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 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF 
 ENGLAND
 
 
 THE _LOST POSSESSIONS 
 OF ENGLAND 
 
 ESSAYS IN IMPERIAL HISTORY 
 
 WALTER FREWEN LORD 
 
 Civil Service of I 
 Barrister-at-Law 
 
 Late Civil Service of India 
 
 LONDON 
 RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON 
 
 ^xtbli&htxs in (Drbinarjj to Dcr Jlajt^tj) the (S^nttn 
 1896 
 
 [Al^ rights resen'ed'\
 
 3^ l<o
 
 PREFACE 
 
 It is not pretended that this book is an 
 exhaustive account of the Lost Possessions 
 of England. Such an account might perhaps 
 be written, but it could hardly be read. If, 
 out of the scattered records of our other 
 lost possessions, some meagre account were 
 compiled, it would be interesting only to the 
 descendants — lineal and reo-imental — of the 
 gallant men who took part in them. 
 
 This view was strongly held by the late 
 Sir John Seeley, who kindly revised these 
 essays, and by whose advice these, and no 
 more, are incorporated in this volume. 
 
 The following were the reasons given by 
 the late Regius Professor of History for 
 advising the author to restrict his work to 
 the contents of this book :
 
 PREFACE 
 
 Neither the events here recorded, nor the 
 similar events which are only alluded to, have 
 influenced to any considerable extent the 
 course of history. Their importance to us 
 lies in the lessons which they enforce, and 
 these are as easily deducible from the occu- 
 pations here treated of as from double their 
 number ; it is a case where the half is greater 
 than the whole : 
 
 These lessons are : 
 
 1. The advantage to a sea Power like 
 Great Britain of an extended Empire — an 
 advantage very bluntly pointed out to Sir 
 William Draper in the secret instructions 
 furnished to that officer prior to his depar- 
 ture for Manila. 
 
 2. The value in Imperial policy of the 
 sound business principle of not throwing away 
 rubbish — as illustrated by Tangier and the 
 present situation in Morocco. 
 
 3. The necessity of listening to the advice 
 of the man on the spot — by not doing which 
 we lost Java. 
 
 4. The paramount importance of studying 
 local climatic conditions — a neglect of which 
 precaution cost us five thousand men in 
 Cuba.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 5. The folly of entrusting important expedi- 
 tions (even against incompetent enemies) to 
 untried leaders— a folly which cost us five 
 thousand men and the province of Buenos 
 Ayres. 
 
 6. The disastrous effects of a weak course 
 of action in equivocal situations — as in the 
 Ionian Islands. 
 
 The author's great obligations to the late 
 Sir John Seeley have already been acknow- 
 ledged ; he is further indebted to Lord 
 Leconfield for permission to examine the 
 records in his possession, and to the editors 
 of Temple Bar and the Nineteenth Century 
 for permission to incorporate articles already 
 published by them. 
 
 II, New Square, Lincoln's Inn, 
 December, 1895.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. 
 
 RETROSPECT .... 
 
 I 
 
 II. 
 
 TRANSITION PERIOD. — DUNKIRK 
 
 25 
 
 III. 
 
 TANGIER .... 
 
 58 
 
 IV. 
 
 MINORCA .... 
 
 98 
 
 V, 
 
 CUBA .... 
 
 • 159 
 
 VI. 
 
 MANILA .... 
 
 169 
 
 VII. 
 
 CORSICA .... 
 
 181 
 
 vni. 
 
 BUENOS AYRES AND MONTEVIDEO . 
 
 221 
 
 IX. 
 
 JAVA .... 
 
 238 
 
 X. 
 
 THE IONIAN ISLANDS 
 
 269 
 
 XI. 
 
 FORECAST ... 
 
 308
 
 THE LOST POSSESSIONS 
 OF ENGLAND 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 RETROSPECT. 
 
 It takes more than a malignant press and a 
 few thousand miles of sea to separate two 
 great peoples united by a common faith, a 
 common ancestry, and a common language — 
 by infinite ties of kinship and mutual hospi- 
 tality and regard. 
 
 And so, when face to face with the task of 
 sketching the history of the Lost Posses- 
 sions of England, it is merely instinctive to 
 omit the United States of America. It 
 offends one's sense of propriety to speak of 
 a nation once so intimate a part of our own 
 polity as having ever been a 'possession';
 
 2 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 our present affection and our hopes of the 
 future aHke forbid the word 'lost.' 
 
 Our real * lost possessions ' — genuine con- 
 quests and actual losses — include a number 
 of strong places and rich provinces of which 
 we may say with confidence, firstly, that they 
 constitute such a Colonial Empire as any 
 other nation but ourselves would consider 
 nothing less than magnificent ; and, secondly, 
 that, in comparison with the countries that 
 still own our sway, they are almost incon- 
 siderable. 
 
 They include, in the West Indies, Cuba ; 
 in the East Indies, Java, Manila, the Celebes 
 and the Moluccas ; in North Africa, Tangier ; 
 in South America, Montevideo and Buenos 
 Ayres ; and in Europe, Minorca, Corsica 
 and the Ionian Islands. 
 
 To be exhaustive, the list of lost posses- 
 sions ought to include the island of Heligo- 
 land. It ought also to include a number of 
 places like Pondicherry and Curacao, which 
 are no longer, indeed, English, but which 
 in case of war would be held by other 
 nations on sufferance merely. It ought also
 
 RETROSPECT 
 
 to include the Transvaal. But the destiny 
 of the Transvaal is fairly obvious. 
 
 Neither Cabinets nor individual Ministers 
 played a very distinguished part in this series 
 of events. In the negotiations that preceded 
 peace, our conquests in distant oceans appear 
 to have been sources of embarrassment rather 
 than strength. In so far as they were made 
 any use of at all, they were employed as 
 pawns in the European game ; but even 
 there they were employed feebly and in- 
 effectually. 
 
 One Imperial statesman, however, was 
 produced by England — William, first Earl 
 of Chatham. In his Imperial ideas he was 
 far in advance of his time ; and it was his 
 fate that, whether his policy was followed or 
 reversed, the result was in either event dis- 
 astrous to the Empire he loved so well. 
 Where he succeeded in carrying out his 
 policy — as in the expulsion of France and 
 Spain from North America — his great enter- 
 prise, being misunderstood by his contempo- 
 raries, merely facilitated, if it did not actually 
 bring about, the separation of the American
 
 4 THE LOST POSSESSIOXS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Colonies. Where his policy was thwarted, 
 as in the peace that followed the Seven 
 Years' War, our losses included the hard- 
 won prize of Cuba and the splendid posses- 
 sion of the Philippines. He was a great 
 figure in the unimaginative eighteenth cen- 
 tury ; but he passed meteor - like through 
 the political heavens, and left nothing behind 
 him but orloom and disaster. 
 
 The Earl of Beaconsfield's work was 
 lasting. He, first of English statesmen, 
 revealed to the nation as a whole its Imperial 
 prospects and duties. Perhaps we are still 
 too near his time to judge of his influence 
 with perfect accuracy. But the assumption 
 by the Queen of the title of Empress of India 
 was an act of deep significance and political 
 value, and is of itself a sufficient foundation 
 for the character of an Imperial statesman. 
 
 The expansion of England into an Empire 
 was a national movement ; and it is worth 
 noting that the Empire has never yet sus- 
 tained a serious loss except as the direct 
 result of Ministerial action. Cuba and 
 Manila were surrendered with singular
 
 RETROSPECT 5 
 
 levity, and Java was literally given away 
 for the asking. Scanty iiiformation and a 
 vacillating policy will, perhaps, account for 
 the fact that, in respect of her conquests 
 in far-off seas, England, alth.ough advan- 
 tageously placed for negotiation, habitually 
 concluded treaties disadvantageous to her- 
 self. 
 
 But she has no similar ground for self- 
 reproach in the series of occupations which 
 have marked her advance along the Mediter- 
 ranean towards the East. Here she had full 
 information and pursued a definite object. 
 She has occupied place after place, always 
 w^ith the view of securing herself in Mediter- 
 ranean waters so as to protect her trade. 
 This trade was at first with Turkey, later 
 with India. As a rule, England has only 
 abandoned one place in order to occupy 
 another stronger and more valuable. If she 
 does not now hold the places best suited to 
 her ends, it is not for lack of experimenting. 
 In the two hundred and forty years that have 
 passed since Cromwell founded our Colonial 
 Empire, England has garrisoned, in succes-
 
 6 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 sion, Tangier, Gibraltar, Minorca, Sardinia, 
 Corsica, Elba, Sicily, Malta, the Ionian 
 Islands, Cyprus and Alexandria. 
 
 It Is not for a civilian to express an opinion 
 as to the strategic importance of these posi- 
 tions ; but Tangier was unquestionably the 
 most valuable commercially, whether for 
 itself or as the gate to Morocco. It was 
 our misfortune to occupy it in days when 
 we had not yet learnt the art of dealing with 
 barbarians, and we abandoned it without 
 seeing what we w^ere giving up. 
 
 Elba, Sardinia, Sicily and the Ionian 
 Islands were never formally added to tlie 
 British Empire. Elba w^as only held for a 
 time during our tenure of Corsica, and Sar- 
 dinia was only occupied by us as the ally of 
 Spain in the War of the Spanish Succession. "* 
 A much more Important Incident (although 
 it was not exactly an ' occupation ') was the 
 virtual administration of the kino^dom of 
 Sicily by Lord William Bentinck from i8ir 
 to 1 8 14, while he was British Envoy Extra- 
 
 "^ During our occupation we flew the Spanish flag, not 
 the British.
 
 RETROSPECT 7 
 
 ordinary and Commander-in-Chief of our 
 forces there. 
 
 The history of our occupation of the Ionian 
 Islands is the history of a deed of which no 
 other nation but England could have been 
 capable, and which it is devoutly to be hoped 
 England will never repeat. At the Great 
 Peace the Ionian Islands were the subject of 
 much heart-searching on the part of the Great 
 Powers. They had been, for twenty years 
 previously, the shuttlecock of the traditional 
 ambitions of France, Russia, Turkey, and 
 Austria. When the Napoleonic wars came 
 to an end the islands were in the hands of 
 England, and for several centuries previously 
 they had been subject to the Republic of 
 Venice. To the latter State they could not 
 be restored, for it had disappeared ; and the 
 Great Powers shrank from uniting them 
 with the mainland, to which they belonged 
 geographically, because the population was 
 strongly Christian in sentiment, while the 
 mainland was at that time, of course, 
 Turkish. In this dilemma it was resolved 
 to erect them into a separate State, nominally
 
 8 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 independent ; but their independence was to 
 be protected by Great Britain. 
 
 This arrangement proved to be a satis- 
 factory solution of the question so far as the 
 Powers were concerned, but it placed England 
 in a very unfortunate position. She was to 
 garrison the place, administer it, protect it 
 in war, and train the inhabitants in the prin- 
 ciples of self-government. The last-named 
 work was one for which England was sup- 
 posed to be particularly fitted, inasmuch as 
 her free institutions were the only survivals 
 of European liberty. The training up of the 
 Greeks in the way they should go was a 
 great ambition. It is hardly possible to con- 
 ceive a nobler pretension, or one more entirely 
 calculated to stimulate the Continental belief 
 in British cant. 
 
 To occupy a place until compelled to leave 
 by force of arms is a process well under- 
 standed of the nations. But to occupy a 
 place for fifty years, and in the end to retire 
 for no other reason than that the place has 
 learnt its lesson, and can now get on without 
 protection, may be — in fact is — a very noble
 
 RETROSPECT 9 
 
 action ; but it is not so understanded of the 
 nations. Our occupation of the Ionian 
 Islands was set down to an ambition too 
 timid to annex them, and our reHnquishment 
 of the islands was set down to sheer cowardice. 
 Whether they were a loss to us from a mili- 
 tary point of view is another matter, but the 
 lesson to be drawn from our occupation would 
 seem to be that it is unwise to go where we 
 do not mean to stay. 
 
 Unlike the rest of our lost possessions, the 
 Mediterranean group has a connected history. 
 In watching the footsteps of our race from 
 Tangier to Gibraltar, from Gibraltar to 
 Minorca, Sardinia, Corsica, and Elba, from 
 this group of relinquished strongholds to 
 Sicily and Malta, and from Malta to Corfu, 
 and finally to Cyprus and Alexandria, w^e 
 feel, at first dimly, and then with ever-in- 
 creasing force, the attraction of England to 
 the East. It was the great magnet of India 
 that drew us along the perilous waterway, 
 where our path was watched with jealous 
 eyes, and where our progress roused at 
 every step suspicion and hostility. No
 
 lo THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 single one of these steps could have been 
 foretold — least of all the latest of them. 
 Some of us recognize in this connected series 
 of apparently fortuitous events the hand of a 
 nation's destiny. Others are only eager to 
 see us retrace our steps. 
 
 The question has two aspects : one military, 
 the other sentimental ; but from both points 
 of view the arguments in favour of retiring 
 from the Mediterranean are the same. They 
 are, briefly, that we have In the Cape route 
 a communication with India entirely under 
 our control, and that it is, therefore, impolitic 
 to incur so much friction as is involved in 
 maintaining the Mediterranean route. This 
 contention is supported by the plausible sug- 
 gestion that by ' corking up ' the Mediter- 
 ranean and the Red Sea we protect ourselves 
 much more effectually than by rivalling France 
 in waters that are more properly hers than 
 ours. 
 
 This last suggestion (which tacitly admits 
 that the whole question Is only a form of the 
 ancient rivalry of France and England) is 
 properly a service matter. But two or three
 
 RETROSPECT ii 
 
 comments may be offered by a civilian. The 
 first is that in these days you can hardly, 
 without gross hyperbole, talk of ' corking up ' 
 a mighty sheet of water like the Mediter- 
 ranean. Two exits, both of them very 
 threatening to us, present themselves imme- 
 diately. One is by canal to the Bay of 
 Biscay, and the other is by railw^ay from 
 Scanderun to the Persian Gulf. A side- 
 reflection is that by withdrawing from the 
 Mediterranean we leave Italy to be ham- 
 mered to pieces by any Mediterranean 
 Powers that have a mind to crush her. 
 
 But vast schemes of this kind are not 
 properly approached without the wider view of 
 the question that history supplies to us. The 
 Mediterranean route to India and the East 
 presents itself to most of us as a question of 
 yesterday, having no claims to our attention 
 except such as derive their force from vague 
 conceptions of trade interests, coloured with 
 still vaguer notions of ' Imperialism.' 
 
 But so far from being an affair of yesterday, 
 the Mediterranean route is one of the oldest, 
 perhaps the oldest of the existing external
 
 12 THE LOST POSSESSIOXS OF ENGLAND 
 
 relations of England. It was begun when 
 Aurangzib had been only three years on the 
 throne of Delhi, and when the Stuarts still 
 reigned in England. It has grown under all 
 changes of dynasty and Ministries. It did 
 not sink into insignificance when we acquired 
 the route round the Cape ; on the contrary, 
 it grew in actual and potential importance 
 It is the most definitely marked expression 
 of the qualities of our race, and is in the 
 truest sense a matter of national concern. 
 For nigh on two hundred and fifty years the 
 Mediterranean route has been taking its 
 present shape, and the consciousness of the 
 meaning of the last few centuries of English 
 history that has sprung up since the publica- 
 tion of the ' Expansion of England ' forbids 
 us to treat liQ:htlv the results of so much 
 national effort. 
 
 At the eastern end of the Mediterranean 
 on the historic stage of Egypt, and in the 
 sight of all the nations, French and Enorllsh 
 have in turn shown the world how they deal 
 with the East. 
 
 France orientalizes herself. The natural
 
 RETROSPECT 13 
 
 bent of her genius is dramatic, and she is 
 accustomed to a strong and highly-centralized 
 administration. So far she is in instinctive 
 sympathy with Orientals, and has a great 
 advantage over Englishmen. Unhappily, 
 however, she has usually assimilated a third 
 principle of Oriental government, which is 
 best described as the opposite of the principle 
 that governments exist for the benefit of the 
 governed. In the state of chaos which was 
 the normal condition of Asia before the Inter- 
 ference of Europe, the action of the last- 
 named principle was periodically corrected 
 by the violent redistribution of accumulated 
 hoards. But the long-continued pressure of 
 a selfish central authority, which is also an 
 alien authority, exhausts a country in a way 
 that much worse Governments do not. 
 These are some of the reasons that may 
 account for the moderate degree of success 
 attained by France In her Imperial enterprises. 
 It is open to contention that French 
 methods of government are superior to our 
 own. But if we look at results, it Is surprising 
 to see how seriously the good effects of these
 
 14 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 methods are discounted by the spirit that 
 informs them. No better example of this 
 contrast could be found than the recent 
 history of Egypt. There was once a keen 
 rivalry between France and England for the 
 domination of the East, and the final triumph 
 of England has usually been set down to 
 superior prowess in arms. But even if we 
 had never entered the field against our 
 neighbours, the history of India In French 
 hands would probably have anticipated the 
 recent history of Egypt. 
 
 These considerations are not beside our 
 subject. There are some among us whose 
 opinions carry weight, and who, at the thres- 
 hold of all Imperial questions, are continually 
 asking ' What business have we there ?' and 
 * What Q-Qod do we do ?' There is no answer 
 possible that would satisfy an Englishman 
 who would ask the first question. But to 
 the second question the answer is : ' Egypt !' 
 To repress slavery, to reduce taxes, to In- 
 crease the general comfort, to purify the 
 administration of justice, to substitute peace 
 for civil war, to establish religious tolerance :
 
 RETROSPECT 15 
 
 if these things are not good work, there is no 
 meaning in words.' 
 
 In the West Indies France was before us. 
 Before the opening of the long struggle be- 
 tween France and England in the eighteenth 
 century, France had a considerable Colonial 
 Empire there. At the Great Peace all her 
 possessions had been stricken from her 
 grasp but two — Martinique and Guadaloupe. 
 These important islands were regularly cap- 
 tured whenever war broke out between 
 France and England, and as regularly re- 
 stored at the peace. 
 
 Martinique was the subject of three, and 
 Guadaloupe of five separate conquests and 
 renditions. On one of these occasions 
 England handed over the latter island to 
 Sweden, Guadaloupe and one million sterling 
 being the price paid for her alliance ; a course 
 of action which would have been quite im- 
 possible to a Cabinet holding definite views 
 of Colonial policy. 
 
 In the West Indian Group we must also 
 note Cura9ao, which was captured from the
 
 i6 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 French In the year 1800, restored to Holland 
 1802, recaptured from the French 1807, ^^^ 
 restored to Holland 18 14. In the East Indies 
 we conquered and restored the Moluccas and 
 the Celebes in the same fitful manner. 
 
 Of all our former West Indian possessions 
 Cuba is the island the loss of which is to be 
 most bitterly lamented. With even decent 
 administration it should be a veritable mine 
 of wealth. The history of the island since 
 its rendition to Spain is only another illustra- 
 tion of the fact that no nation gets on so well 
 with peoples of alien blood as the English. 
 
 In the East Indies we have now so far 
 outstripped our rivals that the scanty posses- 
 sions still held by them may, without exag- 
 geration, be said to be held upon sufferance 
 only. They include the once dreaded port 
 of Pondicherry and Chandernagar. It is 
 obvious that these mere dots in the ocean of 
 British possessions are of no danger to us, 
 and the history of their capture and restora- 
 tion loses its interest when we reflect how 
 intrinsically unimportant both places have 
 become.
 
 RETROSPECT 17 
 
 / 
 
 We can reflect without bitterness that 
 
 Pondicherry and Chandernagar were once 
 
 English, and have now passed away from 
 
 ' us ; but what shall we say of Java and the 
 
 Philippines, the Moluccas and the Celebes? 
 
 Java, a most wealthy and important island, 
 forming a link 700 miles long in the chain of 
 islands that stretches from Australia to Further 
 India, was conquered from the French in 
 181 1, magnificently administered by Sir 
 Stamford Raffles for five years, and then 
 idly handed over to Holland at the Treaty 
 of Vienna by a statesman w^ho did not even 
 know where Java was. 
 
 There is no point of view from which this 
 incident is not deplorable. Humanitarian 
 grounds usually come first with English 
 people. On these grounds there was a very 
 strong case for the retention of the island ; 
 whatever the Dutch may be now, they were 
 very cruel masters a century ago. Probably 
 no single man ever so increased the sum of 
 human happiness in the short space of five 
 years as Sir Stamford Raffles. 
 
 On a question of conquest there are not, 
 
 2
 
 i8 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 as a rule, two views possible. We won, but 
 only after such hard fighting as ought to 
 have made the conquest very precious. 
 The French had held Java for five years. 
 They had spent a great deal of care and 
 money on fortifying the island, and they were 
 well led and well provided. 
 
 As to the indirect results of holding Java, 
 we have but to look at the map of the Malay 
 Archipelago to see how important they were. 
 Had we kept our conquest, it is more than 
 probable that, even if we relinquished the 
 Moluccas and the Celebes, the islands lying 
 between Java and Australia would have fallen 
 under our influence in the course of the next 
 eighty years. The New Guinea policy of 
 ten years ago must have been materially 
 different ; and the crown is put to the record 
 of our blunders in the Pacific when we re- 
 member that the rich group of the Philippines 
 was ours by conquest in 1762, and was as 
 lightly given away as Cuba or Java. 
 
 France, Holland, and Hanover have at 
 different times been subject to the Crown of 
 England.
 
 RETROSPECT 19 
 
 The great distinction between these inci- 
 dents and the acquisition and loss, for 
 example, of Cuba or Minorca is, of course, 
 that the latter places were swept into our 
 net by the expansive force of the whole 
 nation, whereas France, Holland, and Han- 
 over were only added to our dominions by 
 razzias, or dynastic accidents. The latter 
 were essentially artificial expansions, the 
 former as essentially natural. 
 
 In the conquest of France we may, in a 
 humorous sort of way, take pride. We may 
 look back on Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt, 
 as a grown man may look back on his school- 
 boy fights. But then we must also recall 
 Hastings. If England conquered France five 
 hundred years ago, and crowned Henry V. 
 King of France, we must not forget that a 
 little earlier France conquered England and 
 crowned William of Normandy King of 
 England. The long struggle was an exploit 
 of our lusty youth which both nations may 
 remember with interest, and without rancour ; 
 but, after all, it has not much relation to 
 modern life. It ought not to influence our
 
 20 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 relations with France more than the fights 
 of Boadicea with the Romans influence our 
 relations with King Umberto. 
 
 Wilham III. ruled Holland and England 
 for fourteen years, and the Crowns of Han- 
 over and England were united from 17 14 
 till 1837 ; but these were dynastic accidents. 
 Holland, Hanover, and France are in no 
 sober meaning of the word Lost Possessions 
 of England. 
 
 This rapid survey will show what founda- 
 tion there is for the statement that the mere 
 leavings of England represent a strong and 
 wealthy Colonial Empire. Our lost posses- 
 sions include valuable islands in the West 
 Indies, a province in South America, another 
 in South Africa, a strong place in North 
 Africa, and a long chain of wealthy posses- 
 sions in the Pacific. They also include a 
 number of positions intrinsically of small 
 value, but useful as posts on the road to 
 India, which we have from time to time 
 occupied with the object of guarding that 
 road. As we have experimented on no fewer 
 than eleven of these, it may be fairly pre-
 
 RETROSPECT 21 
 
 sumed that we now hold those that suit us 
 best. 
 
 And yet, numerous and rich though our 
 lost provinces be, we may with no more than 
 justice say that what we have given up Is 
 Inconsiderable In comparison with what we 
 still hold. The reflection suggested by this 
 conclusion Is that no such realm could possibly 
 have been carved out except by the force of 
 a whole nation. And such we know from 
 history to have been the case : the British 
 Empire was built up (and often built up 
 unconsciously) by the whole force of Britain. 
 It represents an Investment of capital and 
 labour carried on by the entire nation for 
 two hundred and fifty years. As the chief 
 result of this movement there Is not a subject 
 of the Queen who Is not Immediately In- 
 terested In Its maintenance. Built up by 
 national force, It will only be conserved by 
 the same means. The Empires of Napoleon 
 and Alexander crumbled to pieces at the 
 disappearance of those great men : that of 
 Victoria can only decay with the decay of 
 her peoples.
 
 22 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 And yet the word has a sinister ring in 
 history. The shouts of victorious legions, 
 the thunder and the trampling of innumerable 
 squadrons, the acclamations of the victor, 
 the groans of the vanquished ; on the mon- 
 arch's side magnificence, on the people's side 
 misery, splendour founded on plunder, and 
 (as its complement) poverty hardly to be 
 endured — these are the dark associations 
 that cling to the name of ' Empire ' from the 
 days of Nebuchadnezzar to the days of 
 Napoleon. 
 
 But the Empire of Victoria has as few of 
 these attributes, and in as small a degree as 
 is consistent with any exercise of authority in 
 this world. It is strong, but it is not magnifi- 
 cent. It does not appeal to the eye at all, 
 and but very little to the imagination. We 
 are jealous of military renown, and reward 
 it grudgingly ; the military career is not the 
 first career in the State — far from it. Neither, 
 on the other hand, is there any glamour or 
 mystery about our civil administration. The 
 very salaries of public functionaries are 
 published to all the world. They are not
 
 RETROSPECT 23 
 
 Splendid : and they decrease in relative value 
 every day. The reigning family derives abso- 
 lutely no profit whatever from these exten- 
 sions of its domains. The whole mighty 
 extent of territory is governed first and last 
 simply and solely in the interest of its in- 
 habitants. The stubborn and quarrelsome 
 spirit of our race — ever jealous of its rulers 
 —demands that our administration shall be 
 careful, and even miserly ; insists that its 
 methods be open and orderly — or (as some 
 might say) bare and mean. 
 
