmans, 1844.

A.D. 1868.]

Plowden British Consul at Massowah, for the protection of British trade in Abyssinia. He also entrusted him (Jannary, 1848) with presents for Ras Ali, and instructed him to conclude with that ruler a treaty of amity and commerce. Plowden was soon back in Abyssinia and zealousky fulfilled his instructions. Ras Ali, an indolent man, had no objection to sign the treaty, but he said he did not expect that it would bring any British traders to Abyssinia. In truth, while the Turks (or rather the Egyptians, for Turkey ceded her possessions on this shore in 1866 to the Pacha of Egypt) are allowed to cut off Abyssinia from the sea, no European trade with the country can flourish. If the reader desires proof, let him turn to the first chapters of Major Harris's interesting account of his embassy to Shoa, and he will see what difficulties, rogueries, and iniquitous exactions even an embassy, clothed with the dignity and armed with the prestige of a great nation, had to contend with before it could escape from the Mohammedan tribes on the sultry and barren coast, and ascend to the beautiful green highlands of Christian Abyssinia.

Consul Plowden had been residing six years at Massowah when he heard that the Prince to whom he had been accredited, Ras Ali, had been defeated and dethroned by an adventurer, whose name, a few years before, had been unknown outside the boundaries of his native province. This was Lij Kasa, better known by his adopted name of Theodore. He was born of an old family, in the mountainous region of Kwara, where the land begins to slope downwards towards the Blue Nile, and educated in a convent, where he learnt to read, and acquired a considerable knowledge of the Scriptures. Kasa's convent life was suddenly put an end to, when one of those marauding Galla bands, whose ravages are the curse of Abyssinia, attacked and plundered the monastery. From that time he himself took to the life of a freebooter, and, through his superior intelligence and undaunted courage, soon attained the reputation of being successful in all his enterprises. Adventurers

flocked to his standard; his power continually increased; and, in 1854, he defeated Ras Ali in a pitched battle, and made himself master of central Abyssinia. His ambition widened in proportion to its gratification; he now sent to Oobyé, the ruler of Tigré, requiring that he should pay him tribute, and insisted that the Abuna, then resident at the court of Oobyé, should be sent to Gondar, which, since the fall of Ras Ali, had been Kasa's capital. His demands were scornfully rejected, and the Abuna (who is the sole bishop in Abyssinia) excommunicated him, But Kâsa was equal to the occasion. A Monsignor de Jacobis, a Roman Catholic missionary of great ability and saintly life, was at that time in Abyssinia, with the authority of Vicar-Apostolic; him Kâsa threatened to recognise as bishop, unless the Abuna came to Gondar. The Abuna then yielded, revoked the excommunication, and came to live at Gondar, thus giving a kind of religious sanction to the adventurer's power, which was of the greatest value to him in the eyes of a people so superstitious as the Abyssinians. Fortune still attended the arms of Kâsa. In 1855, he defeated Oobyé at a place called Derezgye, in the province of Semyen,

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and all Tigré submitted to the conqueror. He now resolved to assume a title commensurate with the wide extent of his dominion. In the church of Derezgye he had himself crowned by the Abuna as King of the Kings of Ethiopia, taking the name of Theodore, because an ancient tradition declared that a great monarch so called would one day arise in Abyssinia. Courtly genealogists were not wanting who deduced his pedigree from the line of the ancient kings.

These startling events reached the ears of Mr. Plowden at Massowah, and he resolved to visit the new monarch. He arrived at the camp of Theodore in March or April, 1855, and found that a former fellow-traveller, an Englishman named Bell, who had married an Abyssinian lady, was already in Theodore's service, with the title and functions of Grand Chamberlain. At this time Theodore's character and aims were such as to command the admiration and respect of Plowden and Bell, both of whom were able and excellent men. "Plowden said of him that he was generous to excess, and free from all cupidity, merciful to his vanquished enemies, and strictly continent; but subject to violent bursts of anger, and possessed of unyielding pride and fanatical religious zeal." His views of government were far more enlightened than those of the majority of his countrymen. He abolished the slave trade, put an end to many vexatious imposts on commerce, and aimed at curtailing or suppressing the feudal privileges of a number of petty chiefs, who were the tyrants of the districts over which they ruled. Consul Plowden thus concluded his report on Theodore's character and policy :-"Some of his ideas may be imperfect, others impracticable; but a man who, rising from the clouds of Abyssinian ignorance and childishness, without assistance, and without advice, has done so much, and contemplates such large designs, cannot be regarded as of an ordinary stamp."

Some years passed, and the power of Theodore was ever on the rise. After his coronation, the first object which he set before him was the subjugation of the Galla tribes in Abyssinia; after which he said that any Galla who would not abjure Islam, and receive baptism, should be expelled from the country. This object he partly accomplished, by the subjection of the Wolo Gallas to his rule. To keep these wild tribes in check, and also to serve as his own principal stronghold, he about this time made choice of Magdala, an amba, or natural fortress, beyond the river Beshilo, east of the Lake of Dembea, and in the midst of the territory of the Wolo Gallas. He then invaded and reduced Shoa, taking Ankober, the capital, and bringing away with him Menilek, the young heir of The whole of Shoa, to bring up with his own son. Abyssinia was now subject to his power. But a series of misfortunes presently fell upon him, and changed the whole aspect of his career. In 1860, his true and judicious friend and counsellor, Consul Plowden, while journeying to his camp, was intercepted by an ally of the chief Negussye, who had set up the standard of revolt in Tigré; and, in the fight which ensued, Plowden was mortally wounded and taken prisoner. Theodore immediately raised from the merchants of Gondar the sum demanded