TOPICS OF THE DAY.
LORD SALISBURY'S CLAIM TO CONFIDENCE. THE tranquil pride of the British people, which has its roots deep in history, and which so offends men of other communities, has one bad political effect. It renders them strangely indifferent to good government. They expect good government, be the ruler who he may, and at heart believe that "the country" would prosper if they chose the Premier by lot, and his Cabinet from the hurrying passengers in the Strand. They are angry at failures for a moment, but forget them in a year—who remembers Isandlana P—and for success they are, except for the moment, utterly ungrateful. They will imprison and forget the engine-driver in a collision ; but who tips, or even glances at him, at the end of a safe journey 1) It may be doubted whether the country has ever been better governed or more wisely steered through the intricacies of Foreign policy than during the past six years, years full of difficulty and danger ; but it is not of this, which in many countries would be the one claim to power, and which is to the historian the supreme merit of statesmen, that Englishmen or Scotchmen will think during the coming Election. In spite of recent commercial depression, of the spread of the Protectionist miasma, and of the decline in the people of any passion for State thrift—often in our history a mastering impulse—the State never was so pro- sperous, the Treasury never in such credit—it could raise two hundred millions at 3 per cent.—and the financial burden, so crushing throughout the Continent, never so light or so easily borne as has been the case during the Unionist period. With Ireland in veiled insurrection, the law has never been more thoroughly carried out ; and with social questions growing hot, soldiers have never in Britain been so infrequently required. With the strange tolerance or pity for crime, which everywhere is a note of our time, becoming every day more manifest, the Courts have been maintained in full vigour ;with all the rights of property sunk into disfavour, violent crime against property has steadily decreased. Education has been diffused over a wider area ; the immense problem of the government of London has been advanced many steps towards solution ; and a serious and sincere attempt has been made to re-create the class of small freeholders, which the rural population regard, on good grounds or bad grounds, as their missing " step " in the ladder of prosperity. Order, lenity, and steady advance have, in fact, marked the period of six years ; but the body of the people, though they benefit, do not particularly notice or care. Their work has been well done, but they are accustomed to see it well done, and they fix their regards rather on things which still remain to be accomplished. The great estate has been well managed by the agent, but the squire has got a new system on his mind, and is half-inclined to change, and see whether the property might not do better yet if it were parcelled in smaller farms. He cannot, with his history, believe in disaster, and has a feeling that mere good management is a little humdrum, and out of accord with the general spirit which he detects around.
It is a curious state of mind, this tranquil ingratitude, more especially as it is aggravated by the fact that the agent has not only managed well, but has steered well, avoiding dangerous, or at least costly lawsuits, with admir- able judgment. We shall hear directly, during the Elec- tion, that Lord Salisbury's success in Foreign politics, which is not denied even by his critics, has been due mainly to an accidental absence of difficulties ; but the allegation is not true. The six years have been years of peace, but they have been crowded with difficulties arising from the action of foreign countries, two of them in particular being difficulties to which the historian of the next genera- tion will devote entire chapters of his work. The period has been marked by one of the very largest, most com- plex, and most delicate transactions in all history, a trans- action out of which ten years of war might easily have sprung, and which a hundred years ago, or even fifty years ago, could not have been settled without the sword. Moved partly by commercial considerations, partly, we faintly hope, by philanthropic wishes, and partly by one of those inexplicable impulses which twice or thrice in modern history have urged Europe suddenly to extend her rule outside her own borders, the statesmen and Courts of the Western world decided to partition Africa, the only remaining savage continent. Instantly, as in all cases of territorial distribution, they were on the verge,. if not of war, at least of that protracted quarrelling which next to war most certainly arrests industry, and especially the adventurous industry for which the desire is as marked in the nineteenth as in the sixteenth century. The nations were on fire with greed and pride, and those vague but powerful " susceptibilities " which in nations, as in in- dividuals, it is so difficult to appease, because it is so difficult to discover the sources from which they actually spring. It looked at one moment as if we might have a quarrel with Germany about Zanzibar; with France about Egypt, with Italy about Abyssinia, and with Portugal about Portuguese East Africa, all on our hands at once. Lord Salisbury faced the situation calmly and quietly, and so smoothed away all difficulties, that but for the continued fury of a minute section of German opinion, which has an idea that somehow or other tropical dependencies, even if they be deserts, must yield wealth, his opponents would now deny that the difficulties,. ever existed. He perceived that the key of the situation was in German hands, and he tranquillised Germany at a stroke. The cession of Heligoland, an absolutely value- less possession except to the German Empire, at once removed all idea of insult from the German mind, gratified. the Emperor in the highest degree, and created in Berlin that impression of fair usage which in diplomacy,. as in commerce and in lawsuits, renders delicate compromises so easy. On the other hand, the acqui- sition of Zanzibar, of the territory covering the road