 There are elements both of strength and 
 weakness in this situation. On the one 
 hand there is no example in history of nations 
 rebelling against a decorous Government 
 because it was merely decorous ; they may 
 sneer, but they will not rebel. On the other 
 hand, we have so neglected the outward and 
 visible symbols of authority, we make (to use 
 a simple expression) so little fuss about them, 
 that many of us have only just awakened to 
 the fact that we have an Empire at all. This 
 would not matter if the extensions of the 
 Queen's dominions had been mere razzias.
 
 24 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 A province lost or gained would mean that 
 a soldier had made or lost a fortune, and 
 that is all ; neither event would concern the 
 mass of our citizens in the smallest degree. 
 But the policy hitherto pursued by our rulers 
 has bound up the fortunes of the humblest 
 labourer in England with the fate of the 
 remotest field in Assam and Manitoba.
 
 [:^5] 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 TRANSITION PERIOD. DUNKIRK. 
 
 Probably George III. did not take himself 
 very seriously as King of France, although 
 the conquest of Corsica revived English 
 domination In France In a very unexpected 
 way ; as King of that Island his writ ran 
 fitfully for about three years. But after 
 1 80 1 the Lilies were no longer quartered 
 with the Leopards In the arms of England, 
 and this heraldic change Implied the definite 
 renunciation of a claim which had been tacitly 
 maintained, in spite of Its patent absurdity, 
 for three hundred and fifty years. We may 
 say that, from the year 1450 onwards, it 
 became yearly more plain that English rule 
 In France was over for ever. For about a 
 century before that date, however, there was
 
 26 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 no great exaggeration in the title * King of 
 
 England and France.' 
 
 For about a century after 1450 we main- 
 tained a precarious dominion in Calais, and 
 a strip of country around the port about one 
 hundred and twenty square miles in extent, 
 which was called the Pale. The history of 
 that occupation is the province of the anti- 
 quary. But the different ways in which men 
 spoke of Calais when we finally lost it are 
 instructive to the student of Imperial history. 
 To the men of the new time — the minority — 
 the loss of Calais was a business inconveni- 
 ence. To others, who looked on it as the 
 gate of France, it was a national misfortune 
 and disgrace. The former looked on Calais 
 as we look on a coaling-station ; to the latter 
 it was as much a part of England as the Isle 
 of Wight. Probably every man who thought 
 about the question at all felt vaguely uneasy 
 at the reflection that we no longer held a port 
 on the other side of the Channel ; and the 
 demand for the cession of a French port was 
 from time to time renewed throughout the 
 transition period In diplomatic negotiations
 
 TRANSITION PERIOD.— DUNKIRK 2? 
 
 between France and England. The narra- 
 tive of our occupation of, and dealings with, 
 Dunkirk, from its illustrious opening in 1658 
 to its sordid conclusion in 1744, forms an 
 obscure chapter in the history of this period. 
 
 We owe the revival of English domination 
 in France to Oliver Cromwell. But it would 
 probably not have persisted so long had it 
 not been for the perhaps pardonable con- 
 fusion of mind induced by the great deeds 
 of Marlborough in the Low Countries and 
 Germany, and by the large accession of 
 territory on the Continent of Europe that 
 followed on the dynastic accident of the 
 union of the Crowns of Hanover and 
 England. 
 
 One of the last of the Protector's deeds 
 was to lend the French King six thousand 
 men to assist him against the Spaniards in 
 the Low Countries. On June 25, 1658, just 
 one hundred years after the loss of Calais, 
 the keys of Dunkirk were handed over to 
 the English Ambassador ; the Ironsides 
 occupied the citadel that the French had 
 reduced with their assistance, and England
 
 28 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 had once more the questionable advantage of 
 a port on the other side of the Channel. 
 
 The acquisition of Dunkirk came midway 
 between the seizure of Jamaica in 1655 and 
 the occupation of Tangier in 1661. Jamaica 
 was destined to be the nucleus of our West 
 Indian dominions, and Tangier was our 
 first stepping-stone along the Mediterranean 
 towards the East. Thus, in East and West 
 at once the new era for England was begin- 
 ning, and yet Cromwell still dreamed of a 
 British Empire nearer home. 
 
 That this superstition should have domi- 
 nated the mind of Mary is not, perhaps, to 
 be wondered at. But Cromwell lived a cen- 
 tury later, and yet shared in her delusion. 
 One hundred years after the loss of Calais, 
 the idea that England owed it to herself to 
 acquire territory on the mainland of Europe 
 was still only imperfectly eradicated from the 
 popular mind. But Cromwell is the less to 
 be pardoned for sharing the popular delusion 
 in that he had clearly shown, by his action in 
 the West Indies, that he knew where best to 
 strike at the foes of his country. In spite,
 
 TRANSITION PERIOD.— DUNKIRK 29 
 
 however, of his naval successes, he was 
 preparing to realize the old dream of a 
 Continental dominion for England based on 
 military force, and with fifty thousand of the 
 best troops in Europe at his command, it is 
 more than likely that if death had not inter- 
 vened he would have succeeded. 
 
 Dunkirk lay conveniently for us in some 
 ways. It was a commodious and well-built 
 town, although (as we were afterwards to 
 discover) it was unhealthy. In situation it 
 was very like Deal. There was no natural 
 harbour ; but there were roads protected by 
 the Brake Bank, just as the Downs are 
 protected by the Goodwins. The holding- 
 ground was not so good as in the Downs, 
 and one could hardly get more than seven 
 fathoms anywhere inside the Brake Bank, 
 while near the shore the bottom shelved 
 dangerously ; but, on the whole, it was a 
 convenient anchorage enough for shipping 
 of that period. An artificial basin had been 
 constructed inland, and a long canal cut from 
 the sea inshore to communicate with it. In 
 this way ships bound for the West Indies
 
 30 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF EXGLAXD 
 
 (which did a considerable trade with Dunkirk) 
 could take part of their cargo on board in 
 safety ; the rest of the lading had to be com- 
 pleted while the ships lay at anchor outside. 
 It was no long sail from England — about ten 
 hours with a fair wind. At the present day 
 the light of Dunkirk can be just seen from 
 Walmer Beach on a clear nio-ht. The dis- 
 tance is forty or fifty miles. The mail-boats 
 plied between Dover and Dunkirk, and from 
 Windsor it was about three days' post. 
 
 It will be seen that Dunkirk was not 
 naturally a very strong or a very convenient 
 port, and perhaps no small part of our self- 
 gratulation on possessing it was due to the 
 loss sustained bv our revenue througrh the 
 busy smuggling trade carried on from the 
 little ports and harbours along the coast on 
 either side of Dunkirk. It was hoped that 
 from our newly acquired centre we might be 
 able to check this, and the advantage to the 
 revenue would have been considerable ; for 
 at the beginning of the eighteenth century 
 as many as five hundred vessels were engaged 
 in the illicit trade, and mainly subsisted on it.
 
 TRANSITION PERIOD.— DUNKIRK 31 
 
 Scarcely three months after the cession the 
 Protector died. The Governor appointed to 
 be the head of our garrison over seas was 
 Lockhart, variously called Lord Lockhart, 
 Sir William Lockhart, and Colonel Lock- 
 hart, our Ambassador In Paris. In the con- 
 fusion that followed the death of Cromwell, 
 it was hoped that Dunkirk might be acquired 
 for the French Crown. Twice already had 
 the town been a French possession : in 1558, 
 when it was restored to Spain by the Treaty 
 of Cateau Cambresis in the following year ; 
 and in 1646, when it was held for six years 
 before its restoration to the Spaniards In 
 1652. It was now rumoured that Lockhart 
 was being approached with a view to sur- 
 rendering the town, and the price of his 
 treachery — a Marshal's baton and twenty 
 thousand pounds — was even bruited about. 
 The price was handsome, although nothing 
 like the terms that Charles II. afterwards 
 obtained. Probably Lockhart did not con- 
 sider the terms at all ; but he was recalled 
 from his government, and succeeded by 
 Colonel Harley.
 
 32 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Lockhart was an eminent man in his day — 
 upright and sagacious, a good soldier and a 
 good diplomatist, an excellent type of public 
 servant, and no bigot. He could not prevent 
 his soldiers from drinking King Charles's 
 health, and he did not attempt to do so, for 
 he had no violent opinions of his own on the 
 question of Royalty or the Republic. The 
 question could hardly be said to divide 
 Dunkirk as, in a measure, It divided 
 England, for there was no doubt whatever 
 that the garrison favoured the Restoration. 
 Still, when applied to for permission for the 
 King to enter the city, Lockhart replied that 
 such a course was out of the question, con- 
 siderlnof the terms on which he held his 
 commission. The demand was not pressed, 
 perhaps hardly could have been, and his 
 refusal was not remembered against him with 
 acrimony. But, as may be w^ell imagined, it 
 was thought that the Governor of Dunkirk 
 ouofht not to be a man who had refused 
 admission to his Sovereign, so, two months 
 after the King's return, Colonel Edward 
 Harley was appointed to Lockhart's place.
 
 TRANSITION PERIOD.— DUNKIRK 3s 
 
 Harley was one of the rallies to the 
 Monarchy, and among- the most respectable 
 of them in the best sense of the word. He 
 was loyal to the King, as he had been loyal 
 to the Republic — upon conviction, and not 
 from fanaticism ; but he had strong opinions 
 of his own, as he had shown before and was 
 soon to show again, and in the most un- 
 mistakable manner. 
 
 As every student of elementary English 
 history is taught, an early act of Charles on 
 ascending the throne was to sell Dunkirk 
 to the French for five million livres. The 
 current estimate of the King's character is 
 largely based on this transaction, and there 
 is no doubt that at the time it was thought 
 to be most lamentable. The City merchants 
 were much irritated at being deprived of this 
 additional protection to trade, for they had 
 begun to count on it. The army could not 
 be expected to be pleased, and our Ambas- 
 sadors looked very grave. They sadly com- 
 plained that it was one thing to represent 
 the man who had wrung Dunkirk from the 
 French, and quite another thing to represent 
 
 3
 
 34 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 the man who had sold It back again. The 
 common people were very angry ; and later 
 on, as disasters accumulated, they chalked 
 up on the Chancellor's palace : 
 
 ' Three things to be seen : 
 Tangier, Dunkirk, and a barren Queen.' 
 
 Clarendon had the smallest possible share 
 in any of these misfortunes, if misfortunes 
 they were. As regards Dunkirk, Charles, if 
 he took advice, was much better qualified to 
 give it. To understand what we should now 
 call the ' Dunkirk question,' an Intimate 
 knowledge of the politics of three kingdoms 
 was required, and the King was the only man 
 in England who possessed that knowledge. 
 He knew his own country as none else could 
 possibly know it. He had traversed it in 
 Royal state, at the head of armies, and 
 alone, as a beggar and a hunted fugitive. 
 He had passed many years of exile in the 
 Low Countries, and he thoroughly under- 
 stood the growing power of Louis XIV. He 
 had had fifteen years' training in the dire 
 school of adversity, and whatever else he
 
 TRANSITION PERIOD.— DUNKIRK 35 
 
 was, he was not unteachable like his brother ; 
 he could learn a lesson and remember it. 
 
 Our situation in Dunkirk was simply (as a 
 contemporary pamphleteer put it), ' we lie 
 here, as a Mouse between the ca^^s Paws.' 
 Charles was probably the only man in 
 England who would have agreed with the 
 pamphleteer, or could have even understood 
 what he meant. And if we do not bless 
 King Charles's memory for other reasons, 
 we may at least be thankful to him for ridding 
 us so promptly and so advantageously of 
 Dunkirk. 
 
 A trifling difficulty presented itself at the 
 outset, in the fiat refusal of the Governor to 
 have anything to do with so degrading a 
 performance as the surrender. But Harley 
 was honourably retired, and a new Governor 
 — Lord Rutherford — was appointed for the 
 express purpose of handing over the fortress 
 to Louis. 
 
 Rutherford had won his spurs In the French 
 army, where he had attained high rank. He 
 was as devoid of fear as Prince Rupert ; he 
 was also as devoid of other useful qualities.
 
 36 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 It was now understood that he was to receive 
 two steps in the peerage as a reward for 
 carrying out the surrender ; and he made his 
 way to Dunkirk, having as one of his subor- 
 dinates Major Henry Norwood. Both these 
 officers were to give their country the ad- 
 vantage of their services in Tangier, where 
 Rutherford was to meet a tragic death, and 
 Norwood was to rise and prosper after his 
 kind. He was a dry precisian ; formal, 
 methodical and pompous ; jealous of his 
 dignity and careful of his profit ; with many 
 respectable virtues, among which nobody 
 ever reckoned an unreasonable desire to be 
 first in a fight. But he was a good office 
 man, and worked hard at what he understood 
 to be his duty. 
 
 There may still be a few men living w^ho 
 have heard their grandfathers speak of our 
 relations with Dunkirk as actual issues of our 
 foreign policy ; for the miserable business 
 dragged on till 1744, and, although it lay 
 dormant during the latter half of the seven- 
 teenth century, it was stirred up into great 
 activity by the Treaty of Utrecht, from which
 
 TRANSITION PERIOD.— DUNKIRK yj 
 
 date it is the depressing duty of the student 
 
 of Imperial history to follow the Dunkirk 
 policy in all its unfortunate details. 
 
 The England of 171 2 was a very different 
 power from the England of half a century 
 earlier. Queen Anne was a simple, honest 
 lady with no scintilla of Charles's wit and 
 shrewdness, but with a high sense of duty — • 
 a sense in which her uncle had been totally 
 lacking ; and she brought with her to the 
 throne that astounding good fortune which 
 reigning Queens — with one sad exception — 
 have always brought to England. 
 
 If Charles had ever shared in Cromwell's 
 dreams, he must have laughed bitterly to 
 himself as he thought of the British Army. 
 Where should he draw his men from ? From 
 the Ironsides who scowled at him as the son 
 of the Man of Blood, or from the broken 
 men of fortune who were all that was left of 
 the splendid chivalry that had died for his 
 father ? or, if impartially from both ranks, 
 who was to lead, and whom would such an 
 army follow ? The idea was madness : to 
 talk of the British Army at the Restoration
 
 38 THE LOST POSSESSIOXS OF ENGLAND 
 
 was to talk of what did not exist, and could 
 not exist for many a year to come. It is no 
 small mark of Louis's magnanimity that he 
 paid us a great sum for Dunkirk, when he 
 could have struck it from our feeble grasp 
 as easily as a toy from a child's hand. 
 
 But in 1 712 all was different. Under the 
 leadership of one of those gods of war, of 
 whom Nature has produced perhaps twenty 
 in as many centuries, the British Army had 
 humbled Louis to the dust ; his gallant 
 Marshals were driven like so many school- 
 boys, and his splendid armies melted away 
 like mobs before the mighty onslaught ot 
 Marlborough. It seemed as if the old days 
 of three hundred years before had returned : 
 as if Eno-land had but to snatch rudelv, as of 
 yore, whatever she would, and as if France 
 must needs be grateful that she was not 
 totally crushed. 
 
 This fierce sense of triumph had somewhat 
 abated when the Treaty of Utrecht was 
 signed ; but it was undoubtedly responsible 
 for the foolish Ninth Clause, which was the 
 root of much diplomatic discomfiture, and
 
 TRANSITION PERIOD.— DUNKIRK 39 
 
 even of some national humiliation. By that 
 clause it was provided that Dunkirk should 
 be for ever destroyed as a harbour, fortress, 
 or seaport. This is the kind of stipulation 
 that rouses the maximum of exasperation in 
 the vanquished, and brings the minimum of 
 profit to the conquerors. It was cruel and 
 spiteful ; and, unless France were destroyed 
 or partitioned, which was very far indeed 
 from being the case, it was a condition that 
 we could not possibly see fulfilled. Thirty 
 years of sordid and profitless wrangling — in 
 which England always came off second best 
 — were the outcome of the Ninth Article of 
 the Treaty of Utrecht. 
 
 The wrangling began at once. General 
 Hill was appointed to be the English 
 Governor of Dunkirk. He was not a very 
 competent soldier. But, as his duties were 
 more ceremonial than martial, he was not ill 
 fitted for the place. He was a brother of 
 the Queen's favourite, Abigail Hill, Lady 
 Masham. He sailed from Deal at five 
 o'clock in the morning of July 7, 17 12, and 
 made Dunkirk at one in the afternoon.
 
 40 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Count Lament handed over the keys, and 
 we were now in full possession, and able to 
 begin the amiable work of sinking ships in 
 the roads and channels, and destroying the 
 sluices, jetties, and other works. There were 
 some French marines in the town who were 
 permitted by us to reside there during the 
 work of destruction ; in return for this in- 
 dulgence, we suggested that they might be 
 set to w^ork to help us ; but they do not 
 appear to have done so. 
 
 There were about one hundred French 
 ships in the roads, and as we wanted to ruin 
 the anchorage, we naturally wished the ships 
 to sail away. But (as might have been fore- 
 seen) every ship had a reason of its own why 
 it could not set sail immediately. Then there 
 was the matter of the sluices. The French 
 Commissary was infinitely distressed ; buc in 
 the matter of the sluices he had no instruc- 
 tions, so, pending a reference to Paris, the 
 matter must be hung up. 
 
 By the spring of 17 14 everything was at 
 a standstill, and the Commissioners reported 
 to Bolingbroke that so far as they could see
 
 TRANSITION PERIOD.— DUNKIRK 41 
 
 the French Commissioner was doing his best 
 to evade the treaty — as, of course, he was. 
 
 We thereupon referred to Paris, and the 
 French Government said that, though they 
 had every intention of faithfully observing 
 the treaty, they must take proper measures 
 to protect the country surrounding Dunkirk 
 from being flooded through the destruction of 
 the old works. So the summer found Boling- 
 broke urging on Matthew Prior to press De 
 Torcy ; while at Dunkirk the English and 
 French Commissioners were openly quarrel- 
 ling — as might have been expected. By 
 ' protecting the country from inundation ' the 
 French meant digging the Mardyck Canal, 
 which put Dunkirk into communication with 
 the sea by a new route. ' Protecting the 
 country from inundation ' sounded harmless 
 enough in London, and the Queen raised no 
 objection to such a laudable work ; so when- 
 ever the Mardyck Canal was objected to as 
 an evasion of the treaty, it was replied that 
 we had granted permission to cut it. This 
 was the first move of the French, and a 
 very astute one. Fortune favoured them.
 
 42 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 The Queen was very ill, and in the summer 
 of 1 714 she died; a change of dynasty 
 followed her death, and when our new 
 Ambassador, Lord Stair, called on Torcy to 
 press him about the Dunkirk Canal, Torcy 
 was calmly impertinent. He told Stair that 
 the English King's throne was not so secure 
 as to allow of his Ambassadors using the 
 language of insistence, and that he knew 
 England had no credit left. Stair was not 
 to be outfaced. His master's throne, he 
 said, was better founded ^ than Torcy sup- 
 posed ; and if the French Court was counting 
 on England's weakness, it would not be the 
 first time that France had made a mistake 
 of that kind. When this little sparring- 
 match was over, they came back to sluices 
 and drains, and had a very unsatisfactory 
 quarter of an hour. Torcy saw the King 
 the next day, and duly informed Stair that 
 his Majesty thought that the new canal could 
 not matter much, but that as a matter of 
 courtesy he had no objection to giving an 
 undertaking not to fortify it. 
 
 In 1 71 5 Louis XIV. died, and the Regent
 
 TRANSITION PERIOD.— DUNKIRK 43 
 
 Orleans proved to be more amenable than 
 the late King. Lord Stair, our Ambassador, 
 had a long conversation with His Royal 
 Highness. ' My lord,' said the Regent, 'you 
 are in the right ; you shall do, in the matter 
 of Mardyck, just as you please, only let us 
 have way into Dunkirk for small craft. 
 Shall we say up to three hundred tons ?' he 
 asked winningly. ' Three hundred tons, sir !' 
 said Stair ; ' that is not a small craft ' And, 
 indeed, it was not in those days. ' Two, 
 then ?' But still Stair looked grave. ' Well, 
 then, one hundred and fifty ?' whereat our 
 Ambassador explained that we could have 
 no objection to small craft going in and 
 out, but not ships that could carry guns and 
 sail long distances. The Regent was quite 
 amiable, and soon aftervvards he contrived to 
 raise twenty-four thousand pounds for the de- 
 struction of the Mardyck Canal. Next year 
 the Dunkirkers cut the sluice of Furness. 
 
 To follow the effect of these operations, we 
 have to recall what the Treaty of Utrecht 
 provided. It laid down the obligation on the 
 part of the French to destroy the artificial
 
 44 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 basin, and the canal that connected It with 
 the sea, by filling both up. When it came to 
 the point, the French asked to be excused on 
 the ground of the heavy expense the work 
 of filling up would entail, and, as they pointed 
 out, if basin and canal were left alone they 
 would fast silt up of themselves. We assented, 
 and the Dunkirkers promptly cut the Mardyck 
 Canal, alleging as an excuse that if it were 
 not cut they would all be poisoned by the 
 stagnant water. We replied that the proper 
 remedy for stagnant water was to fill up the 
 canal and basin ; and they rejoined that we 
 had already consented to excuse them that 
 part of their treaty obligation. Matters had 
 reached this point when De Torcy had his 
 little sparring-match with Lord Stair. But 
 on the collapse of the attempt on George I.'s 
 throne, and the accession to power of the 
 Regent Orleans, the French adopted a much 
 more conciliatory manner. As we have seen, 
 the Mardyck Canal was filled up. It had 
 served its turn, and had kept open the arti- 
 ficial harbour — thereby enabling the French 
 to evade the Treaty of Utrecht — for five
 
 TRANSITION PERIOD.— DUNKIRK 45 
 
 years ; and its place in our negotiations was 
 now taken by the sluice of Furness. 
 
 At this time the harassing and invidious 
 position of English Commissioner posted in 
 Dunkirk to superintend the destruction of 
 the town's health and prosperity was occupied 
 by Colonel Lascelles. He was a man of 
 large experience in warfare, and an excellent 
 engineer. At home Craggs was Secretary of 
 State, Stair representing us in Paris. The 
 Abbe Dubois was in power in France, and 
 Stair pressed him daily to put a stop to the 
 Dunkirkers' efforts to save their town from 
 ruin. ' They presume on the Regent's good 
 nature,' he wrote to Craggs. More than that, 
 in point of fact, for the Regent's order to 
 discontinue the work was simply suppressed ; 
 and large bribes were offered Lascelles to say 
 nothing to his Government about the new 
 work. 
 
 Stair now applied direct to the Regent, 
 and pointed out that, whatever the conse- 
 quences of filling up the basin and canal 
 might prove to be, the French did in point 
 of fact undertake the work of destruction.
 
 46 THE LOST POSSESSIO.\S OF EXGLAXD 
 
 Meanwhile, the Dunkirkers worked night and 
 day, Sundays and holidays, and two English- 
 men were arrested for inspecting their works. 
 A great storm in 1720 came to their aid, and 
 both the canals were now navigable for small 
 ships. 
 
 From the acute stage the Dunkirk question 
 now passed into the chronic stage. A regular 
 round of inquiries, representations and ex- 
 planations ensued, and after a good many 
 years of solemn trifling a really acute stage 
 once more set in. In 1727 the inhabitants 
 of Dunkirk began to repair the old works, 
 and our Commissioner in Dunkirk, Colonel 
 Armstrong, who had previously been joined 
 on the same Commission with Lascelles, and 
 understood the whole question, duly re- 
 ported the fact ; but added the sensible com- 
 ment that he thought it would not do much 
 harm. His report, however, came at an un- 
 fortunate moment, if, as appears, he thought 
 that we had better overlook what we could 
 not hinder. A new King was on the throne, 
 who was fond of asserting himself, especially 
 in foreign affairs ; and a Commission was
 
 TRANSITION PERIOD.-DUNKIRK 47 
 
 formally drawn up directing an inquiry as 
 to whether France had carried out the pro- 
 visions of the Ninth Article or not. After a 
 little preliminary obstruction on the part of 
 the French, the Commission got to w^ork, and 
 duly reported what everybody knew. 
 
 But this time the stale old question roused 
 public feeling in England in a very unex- 
 pected way. In a Committee of the whole 
 House on the state of the nation, the Dunkirk 
 papers were moved for ; evidence was taken, 
 and urgent representations were demanded. 
 It was at this time that the Commission was 
 advising, sensibly, that, inasmuch as Dunkirk 
 could always be put into a complete state of 
 defence w^ithin three months of a declaration 
 of war, it was advisable to take no notice of 
 the works, although they were certainly viola- 
 tions of the Treaty of Utrecht. But this 
 moderate advice did not at all suit the temper 
 of the public. It was loudly insisted on that 
 the destruction of Dunkirk was the chief 
 benefit secured by the treaty, and that more 
 than two-thirds of the trade of England was 
 threatened by the mere existence of the town,
 
 48 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 ' the glory of France and the terror of Eng- 
 land,' as it was somewhat hysterically called.^ 
 This outburst produced some effect in 
 Paris, and strict orders were sent to Dunkirk 
 to press on the destruction of the new canal. 
 Lascelles in June, 1730, reported that, as the 
 result of these orders, the workmen had got 
 through in seven weeks what ought to have 
 taken them two or three days. Lord Walde- 
 grave called on Cardinal Fleury at Com- 
 piegne and complained. The Cardinal ex- 
 pressed himself as greatly shocked, and in 
 the Ambassador's presence wrote a strong 
 letter to the local French authorities, but at 
 the same time he did not conceal his belief 
 that Lascelles was exaggerating. Lascelles 
 replied to the Cardinal with dignity, and the 
 old round was resumed. Complaints from 
 Dunkirk to London, and instructions from 
 London to Paris, were followed by strict 
 
 ■^ At the height of this futile agitation, an event of 
 real importance to the world had taken place in the West 
 of England. The Rector of a country parish became a 
 grandfather. The Rector's name was Hastings, and in 
 due course his grandson was baptized Warren. 
 
 i
 
 TRANSITION PERIOD.— DUNKIRK 49 
 
 orders from Paris to Dunkirk, which were 
 never intended to be obeyed. In July, 1732, 
 Lord Waldegrave had an interview with 
 M. Chauvelin, the Garde des Sceaux, and it 
 was plain that the French were losing their 
 patience. M. Chauvelin's manner was so 
 heated that Lord Waldegrave was glad to be 
 able to turn the conversation. A year later 
 he took Colonel Lascelles with him, and had 
 a long and formal interview with Fleury, 
 Chauvelin, and Grandville, the French local 
 Commissary. The Cardinal was neutral, but 
 Chauvelin was insolent in the extreme ; gave 
 the lie to Lascelles, and tlatly refused to 
 advise his master to cut the Dunkirkers' 
 throats to please the English King. He 
 was technically in the wrong, as the French 
 had been from the beginning, and he went 
 out of his way to be offensive — intentionally, 
 no doubt ; but we can hardly help according 
 him our sympathy. It was a very critical 
 interview ; a single rough word on our side 
 would have brought about a rupture of rela- 
 tions between the two countries. 
 
 The agitation in England had died down, 
 
 4
 
 50 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 as it was bound to do, having only a slender 
 basis in fact, and none whatever in reason. 
 But feeling in France ran very high. After 
 his last interview with Cardinal Fleury, Lord 
 Waldegrave reported it to be his belief that 
 there was not a single man of the Court, nor 
 a tradesman in France, who would not give 
 half he had in the world rather than humour 
 us (as they called it) in the matter of Dun- 
 kirk. 
 
 It is difficult, although perhaps not impos- 
 sible, for us to imagine an English Minister 
 who could wantonly expose the Ambassadors 
 of his Sovereign to such disastrous scenes. 
 But had publicity been possible In those days 
 no one would have been surprised at any 
 vagary of our policy, for it was conducted by 
 the Duke of Newcastle. This grotesque and 
 feeble personage must now be studied in his 
 relations with Dunkirk, for even he seems to 
 have felt that English Ambassadors ought 
 not to be humiliated beyond a certain point, 
 and that point had now been reached. 
 
 Lascelles was now chief engineer of Great 
 Britain, and resided in England, his place
 
 TRANSITION PERIOD.— DUNKIRK 51 
 
 at Dunkirk being taken by Mr. Day, a con- 
 nection of his, and a pathetic figure in this 
 dismal story. He suffered from bad health ; 
 he was severely snubbed by the French, and 
 as for the English residents, they were not fit 
 to associate with. Dunkirk was a handy 
 refuge for a man who might be compelled to 
 leave England hurriedly, and the English 
 who lived there were detestable characters, 
 The easy explanation of Jacobitism justified 
 their fiight from their native land, and made 
 them popular with the French. Day was, of 
 course, hated as the local embodiment of 
 English policy. He had a world of dif^culty 
 to get his pay. There must be correspond- 
 ence without end, interviews with Walpole in 
 country houses, reminders to Newcastle at 
 Kensington, long and painful cringing to 
 everyone in authority. 
 
 Accustomed as we are now to the cut and 
 dried forms of official communication, it is 
 painful to find a representative of the Crown 
 compelled to address the Secretary of State 
 in the following manner : ' May I presume 
 to take the liberty to flatter myself that your
 
 52 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Grace will be so good as to pardon ' — his 
 having nothing to report, because his Grace's 
 proceedings had tied him hand and foot in a 
 most difficult position — a position so degrad- 
 ing that one marvels what use the Govern- 
 ment could have for so forlorn an agent. 
 
 It soon became apparent : he was to be 
 turned into a spy. This was the use to 
 which Newcastle now proposed to put the 
 half- starved, much -bullied, unhappy repre- 
 sentative of the Crown at Dunkirk. But 
 Day's isolation was so complete that he had 
 a difficulty in carrying out even these humi- 
 liating duties. He managed to get together 
 through consular agencies some information 
 as to the French preparations for war. But 
 it was at the risk of his liberty, and his 
 humble request for the command of a com- 
 pany as some recompense for long years of 
 service under most trying conditions was 
 ignored. In the spring of 1740 he died — let 
 us hope not of starvation. 
 
 There w^as a successor appointed, Captain 
 Laye, although it surely would have been 
 better to avoid exposing another King's officer
 
 TRANSITION PERIOD.— DUNKIRK 53 
 
 to the affronts put on Day. He asked for 
 instructions, and was told to go and live at 
 Dunkirk and keep his eyes open ; Day had 
 had no instructions, added the Secretary. 
 This was hardly ingenuous, for he had acted as 
 Commissary, and drawn pay in that capacity. 
 
 In this very anomalous position John Laye 
 made his way to Dunkirk and called on the 
 Commandant, who said that he would refer to 
 Paris to see whether he could be recognized, 
 and in the meantime did not return his call. 
 Soon the answer came : the French Govern- 
 ment refused flatly to acknowledge Laye as 
 an official person, which was hardly to be 
 wondered at, considering his very irregular 
 instructions. 
 
 Finding himself ignored, Captain Laye 
 requested permission to return to England, 
 as, being in a private position, he could not 
 now be of any service. This was the kind 
 of application that brought an answer almost 
 by return of post. A man might clamour for 
 his pay for years in vain ; but at the first 
 hint of his throwing up a disagreeable 
 appointment Newcastle rose to the occasion.
 
 54 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 * It did not signify,' he wrote to Laye, 'that 
 his Majesty's agent was ignored in his official 
 capacity. He must not think of returning to 
 England. On the contrary, he must continue 
 to reside in Dunkirk like a private person, 
 and send over what information he could ' — 
 be a spy, in fact. 
 
 Somewhat naively, or perhaps in a kind of 
 grim jest, Laye applied to the Commandant 
 for permission to examine the P>ench works, 
 and report on them to England as a private 
 person, since he might not do so officially. 
 But the Commandant did not see the humour 
 of the situation, if Laye intended it to be 
 humorous. He 'sent for' Laye and gave 
 him his 'orders,' which were, in brief, to 
 behave himself in all things as a private 
 person subject to the Commandant, and above 
 all to avoid meddling with, or reporting on, 
 the French works in any way whatever. To 
 this pass had the English Commissary been 
 reduced, the official whose predecessors had 
 in former days exchanged calls with Dukes 
 and Marshals, and corresponded direct with 
 Cardinals.
 
 TRANSITION PERIOD.— DUNKIRK 55 
 
 But John Laye meant to earn his pay as 
 Commissary or spy, whichever claim might 
 prove the easier to establish ; and at the risk 
 of his liberty he sent to Newcastle informa- 
 tion that the French had now gone so far as 
 to erect forts commanding the entrance to the 
 old canal of Dunkirk. Thereupon the Duke 
 of Newcasde wrote from Whitehall to Colonel 
 Lascelles at the Tower. Chief Engineer of 
 Great Britain, and gravely inquired what 
 would be the effect of constructing batteries 
 at the mouth of a canal. 
 
 With admirable gravity, Colonel Lascelles 
 replied that he had not seen these particular 
 batteries, but speaking generally, and so far 
 as his professional experience went, the effect 
 of planting batteries at the mouth of a canal 
 would be to protect the canal from the 
 approach of hostile vessels. 
 
 Some time after this important correspond- 
 ence Laye contrived to smuggle through 
 the information that the French were 
 making fortified entrenchments round Dun- 
 kirk. Thereupon the Duke of Newcastle 
 solemnly inquired of the first engineering
 
 56 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF EXGLAXD 
 
 authority in Europe what was the effect of 
 an armed entrenchment, and whether it was 
 an evasion of the Treaty of Utrecht. With 
 a due answering solemnity that must have 
 cost him an effort to preserve, Lascelles 
 repHed that, speaking generally, the effect of 
 a fortified entrenchment drawn round a town 
 was to protect that town from the attack of 
 a hostile force. It also protected from 
 observation works carried on behind it, and, 
 inasmuch as the French were forbidden by 
 the Treaty of Utrecht to fortify Dunkirk, the 
 construction of a fortified entrenchment round 
 Dunkirk was a plain violation of the Treaty 
 of Utrecht. 
 
 War against England was proclaimed at 
 Dunkirk on March 21, 1744, and the re- 
 vived Enorlish domination in France flickered 
 out after thirty years of life which it would 
 be complimentary to call inglorious. For 
 four hundred years had the English persisted 
 in their endeavour to supplant or control the 
 authority of the French King within his 
 own dominions, sounding in their efforts 
 every note in the scale of human conduct,
 
 TRANSITION PERIOD.— DUNKIRK 57 
 
 from the Black Prince winning his spurs at 
 Crecy to John Day dunning the Duke of 
 Newcastle for the arrears of his pay as a 
 spy, from incredible heroism to meanness 
 unfortunately only too credible. 
 
 As one result of these long centuries of 
 strife, we now own no single acre of the soil 
 of France. But if we have lost a Continental 
 dominion to which we ought never to have 
 aspired, and which must always have been 
 narrow in extent and difficult to hold, 
 we have acquired, in exchange, Imperial 
 dominions which we hold with ease, and of 
 which we have rather to restrain than to 
 stimulate the expansion. 
 
 The contrast is worth noting, worth dwell- 
 ing upon ; for it points our destiny, and 
 perhaps, also, the destiny of our neighbours.
 
 [58] 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 TANGIER. 
 
 The Salee rovers and Argler pirates were 
 heavy crosses to the merchants of London 
 in the seventeenth century. Not only was 
 every ship that set sail from Argier a per- 
 petual menace to our traders' cargoes, but 
 she carried within her, for a certainty, the 
 dreaded infection of the plague. So the City 
 heard with more than satisfaction that the 
 King's marriage with a Portuguese Princess 
 was finally resolved on. 
 
 The dower of Catherine of Brag^anza was 
 no less a sum than three hundred thousand 
 pounds ; but this was not the article that 
 made the marriage treaty most popular in 
 England. Portugal undertook, in addition, 
 to cede to us a much-talked-of post in the
 
 TANGIER 59 
 
 East Indies (which turned out to be the 
 * inconsiderable ' island of Bombain), and — 
 crowning advantage of all — a port in the 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 The last article was the chief cause for 
 congratulation. It was confidently expected 
 that under the guns of Tangier our merchant- 
 men would be secure from Barbary corsairs, 
 and that within the mole about to be built 
 there, not only the Smyrna fleet, but also 
 the ships trading to the West Indies, would 
 find a convenient anchorage and facilities for 
 cleaning and repairing. These were great 
 advantages, and they made Charles II.'s 
 marriage the most popular act of his life ; 
 it was universally felt that he had begun 
 his reign with a good stroke of business. 
 And yet, except in one direction, and that 
 thought least likely of all at the time, these 
 ideas were quite illusory. The marriage 
 treaty of Charles II. was, certainly, of 
 enormous advantage to the British people in 
 the long-run, for it gave them Bombay, the 
 nucleus of our later conquests in the East, 
 and now the second city in the Empire.
 
 6o THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 But our occupation of Tangier was un- 
 fortunate from first to last, and brought us 
 no advantatres whatever. 
 
 This was, in part, the fault of the Adminis- 
 tration ; but the best colonial administration 
 ev^er devised could have made nothing out of 
 Tangier with the restrictions laid upon it by 
 the home authorities. The instructions from 
 Whitehall were to push on the mole as fast 
 as possible ; in the meantime, to avoid all 
 entangling- dealings with the Moors ; with 
 whom we were to dwell In perfect peace, 
 and to secure the expansion and prosperity 
 of the town by encouraging settlers from 
 Europe. Four instructions and four im- 
 possibilities. Only one of these blunders 
 can, in fairness, be laid at the door of the 
 Tangier Commission — the plan of construct- 
 ing a mole. It was desirable that a mole 
 should be constructed if possible ; but It did 
 not call for very profound engineering know- 
 ledge to make It clear that the wash of the 
 Atlantic and the easterly storms of the 
 Mediterranean, acting on shifting sandy 
 shores and the soft stone of the country,
 
 TANGIER 6i 
 
 were certain to destroy the mole as fast as 
 it was built, and to silt up the harbour as 
 fast as it was cleared. 
 
 The other mistakes of the Tangier Com- 
 mission may justly be laid to a lack of 
 experience in dealing with barbarians ; they 
 had not the knowledge born of two hundred 
 years of Imperial work. We know now that 
 it is impossible for Englishmen to settle 
 peaceably in a country of barbarous or semi- 
 barbarous people. Our desire for peace 
 they impute simply to timidity ; and until 
 they have been well beaten, not only can 
 we have no dealings with them, but every 
 load of food and forage has to be fought for. 
 It is a simple conclusion from these premises 
 that the settlement of Tangier was a dream 
 that could never be realized. No prosperous 
 or careful man would willingly settle in a 
 city that was in a perpetual state of siege, 
 and where his very food must be brought 
 from a distance of three weeks by sea. 
 
 In happy ignorance of all his difficulties, 
 the Earl of Peterborough took up his ap- 
 pointment as first Governor of Tangier, and
 
 62 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 sailed from Deal in the winter of 1661-62. 
 He made Tangier after a quick passage of a 
 fortnight from the Downs, and found the 
 place very little better than a ruin. But 
 he brought with him a garrison of about 
 four thousand men, and at once addressed 
 himself to his difficulties with his neighbour, 
 the redoubtable Gayland, Chief of Arcilla. 
 This princelet was for a time quite a hero 
 of romance. The chaplain of the forces, the 
 Rev. Lancelot Addison, afterwards chaplain 
 to the King and Dean of Lichfield,* wrote 
 an account of Barbary which is full of 
 Gayland. He was a standing danger to 
 us, but, fortunately, he had two rivals — 
 Benbucar of Salee, and a chieftain who 
 lorded it at Tafilet, and was destined in the 
 end to overthrow him. Thus, Lord Peter- 
 borough found himself face to face from the 
 first with the eternal problem, In the event of 
 disputes between native princes, if our aid is 
 asked for, ought we to interfere ? Several 
 
 * The name of Addison is, perhaps, better known to 
 us now through the writings of the Dean's son, Joseph 
 Addison.
 
 TANGIER 63 
 
 openings of this kind offered themselves 
 during our occupation, and if any one of 
 them had been taken advantage of, there 
 would be no Morocco question at the pre- 
 sent moment. 
 
 Lord Peterborough dutifully asked for 
 instructions ; but he was saved all further 
 trouble in the matter by his sudden recall 
 to England. He was, and with good reason, 
 deeply incensed at this treatment, which, 
 besides being unfair to himself, doubled our 
 difficulties in dealing with Tangier. It was 
 the first of those shifty moves by which the 
 interests of the colony were sacrificed to 
 the need of finding a place for some impor- 
 tunate person at home. As one result of 
 this policy, Tangier had twelve Governors 
 in the space of twenty-two years. Lord 
 Peterborough's place was taken by the late 
 Governor of Dunkirk, Lord Rutherford, 
 created on his promotion Earl of Teviot. 
 He was a Scotch soldier of fortune, and a 
 man of great and varied ability. His 
 accounts were a curiosity ; but in those days 
 accounts were generally regarded as the
 
 64 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 natural stepping - stones to fortune, and 
 Teviot's hot-headed courage was beyond 
 question. Courage was a very good quality 
 for a Governor of Tangier to possess ; but 
 whether it was that his hands were tied at 
 home, or that he was too much engrossed 
 with his accounts, the fact remained that 
 while Teviot was Governor the power of the 
 Moors increased enormously. As we would 
 give the Chief of Salee no help, Gayland 
 mastered that town. He made peace wherever 
 he could not conquer, and now dreamed of 
 nothing less than the Empire of Morocco. 
 Nor were the Moors our only foes. The 
 Spaniards gave Gayland forty thousand pieces 
 of eight, and supplied him with guns. The 
 Dutch joined with Spain to hinder the Tangier 
 trade in every possible way, and Spanish 
 engineers, disguised as Moors, were reported 
 to be helping Gayland's soldiers to entrench 
 themselves. 
 
 Teviot had the very useful quality of 
 making everyone believe in him ; and though 
 he was quite ignorant of defensive warfare, 
 he managed to give the garrison the impres-
 
 TANGIER 65 
 
 sion that they were perfectly safe in his hands. 
 There was a rude awakening from these de- 
 lusions. During the Governor's absence on 
 leave, Gayland, still nominally at peace with 
 us, joined the Lieutenant-Governor, Colonel 
 Fitzgerald, in a hawking-party, and brought 
 fifty followers with him. There was much 
 pleasant conversation of an indifferent kind 
 as they were riding about the country near 
 Tangier, and Fitzgerald thought that the 
 morning had been harmlessly if not profitably 
 spent. But some of the fifty members of 
 Gayland's escort must have made better use 
 of their time than Fitzgerald, for shortly 
 after the Governor's return war was formally 
 declared, and then it became apparent how 
 much more Gayland knew about Tangier 
 than we did. On May 4, 1664, Teviot made 
 a reconnaissance in force towards a point of 
 seemingly open country, and was caught in 
 an ambush. The Governor himself, with 
 nineteen commissioned officers and five 
 hundred men, were cut off and slaughtered 
 almost to a man. 
 
 This was a heavy blow, and the news of 
 
 5
 
 66 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 It, noised abroad throughout the coasts of 
 Spain and Africa, was heard as the herald 
 of our departure. But we stood our ground, 
 though with greatly reduced numbers, and 
 Fitzgerald was appointed to act until the new 
 Governor should arrive. He was not more 
 superstitious than other men in those days, 
 but it is curious to observe that he was much 
 more disturbed at the blazing^ stars then 
 appearing at night than he was at Gay land's 
 victory. These ' blazing stars ' were the 
 comets that so much interested Charles II. 
 that he sat up with the Queen for a whole 
 night to watch them. They alarmed Fitz- 
 gerald a great deal, and he carefully reported 
 them to the Secretary of State, wondering 
 what they might portend. As a set-off to 
 these ghostly anxieties, however, the material 
 cares of his office sat very lightly on him. 
 He had no doubt that Gayland would soon 
 find it to his interest to be a good neighbour, 
 which is exactly what this kind of man never 
 does until he has been well beaten. 
 
 But an Irishman's light-heartedness must 
 have been a man's best possession in Tangier
 
 TANGIER 67 
 
 in those days. Shut up in a dull town, the 
 open country occupied by enemies whom they 
 were forbidden to attack, the Tangerines 
 must have been wonderful people if they did 
 not give way now and then to despondency. 
 In addition to this they were miserably fed ; 
 for the Moors hindered them from growing 
 any fresh food for themselves, and they were 
 thus almost dependent on the salted supplies 
 brought from England. We might have got 
 supplies from Spain, If the Spaniards had not 
 been as anxious to starve us as the Moors. 
 But the Duke of Medina Coeli forbade all 
 traffic with us, and insolently proclaimed that, 
 since the consent of Spain to the cession of 
 Tangier had not been obtained, he should 
 treat all Englishmen resident there as rebels 
 to the Spanish Crown. 
 
 The arrival of a new Governor made a 
 welcome stir In this depressing atmosphere, 
 for it was almost the only occasion when any- 
 body was paid. Lord Bellasis, an active and 
 popular man, convoyed the Smyrna fleet from 
 Plymouth, and assumed the governorship in 
 April, 1665. He did not take long to grasp
 
 68 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 the situation, and at once reported that the 
 Spaniards were paying Gayland to oppose 
 us, and that the only way to bring the Moors 
 to reason was to blockade Salee and Tetuan. 
 This could have been done with one first-rate 
 frigate at each port ; but the advice was not 
 taken. It would have aroused suspicion in 
 many men to find that, in spite of this neglect 
 of proper means, Gayland assumed about this 
 time a most accommodatino- attitude towards 
 the English. It seems, however, that Lord 
 Bellasis took this as a personal tribute ; for 
 he entered unsuspectingly on negotiations for 
 peace, and carried through the treaty without 
 a hitch. It was printed and published by 
 order of the Secretary of State, with six 
 reasons endorsed, showing how much more 
 advantageous it was than any previous truce. 
 The subsequent events formed an object- 
 lesson in Moorish diplomacy which was 
 entirely thrown away in England, but which 
 would have been valuable to Lord Bellasis if 
 he had retained office. However, he had 
 his eye on a place about Court ; so, taking 
 advantage of the good impression wrought
 
 TANGIER 69 
 
 by his treaty of peace, he quitted Tangier In 
 1666, and it was left to his successor to dis- 
 cover the springs of Gayland's complacency. 
 
 They did not long remain secret ; but the 
 successor of Lord Bellasis was, of all the 
 administrators of Tangier, the one least 
 qualified to deal with a crisis. Colonel 
 Henry Norwood was a man of piety and of 
 some position. He had seen service at Dun- 
 kirk, was Treasurer of the Colony of Virginia, 
 and on being superseded at Tangier was pro- 
 moted to be a member of the Tangier Com- 
 mission. He was a careful and methodical 
 administrator, but he was emphatically a dull 
 man. His notion of action was to write a 
 report, and Colonel Norwood's reports were 
 very serious matters. 
 
 The Secretary of State, who was a man of 
 pleasure, like most of Charles H.'s Ministers, 
 found them much too serious. At first they 
 were carefully abstracted ; but the precis gets 
 scantier and scantier, until at last a despatch 
 four pages and a half In length is endorsed 
 ' Ye brushes with ye Moors,' and quite 
 sufficiently endorsed.
 
 JO THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 It was while Colonel Norwood was in 
 office that we had our great chance in 
 Morocco. Hardly was Lord Bellasis gone, 
 when Gayland asked us for help. The King 
 of Tafilet had invaded him from the south, 
 and the new tyrant's affairs prospered. Gay- 
 land went from bad to worse, and at last 
 offered us Arcilla (where he was shut up) 
 if we would garrison the place with three 
 hundred men. The men could at that time 
 have been spared easily enough, and would 
 have been glad of a little active service. It 
 is more than probable that a bold stroke at 
 this juncture would have given us the Empire 
 of Morocco. But the Governor of Tangier 
 was the last man in the world to make a 
 bold stroke. The first thing to do was to 
 sit down and write a report, and while the 
 answer was coming Arcilla was captured, 
 Salee reduced, the King of Fez dragged in 
 chains to Mequinez, and Muley ar Rashid 
 became Emperor of Morocco instead of 
 Charles II. 
 
 No small blame, however, must attach to 
 the home administration for this very serious
 
 TANGIER 71 
 
 blunder ; for, though Colonel Norwood was 
 tedious and long-winded to the last degree, 
 the office did not depend solely on him for 
 news. Lord Arlington's secretary, Joseph 
 Williamson, who succeeded his chief as 
 Secretary of State, corresponded regularly 
 with Major Palmes Fairborne for two years 
 and three months ; or, rather, he allowed 
 Fairborne to write to him during that time 
 whenever a ship sailed for Fngland. Fair- 
 borne was a very good officer, and was 
 honoured after his death with a tomb in 
 Westminster Abbey, and a laboured epitaph 
 by Dryden. Even at this distance of time 
 his despatches are good reading, and they 
 certainly deserved the simple courtesy of an 
 acknowledgment. But when Lord Bellasis 
 himself, a peer of England and the Governor, 
 had to wait for six months before the slightest 
 notice was taken either of his reports or even 
 his requests for instructions, it was not to be 
 expected that F'airborne would fare any better. 
 His letters are piteous reading sometimes. 
 He begged over and over again to be in- 
 formed wherein he had offended Williamson,
 
 72 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 and craved for an answer, if It were but a 
 single line, adding once, sadly enough, ' You 
 cannot imagine the comfort it gives a man at 
 this distance.' It must be remembered, in 
 excuse for what seems unworthy persistence, 
 that his whole chance of promotion depended 
 upon Williamson's good word. 
 