to Lake Victoria, and of -Uganda, gave the British a perfect African base accessible by sea, the "best bits " of Eastern Africa, and, if we ever desire to control the Upper Nile, an unrivalled position for an advance from the South. Moreover, with the contentment of Germany, the chance for France passed away, and it became possible to content her also with a grant of " rights " which involve no loss to this country, but enable France to claim an ur - broken dominion, vague or real, according to circum- stances, over the "Hinterland," or back territory, of Algeria. There remained only Portugal to settle with, and this also was accomplished, though with even more diffi- culty than had been involved in the German claims. Portu- gal used her weakness as a weapon, put forward monstrous claims—her first demand, as is now forgotten, was for a dominion right across the continent, thus finally arresting our northern march—she threw herself on the protection of France, and she at last convinced the diplomatic world that if Great Britain pressed too hard, the Braganza dynasty would be overthrown, to the annoyance of all Courts and the horror of the Spanish Monarchy, which cannot tolerate a Republic seated on the Tagus. The situation seemed for a moment to present an impasse, or to compel the use of force ; but Lord Salisbury found a satisfactory way out. An arrangement was made under which Portugal surrendered her extreme pretensions in consideration of an increase in her West African territory, which she governs fairly well ; she granted a right of transit between the sea and Nyassaland ; and the whole of Mashonaland, believed, truly or falsely, to be the richest mineral territory in South Africa except the Transvaal, fell to Britain, and was transferred for ad- ministrative purposes to the great company of adventurers of which Mr. Cecil Rhodes is the inspiring brain. The end, therefore, of the whole negotiations was, that the partition of Africa took place without a war or a serious quarrel ; that we retained our position in Egypt as it was before ; that we acquired Zanzibar, and the best bit of East Africa between the coast and Lake Victoria, the Kingdom of Uganda, and the huge province of Mashonaland ; that Germany was content with a moderate province as a, Colony ; and that France obtained rights in Northern Africa which, however extensive they may be, no other Power could use. The most dangerous transaction, in fact, of our time ended peaceably and to the great advantage of Great Britain.
In the other great affair, which has, in fact, governed. all European politics, Lord Salisbury has been equally moderate and equally successful. It is certain, from the very nature of things, that Great Britain has been pressed from many sides to join either the formal Triple Alliance, or the informal agreement between Russia and France ; and certain, also, that the interest of this country is to adhere to neither. Lord Salisbury has perceived that interest clearly, has made peace his first object, and has resolutely, under most difficult circumstances, kept the country free from entangling treaties. Some assurance of limited protection under certain contingencies has apparently been conveyed to Italy,—or at least Signor Crispi's speeches seem based on some such con- viction; but with that exception, which was inevitable if the freedom of the Mediterranean is to be maintained, Lord Salisbury has remained steadily aloof. It follows that the Great War has been made more dangerous to the Powers than ever, neither side knowing accurately what attitude this country will assume ; and that if it arrives, Great Britain is free to act according to her interests and her sense of right ; while intermediately her position as a Great Power is fully maintained, her protectorate of Egypt is practically guaranteed—Egypt being nominally under the trusteeship of Europe, carried out through Sir Evelyn Baring—and that she is courted as the State which on any future day may hold the balance of power. At the same time, peace has been maintained under very difficult circum- stances with Russia ; while the land-frontier of the Indian Empire, the great and, as is believed, exposed line stretching from Kurrachee to Tibet, has been made far stronger than it ever was, as strong, indeed, as any Continental Govern- ment in the same position would attempt to make it.
It would seem, we think, to the electors of most countries that these were splendid successes. They are open, of course, to all manner of criticisms, such as that the occupa- tion of Egypt involves the hostility of France ; that the Chartered Companies interposed between the Government and its African subjects are only embarrassing screens ; and that Great Britain, by standing neutral between the Triple Alliance and its adversaries, forfeits the advantage of belonging to either side without finally protecting herself against the danger of being suddenly drawn into the great quarrel. Objections as sound might, however, be raised against any line of action in a concern so complicated as Foreign policy ; and as a fact, the one adopted has helped to preserve peace, has left Great Britain at once respected and free to act, and by allowing all parties to unite on this one subject, has shown her to the world in possession of undivided and unembarrassed fighting. strength. Such a position could, under such circumstances, have been secured only by much courage, great modera- tion—remember the dismissal of Lord Sackville by Mr. Cleveland—and successful tact, and that it should not be acknowledged by the electors is most amazing. It is useless to grumble, for the evil is rooted in the national character, and national character is one of those conditions of thought which politicians must accept ; but we could find it in our hearts sometimes to desire that Englishmen were as regards foreign dangers a little more uneasy, and did not rely quite so tranquilly upon the strength of the ship to take them clear of rocks. After all, though the ship be an ironclad, it is the man in the conning-tower upon whom, when the danger is present, the safety of the crew must ultimately depend.
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