 In those days of universal bakhshish, it is 
 not to be supposed that Falrborne neglected 
 this simple means of securing a patron's good- 
 will. For a Major In a line regiment his 
 presents to Williamson were handsome, and 
 the last was even splendid, being a very fine 
 Barbary colt that Falrborne had himself 
 chosen. In due course the captain who 
 carried the colt to England brought his ship 
 back to TanQiIer. He was the bearer of a 
 verbal message from Williamson to say that 
 the colt had come to grief. At this Fair- 
 borne's wrath boiled over. It was one thing 
 not to answer a man's letters : It was quite 
 another thing — it was downright unsports- 
 manlike — to spoil a colt like that. Promo- 
 tion or no promotion, the thing was not to 
 be borne In silence. ' I tell you plainly,' he
 
 TANGIER 73 
 
 wrote, in a very different style from his 
 previous rather slavish letters — ' I tell you 
 plainly that you should never have had him 
 if I had thought you would have set so little 
 store by him, so much was I in love with him 
 myself A better colt never left these shores, 
 and he would have made the best horse in 
 England.' This little explosion did a great 
 deal of good. Williamson wrote civilly enough 
 in reply to it, and showed that there had 
 been no malice in his neglect by furthering 
 Fairborne's promotion to a colonelcy, a 
 knighthood, and the lieutenant - governor - 
 ship of Tangier. The long and short of it 
 was that the Tangerines were mostly strangers 
 to Whitehall ; they might be very deserving 
 people, but they were three weeks off by 
 post, and it was too much trouble to keep 
 up with them. 
 
 Ignorance of Tangier and indifference to 
 the settlers there were only two of the results 
 of the general and deeply-rooted corruption 
 that reigned at Whitehall. Accounts were 
 passed out of courtesy or from sheer in- 
 capacity to go through them, and Governors
 
 74 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 were chosen for any reason rather than their 
 fitness for the post. But it must be admitted 
 that no very sound counsel came from Tangier 
 itself. The officers there did their duty under 
 most trying conditions, and deserved great 
 credit for their efforts ; but of all the men 
 who recorded their views of the place during 
 the twenty-two years of our occupation, only 
 one* pointed out the true and statesmanlike 
 policy of expansion into what we should now 
 call the Hinterland. All the others ur^ed 
 the two impossibilities of constructing a mole 
 and keeping the peace with the Moors. Nor 
 was the real importance of the titles assumed 
 by our squabbling neighbours ever weighed, 
 except, apparently, by Sir Hugh Cholmley. 
 The rise and fall of Gayland taught us 
 nothing ; and we had hardly done paying 
 court to the ' King ' of Barbary than we 
 began wearily to consider our relations to 
 his conqueror, the 'Emperor' of Morocco. 
 Colonel Norwood had recommended an 
 
 * ' So long as we keep within the walls we only lose 
 our money.' — An anonymous writer, whose pamphlet is 
 preserved in the Harleian MisceUa7iy.
 
 TANGIER 7S 
 
 Embassy ; and after some time an Ambas- 
 sador was chosen in the person of Lord 
 Harry Howard, who soon after succeeded to 
 the dukedom of Norfolk. Cholmley laughed 
 openly at making so much of the Emperor, 
 and told Lord Harry that he was much too 
 great a man for the place. The Ambassador 
 was a good deal netded at this. To him 
 an Ambassador was an Amibassador, and an 
 Emperor was an Emperor ; and if he had 
 lived now he would probably have added, 
 ' Why all this foolish prejudice against people 
 with dark faces ?' ' Well, your lordship will 
 get no further than Tangier,' concluded Sir 
 Hugh, whereat Lord Harry turned and went 
 away in a rage. 
 
 After four years of Colonel Norwood a 
 successor was found in Lord Middleton, 
 another Scotch soldier of fortune, who went 
 out as Governor in 1670. The troops, never 
 less than nine, and sometimes as much as 
 twenty, months in arrears, were glad to see 
 any Governor who brought their pay, and 
 as various notables came with him the season 
 of 1670 opened gaily enough. His Excel-
 
 76 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 lency was accompanied by another Excel- 
 lency, my Lord Ambassador, and by one of 
 the earliest recorded globe-trotters, my Lord 
 Castlemaine. But this brilliant society broke 
 up very quickly. There was nothing in 
 Tangier to amuse a man like Castlemaine, 
 and as for the Ambassador, he very soon 
 found out that Cholmley had been perfectly 
 right. It was plain that no honour was to 
 be won, and no business to be done ; the 
 Moors only gaped for the presents that he 
 had brought with him. He never stirred out 
 of Tangier, and after a stay of three weeks 
 he took ship and returned to England, a 
 wiser man than when he started. 
 
 The immediate result of the withdrawal of 
 the Embassy was that the Emperor opened 
 negotiations with France, which fortunately 
 came to nothing. Muley ar Rashid was 
 occupied during his short reign with the 
 cares incident to the succession, the removal 
 of troublesome relatives, and other necessary 
 precautions. He also enjoyed his Empire 
 rather too riotously to care much for foreign 
 politics, and the end of him was that he
 
 TANGIER 
 
 77 
 
 knocked out his brains while riding through 
 an orange-grove after a drunken revel. He 
 was succeeded, unfortunately for us, by Muley 
 Ismael, a much more dangerous neighbour, 
 and in many respects a remarkable man. 
 
 There have been Princes more depraved 
 than the Emperor Muley Ismael, and con- 
 querors who have shed infinitely more blood. 
 He had little in common with Tamerlane, 
 and still less with Nero or Gilles de Retz. 
 Muley Ismael led a domestic life that had in 
 it many qualities that go to make what we 
 call respectability. He was pious, sober, 
 regular in his habits, punctual in attending 
 to business, and his hobby was building 
 palaces. But he had a weakness : human 
 life he must take ; and he took it daily, as 
 other men take exercise, during a reign of 
 more than half a century. Why he was not 
 murdered himself was a mystery, for he had 
 few of the qualities that dazzle the eyes of 
 subjects. He was not a coward, but he was 
 not a warrior ; for he only fought two cam- 
 paigns, one against the English and one 
 against Algier, and in both he was defeated.
 
 78 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Sheer force of character and an imposing 
 manner, akin to that of the Great Monarch, 
 sufficed to awe his subjects, who obeyed him 
 less as a despot than as they might the Prince 
 of Darkness himself. 
 
 What his Court was Hke in his youth we 
 can only surmise ; but we are so fortunate 
 as to possess a very full account of it in the 
 reign of George II., by which time the 
 Emperor was much softened by years. 
 Muley Ismael, then eighty-seven years of 
 age, rose early, and, after saying his prayers, 
 was abroad among his workmen by the first 
 streak of dawn. It was from these harmless 
 people that he selected his first victim of the 
 day — the victim whose murder was ' his top 
 pleasure.' He chatted with his retinue, gave 
 informal audience if occasion required, speared 
 a man or two, and then returned to the palace 
 for breakfast, and to dress for the public Hall 
 of Audience. The Emperor varied his robes 
 according to his moods, yellow being ' his 
 killing colour ' ; and when he entered the 
 divan clothed in yellow, every courtier round 
 the throne knew that someone in that room
 
 TANGIER 79 
 
 would have to die before the Emperor left 
 it. Thus, the cares that wait on courtiers 
 everywhere were intensified, at Mequinez, 
 by the fearful excitement of the Suicide 
 Club. 
 
 The principal feature of the Court was the 
 band of eight hundred boy-executioners, who 
 were entrusted with the duty of tearing men 
 to pieces when the Emperor decreed that 
 form of punishment. They were all tawny, 
 being bred from sires and dams chosen and 
 mated by the Emperor himself with the view 
 of getting tawny offspring. When of age to 
 be tested, they were brought to the palace 
 and left in one of the squares ; and when the 
 old Emperor had leisure, he went, armed with 
 a blunt lance, and bastinadoed them until the 
 gutters ran with their blood. They were left 
 lying in the sun for some time, and on the 
 Emperor returning and giving the signal for 
 them to move, only those were chosen who 
 got up and ran away. Those who were faint 
 with the beating, the sun, and the loss of 
 blood were sent back to their villages. These 
 little fiends were the Emperor's favourites,
 
 8o THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 and during his long reign he was only known 
 to kill three of them. 
 
 Another band of executioners consisted of 
 a corps of stalwart negroes as black as could 
 be found. To them was assigned the duty 
 of tossing, whenever the Emperor had a 
 mind to that spectacle. They officiated two 
 at a time, seized their victim, and flung him 
 over their shoulders. When in practice, they 
 could break either right or left shoulder as 
 the Emperor wished ; but, as a rule, dexterity 
 was not exacted from them : their only duty 
 was to toss the man till he died. These 
 were two of the ways in which Muley Ismael 
 had men executed when the rank of the 
 victim or his crime called for some circum- 
 stance and display. Trifling offences, such 
 as a man losing his place in a procession, 
 the Emperor punished only by spearing. 
 When the lance was withdrawn he would 
 throw it in the air, when the nearest man 
 must catch it before it fell to the ground, 
 under penalty of being speared himself. 
 
 In such a shambles a blow would some- 
 times go astray, and then the Emperor was
 
 TANGIER 8r 
 
 at his best. He would send for the relatives 
 of the murdered man, and express his con- 
 cern and regret for the loss of a valued 
 subject. He had no idea how it could have 
 occurred, as he had no fault to find with the 
 deceased. The death must have been by 
 the act of God, and he would conclude with 
 a handsome apology and with gracious per- 
 mission to bury the remains. This was a 
 considerable indulgence, for the Emperor's 
 victims were usually left for the street-dogs 
 to devour. 
 
 The Emperor affected the Satanic (if any- 
 thing can be called affectation in a man who 
 took himself so seriously), and often carried 
 it to extraordinary lengths. The morning 
 after he had murdered anybody of importance, 
 and while the dogs were rending and snarling 
 over his remains, the Emperor would look 
 round his Court, and anxiously inquire, 
 * Where is such and such an "officer ?' An 
 inarticulate murmur was the usual response ; 
 but the Emperor was not to be denied. 
 Where was the man ? and why had he 
 presumed to absent himself from the presence 
 
 6
 
 82 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 without leave? Lest the Emperor should 
 fall foul of the whole Court, some trembler, 
 greatly venturing, would at this stage say 
 that he was dead. The Emperor was deeply 
 shocked. Dead ! was it possible ? And 
 who had killed him ? This was the critical 
 moment ; and if any novice at Court, en- 
 couraged by the tenderness of the Emperor's 
 voice, and his kind and sorrowful bearing, 
 should presume to recall the events of the 
 day before, he was instantly speared for his 
 impertinence. 
 
 Such, in his old age, was the man who, in 
 the full strength of youth, ascended the throne 
 of Morocco, and cast envious and orthodox 
 eyes on the port of Tangier, still, in spite of 
 reverses, garrisoned by infidels. He was, 
 fortunately for us, a very poor soldier. In 
 a country no larger than Portugal the re- 
 bellion against him was kept up for fivG 
 years ; and in that time we could easily have 
 made Tangier impregnable, if we had set to 
 work the right way. But over all the busi- 
 ness relating to Tangier two words are writ 
 large — peculation and confusion. Lord Bel-
 
 TANGIER 83 
 
 lasis' accounts were passed somehow ; Lord 
 Teviot's accounts had been passed out of 
 politeness, and Lord Middleton was another 
 Teviot. We had only a vague Idea of what 
 line to take up in Morocco, and that idea 
 was a wrong one. Vast sums were expended 
 on material for the mole, and might just as 
 well have been poured into the sea. When 
 money for labour could not be had, the un- 
 paid soldiery were set to work on it. The 
 deepest gloom and depression prevailed 
 among the troops, and little wonder, for they 
 had been unpaid for two years. ' I pray God 
 enable His Majesty to provide better forces, 
 and in the meantime shall compose every 
 man's soul in patience,' Fairborne wrote to 
 the Commission in the autumn of 1677. 
 He had long been trying to make bricks 
 without straw, and his spirit was almost 
 broken. 
 
 At the end of 1677 we applied a palliative 
 to our distresses, which was ludicrous in 
 comparison with the disease, but which is 
 noteworthy for other reasons : we expelled 
 the Jews from Tangier. They were sus-
 
 84 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 pected of acting as spies for the Moors.^ 
 Lord MIddleton was succeeded by Lord 
 Inchiquin, a well-meaning, impulsive man, 
 devoid of discretion, who might have sat 
 for Frank Esmond. He differed daily with 
 Fairborne, and on one occasion was so ill- 
 advised as, on hearing of a complaint against 
 the Lieutenant-Governor about the sale of 
 meat, to stride from the Council-chamber to 
 the meat-market, and exclaim that, ' God 
 damn him!' he would see justice done. But 
 it was not good intentions, even accompanied 
 by strong language, that could save Tangier. 
 * I must needs confess I never saw a place 
 more ruinous than this, no one thing being 
 in a condition fit for defence ; and, what is 
 worse, not one spare arm except a few 
 blunderbusses.' This was the opinion of 
 the man who was left in supreme command 
 when Lord Inchiquin took leave — Sir Palmes 
 
 * Compare this telegram from Madrid, under date 
 November 5, 1893: 'General Macias has expelled from 
 Melilla all the Jews residing outside the walls. . . . 
 They had been suspected of acting as spies for the 
 Moors.'
 
 TANGIER 85 
 
 Fairborne. It was a crisis, and one that 
 called for quick blood and unshaken nerves. 
 The enemy was close on us, and strongly 
 entrenched. They had captured our out- 
 lying defences, and twenty thousand Moors 
 held the open country. Fairborne's despatches 
 are now very melancholy reading. He sealed 
 them with his new crest, a dagger impaling a 
 Moor's head, and the motto ^ Tutus si fortis ' 
 — so strange an irony on the contents. He 
 was not to seal many more, for at the end 
 of October, 1680, he was mortally wounded 
 while inspecting the defences ; but he lived 
 to hear that he was avenged. 
 
 It was a bad day for the Moors when they 
 killed Fairborne, for the command devolved 
 on Sackville, and under Sackville was Kirke. 
 These two officers had not been long in 
 Tangier, and they had their own ideas of 
 the comparative worth of a British soldier 
 and a Moor. So they quitted the defensive, 
 on which we had conscientiously stood for 
 twenty years, and fell on the enemy. He 
 was smitten hip and thigh. Two thousand 
 dead were left on the field, our forts were
 
 86 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 recovered, and the Moors driven from the 
 open country, although they outnumbered us 
 six to one. 
 
 This was the first of the thousand victories 
 that have led us to Empire, and its effect 
 was magical. Muley Ismael became humility 
 itself, and begged for peace ; not exactly 
 for peace at any price, but for peace at any 
 reasonable price. All he asked was an 
 Embassy just to save appearances, and {sot^o 
 voce) to give him time to observe us, and to 
 see if we knew our real strength, or whether, 
 though we could not be driven out of Tangier, 
 we might not be bullied or cajoled into evacu- 
 ating the place. 
 
 The only embassy that Muley Ismael really 
 respected was a thousand pikes knocking at 
 his palace gates ; but when suavity was likely 
 to be useful he could be as polite as any 
 Moslem, and in politeness a Moslem is to an 
 Italian as an Italian is to the men of every 
 other nation. So while Sir James Leslie, 
 the new Ambassador, was on his way. Colonel 
 Kirke, who was sent on in advance to the 
 capital, was made to understand what the
 
 TANGIER 87 
 
 courtesy of a Moor was like when he laid 
 himself out to be civil. 
 
 In Tangier our people had had few oppor- 
 tunities of meeting with Moors of position, 
 and the impression on Kirke of the Emperor's 
 attentions was proportionately great. The 
 Moors must have been surprised at the effect 
 produced on so doughty a foe by a few kind 
 words and gracious gestures ; they had pro- 
 bably never met with a character so simple 
 before. 
 
 ' I am among the most civilized people in 
 the world,' wrote Kirke, from the Alcalde's 
 camp ; ' and if I ever have a son, I shall prefer 
 to send him here rather than to the Court of 
 France. A brother could not use me more 
 kindly.' 
 
 The new Ambassador was a great contrast 
 to this ingenuous soldier. Sir James Leslie 
 had been a private trooper in Tangier, and 
 in that capacity had picked up (probably from 
 syces and other sources of information not 
 open to his masters) a thorough knowledge 
 of the Moorish character. He was not to be 
 hurried, and though Kirke and all Tangier
 
 88 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 cried out ao-alnst him, he took his time over 
 his preparations. KIrke was loud in his 
 remonstrances. ' I have met with a kind 
 Prince and a just General in Morocco,' 
 he wrote. ' I can't imagine what Sir James 
 Leslie means, to make the Emperor stay so 
 long for him.' 
 
 Sackville went so far as to say that Leslie 
 was prejudicing our chances of peace, and 
 wrote : ' These people esteem nothing so ill 
 as breaking one's word,' plainly implying that 
 Leslie was laying himself open to that re- 
 proach. But Leslie knew his man and knew 
 his Barbary, and the peace was settled with- 
 out much difficulty In March, 1681, Muley 
 Ismael not thinking it worth while to obstruct 
 the settlement of a truce that he had no in- 
 tention of observing. 
 
 In April, 1681, on Colonel Sackvllle's 
 retirement. Colonel Kirke was appointed 
 Governor In his place, and soon after the 
 return Embassy from Morocco passed through 
 Tangier on its way to Whitehall. The chief 
 of the three men chosen by Muley Ismael to 
 carry his presents of young lions and ostriches
 
 TA NGIER 89 
 
 to Charles II. was the Alcalde Muhammad 
 Ohadu, a scion of an old Moorish family, his 
 mother an Englishwoman. He had adminis- 
 tered Tetuan very successfully, and was a 
 man of sense and ability, and of an excellent 
 carriage. He and his Embassy were hand- 
 somely received in London. The King 
 laughed a good deal at the ostriches, but 
 was kind and courteous, and entertained his 
 guests at a magnificent feast in the rooms of 
 the Duchess of Portsmouth. All the Sultanas 
 were present, and there was a great display 
 of diamonds and other splendours. It must 
 have been a trying scene for the Ambassador, 
 but he retained his composure and showed to 
 great advantage by the side of the Russian 
 Ambassador, who behaved like a clown. 
 Muhammad Ohadu made himself greatly 
 respected and admired, and was admitted an 
 honorary Fellow of the Royal Society. 
 
 The other members of the Embassy were 
 a soldier, and a Haji — Muhammad al Lucas. 
 The latter was a Spanish Moor, a man of 
 good business habits, and well acquainted 
 with our ways, having seen much of us in the
 
 90 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 service of Gayland. On that chieftain's fall 
 he purged himself from his early associations 
 by making the Haj, rose high in the Em- 
 peror's favour, and gained a great reputation 
 for sanctity. 
 
 In his official report on the members of 
 the Embassy, Kirke has described him 
 very plainly. He was, it appears, 'a man 
 who in all contentions about Government, 
 which are frequent in these parts, ever 
 thought that cause the best which was the 
 strongest, and of so flexible a conscience that 
 it never stands in opposition to his interest ' — 
 quite a nineteenth-century type of statesman, 
 in fact. 
 
 The time they spent in England must have 
 been very pleasant, and it is small matter for 
 wonder that they overstayed their leave ; 
 but it was imprudent. On their return to 
 Morocco they were kidnapped, flung into a 
 dungeon, and kept there for twelve days. 
 At last, on one awful morning, they were 
 brought out and led into the Emperor's 
 presence. They were left standing in their 
 chains for an hour, without the Emperor so
 
 TANGIER 91 
 
 much as turning his eyes on them. At last 
 he spoke. CalKng them all the dogs and 
 liars in the world, he asked them how they 
 had dared to overstay their leave, and with- 
 out waiting for their answer he ordered them 
 to be draesfed at the heels of mules for twelve 
 miles over a country of rocks and briars. 
 This was probably the worst quarter of an 
 hour ever spent by a Fellow of the Royal 
 Society. 
 
 But in a mind where reason was, for the 
 moment, in abeyance, inquisitiveness was 
 fortunately all-powerful. As the trembling 
 Ambassadors recited the honours they had 
 received in England, the Emperor softened 
 visibly. He allowed intercession and spared 
 their lives, but on a discussion arising on the 
 affairs of Tangier, his fury rose to murder 
 pitch. He broke up the Council, if so de- 
 corous an expression can be said to be in 
 place, and raged about the palace, killing 
 every man he came across to the number of 
 sixteen, after which he refused to ratify the 
 treaty. 
 
 Kirke was deeply mortified, the more so
 
 92 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 that he had been completely taken In by the 
 Moors himself. Very soon after he became 
 Governor of Tangier, he learnt the difference 
 between a Moslem as a host and a Moslem 
 as an antagonist. The Emperor first showed 
 his true character to Kirke when a Sherif 
 (the Emperor's sister's son) fled to Tangier 
 from Mequinez, saying (what appears to be a 
 most reasonable statement) that he feared 
 for his life. The Emperor demanded him 
 from Kirke, who, feeling suspicious, was in 
 no great hurry to comply with his wishes. 
 Muley Ismael, convinced by now that there 
 was nothing to be really feared from us, gave 
 full vent to his wrath. He addressed Kirke 
 In the most insulting manner, using the 
 second person singular, and calling him 
 ' Kirke ' simply. From that day onwards 
 his enmity to us was shown in every possible 
 way. 
 
 Kirke was not one of those who, having 
 conceived an opinion, think it necessary to 
 hold It In spite of evidence. On the contrary, 
 he fully admitted his delusion, and warned 
 the Secretary of State against being taken In
 
 TANGIER 
 
 93 
 
 as he had been himself. ' How much we 
 have been mistaken in our measures, and on 
 what uncertain ground we build when we 
 repose any reliance on the most solemn words 
 and engagements of the Moors !' ' I know I 
 need not weary you with hints of the faithless 
 and capricious humours of these people ;' ' A 
 people captious in the highest degree, and 
 that are extremely dexterous in cavils ' — these 
 are some of his warnings. One of the articles 
 of the treaty contained a permit for Moors 
 to settle in Tangier. Kirke was strongly 
 opposed to this. 
 
 ' Of all the people in the world, none are to 
 be less trusted to an intimacy and familiarity 
 with the Moors than the English, as there is 
 an absolute contrariety in their humours and 
 designs — the first being a nation naturally 
 subtle, distrustful, implacable, and under- 
 mining ; our own people, on the other side, 
 generous, loving, credulous, and without any 
 reserve.' 
 
 For the future Kirke treated the Emperor 
 with polite contempt. This is one of Muley 
 Ismael's letters :
 
 94 
 
 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 ' To Kirke, Captain of Tangier. 
 ' Know that we are well acquainted that 
 thou art our servant, and are satisfied with 
 thy friendship to our high estate, and we 
 know not thy master and lord but by thee, 
 and we sent not our servants to him but out 
 of kindness to thee, and to make thee great 
 in thy nation. If [thy King] have a mind to 
 peace, let him send us two great men of thy 
 country, thy King's counsellors, such wherein 
 the Christians do most confide.' 
 
 In another letter he demanded that the 
 Duke of Albemarle should be sent to him, 
 and hereon Kirke made the sensible com- 
 ment that if any Ambassador was sent some 
 great man ought certainly to be chosen, ' the 
 natural haughtiness of these people valuing 
 nothing that bears not the visible stamp of 
 greatness and ostentation.' 
 
 But, for his own part, Kirke was opposed 
 to any more Embassies. He took no notice 
 of the Emperor's rage. ' The Emperor 
 makes it out in noise and high language,' 
 was his only comment. It was also clear
 
 TANGIER 95 
 
 that the Moors did not ' mean business,' and 
 they only clamoured for Embassies for the 
 sake of the presents that would pass. He 
 thought that by far the most dignified course 
 to take would be to say plainly that the King 
 valued his Ministers too highly to expose 
 them to the treatment the Emperor bestowed 
 on his own servants, and he added the very 
 cogent comment that it would cost much 
 more to equip an Embassy for the Duke of 
 Albemarle than it would to set the army in 
 order and repair the fortifications. 
 
 Kirke made an evil name for himself in 
 the suppression of Monmouth's rebellion ; 
 but in his conduct of the affairs of Tangier 
 he displayed high qualities as a soldier and 
 a statesman. If this astute and vigorous man 
 had been given a free hand, there is no doubt 
 that he would have made an Empire for us 
 in North Africa. There can be no better 
 evidence of his merit than the bad words he 
 got at home for his candour and common- 
 sense. 'It is an inexpressible mortification 
 to me to consider how much this Emperor's 
 refusal of ratifying our treaties will gratify the
 
 96 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 desires which are entertained by the restless 
 spirits at home ' The ' restless spirits ' lost 
 no opportunity of maligning Kirke, and set- 
 ting down his changed views of the Moors to 
 his natural wish, as a soldier, for a war. A 
 war ! he wrote contemptuously ; what object 
 could he have in waging a war with ragged, 
 dispirited, half-armed troops against a power- 
 ful enemy in his own country — a war where 
 no glory was to be won, and where there was 
 every chance of being defeated, captured, 
 and tortured to death ? And he wrote rather 
 heatedly to the Secretary of State anent ' the 
 Phanaticks that not only cause disturbances 
 at home, but wish ill to our peace abroad.' 
 How well, since Kirke's time, we have come 
 to know those ' Phanaticks ' ! 
 
 It does not appear that the ' Phanaticks ' 
 had much influence on this occasion ; but the 
 result was the same as if they had. 
 
 Lord Dartmouth was the last English 
 Governor of Tanorier. He brought orders 
 to rescue, and retire with, the whole Christian 
 population. In his despatches he paid a 
 well-deserved tribute to the officers of the
 
 TANGIER 97 
 
 garrison. ' Better officers,' he wrote, * can- 
 not be brought to the head of men ' than 
 these soldiers who had sought their bread 
 where finer gentlemen would not come. The 
 blowing-up of the fortifications and the mole 
 took some time, during which Lord Dart- 
 mouth's observations led him to make the 
 prophecy that the great aim of the French 
 undoubtedly was to make themselves masters 
 of the Mediterranean. His orders were exe- 
 cuted without difficulty. The Moors had had 
 their lesson, and, seeing that we were going, 
 they were content to look on and wait until 
 they could occupy Tangier without fighting. 
 They did not have to wait long. No mishap 
 accompanied our embarkation, and by the 
 spring of 1684 the English had left Morocco 
 — for ever ?
 
 [98] 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MINORCA. 
 
 Minorca was the Malta of the eighteenth 
 century. The island represented to England 
 all that Malta represents now ; to France it 
 represented much more, for she w^as not at 
 that time accustomed to our presence in 
 the Mediterranean. Tangier, indeed, we had 
 held and given up, and Gibraltar had already 
 been English ground for four years when 
 Minorca was captured. But these places 
 were only at the gates of the Mediterranean, 
 whereas the possession of Minorca meant 
 that England was becoming a Mediterranean 
 Power, a consummation that France was re- 
 solved to hinder if possible. 
 
 We took pleasure in our new conquest at 
 first, chiefly because it gave us the power of
 
 MINORCA 99 
 
 annoying our enemies. But as the century 
 wore on, and the road to the East became 
 yearly of greater importance, we discovered 
 more solid grounds for holding Port Mahon. 
 The steadily- growing consciousness of the 
 importance of our external relations explains 
 the tempest of wrath that shook the kingdom 
 when Minorca was lost. It also explains the 
 honours paid to the memory of the first Earl 
 Stanhope. 
 
 To us, and now, it must often seem strange 
 that, in the great national mausoleum of West- 
 minster, while one of the two most splendid 
 and conspicuous memorials is very properly 
 dedicated to Sir Isaac Newton, the other 
 should have been raised to General Stan- 
 hope. But many of those who followed 
 Newton to his last resting-place must have 
 felt that he received an added honour in 
 being buried by the side of so great a man. 
 So much did Minorca mean to our fore- 
 fathers, for Stanhope was the conqueror of 
 Minorca. 
 
 The attack was a rebound from the main- 
 land. Just as in 1794, when driven from
 
 loo THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Toulon, we seized on Corsica, so in 1708, 
 when driven from Catalonia, we seized on 
 Minorca. The whole expedition only lasted a 
 fortnight. The outworks of St. Philip's were 
 carried by Brigadier Wade with a rush, and 
 Port Mahon surrendered on December 30. 
 
 This was partly good fortune. For in 
 later years Blakeney defended Port Mahon 
 for seventy days with two thousand eight 
 hundred men against an army of fourteen 
 thousand, and in 1780 Murray held the place 
 against the Due de Crillon for nearly six 
 months with a garrison reduced at last to 
 only six hundred men. But by audacity, and 
 the luck of having a timid opponent, Stan- 
 hope captured, with a trifling loss, a place of 
 the first importance. 
 
 From Port Mahon we could now control 
 the Mediterranean, for the harbour gave nine 
 to ten fathoms of water, and shelter for a 
 moderate squadron. Our presence there as 
 the allies of Spain ' raised our figure in those 
 parts,' or, as we should say now, added to 
 our prestige. But even with Blenheim, 
 Ramillies and Oudenarde behind us, we had
 
 MINORCA loi 
 
 the Utmost difficulty in securing the cession 
 of the island. 
 
 For once we saw our opportunity, seized 
 it, and took very good care that only first-rate 
 men were charged with the handling of our 
 new possession. It is the more remarkable 
 that almost the whole of the official corre- 
 spondence relating to the English occupation 
 of Minorca up to the year 1756 has dis- 
 appeared, and had disappeared from all 
 Government offices as early as 1763. 
 
 A somewhat similar fate has befallen the 
 memory of the great men who were entrusted 
 with the government of the island on which 
 so much depended. John, Duke of Argyll 
 and Greenwich, a brilliant orator, a rival in 
 war of Marlborough himself, and the first 
 English Governor of Minorca, is now hardly 
 remembered in spite of the enormous monu- 
 ment to his memory in Poets' Corner. 
 
 Of Ligonier, most romantic figure of the 
 eighteenth century, we know a great deal. 
 A French Protestant noble expelled from his 
 native country, he entered the English Army ; 
 was in the thick of nineteen sieges and
 
 I02 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 twenty - three pitched battles without re- 
 ceiving a wound ; was the last man to receive 
 knighthood under the victorious standard of 
 England on the field of battle ; was created 
 in succession Baron, Viscount, and Earl 
 Ligonier ; was the only Frenchman who ever 
 commanded the British Army In chief; served 
 five English Sovereigns ; lived to the age 
 of ninety, and was buried in Westminster 
 Abbey. But of his work as Governor of 
 Fort St. Philip not a trace remains. 
 
 Of Lord Carpenter, who fought his way 
 up to the peerage from the position of a 
 gentleman of the Life Guards, and who was 
 for sixteen years Governor of Minorca, we 
 have only a miserable biography in the 
 Grub Street manner, a woodcut portrait 
 rather better than might be expected, and 
 two or three minutes on the affairs of 
 Minorca in a handwriting as beautiful as 
 Thackeray's. 
 
 Of the island itself, on the other hand, we 
 know a great deal. 
 
 Minorca was a pleasant island inhabited 
 by an unpleasant people. The countryside
 
 MINORCA 103 
 
 was thickly covered with olive-trees, though 
 the woods looked more inviting than they 
 were, for the ground was stony. There were 
 no rivers, but there was water in abundance, 
 for the Minorquins were adroit well-sinkers. 
 There were no meadows, so it was hard to 
 pasture horses ; but mules thrived somehow, 
 and were useful beasts — much more so 
 than the horses. ' The Horses, like their 
 Masters, have a certain Stateliness in their 
 Gait that promises more Proof than is in their 
 Nature, for they are both arrant Jades at 
 bottom.' This is the judgment of a man 
 who knew them both. 
 
 The Minorquins, a naturally listless people, 
 did not favour travelling. There was one 
 shelter-house in the island, the Casa del Rey 
 at Alaior, the first stage out of Port Mahon 
 on the road northward to Ciudadella. Here 
 the traveller might count on finding a bed, 
 for which he would have to pay one shilling. 
 If he carried food with him he might sup; 
 otherwise he must go to bed hungry. There 
 was one cart in the island. 
 
 The ordinary education of an English
 
 I04 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 gentleman in the eighteenth century consti- 
 tuted a man of learning in Spain. When we 
 remember what that education amounted to, 
 we can form an idea of how much a Spanish 
 gentleman did not know ; and Minorca was 
 rather worse than the mainland. One 
 traveller who returned from the long and 
 perilous journey to the neighbouring island 
 of Majorca reported with a scared face that 
 they were teaching a new philosophy there, 
 the foundation of which was reason. The 
 total population of the island was about six- 
 teen thousand. The Minorquins were per- 
 mitted by the Spanish Government to possess 
 one knife for each household, but they were 
 compelled to keep it chained to the kitchen- 
 table. 
 
 Enough corn was grown on the island to 
 support the people, but not the garrison. 
 The farmers trod out their corn with oxen, 
 and ground it between stones, as was done 
 in the days of Oman the Jebusite. But it 
 is not to be supposed that they were ashamed, 
 or even conscious, of their backwardness. On 
 the contrary, they held it to be improper to
 
 MINORCA 105 
 
 know more than a Minorquin, and highly 
 irreligious to try experiments. Their vines, 
 for example, were never pruned for those 
 reasons ; and one of our officers who pointed 
 out the value of this simple operation of 
 husbandry was rebuked for his profanity. 
 As if God, who made the vine, did not know 
 how it ought to grow better than any heretic 
 of an Englishman ! 
 
 The Minorquin would do just as much 
 work as would keep body and soul ^jgether, 
 or perhaps not quite so much, preferring to 
 supplement his manual labour by the more 
 grateful exercises of begging or brigand- 
 aore 
 
 Except when the ' surly Levanters ' blew, 
 and during the three hot months, the climate 
 of Minorca was good. Duty was not heavy. 
 A resident officer said that there was more 
 work in one good day's shooting than in 
 three weeks' dutv at Port Mahon. But 
 service there was never popular, the ex- 
 tremely formal and unsociable character of 
 the upper classes making pleasant society 
 almost unattainable.
 
 io6 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 The Minorquin of position prided himself 
 (as was his wont in respect of any of his own 
 personal attributes) on his frugality. But a 
 frugality which is the mere consequence of 
 poverty is not a very sturdy virtue ; and 
 when Minorquins dined at our messes 
 they generally quitted themselves well. And 
 small blame to them ; for our officers, if their 
 incomes were slender and their amuse- 
 ments few, could at any rate command a 
 good dinner every day. It was only to 
 sluggards that Minorca was an ungrateful 
 soil. 
 
 Soup, fish, two dishes, game, sweets and 
 vegetables, Irish butter, English cheese and 
 French bread, were no bad exchange for 
 lentils and water. The wine was good ; we 
 called it Alaior burgundy, and it cost three- 
 halfpence a bottle. 
 
 From a people who will put up with being 
 allowanced by Government in the matter 
 of kitchen cutlery there is not much to 
 be expected. Four centuries of Spanish 
 Government had turned them into what 
 the whole consensus of opinion, private
 
 MINORCA 107 
 
 and official, agreed in describing as a 
 rabble of haughty beggars glorying in their 
 rags ; born slaves, intriguing, bigoted and 
 spiteful. 
 
 We cannot now test these views ; but it is 
 certain that to the last they remained actively 
 unfriendly to us, which is a more damaging 
 fact than all the invective that our irritated 
 countrymen employed. For the people 
 who cannot get and keep on good terms 
 with Englishmen must be impracticable in- 
 deed. 
 
 Left to themselves, the Minorquins would 
 no doubt have become as loyal as any of the 
 subjects of the British Crown. Unhappily, 
 like the Irish, they were steadily taught by 
 their priests to regard us as the foes of their 
 liberties (save the mark), and of their religion. 
 On the latter head the fact that there was 
 one parson of the Church of England in 
 Minorca, as against two hundred and fifty 
 religious members of the Church of Rome, 
 might have reassured the most timorous. 
 But the Minorquins were not encouraged to 
 reason. ' Hate England and obey us ' was
 
 io8 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 the command Issued to them by their spiritual 
 guides — a command strictly obeyed by all, 
 even the magistrates on the Bench. 
 
 This was the first and greatest difficulty 
 that beset the Governors of Minorca. Another 
 was the prevalence of intrigue between Rome 
 and the Mediterranean Courts in favour of 
 the Pretender. Another, more serious, but 
 also more easily grappled with, was the corn 
 supply. For corn we were, to the last, de- 
 pendent on Algiers, and the Algerine fleet 
 was very strong. It was returned by our 
 secret agents in 1718 at twenty ships carry- 
 ing five hundred and ninety-five guns. Port 
 Mahon, about equidistant from Marseilles 
 and Algiers, thus lay between the ports of 
 an open enemy and an untrustworthy friend. 
 Marseilles lay almost due north, and Algiers 
 almost due south, and distant about one 
 hundred and twenty miles. Barcelona, the 
 nearest Spanish port, was nearer, but not 
 more friendly. 
 
 These were some of the difficulties which 
 made the title of Excellency and a salary of 
 seven hundred and fifty pounds a year but
 
 MINORCA J09 
 
 moderate compensations for the anxious 
 duties of Lieutenant-Governor of Minorca. 
 Colonel Richard Kane was the first man 
 to hold the appointment, with George, Lord 
 Forbes, afterwards Earl of Granard, as 
 Governor of Fort St. Philip's under him ; 
 John, Duke of Argyll and Greenwich, was 
 the first Governor. 
 
 It was plain from the first that outside the 
 military lines there would be no government 
 worth speaking of without a radical change. 
 In similar circumstances to-day we should 
 no doubt make that change. We should 
 found a small Civil Service officered partly 
 by military men and partly by civilians. We 
 should take over and extinguish all local 
 debts, insist on the absolute purity of the 
 Judicial Bench, and put down brigandage 
 with a stronor hand. Further than that we 
 could not go, nor would further action be 
 necessary. 
 
 The three distinguished men — we may 
 alniost say the three great men — who wielded 
 the authority of the Crown did none of these 
 things. We can guess their reasons without
 
 no THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 much difficulty. It would have been an ex- 
 periment, and the time was not favourable 
 for experiments. A new dynasty was on 
 the throne of England, and parties were 
 much divided. The country was greatly 
 exhausted with the war with France. To 
 manage as well as might be and avoid con- 
 troversies was, on the whole, the highest 
 wisdom. And to have suggested a Minor- 
 quin Civil Service would have been to 
 raise a question controversial in the highest 
 degree. 
 
 ' For forms of government let fools contest ; 
 The best administered is still the best.' 
 
 It would be interesting to know whether 
 Pope had been talking to some officer on 
 leave from Minorca when he wrote these 
 lines. It would be a natural couplet for any 
 man to write now. But in Pope's time it 
 was rather different. A chapter of history 
 devoted to the luck of England has yet to 
 be written ; but, luck apart, there could 
 hardly be a doubt that in Pope's time the 
 strong position of England was in a very
 
 MINORCA III 
 
 considerable degree the result of her form 
 of government. Under the circumstances, 
 to write, 
 
 ' For forms of government let fools contest ; 
 The best administered is still the best,' 
 
 must have seemed mere cynic smartness, 
 unless the writer was thinking of Minorca, 
 where the forms of self-government had sub- 
 sisted for four centuries and a half, and had 
 succeeded in developing nothing but Minor- 
 quins. 
 
 It would have been (and especially at that 
 juncture) a most delicate task for English- 
 men to destroy institutions which were, even 
 in appearance, popular. To replace such in- 
 stitutions (however harmful they had proved 
 to be in practice) by officials bearing, in their 
 direct responsibility to the Crown, even the 
 most distant resemblance to the tyrants who 
 had oppressed England under the Republic, 
 was quite out of the question. 
 
 Well might Argyll and Kane and Forbes 
 stand aghast at the problem before them. 
 They had to govern, under the forms of
 
 112 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 popular government, a people to whom the 
 whole spirit of popular government was 
 alien. 
 
 So little loyal were the Minorquins that 
 Spain had always been in fear of a Sicilian 
 Vespers, so little self-reliant that no man 
 could stand alone in the plain path of daily 
 duty, so little enterprising that there was but 
 one cart in the whole island, so entirely with- 
 out business aptitude that all the local bodies 
 were in debt, and so devoid of common-sense 
 that the people thought to honour God by 
 leaving vines unpruned. 
 
 In short, the popularly governed island 
 presented all those abuses that orators have 
 been accustomed to associate with the 
 last corruption of an effete despotism. So 
 little have institutions to do with making 
 men. 
 
 Small wonder that our Governors played 
 the Gallio, and contented themselves with 
 securing the garrison and leaving the island 
 in its chosen paradise of piety and bankruptcy. 
 The Minorquins were allowed to have as 
 many knives as they pleased ; we were not
 
 MINORCA 113 
 
 afraid of Sicilian Vespers. If that had been 
 the limit of our indulgence, we should have 
 saved ourselves much trouble. But we went 
 further ; we took them and their institutions 
 — alas ! the immortal error — seriously. 
 
 Under Spanish rule there had been a 
 tradition that Minorca was entitled to depute 
 a Syndic to represent her grievances on the 
 mainland when the Governors of the island 
 failed to redress them. It is, perhaps, hardly 
 necessary to say that the custom had fallen 
 into complete abeyance. On the last occa- 
 sions when a Syndic from Minorca ventured 
 to present himself to the Governor of Cata- 
 lonia, he was received with derision and 
 contempt. So fearful has England always 
 been of even the appearance of arbitrary rule 
 that we allowed this (in theory) excellent 
 custom to revive. Such use was made of 
 our indulgent spirit as might have been 
 expected. 
 
 The habit of the Spanish mind always 
 has been — and, until Spain wakes from the 
 nightmare of the ages, apparently always 
 will be — to mistake intrigue for cleverness, 
 
 8
 
 114 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 factiousness for independence, bigotry for 
 piety, and sharp practice for business apti- 
 tude. 
 
 Thus inspired, and briefed by his Bishop, 
 the Agent for Minorca became a thorn in 
 the side of Governor after Governor, and a 
 standing trial to the Secretary of State for 
 the Southern Division. 
 
 The uneasy throne of resident Lieutenant- 
 Governor of Minorca was occupied by Richard 
 Kane for twenty years ; and on Lord Car- 
 penter's death he was promoted to the 
 governorship, which he held for three years 
 more, until his own death in 1/^6. No great 
 explosion occurred during his tenure of office ; 
 but he lived in constant apprehension of 
 attack, and in 1725 a formal alliance was 
 entered into between Spain and Austria with 
 the express object of wresting Minorca from 
 England — an alliance which, fortunately, came 
 in this respect to nothing. 
 
 Few men have done finer work for E norland 
 in their day than Richard Kane. He had to 
 keep a watchful eye on his troops, and to 
 keep on as good terms as possible with the
 
 MINORCA 115 
 
 intractable Minorqulns. He had to improve 
 the material conditions of his charge with 
 very scanty funds, and in the teeth of con- 
 tinued opposition. The Spanish Consul in 
 Minorca had to be treated as a Consul, 
 although (as there was no Spanish trade to 
 speak of) it was plain, from the first, that he 
 was nothing but a spy. 
 
 In his external relations his first duty was 
 to keep the Dey of /\lgiers in a good temper, 
 and the penalty of failing herein was some- 
 thing approaching starvation. For the other 
 Mediterranean Powers eagerly seized a chance 
 of embarrassinof us. He had to exercise the 
 greatest discretion in sending letters to Eng- 
 land. Some could be trusted to the French 
 Post-office, but it was often wiser to send 
 despatches by the fleet. Occasionally, when 
 written in cipher, they had to be sent through 
 our Minister at Florence. On the whole, 
 communication with England was fairly easy. 
 Letters sometimes reached Minorca in twelve 
 or fifteen days after leaving England, but 
 three weeks was a more usual time, and there 
 was a packet plying regularly between Port
 
 ii6 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Mahon and Marseilles which went and re- 
 turned in three weeks. 
 
 In all his work in the Mediterranean, he 
 had to cope with, and outwit if possible (which 
 was very seldom the case), the excellent secret 
 service of France ; and all this delicate work 
 had to be carried on with due regard to the 
 wrangling of parties In Parliament, and in 
 the face of the Incessant, and sometimes 
 slanderous, misrepresentations of the Agent 
 for Minorca in London. 
 
 Kane was the very man for the place. He 
 was possessed of an even temper. His piety 
 and gentleness were such that fifty years 
 after his death he was spoken of as ' that 
 good man General Kane.' If Rysbraek's 
 bust is at all like him, he must have been in 
 personal appearance a very attractive man. 
 He had fought at the Boyne and In Flanders, 
 and had written a book of tactics which sur- 
 vived him for twenty years. His soldiers, 
 whose welfare was his constant care, were 
 devoted to him, and his death was a great 
 loss to the Empire. 
 
 He was succeeded by the Earl of Hertford,
 
 MINORCA 117 
 
 son of the proud Duke of Somerset, a man 
 who had served In the Low Countries in his 
 youth, and carried the Oudenarde despatches 
 to England. He was only just past middle 
 life when appointed Governor of Minorca, 
 but his feeble health prevented him from 
 taking a very active part in the affairs of his 
 government. It was about this time that a 
 lax habit of managing Port Mahon grew up, 
 and that officers on leave in England over- 
 stayed their leave almost unchecked. In 
 1 74 1 there were absent from duty in Minorca 
 the Governor, the Lieutenant-Governor, the 
 Governor of Fort St. Philip's, and eleven 
 commissioned officers. Such slackness was 
 almost an invitation to our enemies. But, 
 as has always been the case In the history of 
 England, the worst enemies of the country 
 were to be found, not abroad, but at home. 
 When the crash came. It found two remark- 
 able men once more at the head of the 
 affairs of Minorca, and no circumstance of 
 publicity was lacking to point the guilt of 
 the Prime Minister in neglecting their remon- 
 strances.
 
 ii8 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Hertford was succeeded by James, Lord 
 Tyrawley. He was fully Kane's equal in 
 ability, and he possessed the additional ad- 
 vantage of being a peer. He had known 
 Minorca in the early days of our occupation, 
 and had served there for two years under 
 Kane as a Colonel of Foot. He was gifted 
 both in speech and writing with a trenchant 
 power of exposition. He was not content to 
 argue with his opponents ; he denounced 
 them. He was a very sarcastic and a very 
 determined man ; and, as mieht be imaofined, 
 men shrank not so much from crossing him, 
 as from even the appearance of differing with 
 him. S uch an assemblage of fighting attributes 
 damaofes a cause as often as not. But on 
 subjects where Tyrawley was at home (such 
 as Minorca, about which he knew as much 
 as any man in England), he was hardly to 
 be resisted ; and he succeeded in getting the 
 Privy Council out of, at any rate, one very 
 awkward and ridiculous position into which 
 the Agent for Minorca had inveigled them. 
 
 Such was the Governor ; the Lieutenant- 
 Governor was a man even more remarkable.
 
 MINORCA 119 
 
 William Blakeney must dispute with Marshal 
 Radetsky and the Eunuch Narses the repu- 
 tation of being the most extraordinary old 
 man known to history. 
 
 He was born in 1672, and served with 
 some distinction in Marlborough's wars ; but 
 the Peace of Utrecht found him at forty-one 
 years of age only a Lieutenant-Colonel. For 
 the next thirty years he served with his regi- 
 ment without promotion, and may be said to 
 have begun life again at the age of seventy- 
 one. He was promoted to be Brigadier, and 
 sent on the Carthagena expedition. On his 
 return he was again promoted, and appointed 
 Governor of Stirling Castle. He quitted 
 himself well in the '45, was promoted 
 Lieutenant-General, and made Lieutenant- 
 Governor of Minorca. 
 
 During the ten years that preceded the 
 outbreak of the Seven Years' War, every 
 conceivable influence was thus brought to 
 bear on the Government to induce them 
 to strengthen the defences and garrison of 
 Minorca. The Governor was the traditional 
 haughty noble of melodrama, and his
 
 I20 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 truculence was informed by great technical 
 and general knowledge. The Lieutenant- 
 Governor, on the other hand, had risen 
 almost from the ranks, had lived familiarly 
 with officers and men for sixty years, and 
 was beloved and trusted by all. 
 
 It Is necessary to review these considera- 
 tions In order to understand the tremendous 
 dead weight of obstinacy that bore them 
 down. 
 
 Newcastle was Premier. We may say that 
 Newcastle was the Government. In his eyes 
 England and all her mighty interests existed 
 for the purpose of supplying him with a 
 Parliamentary majority. So far as men 
 served that end they did their duty ; so far 
 as they acted otherwise they were miscreants 
 and blockheads. If Minorca had been a 
 constituency, It would no doubt have been 
 assiduously courted. But as it was, there 
 was no reason why the affairs of the Island 
 should be even considered, and they were 
 not considered. It Is not enough to say that 
 Newcastle cared nothing for the honour and 
 profit of England ; for him these things did
 
 MINORCA 
 
 not exist ; the lust of power occupied his 
 whole being. 
 
 It seems to be tacitly agreed that there is 
 no such thing as treason, and certainly, if 
 Newcastle's conduct does not make a man 
 a traitor, there is no distinction worth draw- 
 ing between loyalty and treason. The sequel 
 is as well known as any piece of English 
 history. A French army of about fifteen 
 thousand men descended on Minorca, and 
 the garrison, after gallantly standing a siege 
 of seventy days, capitulated with the honours 
 of war. A feeble attempt to relieve the 
 place was made by the Government. They 
 equipped (very badly) a fleet of ten vessels, 
 and gave the command to Admiral Byng. 
 He fought an action with Count de la Galis- 
 soniere, in which he was defeated, and fell 
 back to defend Gibraltar. At Gibraltar, 
 Hawke, who was sent out to replace him, 
 deprived him of his command before the 
 whole fleet. He was brought to trial before 
 court-martial in England, condemned, and 
 shot. Old Blakeney was deservedly loaded 
 with honours. He lived another five years
 
 122 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 to enjoy his peerage, a colonelcy, and the 
 Red Ribbon, and was burled in Westminster 
 Abbey. 
 
 Byng has never been properly understood. 
 Few people, even at the time of his iniqui- 
 tous execution, really supposed that he 
 deserved death. In all men's eyes New- 
 castle was the real criminal. But the people 
 must have a victim, and Newcastle was 
 beyond their reach. The loss of Minorca 
 stirred the people to their depths. They 
 were in no mood for discriminating ; all they 
 could insist on was that someone must hang 
 for Port Mahon, and so Byng was flung to 
 them as a scapegoat for the jNIInlstry. 
 
 But Byng was not exactly a martyr. He 
 was at the time of his death a gentleman of 
 fifty-three years of age, the son of the founder 
 of the Torrington peerage, and might all his 
 life have had any appointment he cared to 
 ask for. It Is no proof of cowardice that he 
 chose easy posts. Byng was a brave man, but 
 he was a dawdler ; and when he came to fight 
 his last engagement, he reaped the fruits of 
 his dawdllno^ life, for he was out-manoeuvred.
 
 MINORCA 123 
 
 There Is no doubt that on the Port Mahon 
 expedition the Admiralty treated him shame- 
 fully. They could as easily have given him 
 a fleet of twenty sail as one of ten. and with 
 such a fleet he could have counted on beating 
 off Galissoniere, and might possibly have 
 captured the entire French land force. His 
 disgust at this shabby treatment was shown 
 in a very characteristic manner. He exag- 
 gerated his natural deliberateness. He waited 
 a month at Portsmouth corresponding about 
 all sorts of trifles : about his secretary's table, 
 w^hich was jammed against the wall ; about 
 his cabin on the Ramillies, which was so 
 dark that he had to light candles in the day- 
 time ; about an extra scuttle that he was very 
 anxious to get put in ; and about the recent 
 new regulations for the marines. Not un- 
 important matters at some times, but how 
 differendy would Nelson have gone to work, 
 with all England breathlessly awaiting- the 
 results of his expedition ! 
 
 His conduct was compared at the time 
 with that of Captain Walton, who was 
 ordered in 1718 by Byng's father, Sir
 
 124 THE LOST POSSESSIOXS OF ENGLAND 
 
 George Byng, to pursue the flying Spaniards, 
 and who reported his action in the following 
 despatch : 
 
 ' Sir, 
 
 * I have taken and burnt, as per 
 margin, going for Syracuse, and am, sir, 
 * Your obedient servant, 
 
 'G. Walton.' 
 
 This report was contrasted with the sort 
 of despatch England might look forward to 
 if the son's example were followed in the 
 future : 
 
 'Sir, 
 
 ' I have the pleasure to desire you will 
 acquaint their lordships that, having loitered 
 away as much time as I possibly could, I at 
 last came in sight of the enemy, to whom I 
 was superior both in ships and guns. As 
 they ran away, though we had the weather- 
 gauge, I did not think It convenient either to 
 follow them or relieve the place with the 
 supplies I had on board. I am making the 
 best of my way to Gibraltar, under the cannon
 
 MINORCA 125 
 
 whereof I soon hope to be safe, because the 
 enemy, who sails three miles to our one, may 
 overtake me, but could not forbear sending 
 the first account of an event of such conse- 
 quence. 
 
 ' P.S. — I have sent you an account both of 
 my own and the enemy's killed and wounded, 
 by which you will see it was a bloody engage- 
 ment, especially on board my own flag, where 
 there was not one killed nor wounded.' 
 
 This is a very mild piece of political banter 
 by comparison with the bulk of the pamphlets 
 and ballads with which the streets of London 
 were flooded, and which called loudly for 
 Byng's head as well as Newcastle's. The 
 great criminal escaped ; but on the morning 
 of March 14, 1757, Byng was led on to the 
 quarter-deck of the Monarch in Portsmouth 
 harbour. They offered to blind his eyes, but 
 he refused. It was represented to him that 
 the firing-party might shoot better if the 
 Admiral were blindfolded, and he consented 
 at once. ' If it makes them nervous,' he 
 said, ' blindfold me by all means ;' and he
 
 126 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 died as he lived, a polite and considerate 
 gentleman. 
 
 The extent of our loss is well measured 
 by the wild jubilation that spread through 
 France at the news of the capture of Minorca. 
 
 Not only was the actual loss of the place 
 a serious blow to us, but it was confidently 
 expected that it would be followed by the 
 evacuation of Gibraltar. There was much, 
 both in the jubilations and in the manner of 
 expressing them, that was eminently French. 
 In the years that have passed since 1756 
 the French have changed much less than the 
 English. We no longer content ourselves 
 with sneering at our terrible rivals. We 
 know them for what they are, and admire 
 them for a score of reasons ; but Frenchmen 
 study England very little, and can hardly be 
 said either to admire or respect her. To the 
 French the English remain exactly what they 
 were when Port Mahon surrendered to the 
 Duke of Richelieu. We no longer call the 
 French 'froggies,' or 'infidels,' or 'lively 
 Gauls '; but the French still call us, as they 
 called us then, ' avides corsaires,' ' fleaux des
 
 MINORCA 127 
 
 mers,' * ennemis barbares,' and 'brigands.' 
 To the French the enterprises of their own 
 nation bear always the aspect of chivalrous 
 missions, but those of England are still 
 nothing but ' noirs attentats.' 
 
 The most extrav^agant of Richelieu's pane- 
 gyrists was Voltaire, in whose long copy of 
 verses we find these lines : 
 
 ' Je ne scais si dans Port Mahon 
 Voiis trouverez un statuaire, 
 Mais vous n'en avez plus affaire. 
 Vous allez graver votre nom 
 Sur les debris d'Angleterre.' 
 
 So long as we retained Port Mahon the 
 war insurance of caro^oes sailino- out of Mar- 
 seilles had ranged from fifty to seventy-five 
 per cent, of their value. Immediately after 
 the success of the PVench expedition in- 
 surance rates dropped to fifteen per cent. 
 
 The city of Marseilles had lent Louis XV. 
 a million sterling for the Duke of Riche- 
 lieu's expedition against Minorca, from which 
 enormous loan we may form some further 
 idea of their anxiety to see us driven out of 
 the Mediterranean.
 
 128 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 The commercial dealings of Marseilles with 
 Minorca were considerable. The island im- 
 ported about one hundred thousand pounds' 
 worth of French goods in the course of the 
 year, the bulk of which came in free. On 
 the other hand, English goods entering 
 France by the port of Marseilles had to be 
 warehoused, and they were not admitted to 
 retail until they had paid twenty per cent. 
 duty. In fact, it was chiefly on commercial 
 grounds that the French objected to our 
 presence at Port Mahon. They do not 
 appear to have ever regarded the place as 
 one of military importance. Even when it 
 was in their possession it was carelessly held. 
 We had captured it in 1 708, after a trifling 
 resistance, and we recaptured it in 1798 with- 
 out striking a blow ; whereas in our hands it 
 stood the memorable siege of 1756, which 
 lasted seventy days. In 1781-82 it stood 
 a siege of one hundred and seventy days, 
 which was only less memorable than that of 
 1756 because the fame of it was lost in the 
 disasters of the American Rebellion and the 
 uproar of the wars of the French Revolution.
 
 MINORCA 129 
 
 It Is hardly too much to say that we paid 
 no attention whatever to our commercial 
 interests in Minorca. We valued the island 
 solely for its military and naval advantages. 
 And it must be confessed that we paid an 
 enormous price for its restoration in 1765. 
 For by the Treaty of Paris we ceded Cuba 
 and the Philippines, both mines of wealth, and 
 both conquered by us from Spain during the 
 Seven Years' War. 
 
 Colonel Mackellar arrived at Port Mahon 
 on May 29, 1763, and proceeded to take over 
 the place from the Marquis of Puysigneuse, 
 the French Commander-in-Chief. Mackellar 
 was a man of great experience as a military 
 engineer, and had known Minorca in his 
 youth. After doing good service at Louis- 
 burg, Quebec, Martinique, and Cuba, he was 
 destined to end his days at Port Mahon a full 
 Colonel, but with no higher distinction than 
 having once officiated Governor in the absence 
 of superior officers. He was soon after joined 
 by Colonel Lambert from Gibraltar with three 
 regiments, and the English occupation was 
 once more complete. 
 
 9
 
 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Colonel Lambert held the chief command 
 until September, when the new Lieutenant- 
 Governor, Colonel Johnston, arrived. The 
 first English Governor of Minorca after the 
 Seven Years' War was Sir Richard Lyttelton. 
 He resided at Richmond during the three 
 years that he held office, and seems to have 
 been quite without influence in the affairs of 
 the island. 
 
 Our old acquaintances the Minorquins were 
 in very much the same temper as they were 
 before the war, and welcomed the new Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor with a grumbling petition of 
 great length. But Johnston was not unpre- 
 pared. He told them plainly that it was too 
 much to expect the King to look with more 
 than merely tolerant eyes on subjects who 
 repaid his indulgence with malice, that it 
 was not in the power of man to make people 
 prosperous against their will ; but that, if they 
 had not set their faces against everything 
 English, they might have been wealthy long 
 since. All of which admonitions the Minor- 
 quins received after the fashion of sulky 
 people — sulkily.
 
 MINORCA 131 
 
 Under the admirable constitution of Minorca 
 it was, unfortunately, in the power of the 
 municipalities to do more than sulk. Taking 
 advantage of our extravagant reverence for 
 the forms of their institutions (a reverence 
 with which they were, from of old, perfectly 
 familiar), they threw serious obstacles in the 
 way of our troops being properly housed, and 
 set aside for our officers houses quite unfit 
 for habitation. Fifteen hundred men and 
 seventy officers had been comfortably quar- 
 tered in Ciudadella during the French occu- 
 pation, and yet the municipality complained 
 that they could not find room for six hundred 
 Englishmen. 
 
 These difficulties were got over by the 
 Lieutenant - Governor employing the only 
 argument that Minorquins understood, the 
 argument that had been most wisely and 
 efficaciously used by the French in like cir- 
 cumstances — a direct command. 
 
 Johnston was a soldier who looked well 
 after his men. On one occasion, when there 
 was a rumour of an impending attack, he 
 reported to the Secretary of State that he
 
 132 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 was laying in stores, not only of necessaries, 
 but of everything that could increase the 
 comfort of the troops. ' Englishmen,' he 
 added (anticipating the Duke of Wellington), 
 ' will do anything if they like their food, and 
 get plenty of it.' It is remarkable that from 
 the first day of our occupation to the last 
 there was no resident physician at Port 
 Mahon. The sensible men who commanded 
 in Minorca continually urged that the com- 
 fort of the garrison could not be considered 
 secure without one. It was the last request 
 of Richard Kane that Lord Moles worth's 
 brother, a physician, might be attached to 
 the garrison. Johnston very early in his 
 term of office pointed out how unfair it was 
 that there should be no medical aid nearer 
 than Marseilles, and during our brief occu- 
 pation of the island prior to the Treaty of 
 Amiens, it was a want on which Sir James 
 Erskine laid the greatest stress. In spite of 
 which no physician was ever in residence. 
 
 As was natural, the Agent for Minorca 
 was furious at the short work that the new 
 Lieutenant-Governor made of obstruction.
 
 MINORCA 133 
 
 In 1766 he had the assurance (it is difficult 
 to find an adjective of sufficient strength for 
 such a performance) to request Lord Shel- 
 burne to forward to him all reports that 
 Johnston might make either personally or 
 through his agents. It is quite inexplicable 
 that, after forty years' previous experience, we 
 should have continued to allow this useless 
 functionary to make himself such a nuisance 
 at the Foreign Office. 
 
 In respect of this, as well as of the other 
 troubles of the Lieutenant-Governor, history 
 repeated itself with painful monotony. John- 
 ston was as much embarrassed by the difficulty 
 of the corn supply as any of his predecessors ; 
 but, in the matter of religious difficulties, an 
 opportunity arose for rebuking the interference 
 of the clergy which might very well have been 
 embraced. In the spring of 1767 the Jesuits 
 were expelled from Spain, and five hundred 
 and forty of them were deported from Car- 
 thagena, and landed in Minorca. 
 
 This was a friendly lead that we might 
 reasonably have followed. Spaifi could cer- 
 tainly not be accused of heretical leanings ;
 
 134 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 and if the King of Spain himself found the 
 Jesuits intolerable, the King of England 
 could hardly have been blamed for being of 
 the same mind. Shortly before the loss of 
 Minorca the total number of religious persons 
 resident in the island was returned at four 
 hundred and fifty-five. Thus, when Johnston 
 wrote to recommend the expulsion of the 
 conventual clergy, there were actually one 
 thousand religious persons in an island with 
 a total population of under twenty thousand. 
 The Jesuits, it is true, were on their way to 
 Civita Vecchia ; but at the moment John- 
 ston's recommendation that only beneficed 
 clergy should be allowed to reside was a 
 weighty one. Of the conventual clergy he 
 wrote : 'It is past a doubt that, while they 
 are permitted to remain, they will ever keep 
 the inhabitants poor, ignorant, and dependent 
 upon Spain.' But nothing was done. 
 
 Not only, in fact, was nothing done, but 
 the Vicar-General and the Aorent for Minorca 
 between them contrived to impress the Secre- 
 tary of State with the idea that Johnston was 
 tyrannizing over them in a very high-handed
 
 MINORCA 135 
 
 manner. He was directed to reply imme- 
 diately to the charges against him, and he 
 began to fear that he would be recalled. But 
 In time the Secretary reassured him ; he de- 
 scribed the charges as frivolous and vexatious, 
 and the clerical opposition in the island as 
 impertinent and contemptible. Notwithstand- 
 ing which strong expressions nothing was 
 done either to curb the intrigues or to check 
 the complaints. 
 
 In 1770 a Russian fleet put into Port 
 Mahon, and Johnston, obeying his instruc- 
 tions, showed them every civility, reporting 
 on their departure that they were the most 
 quiet set of people he ever met with. In the 
 meantime some changes had taken place in 
 the governing body of the island. Sir Richard 
 Lyttelton had been appointed Governor of 
 Guernsey In 1 766, but (somewhat Incon- 
 sistently) retained the office of VIce-Admiral 
 of Minorca until his death in 1770. He was 
 succeeded as Governor of Minorca by Sir 
 George Howard, a wealthy, successful, and 
 fashionable soldier, who held the post till 
 1768. In February of the latter year he ac-
 
 136 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 cepted the governorship of Chelsea Hospital, 
 and Lieutenant-General John Mostyn (known 
 to law students as the defendant in Fabrigas 
 V. Mostyn) became Governor of Minorca. 
 
 Governor Mostyn was a man of a humorous 
 turn of mind, and habitually employed the 
 strongest expressions he could find that were 
 consistent with official decorum, and even 
 sometimes whether they were consistent or 
 not. It is perhaps unnecessary to say that 
 the first difficulty that met him in ^Minorca 
 was a dispute with the Dey of Algiers about 
 the corn- supply. The Dey had lately objected 
 to helping us, alleging that the contractor, 
 one Alexiano, had got corn from him under 
 the pretext of supplying it to Minorca, and 
 had then sold the supplies to Genoa and 
 Spain, the enemies of Algiers. In reporting 
 on the case to Lord Rochford, Mostyn begins 
 by saying that he has reproved Alexiano, 
 with what strength of language we may infer 
 fronr the rest of his official despatch. ' I 
 would wish to prepare your lordship for 
 what I fear you will call a damned long and 
 tiresome detail of this Algler accusation from
 
 MINORCA 137 
 
 the Russian Minister, as Alexiano writes to 
 him in justification of himself.' 
 
 One of the officers who accompanied 
 Mostyn to Minorca was Lord George 
 Lennox, who behaved himself in a rather 
 foolish manner. On this Mostyn wrote to 
 the Secretary of State : ' You know Wilkes, 
 you know the Bill of Rights Club, you know 
 the Livery of London, Sheriffs Saubridge 
 and Townshend— Lord George Gordon* is, 
 in my opinion, more mad than all of them 
 put together.' 
 
 After the patient endurance by all con- 
 cerned of reams of grumbling and slandering 
 from the Agent for Minorca, one John Pons, 
 it Is refreshlno- to find a Governor with the 
 courage to sum him up officially In the fol- 
 lowinor terms : ' I think I should not act as 
 I ought to your lordship, my much esteemed 
 and loved old friend, if I did not, for your 
 private information, let you know that this 
 same Syndick Pons is known and universally 
 said here to be the most consummate rascal 
 on earth.' 
 
 ■^ This is a mistake of Mostyn's.
 
 138 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 It was the same in everything. The Dey 
 had been misled about the corn, or, as 
 Mostyn put it, 'grossly Imposed upon.' 
 Some Danish vessels putting in at Port 
 Mahon had flouted our Customs, and the 
 Governor denounced their conduct as ' per- 
 fectly ungenteel and Irregular.' An officer 
 who was long past his work he described as a 
 * mummy.' His own health w^as broken by 
 age, and his eyesight suffered from the glare, 
 so that he had to take a good deal of care of 
 himself, ' more than I think worth while for 
 such an old fellow as I am.' In 1772 he 
 obtained leave to retire to England, and his 
 last word on Minorca was that he would not 
 return for the fee- simple of the whole Island. 
 
 Johnston resumed his old post as Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor, and was confronted with 
 the novel difficulty of a proposed Ambassador 
 to George III. from Tripoli. The Secretary 
 of State was very much concerned at the 
 idea. He wrote to Johnston directing him 
 to offer the Ambassador any reasonable sum 
 — say two or three, or even five, hundred 
 pounds — to go away. His Majesty had
 
 MINORCA 139 
 
 suffered from one such Embassy already, 
 and had no desire to see any more of ' his 
 good brother ' of Tripoli, whose presents 
 were not very valuable as a rule, and whose 
 Embassy had to be returned at a cost quite 
 incommensurate with the advantages of the 
 alliance. It was rather a delicate message to 
 give, and Johnston had little time to prepare. 
 In March, 1773, the Ambassador was already 
 at Minorca with a present of horses which 
 Johnston thought might be worth five pounds 
 apiece. He was accorded a sentry at the 
 door, and the guard turned out for him. In 
 the interviews that ensued, Johnston went so 
 far as to charge himself with the horses ; he 
 promised to take every care of them, and in 
 the meantime he offered the Ambassador 
 three hundred and sixty pounds in cash, and 
 a passage back to Tripoli in a King's ship. 
 The Ambassador seems to have appreciated 
 the situation. He was most willing to oblige 
 in any way, and no doubt he genuinely 
 regretted having to refuse the Lieutenant- 
 Governor's offer. But he had been ordered 
 to England, and he durst not return to Tripoli
 
 I40 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 without obeying his orders. So to England 
 he went in the Stanley, bound for Liverpool, 
 and took his horses with him. 
 
 Johnston's government of Minorca was as 
 good as could have been expected in the 
 circumstances. The inherent difficulties of 
 the situation had never been boldly faced, 
 and they tormented us to the last. In 
 England the government of the Earl of Chat- 
 ham had been succeeded by the government 
 of men devoid of Ideas other than parochial. 
 But the great man's influence lingered in by- 
 w^ays ; and it was to the prestige attaching 
 to the men of Chatham's choice that the new 
 Lieutenant-Governor owed his appointment. 
 Lieutenant-General James Murray had served 
 as a Brigadier with Wolfe in Canada, had 
 been Governor of Quebec, and served under 
 Amherst at the capture of Montreal. He 
 was destined to close his active career in a 
 blaze of glory, and was, further, conspicuous 
 as the only man who ever got any work out 
 of Minorquins. He attained this astonishing 
 result by virtue of a certain dramatic way of 
 saying and doing whatever he had In hand,
 
 MINORCA 141 
 
 which was a sort of reflection of the great 
 manner of Chatham himself. 
 
 The dramatic gift, which is not only lack- 
 ing in most Englishmen, but is positively 
 abhorred by them, is perhaps the best 
 possible instrument for influencing men of 
 Latin extraction. Many of our Admirals 
 possessed the gift — Duncan and Hawke in 
 particular, and Nelson in a very high degree. 
 It was Nelson's fine theatrical manner that 
 wrung admiration even from the French, in 
 spite of the fact that he wrought them more 
 mischief than any one Englishman since the 
 Black Prince. On the other hand, Minorca 
 was a small stage, but the times were stirring. 
 At first Murray had nothing to do but meet 
 the old difficulties raised by the incompetence 
 and jobbery of the local governing bodies. 
 He felt, and said, that it was to very little 
 purpose to reason with them. The only 
 remedy for this state of things was, in 
 Murray's opinion, ' transferring the powers 
 now in the hands of the ignorant and 
 indigent into those of the opulent and well- 
 informed '; raising the franchise, in short — a
 
 142 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 sensible step which, up to the present time, 
 only one constitutional Government* has 
 summoned up courage to take. 
 
 But the French were steadily preparing 
 for another attack on Port Mahon, and in 
 spite of their pacific assurances, Murray laid 
 in stores, looked to his arms, and entirely 
 remodelled the system of mines around the 
 fortifications. The death of Colonel Mackellar 
 was a severe blow, as three of the remaining 
 engineers were fresh from Woolwich. But 
 the Governor (recently promoted on the 
 death of General Mostyn) was indefatigable ; 
 he continued to lay in everything that could 
 insure the health and comfort of his men, and 
 contrived to raise everybody's spirits. The 
 town of Ciudadella asked for a garrison ; he 
 sent them three companies, with permission 
 to raise fifty-seven men to supplement this 
 small force. 'If,' he added, ' you cannot raise 
 fifty-seven men to defend your property, you 
 deserve to have it shamefully taken from you 
 by the first stout privateer that shall make 
 the attempt.' Clearly there was nothing to 
 
 ^ That of the Cape of Good Hope.
 
 MINORCA 143 
 
 be gained — after that — by any more grum- 
 bling. About the same time he ordered all 
 French Roman Catholics out of the island, 
 a measure in appearance harsh and unwise, 
 but raised by Murray's concluding words into 
 an order which dignified all who obeyed it. 
 'It cannot be supposed,' said the proclama- 
 tion, ' that an honest man, a natural born 
 subject of France, will renounce for ever all 
 allegiance to his native country and his King 
 except from oppression and persecution on 
 the score of religion, and he that would does 
 not deserve the protection of any other State.' 
 
 This kind of language w^as appreciated. 
 There was no pretence of friendliness where 
 none could be looked for ; but it was felt that 
 those who supported the Governor would 
 find a stout and loyal ally, and that those 
 who opposed him would fight with a spirited 
 and honourable foe. 
 
 Soon after this incident, Murray set to 
 work to organize his privateering fleet in 
 earnest. He began his operations with a 
 characteristic proclamation. ' I must acquaint 
 the people,' he wrote, 'that all the prizes
 
 144 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 taken by vessels acting by my commissions 
 will be the legal property of the King. Of 
 course, those who cannot rely upon His 
 Majesty's generosity will not apply for any 
 such commission ; those who have the same 
 confidence and reliance upon it which I have 
 will arm, and without hesitation push out to 
 sea to destroy the King's enemies.' 
 
 By this time the ]\Iinorquins, supine and 
 treacherous under all other Governors, had be- 
 come, not only loyal, but enthusiastic. Four- 
 teen privateers, carrying six hundred men with 
 fifty-six guns and one hundred and seventy 
 swivels, were speedily equipped ; and in the 
 winter of 1778-79 they captured French and 
 Spanish prizes worth eighty - two thousand 
 eight hundred pounds. At this time, when, in 
 Murray's hands, Minorca was a perfect terror 
 to the commerce of France and Spain, his 
 whole garrison only numbered one thousand 
 four hundred ague - stricken men. On so 
 small a garrison the burden of guarding the 
 numbers of prisoners taken in the privateers 
 fell very heavily. But the Governor soon 
 turned this weakness into a source of
 
 MINORCA 145 
 
 Strength, for he exchanged his prisoners, 
 and so raised an additional force of several 
 hundred Englishmen. This valuable corps 
 was placed under the command of a Captain 
 Heard, who was paid 'ten shillings a day 
 and dearly earns every farthing,' as the 
 Governor reported. For the bulk of the 
 civilian population of Minorca, Murray con- 
 tinued to express the profoundest contempt ; 
 but the seafaring folk and those who had 
 enlisted with us w^ere made of different stuff. 
 The Governor was in the highest spirits at 
 the result of his winter's work. He over 
 and over again expressed his hope and 
 longing that the French might blockade 
 him ; and, with a splendid Chatham - like 
 inspiration, he assured the Secretary that if 
 only the command of the sea were secured 
 he would raise an army on the shores of the 
 Mediterranean, and conquer Majorca, Iviza 
 and Corsica. 
 
 In his work in Minorca there is no doubt 
 that Murray was a good deal hampered 
 by his Lieutenant-Governor. Sir William 
 Draper had captured the Philippines in 1762. 
 
 10
 
 146 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 It was a great achievement, and he was justly 
 aggrieved at the levity with which this mine 
 of wealth was restored to Spain by the Treaty 
 of Paris. His personal claims were recog- 
 nized, and he was made a Knight of the 
 Bath for his conquest, being only asked to 
 waive his riofht for a time in favour of Lord 
 Clive. But these distinctions only served 
 to nourish the enormous personal vanity of 
 Draper. He had been educated at Eton 
 and King's, and considered himself all his 
 life a man of letters as well as a soldier. He 
 had tilted with 'Junius,' and was in every 
 way ill fitted for the second place anywhere. 
 
 But though Draper, with his Red Ribbon 
 and his reputation as a public man, would 
 gladly have played first fiddle in Minorca, 
 the Governor was the last man to rest con- 
 tent with being a mere figure-head. His 
 pride of birth, his skill in organization, his 
 physical courage, his service of over forty 
 years' standing, made up a personality that 
 was not to be liofhtlv interfered with. For 
 the moment the danger of a collision passed 
 away. In February, 1780, Rodney relieved
 
 MhWORCA 147 
 
 Minorca, and the Governor took leave to 
 England. 
 
 On returning to his post he reported, in 
 January, 1781, that everything was in perfect 
 tranquillity. The corps of seamen raised by 
 exchange of prisoners now numbered over 
 five hundred, and the Governor had managed 
 to get his garrison raised to nearly two 
 thousand eight hundred men. It was not 
 too much. The fortunes of England were 
 at their lowest ebb. We were at war with 
 France, Spain, Holland, and the revolted 
 •colonies, and were everywhere losing ground. 
 It was clear to Murray that a siege, very 
 different from the loose blockade he had 
 baffled before, would soon be undertaken. 
 
 Late in the summer of 1781 the Due de 
 Crillon settled down in earnest to the siege 
 of Fort St. Philip's. His army numbered 
 nearly sixteen thousand men, and he had the 
 command of the sea. But Murray's spirits 
 rose high, and ran on nothing but sallies on 
 shore and running the blockade at sea. In 
 everything he was successful, and in October 
 the Due de Crillon was directed to offer him
 
 148 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 forty thousand pounds to surrender the for- 
 tress ; It was understood that this was to be 
 only the first instalment of the bribe. Murray 
 was superb. ' It consorted very little,' he 
 said, ' with the honour of the ducal house of 
 which Crillon was the head, that such an 
 offer should be made ; and it consorted not 
 at all with the honour of the no less famous 
 ducal house of which he (Murray) had the 
 honour to be a cadet, that he should even 
 consider such an offer except to rebuke it.' 
 The Due de Crillon was heartily glad to be 
 quit of his disagreeable commission, and the 
 siege of the famous fortress was continued 
 with great vigour. 
 
 ' The garrison seems to like this amuse- 
 ment better than a dull blockade,' wrote the 
 Governor early in November. His chief 
 anxiety was lest he should be starved out. 
 ' Provision us for two years,' he wrote to Sir 
 Horace Mann at Florence, in magnificent 
 disdain of the fleet which was supposed to 
 be blockading him. ' Send us supplies,' he 
 wrote to Hillsborough, the Secretary of State ; 
 ' we'll get them, I fear not.'
 
 MINORCA 149 
 
 The prisoners he had taken In his numerous 
 sorties became, in time, an embarrassment ; 
 so he sent them away to Gibraltar, reporting 
 the incident as if there had been no such 
 thing as a French fleet in the way. The 
 blockade was pluckily run over and over 
 again, and in the meantime Crillon's army 
 began to suffer from cold and the wintry 
 gales. Three thousand men were down with 
 sickness by the beginning of December , the 
 siege had lasted four months, and no progress 
 worth mentioning had been made. 
 
 It is melancholy that there should be a blot 
 on such a piece of work as the great defence 
 of Minorca ; but there was one man, and 
 apparently one man only, in the garrison in 
 whom the Governor s brilliant achievements 
 aroused no answering enthusiasm — that man 
 was the Lieutenant-Governor. It was, no 
 doubt, a trial to so capable an officer to find 
 himself an unconsidered second in the com- 
 mand. That he was only second was his 
 misfortune, but that he was unconsidered 
 was probably his own fault ; and that he 
 slighted Murray's authority was an offence.
 
 I50 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 In the British Army there have never 
 been wanting men of at least Draper's 
 capacity who, in great crises, have not only 
 taken the second place cheerfully, but have 
 patriotically sought it. Draper was called 
 upon to do nothing more heroic than to take 
 orders from his proper superior. Even if 
 Murray was over - masterful, he was most 
 undoubtedly the master. But Draper could 
 bear the situation no longer. There came a 
 time when, in his opinion, enough had been 
 done, and when the Governor meant to do 
 a good deal more ; and Draper, who could 
 never forget Manila and his Red Ribbon, 
 disobeyed orders. He was promptly deprived 
 of his post, and placed under arrest. 
 
 But by this time the garrison had been 
 living for nearly six weeks under the scourge 
 of scurvy. The disease spread daily, and 
 was destined at last to effect what neither 
 bribes, nor bombardments, nor the factious 
 conceit of the Lieutenant-Governor had been 
 able to compass. But still Murray fought on. ' 
 At last, by the end of January, 1782, the men 
 were dying on guard. Six hundred and sixty
 
 MINORCA 
 
 151 
 
 men were all that remained alive, and of 
 these five hundred and sixty were tainted 
 with scurvy. The surgeon reported that in 
 four days' time there would not be a man 
 out of hospital. The enemy still numbered 
 fourteen thousand, and when the broken-down 
 little band of heroes marched through the 
 long lines of their conquerors, the Due de 
 Crillon burst into tears at the sight. The 
 kindness of the French could not be exceeded ; 
 everything was done that an honourable foe 
 could devise to soften their misfortune. The 
 loss of Minorca was a heavy blow to Eng- 
 land, although the magnificent defence, last- 
 ing one hundred and seventy days, ought to 
 have been some consolation. 
 
 Sir William Draper brought Murray before 
 a court-martial, a court-martial by which the 
 Governor was honourably acquitted. Draper 
 was deservedly rebuked for his unpatriotic 
 conduct ; but Murray (as he bitterly com- 
 plained) was left unrewarded, although 
 Blakeney, for a much less distinguished per- 
 formance, had been granted a peerage and 
 the high distinction of the K.B.
 
 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 So ended the second English occupation 
 of Minorca. 
 
 The third EngHsh occupation of Minorca 
 was planned in the summer of 1798. St. 
 Vincent was consulted as to the General 
 to be employed, and at once named Sir 
 Charles Stuart for these two reasons : ' No 
 man can manage Frenchmen so well as him, 
 and the British will go to hell for him.' Men 
 with this twofold qualification were not so 
 common in those days, and Stuart was ap- 
 proached on the subject. He put his finger 
 on the weak points of Minorca without hesi- 
 tation. The first was that nothing would 
 ever be made out of the civilian population, 
 who were intrinsically worthless, and had in- 
 dulged in an 'uninterrupted series of wrangling 
 and disagreement ' from the beginning. The 
 second drawback was that, with the exception 
 of wine, the island afforded no certain supplies 
 of any kind. The third objection w^as that, 
 though the fortress was strong, it was very 
 critically situated. In spite of which plain 
 speaking an expedition was fitted out and 
 entrusted to Stuart, who made his way to
 
 MINORCA 
 
 ^53 
 
 Port Mahon, having kept his destination a 
 profound secret. The General did his work 
 well, and the island capitulated to the English 
 for the third and last time on November 15, 
 1798. 
 
 The news reached England on Decem- 
 ber 13, and was very well received. It was 
 generally felt that we ought to have a second 
 post in the Mediterranean to support Gibraltar. 
 Tangier had ceased to be English for more 
 than a century ; and it was only a year since 
 we had (in rather humiliating circumstances) 
 evacuated Corsica after an occupation lasting 
 three years, and during which the island had, 
 with some pomp, been formally added to the 
 dominions of the British Crown. 
 
 England had always been proud of pos- 
 sessing Minorca, and had felt its loss very 
 keenly in 1756 and 1782. It was a further 
 source of gratification that the suddenness 
 and skill with which Stuart attacked the 
 island had enabled him to complete his 
 conquest without losing a man. The Star 
 and Ribbon of the Bath were immediately 
 conferred upon him, and forwarded to Lord
 
 154 THE LOST POSSESSIOXS OF ENGLAND 
 
 St. Vincent with instructions to invest Stuart 
 in as public and splendid a manner as possible. 
 
 The Bath was the highest distinction to 
 which an ordinary Englishman could at that 
 time aspire. Above it there was nothing but 
 the Garter, reserved by tradition for peers ; 
 below it was nothing, for the Imperial Orders 
 had not then been created. But Stuart 
 proved to be a very obstinate case of 710/0 
 episcopari. When he was informed of his 
 new dignity, he wrote : ' Knowing as I do, 
 and avowing as I always shall, the fortunate 
 circumstances to which the reduction of this 
 island is justly to be attributed, I most 
 heartily wish that His Majesty in his good- 
 ness had not laid his royal commands upon 
 me to wear a distinction as painful as it is 
 unmerited.' 
 
 The course of duty prevented St. V^incent 
 from investing Stuart, and the latter landed 
 at Portsmouth with the insignia in his pos- 
 session. He immediately returned them to 
 Dundas, stating that the decoration would 
 only prove an embarrassment to him, and a 
 hindrance in his future career. This was
 
 MINORCA 155 
 
 pushing diffidence to the verge of dis- 
 courtesy. The King insisted, and for the 
 two years of Hfe which remained to Stuart 
 he continued to bear the double distinction 
 of the Red Ribbon and Governor of Minorca 
 resident in England. 
 
 In one respect things had changed a good 
 deal since Port Mahon was captured by 
 Stanhope in 1708. Prices had risen, and 
 the large garrison — over five thousand men 
 — that we maintained during our last occupa- 
 tion made living very expensive. Sir James 
 Erskine spent the whole of his pay and allow- 
 ances as Major-General, together with two 
 pounds a day as Commandant, and nine 
 hundred pounds in addition between May 
 and December, 1799. The salary of Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor was therefore fixed at fifteen 
 hundred pounds a year, and that of Resident 
 Governor at three thousand pounds, or fifteen 
 hundred pounds when in England. These 
 sums are as nearly as possible the double of 
 the amounts paid to former Governors and 
 Lieutenant-Governors. 
 
 In other respects, Minorca was the same
 
 156 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 as before. Sir Charles Stuart, on assuming- 
 the government, drew up a very statesman- 
 like memorial on the condition of his charge. 
 It might have been drafted by the Duke of 
 Argyll and Greenwich in 17 13. The old 
 difficulties were all to the fore, and in much 
 the same state, with the exception of the 
 municipalities which, from being merely 
 embarrassed, had now become absolutely 
 bankrupt, owing to the expenses attendant 
 on the intrigues against England, which they 
 had carried on in Spain and through the 
 Aoent for Minorca in London. The accounts 
 were all in the most hopeless confusion, and 
 the municipalities as obstinately opposed to 
 reform as ever. 
 
 The years of our last occupation of Minorca 
 were stirring- times in the Mediterranean. 
 The Battle of the Nile had been fought in 
 the summer of 1798; Napoleon's Italian 
 campaign, the Battle of Alexandria, and 
 Saumarez' midnio-ht action off Cadiz, followed 
 each other in quick succession. In 1800 
 Malta surrendered to the English after a 
 blockade lasting two years, and has ever
 
 MINORCA 
 
 157 
 
 since remained in our hands. From the first 
 Nelson had perceived the strength and im- 
 portance of this place. The equal in these 
 respects of Port Mahon, it had the additional 
 advantage of being so placed that its pos- 
 session by us gave less umbrage to neigh- 
 bouring Powers than the possession of 
 Minorca. On June 16, 1802, under the 
 provisions of the Peace of Amiens, we 
 handed over Minorca to Spain, and finally- 
 evacuated the fortress we had so long held 
 and thrice defended. 
 
 The record of places in the Mediterranean 
 garrisoned by England in the course of the 
 last two hundred years, therefore, runs as 
 follows : 
 
 I66I- 
 
 -1684 . 
 
 .. Tangier. 
 
 1684- 
 
 -1704 . 
 
 .. No base. 
 
 1704- 
 
 -I7I3 • 
 
 .. Gibraltar. 
 
 I7I3- 
 
 -1756 . 
 
 .. Minorca and Gibraltar. 
 
 1756- 
 
 -1763 . 
 
 .. Gibraltar. 
 
 1763- 
 
 -1782 . 
 
 .. Minorca and Gibraltar. 
 
 1782- 
 
 -1794 . 
 
 .. Gibraltar. 
 
 1794- 
 
 -1797 • 
 
 . . Corsica and Gibraltar. 
 
 1798- 
 
 -1800 . 
 
 .. Minorca and Gibraltar. 
 
 1800- 
 
 -1802 . 
 
 .. Malta, Minorca, and Gibraltar 
 
 1802- 
 
 -I8II . 
 
 .. Malta and Gibraltar.
 
 158 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 1811 — 1814 ... Sicily, Malta, and Gibraltar. 
 1 81 5 — 1863 ... The Ionian Islands, Malta, and 
 
 Gibraltar. 
 1863 — 1879 ... Malta and Gibraltar. 
 1879 — 1882 ... Cyprus, Malta, and Gibraltar. 
 1882— 1895 ... Alexandria, Cyprus, Malta, and 
 
 Gibraltar.
 
 [ 159] 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CUBA. 
 
 The stately fleet that swept across the 
 Atlantic from Falmouth to the West Indies, 
 in the early spring of 1762, was afterwards 
 dubbed by the enemies of the expedition a 
 family job of the Keppels. Perhaps none of 
 the great families of England could better 
 afford to laugh at the sneer. George, third 
 Earl of Albemarle, commanded in chief, and 
 his two brothers held commands under him. 
 No doubt the expedition greatly enriched 
 them ; but it is equally beyond a doubt that 
 no men could have worked harder for a 
 fortune, or could have deserved it better. 
 Two of the three brothers left their health 
 behind them when we finally turned our backs 
 on the rich prize that the fleet was bound for ;
 
 i6o THE LOST POSSESSIOXS OF EXGLAND 
 
 and so great was their efficiency and popularity 
 that one, at least, of them has even attained a 
 sort of Immortality. 
 
 England to this day is sprinkled with 
 ' Keppel's Heads ' and ' Admiral Keppels,' 
 although few of us, perhaps, remember that 
 the original of these signboards was the man 
 who was a middy with Anson in his voyage 
 round the world, and who in his time did 
 great deeds for England, of which the most 
 conspicuous was the conquest of Cuba. 
 
 For this was the errand on which the fleet 
 was bound when it sailed from Falmouth. 
 In those days everything went well for Eng- 
 land, and, after a very fine passage, the fleet 
 reached Barbados on April 20, and were 
 met by the news of the fall of Martinique. 
 We had, in a measure, counted on this suc- 
 cess, for the great Pitt had made success the 
 fashion with the services. From Barbados 
 the fleet sailed to Port Royal, where it 
 anchored on April 25, and picked up the 
 troops that had been occupied in the reduc- 
 tion of Martinique. 
 
 A rendezvous had been fixed oft' Cape
 
 CUBA i6i 
 
 Nicholas, at the extreme north-west point of 
 Hispaniola, so that the difficult navigation 
 of the Bahama Straits was not concluded 
 until early in June. But by May 23 all the 
 troops destined for the operations in Cuba 
 had been collected, and were returned by the 
 Commander-in-Chief at eleven thousand rank 
 and file. This was the strength of the army 
 borne by the fleet that cast anchor before 
 Havana on June 6, 1762. It was disem- 
 barked at daybreak on the 7th, and the siege 
 of Havana was at once commenced. 
 
 On the one hand, our army was strong, 
 though not so strong as the garrison. It was 
 ably led, and the operations were directed 
 by a highly distinguished engineer, Colonel 
 Patrick Mackellar, who was fresh from the 
 siege of Martinique. On the other hand, 
 Havana was reputed an impregnable fortress, 
 and we had a terrible enemy in the climate.* 
 It was, perhaps, unavoidable that our troops 
 should have begun operations at this time of 
 the year. 
 
 * Admiral Vernon's attempt upon it some twenty 
 years earlier added also to the formidable reputation of 
 Havana. 
 
 II
 
 [62 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 War against Spain had been declared on 
 
 December 31, 1761, and the Cuba expedition 
 had been fitted out with most commendable 
 promptitude. But the war had been long 
 impending ; and if Pitt had remained at the 
 head of affairs, it is more than likely that the 
 declaration would have been precipitated. In 
 that event the Cuban expedition would have 
 started at the proper time of the year, and 
 we should have avoided most terrible losses. 
 But the ereat War Minister had resigned on 
 October 5, 1761, and the feeble Cabinet that 
 took his place, although it perforce adopted 
 his plans when war broke out, permitted 
 Spain to choose her own time for declaring 
 war. The tremendous task of besieging 
 Havana had, therefore, to be undertaken in 
 the very worst season of the year. 
 
 After the fall of the place, Albemarle wrote 
 to the Secretary of State : ' We are now better 
 acquainted with the climate than we were 
 when the present expedition was undertaken, 
 and it is certain that the only season in the 
 year for troops to act in is from the beginning 
 of November to the latter end of March.'
 
 CUBA 163 
 
 Instead of this we landed in June, and worked 
 dirough June, July, and August. Small 
 wonder that, If we took Havana, we lost half 
 our army by the climate. 
 
 The Morro Fort was the chief point of 
 resistance ; it guarded the entrance to the 
 harbour of Havana, and the guns of the 
 garrison were supported by the fire of eleven 
 Spanish men-of-war at anchor there. Six of 
 these carried seventy guns each, four were 
 sixty-gun ships, and one was a ninety-four. 
 Sir George Pocock, with twelve sail of the 
 line, was told off to deal with the fleet, and 
 to draw off the fire of the forts from the land 
 side ; Keppel, with seven sail, covered the 
 landing. 
 
 Mackellar took three weeks to get his 
 siege -guns in position, during which time 
 Colonel Carleton completed the investment 
 of the Morro Fort from the land side. On 
 July I the attack was commenced in earnest. 
 The ships, under the combined fire of the 
 anchored Spanish fleet and the seaward guns 
 of the forts, were severely handled, and on 
 the land side the woodwork of our principal
 
 1 64 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 battery was set ablaze by the enemy's fire. 
 The fierce heat greatly favoured the defence, 
 and the principal battery having been several 
 times repaired and set on fire, it was at last 
 abandoned and turned into musket-pits. 
 
 But if we received heavy blows we gave 
 back blows still heavier, and by July 15 the 
 Spanish fire was well got under. A week 
 later a sortie in force was repulsed, and with 
 the capture by assault of the Morro Fort, the 
 defence virtually came to an end. Neverthe- 
 less, the articles of capitulation w^ere not 
 signed until August 12. We had won the 
 splendid prize of Cuba — the richest and finest 
 tobacco-growing country in the world, and 
 even the fearful price that we paid for our 
 conquest cannot be called excessive. 
 
 When we entered Havana, we found the 
 churches filled with three thousand Spanish 
 sick and wounded. At the assault of the 
 Morro seven hundred and six Spaniards 
 w^ere killed, wounded, and taken prisoners ; 
 so that, counting the men who fell in the 
 skirmishes that preceded and the sorties that 
 followed the investment, the Spanish loss
 
 CUBA 165 
 
 was not less than five thousand men. Our 
 own was as heavy. By the fighting we had 
 lost five hundred and sixty men only, but 
 sickness had carried off four thousand seven 
 hundred and eight, of which enormous number 
 three thousand dropped between the capitu- 
 lation and the middle of October. It was 
 sound wisdom on Albemarle's part to send 
 off a large proportion of the survivors to 
 New York to recruit their health. Unfor- 
 tunately, the bulk of them had been too 
 hard hit to recover, and many sank in hospital 
 after several relapses. 
 
 The net result was that Albemarle found 
 himself greatly broken in health, and in 
 command of an army of only two thousand 
 men. His own estimate of the force neces- 
 sary to hold Cuba was six thousand men,* so 
 that with an enterprising enemy his position 
 would have been one of extreme clanger. 
 But at the close of the Seven Years' War, if 
 on the one hand England had spent and 
 suffered much, France was absolutely pros- 
 
 * This contrasts curiously with Marshal Martinez 
 Campos' requisition to-day for eighty thousand Spanish 
 troops.
 
 i66 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 trate ; and Spain, who had very wantonly- 
 joined France in the last two years of the 
 contest, was quite incapable of any aggressive 
 movement, or even of protecting her own 
 distant possessions, as the loss of Cuba and 
 Manila very plainly showed. 
 
 It was, therefore, in a perfect security that 
 added a good deal to his complacency that 
 Albemarle reported the results of his expedi- 
 tion. These included the ships in the harbour 
 (of which two had been sunk during the siege), 
 and two others upon the stocks, a vast sum 
 in specie and bullion, and enormous stores of 
 tobacco. The future benefits that England 
 would derive from the possession of Cuba 
 were incalculably large. In the negotiations 
 for the surrender of Havana, the Spanish 
 Commander-in-Chief certainly did his best 
 for his Sovereign. He demanded that all 
 tobacco in store at the moment of capitula- 
 tion should be handed over to Spain, that in 
 the future the Kine should be allowed free 
 trade with the island, even in time of war, 
 with the right of building and maintaining 
 within the island of Cuba warehouses for re-
 
 CUBA 167 
 
 ceiving, keeping, and curing tobacco, and that 
 Havana should be declared a neutral port. 
 
 We may gather from these modest requests 
 (which were not acceded to) some idea of the 
 value attached by Spain to the possession of 
 Cuba. It was, in fact (and still might be in 
 any but Spanish hands), a mine of wealth. 
 It surely did not require any wide range of 
 imagination or any exceptional gifts of states- 
 manship to recognize that it was better to 
 possess such a place than not to possess it, 
 especially when five thousand brave men had 
 died to make it English ground. The Seven 
 Years' War was not in Its inception a war 
 with Spain. It was only when France and 
 England had been at war for five years 
 that Spain, judging England to be near 
 the end of her tether, joined France against 
 us. She was greatly deceived. In August, 
 1762, she lost Cuba, and later in the year 
 Manila. There was not the smallest reason 
 for restoring either of these valuable con- 
 quests. But the great Earl of Chatham was 
 out of office, and though his policy had 
 imposed itself at first on his successors, it
 
 i68 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 was as quickly as possible abandoned for a 
 pusillanimous course, never paralleled until 
 the surrender of the Transvaal. From the 
 spirit in which the negotiations preceding 
 the Treaty of Paris were conducted, one 
 would say that England, if not actually the 
 beaten party, must recently have suffered very 
 severe humiliations. We almost Implored our 
 foes to make peace, and certainly paid money 
 to influential people who could help us to 
 despoil ourselves. 
 
 When England falls Into these periodic 
 fits of self-depreciation, her enemies have 
 only to ask and they receive. Spain asked 
 for Cuba, and it was surrendered. The 
 Peace of Paris was voted by a large 
 majority, and the only concession made 
 under the treaty by Spain in return for the 
 abandonment by England of Cuba was the 
 evacuation of Florida, which added one more 
 to the long roll of splendid benefits won by 
 the arms of England for the American 
 Colonies during the Seven Years' War. 
 The behaviour of the Ministry with regard 
 to Manila was even more reprehensible.
 
 [ i69] 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MANILA. 
 
 No exploit of our arms In the eighteenth 
 century was more sagely planned or more 
 dashingly executed than the conquest of 
 Manila. The attack came as a complete 
 surprise to the Spaniards, although we had 
 been at war for ten months before the British 
 squadron appeared. As one result of this 
 promptness, the loss of life experienced by 
 our troops was trifling. Although the expedi- 
 tion was undertaken at an unhealthy time of 
 the year, the death-roll contrasts most happily 
 with the fearful havoc wrought in our ranks 
 by the climate after the fall of Havana. 
 The prize was of immense value. The mere 
 ransom agreed upon to save the town from 
 sack after the storming was four millions of
 
 I70 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Spanish dollars, and the indirect benefits to 
 England were (as in the case of Cuba) in- 
 calculably large. The fall of Manila prac- 
 tically expelled the Spaniards from the South 
 Seas, so that from first to last we are at a 
 loss which to wonder at most, the splendour 
 of the military achievement, or the inconceiv- 
 able levity of the ^linistry conducting- the 
 Peace of Paris. 
 
 We had not the smallest reason to be 
 merciful to Spain. She had entered the 
 war for her own profit at the moment when 
 she deemed us exhausted, and was most 
 justly punished by the loss of both Cuba 
 and Manila. It has been seen how we dealt 
 with Cuba. Manila was given up without 
 even troubling to ascertain that it had been 
 conquered. When the terms of the surrender 
 reached England, the ransom was applied for, 
 but the Manila bills were repudiated by 
 Spain, and England tamely acquiesced in the 
 repudiation. 
 
 The hero of the expedition was General 
 Draper. Destined for the Church, William 
 Draper had been educated at Eton and
 
 MANILA 171 
 
 King's, and thus brought to the study of 
 his profession an education quite unusual 
 among officers of the army in those davs. 
 He wrote an excellent style. His writing 
 was not only grammatical — in itself a thing 
 unusual at that time — but clear and interest- 
 ing, and he could even handle technical 
 details without being pedantic or wearisome. 
 
 This exceptionally gifted officer was cruising 
 in the China Seas on sick leave from Madras 
 in 1 761 ; and, like so many officers in the 
 same situation since his time, he kept his 
 eyes open during his travels. Two things 
 were patent : firsdy, that the Philippine group 
 was of enormous commercial value ; and, 
 secondly, that it was quite undefended. 
 
 Relying on their great distance from 
 Europe, the Spanish authorities in the South 
 Seas had overlooked the extent to which 
 their situation had been altered by the result 
 of our war with France in India. Fortune 
 had long swayed backwards and forward, 
 but in 1760 had for a time settled decidedly 
 against the French. When Draper reached 
 London he pointed out the situation. There
 
 172 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 were now no longer three great European 
 Powers in the Pacific, but two only. France 
 had neither settlements nor fortifications ; there 
 remained on the one hand Eno-land, armed 
 and flushed with victory, and on the other 
 hand Spain, wealthy, defenceless, and supine. 
 
 Draper laid his plans before the Secretary, 
 and the Secretary laid them before the King. 
 On December 31, 1761, war was formally 
 declared against Spain, and three weeks later 
 Draper was on his way to Portsmouth with 
 secret instructions for the capture of Manila 
 in his pocket. 
 
 ' Whereas we have found it necessary to 
 declare war against Spain, and as nothing 
 can tend so much to the effectually annoying 
 and distressing our enemies as attempts on 
 their colonies and settlements in different 
 parts of the world ' These are the preg- 
 nant opening lines of Draper's instructions, 
 and they embody (unconsciously perhaps) the 
 whole Imperial policy of England. 
 
 The army under Draper's command was 
 not a large force, like that which Albemarle 
 led against Cuba a few weeks later. It only
 
 MANILA 173 
 
 numbered two thousand three hundred men, 
 including Sepoys. Admiral (afterwards Sir 
 Samuel) Cornish was in command of the 
 fleet ; he was supported by Kempenfeldt, 
 who was destined (twenty years later) to go 
 down in the Royal Geo7^ge. They made the 
 Straits of Malacca on August 19, i 762, just 
 a week after the fall of Havana, and anchored 
 in Manila Bay on September 23. It was 
 evident that they were quite unexpected. A 
 heavy surf impeded the landing and helped 
 the Spaniards ; but the fire from the fleet 
 broke down all opposition. Troops were 
 landed without loss of life, although a good 
 deal of ammunition was spoilt, some arms 
 were lost, and some boats smashed by the 
 surf. The Spaniards retired into the town 
 of Manila, and set fire to the suburbs. 
 
 On the 25th the rain came down in a 
 deluge. It was the last storm of the rainy 
 season before the cold weather, and camping 
 was out of the question under the circum- 
 stances. ' Quite against the rules of war,' as 
 he observed. Draper was compelled to push 
 on and get his men under shelter. He left
 
 174 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 the marines to guard the landing-place, and 
 occupied two churches — the Hermita, nine 
 hundred yards from the town ; and the Church 
 of St. I ago, within three hundred yards of the 
 Spanish lines. The next day the latter post 
 was cannonaded from a church about two 
 hundred yards distant, and attacked by a 
 force of four hundred Spaniards. We re- 
 pelled the assault, and, following up our 
 success, captured the church and one field- 
 piece. From the last post we now com- 
 manded a view of the enemy's lines of 
 defence. Though out of repair, they were 
 very strong, and mounted many excellent 
 guns. 
 
 An investment of the fortress was clearly 
 out of the question. The roads to the open 
 country must needs go unguarded for want 
 of men to block them, and by their means the 
 Commandant rapidly introduced ten thousand 
 natives, whom Draper calls ' Indians,' to sup- 
 plement his scanty garrison of eight hundred 
 regular Spanish troops. 
 
 In the meantime. Draper worked hard to 
 get his guns into position ; but they were
 
 MANILA 175 
 
 prevented from opening fire by torrents of 
 rain. On October i and 2 a furious tempest 
 broke over the harbour, and the Archbishop 
 of Manila preached a stirring sermon in the 
 Cathedral on our perilous situation, taking 
 for his text the destruction of Sennacherib 
 and his host. The squadron was for some 
 hours in extreme danger, and one transport, 
 the Southsea Castle, drifted ashore. But 
 Draper found means to turn every accident 
 to his advantage, and, opening guns from 
 the stranded transport, he enfiladed the 
 enemy's fiank. Under cover of the roar of 
 the tempest and the surf he even, in the 
 night-time, pushed his works closer to the 
 fortress. 
 
 On October 3, on the storm abating, we 
 opened fire, and silenced twelve guns in a 
 few hours, losing only two men, killed by the 
 enemy's fire. 
 
 On the 4th there was, for the first time, 
 some smart hand-to-hand fighting. The 
 Indians, though armed with bows and lances 
 only, flung themselves with desperate valour 
 on our lines, and died by scores, biting the
 
 176 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 bayonets like wild beasts. But their valour 
 was ill supported. The defence was, in fact, 
 directed by the Archbishop, who was a poor 
 General. He confided too much in the force 
 of his own eloquence and the anger of the 
 winds and the waves. A separate attack by 
 the Spanish regulars on one of the churches 
 occupied by our men was 111 concerted, and 
 was not delivered until the Indian assault 
 had been repulsed. 
 
 As It was, they gained at first a slight 
 success. The Sepoys were driven out with 
 a loss of forty killed and wounded ; but the 
 Europeans stood their ground, and recovered 
 the church. This repulse seems to have 
 knocked the heart out of the defence. Many 
 of the Indians deserted and made their way 
 back to their villages, and the Spanish gar- 
 rison was left but little time to concert new 
 measures of resistance. 
 
 Two days later, the breach appearing 
 practicable, an assault was planned, and was 
 delivered at four o'clock In the morning of 
 October 6. At the first rush of our men 
 the Spaniards disappeared, giving rise to
 
 MANILA 177 
 
 the presumption that the defences had been 
 mined. But it seems that they lacked either 
 the courage or the foresight for this step, 
 and, after a short conflict, the whole of the 
 garrison, with its Commandant, the Marquis 
 of Villa Medina, surrendered at discretion. 
 About four hundred of the defenders had 
 perished, of which number only one hundred 
 were slain in battle ; the rest were drowned 
 in trying to escape. Our loss throughout 
 the operations was one hundred and fifty. 
 ' To conciliate the affections of the natives, 
 all the Indians who fell into our hands were 
 dismissed in safety,' a politic step, which 
 shows how good a Viceroy of the Philippines 
 Sir William Draper would have made. 
 
 The Archbishop of Manila concluded the 
 terms of the surrender. As the place had 
 been taken by assault, there was not much 
 room for bargaining, and the ransom of the 
 town was fixed at the sum of four millions of 
 Spanish dollars. Kempenfeldt was appointed 
 to a small dependent governorship on the 
 island, and, in accordance with the King's 
 secret instructions, Draper handed over the 
 
 12
 
 178 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 whole of his magnificent conquest to Mr. 
 Dawson Drake, of the Honourable East 
 India Company's service. 
 
 It is conceivable that, as the Company was 
 not at that time the mighty authority it sub- 
 sequently became, the directors may have 
 been somewhat alarmed at having to assume 
 the government of a place at such a distance 
 from their base of operations. But it does 
 not appear that the Government drew from 
 our conquest even the lesser advantages that 
 might have been expected by using Manila 
 as a lever in the negotiations that were already 
 then being hurried on. Manila, if captured, 
 was to be restored — that was all the notice 
 taken of this mine of wealth. 
 
 Draper might well be mortified ; but at 
 any rate (he may have reflected) there re- 
 mained the ransom, for the first instalment 
 of which — four hundred and fifty thousand 
 pounds — the Archbishop had given him bills 
 on Madrid. They were never paid. The 
 right to claim them was even disputed, and 
 a disgraceful charge was made against Draper 
 that he had sacked the town and then ex-
 
 MANILA 179 
 
 torted the bills from the Archbishop, who 
 had signed them under compulsion. 
 
 True it is, as Draper bitterly observed, 
 that bills given to save a town from sack are 
 not exactly given of free will ; but to charge 
 him with dishonourable conduct was an 
 outrage. It is painful to think that the 
 Ministry at the same time gave up Manila 
 for nothing, did not even support their General 
 in his rightful demands, and tamely allowed 
 him to be slandered into the bargain. 
 
 The manner in which the Peace of Paris 
 was concluded was a bad omen for the open- 
 ing reign, and no part of the proceedings 
 (not even the payments made to secure its 
 final setdement) was so shameful as the sur- 
 render of Manila. 
 
 Cornish and Draper were, however, thanked 
 for their services by the House of Commons : 
 Cornish was made a Baronet, and Draper 
 received the Order of the Bath. 
 
 Draper always had a just opinion of his 
 own deserts, and after Manila he became a 
 vain man with a gigantic grievance. He 
 saw no other considerable service ; but in
 
 i8o THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 1779 he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor 
 of Minorca. For some incidents in the siege 
 of Fort St. PhiHp he thought fit to bring the 
 Governor to trial by court-martial, out of 
 which proceedings he did not come very 
 well. He died in 1781.
 
 [ i8i ] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CORSICA. 
 
 The Emperor Napoleon I. was for three 
 years of his life a British subject, from 1794 
 to 1797, when King George III. of England 
 was also King of Corsica. This addition to 
 the British Crown was the work of a remark- 
 able triumvirate, of whom Nelson was the 
 fighter, Elliot the diplomatist, and Pasquale 
 de Paoli the prompter, and in the end the 
 betrayer. The project of conquest had for 
 some time been in the air, but it was Paoli 
 who at last persuaded the King and the 
 Toulon Commission to risk an expedition. 
 His motives for doing so were not exclusively 
 patriotic, for at the time that he called in 
 English aid he was himself in direst need, 
 and to interpose a line of British bayonets
 
 i82 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 between himself and the guillotine was quite 
 as much his object as to secure for his 
 countrymen the benefit of trial by jury. 
 
 Pasquale de Paoli was born in 1726. He 
 was the son of the Marquis Hyacinthe de 
 Paoli, a gentleman whose turbulence went 
 so far beyond the usual Corsican impatience 
 of law that, besides maintaining a fierce ven- 
 detta all his life with the Marquis Matra, he 
 set on foot a rebellion against the Genoese — 
 who then ruled in Corsica— and succeeded in 
 driving out their garrison. What to do next 
 was not easy to settle, but Paoli ended by 
 inviting a Bavarian Baron, of the name of 
 Neuhoff, to be King of Corsica. The Baron, 
 nothing loath, proclaimed himself as King 
 Theodore. He tried to get over the diffi- 
 culty of the rival factions among his subjects 
 by appointing Paoli and his enemy, the Mar- 
 quis Matra, twin Prime Ministers. But this 
 did not quite suit Corsican ideas, and as the 
 Baron had no money, and could not get him- 
 self recognized by the Powers, he found it as 
 well to abdicate and leave his country to the 
 mercy of the Genoese. They promptly re-
 
 CORSICA 183 
 
 entered, and Paoli, with his son Pasquale, 
 fled to Naples, where he died. 
 
 Pasquale grew up at the Court of Naples, 
 where he studied men and manners, and 
 learned all there was to learn at the Univer- 
 sity. But he never forgot Corsica, and in 
 1755 he sailed with a few friends for the 
 land of his birth, and once more called the 
 people to arms. He succeeded. He was a 
 cleverer man than his father, more fervid 
 and less quarrelsome ; and, besides, he knew 
 what he wanted, and was wise enough to cut 
 off the Matras, root and branch, before pro- 
 ceeding to more serious measures. Twin 
 dictatorships were not to Pasquale's taste ; 
 neither was he so weak as to call in a foreign 
 King, as his father had done. The Matras 
 having been piously exterminated and the 
 Genoese driven out, Paoli made himself 
 Dictator of Corsica, and remained so for 
 fourteen years. At the end of this time 
 Corsica changed hands, and the French sent 
 in troops to restore order. Paoli had never 
 had much of an army ; his navy was his 
 great strength. He accordingly gave in
 
 1 84 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 without a struggle, and sailed for Leghorn, 
 where the English Consul received him with 
 almost royal honours. 
 
 It would have been difficult to receive him 
 in any other way. Though his invasion of 
 Corsica was nothing more than a buccaneer- 
 ing raid, yet for fourteen years he had been 
 a King in all but the name. His govern- 
 ment, in a way, had been recognized by the 
 great Powers, and he had undoubtedly used 
 his power well. He had reduced the taxes ; 
 he had turned a motley band of smugglers 
 and privateers into a nimble and obedient 
 fleet, and he allowed nobody but himself to 
 enjoy the luxury of a vendetta. At the same 
 time he was wise enough not to excite envy 
 by the assumption of a title, and remained 
 plain Pasquale de Paoli. In private life his 
 dress and habits were of the simplest ; he 
 held no Court, and appointed no officers of 
 State. The Great Seal of Corsica was kept 
 in a cupboard, and when It was wanted Paoli 
 would send a little boy to fetch It. This 
 pastoral simplicity, allied with so much real 
 power, enchanted Boswell, who travelled in
 
 CORSICA 185 
 
 Corsica about that time. ' I could have 
 fancied myself in the land of Cincinnatus,' 
 he wrote. And Boswell was not Paoli's only 
 admirer. He pleased other and more dis- 
 cerning critics. Alfieri was struck with his 
 resemblance to patriots of the classic type, 
 and dedicated to him the tragedy of 
 * Timoleone.' 
 
 He came to London, and ten days after 
 his arrival was presented to the King. The 
 next day the Duke of Grafton, then Prime 
 Minister, called on him at his lodgings in 
 Old Bond Street. A pension of twelve hun- 
 dred pounds a year was conferred on him, and 
 he was elected a member of Dr. Johnson's 
 club. Pensioned and feted, the corsair sub- 
 sided into the diner-out. 
 
 Twenty years rolled pleasantly by ; but 
 when the French Revolution broke out, 
 Paoli astonished his friends by suddenly 
 starting for Corsica. Upon a motion in the 
 French National Assembly, seconded by 
 Mirabeau, martial law was suspended in 
 Corsica, and a Constitution granted. Paoli 
 was elected to the National Assembly, and
 
 1 86 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 took his seat, resolved, if possible, to play 
 in Paris the part he had so long presented 
 on the minor stage of Corsica. It was 
 daring, but it was not well judged. He 
 was now sixty-four, a man of another time, 
 and it was not given to such as he to ride 
 on the whirlwind of the French Revolution. 
 His old-world notions of King and Church 
 only made men impatient ; the stately periods 
 and measured eloquence of his speeches pro- 
 duced no effect beside the mad harangues of 
 men who might have been his grandchildren. 
 His anger and alarm rose daily, and, as he 
 was no coward, it soon became known that 
 he was heartily disgusted with what he saw 
 and heard. There could be but one result 
 to this. In the summer of 1792 he fled for 
 his life. He reached Corsica in safety. The 
 French Government sent and demanded his 
 head, but in doing this they overreached 
 themselves. In Corsica Paoli was at home. 
 He convened a general assembly of his 
 countrymen, and placed himself in their 
 hands. 
 
 The people answered once more to his
 
 CORSICA 187 
 
 call. They rose as one man, even the priests 
 bearing arms, drove the Republican troops 
 from the open country, and shut them up in 
 the three seaport towns of St. Fiorenzo, 
 Bastia, and Calvi. Paoli was too sagacious 
 to be blinded by a first success. He had not 
 ruled Corsica for fourteen years without find- 
 ing out what his countrymen could do and 
 what they could not. They were good for 
 a spurt — none better — or they could main- 
 tain a guerilla war. Corsica, like Spain, 
 though easy to overrun, was hard to conquer. 
 But regular warfare he knew to be beyond 
 them ; they were too few and too impatient 
 of discipline. He was trapped. There was 
 yet time to save himself by flight ; but if he 
 stood his ground, there was but one course 
 open to him — he must find a powerful ally. 
 
 It was now November, 1793. A British 
 fleet of fourteen sail was anchored in the Bay 
 of Hyeres, only a few hours' sail from Corsica, 
 and officers and men were all thirsting for 
 another fight with the French. There were 
 two thousand regulars on board under the 
 command of General O'Hara, afterwards
 
 i88 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Governor of Gibraltar. The fleet was com- 
 manded by Lord Hood, and had been 
 despatched to Toulon for the purpose of 
 seizing the town and proclaiming Louis XV IL 
 
 After the capture of Toulon, Sir Gilbert 
 Elliot, the civil member of the Toulon Com- 
 mission, organized a sort of government in the 
 name of Louis XVII. with so much success 
 that Monsieur — afterwards Louis XVIII. — 
 proposed to assume in state the title of Regent 
 of France on the strength of it. Elliot did 
 not at once assent, thinking it a little pre- 
 mature ; but he managed to sustain his 
 government, in spite of a besieging force 
 of Republican troops, until Napoleon Buona- 
 parte took charge of their batteries. The 
 young gunner, then twenty-four years old, 
 speedily drove out the English, capturing 
 their General and roughly handling the fleet. 
 Four thousand of the inhabitants fled from 
 his vengeance and followed Elliot aboard. 
 
 As there was clearly nothing more to be 
 done at Toulon, Hood now bethought him- 
 self of an invitation he had received in the 
 preceding September. Pasquale de Paoli
 
 CORSICA 
 
 had written him a letter imploring him to 
 come and conquer Corsica for King George. 
 He was glad to have it now ; it gave him 
 one more chance of a fight. Though over 
 seventy, he had all the ardour of forty-five, 
 and he was chafing under his defeat. As for 
 Nelson, who commanded the Agavtemnon, a 
 sixty-four, under him, he was overjoyed, and 
 Elliot favoured the plan also, though not for 
 the same reasons. He was not a fighter, but 
 he had four thousand Frenchmen to feed, and 
 they were costing one hundred and fifty pounds 
 a day out of the scanty funds at his disposal. 
 O'Hara having been taken prisoner, the two 
 remaining Commissioners therefore recom- 
 mended Paoli's plan to the home authorities, 
 and asked for instructions. The King was 
 quite willing that Corsica should be conquered 
 for him, but as for instructions, none could be 
 given. Mr. Dundas thought that, under the 
 circumstances, Sir Gilbert probably knew 
 more about Corsica than he could tell him, 
 and said so in effect, with many flattering 
 expressions of the King's confidence in 
 Elliot's discretion.
 
 I90 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Sir Gilbert then sailed for Corsica, and 
 found that Paoli, though an oudaw from 
 France, and actually under sentence of death, 
 was, for the moment, master of the island. 
 He had been again voted Dictator, and 
 formally empowered to pledge his country- 
 men in any way he chose. Never was a 
 man more completely in possession of the 
 hearts and minds of a whole people. An 
 absence of tw^enty years had not diminished 
 their adoration for him. He was still, literally, 
 their idol. They kissed his portrait when 
 they saw it, and even went on their knees 
 for this act of devotion. To secure Paoli's 
 support was, therefore, to secure the support 
 of all Corsicans. But there was some danger 
 in an ally so powerful ; and when he pro- 
 posed that Elliot should direct the forces of 
 the Commission to erecting Corsica into an 
 independent country under British protec- 
 tion, Elliot flatly declined. Such a course 
 would merely mean that England was to 
 conquer Corsica for Paoli's benefit. 
 
 The Dictator then disclaimed any personal 
 ambition, and proposed that Corsica should
 
 CORSICA 19] 
 
 be added to the domains of the British Crown. 
 Had this been his first suggestion, it is pro- 
 bable that Elliot would have accepted it 
 unconditionally. But the few days' negotia- 
 tions had aroused his suspicions, and he now 
 demanded from Paoli the assurance that, once 
 the conquest effected, Paoli would retire from 
 political life altogether. This condition was 
 afterwards much dwelt on by the meddling 
 officers who did their best to ruin Elliot, as 
 evidence of his overbearing nature. But the 
 very events on which they founded their 
 accusations proved that it was but an act 
 of the simplest wisdom, the very least pre- 
 caution that a wise negotiator could take in 
 dealing with an ambitious and unscrupulous 
 man. 
 
 Paoli hesitated. It was not true that he 
 had no personal ambition ; in fact, he had 
 no desire left except to gratify his ambition ; 
 and if he kept the pledge Elliot required him 
 to give, he must retire into private life, and 
 it was not likely that at sixty-six he would 
 have many more chances of distinction. On 
 the other hand, if he declined to give it, he
 
 192 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Stood between the disgrace of flight and the 
 certainty of the guillotine, and the time for 
 flight was fast slipping by. After all, It was 
 only a pledge, so he gave it, and the British 
 attack on Corsica was begun forthwith. 
 
 Corsica runs out to the north in a long, 
 narrow neck only twelve miles across. On 
 the west side of this neck is the port of 
 St. Florenzo, said by Paoli to be the most 
 important place in the island, on the pos- 
 session of which the fate of Corsica would 
 depend. On the east side, nearly opposite 
 to St. Florenzo, and only twelve miles dis- 
 tant, was Bastia. Lord Hood took the post 
 of honour, and attacked St. Florenzo ; Nelson 
 was sent round to lay siege to Bastia. The 
 troops under General Dundas, and afterwards 
 under General Abraham d'Aubant, took no 
 part in the fighting. 
 
 In vain Hood, with something of a sailor's 
 warmth, pointed out that they were part of 
 the forces of the Commission, and ought to 
 help In the fight. In vain Elliot, more 
 suavely, wrote to the same effect, and ap- 
 pealed to the traditions of the British Army.
 
 CORSICA 193 
 
 The Commandant thanked them for their 
 polite attentions, rejoined that neither the 
 Admiral nor the Civil Commissioner was, 
 so far as he was aware, a professional con- 
 ductor of sieges, and declined to 'entangle 
 himself in any operations whatever. He 
 alone, he continued, was responsible for the 
 troops under his command ; and he proceeded 
 to ensure their safety by cantoning them 
 around St. Fiorenzo, from which comfortable 
 quarters neither he nor they stirred till after 
 the fall of Bastia. 
 
 St. Fiorenzo fell first. On February 1 1 
 the garrison evacuated the lines, and marched 
 unmolested past the British cantonments, 
 across the land into Bastia. 
 
 Bastia was a strong place, and Nelson's 
 fleet was weak. His ships w^ere under- 
 manned, and there were not enough of them. 
 The tackle was rotten, the rations scanty, 
 and, as the army gave him no help, the only 
 forces available to complete the blockade on 
 the land side were the Corsicans. Afloat or 
 ashore they were lukewarm allies, and gave 
 many a helping hand to the F'rench. More-
 
 194 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 over the garrison, commanded by General 
 Gentili, was strong. Against these heavy 
 odds Nelson fought with a gaiety that was 
 infectious. 
 
 ' If your lordship will please to send me a 
 couple of gunboats, they would be very useful 
 this fine weather in harassing the enemy,' he 
 wrote to Lord Hood. Then in his diary : 
 ' When I get them the inhabitants of Bastia 
 sleep no more.' To his wife he wrote : ' My 
 men behave splendidly. They are now (I 
 may say it to you), what British sailors ought 
 to be, perfectly invincible. I believe they 
 mind shot no more than peas.' Once the 
 Agameninon ran aground, and was got off, 
 rather to Nelson's disgust, without a fight. 
 ' I don't think they are the men to have 
 taken the Aganieinnon' he wrote to his 
 brother, ' but they behaved shamefully in 
 not trying.' 
 
 At one of the French outposts, Maginaggio, 
 Gentili himself was in command. Nelson 
 summoned the place, and received for reply : 
 * Nous sommes republicains ; ce mot seul doit 
 vous suffire. Ce n'est point au Maginaggio,
 
 CORSICA 195 
 
 lieu sans defense, qu'il faut vous addresser. 
 Si vous allez a St. Florent, Bastia ou Calvi 
 vous trouverez des soldats francais qui vous 
 repondront selon vos desirs. Quant a la 
 trouppe que je commande, elle est prete a 
 vous montrer quelle est compose de soldats 
 francais.' Upon receiving this defiance, de- 
 livered from beneath a cap of Liberty hoisted 
 in the market-place, Nelson landed a party 
 of bluejackets, and stormed the post, re- 
 serving for himself the pleasure of striking 
 down, with his own hand, the cap of Liberty. 
 This little success had a very good effect 
 on his wavering allies. They tightened the 
 blockade, and in Bastia bread rose to three 
 francs a loaf. Once already had Nelson's 
 bombardment nearly brought about a capitu- 
 lation, and on the night of May 12 his 
 cruisers captured a small boat trying to run 
 his blockade. Among the prisoners was the 
 brother of the Commandant, who, however, 
 before his capture dropped overboard the 
 despatches with which he was charged. But 
 the tide was unfriendly and floated them to 
 Nelson the next morning. From them he
 
 196 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 learned that Bastia was starving. Seven 
 days later Gentili surrendered. 
 
 Early in June, eager to get at the next 
 piece of fighting, Nelson sailed for Calvi. In 
 this siege the navy was supported by the army, 
 now commanded by Sir Charles Stuart, an 
 officer who at any rate was fond of fighting. 
 It was not too much help. The sun, which 
 had been genial in February and fierce In 
 June, was deadly in August. All round the 
 town lay marshy land, and In one fortnight 
 of the siege the English lost fifteen hundred 
 men with fever. The work, too, was very 
 heavy. ' By computation to this night,' 
 wrote Nelson on July 13, 'we may be sup- 
 posed to have dragged one twenty-six- 
 pounder, with Its ammunition and every 
 requisite for making a battery, upwards of 
 eighty miles, seventeen of which were up a 
 very steep mountain.' 
 
 When the siege had already lasted a 
 month, five out of six guns in the advanced 
 battery were knocked to pieces in a night. 
 Hood was prostrate with fatigue. Stuart 
 was down with fever. Only Nelson's wiry
 
 CORSICA 197 
 
 frame could bear up against the climate and 
 the work. ' I am here a reed among the 
 oaks,' he said. ' I have all the diseases there 
 are, but there is not enough in my frame for 
 them to fasten on.' On July 12 a cannon- 
 shot drove some sand into his eye and blinded 
 him. ' I got a slap in the face the other day,' 
 he wrote, ' for which I owe the enemy one, 
 and mean to repay them ere long.' He was 
 soon out of their debt. Nelson, it is true, 
 was the only officer left fit for duty on the 
 side of the besiegers, but Nelson, even with 
 one eye knocked out and racked with ague, 
 replaced them all. After three armistices 
 Calvi surrendered, and the garrison, with 
 two guns, marched out with the honours of 
 war. If the siege had lasted another fort- 
 night, the French must have won ; as it 
 was, only four hundred men were left fit to 
 march in. 
 
 Before the fighting was over, the civil arm 
 had completed the annexation and proclaimed 
 George, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, 
 France, Ireland and Corsica, King. 
 
 After his bargain with Paoli at Murato,
 
 198 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Elliot travelled on to Corte, a village in the 
 centre of the island, and, although containing 
 no more than two thousand inhabitants, the 
 capital of Corsica. The General Assembly 
 was summoned, and met in June. Its first 
 measure was to formally recite the iniquities 
 of the French, and to declare the absolute 
 and irrevocable separation of Corsica from 
 France. The next step was to draft a Con- 
 stitution. This work was allotted to a 
 protege of Paoli's, a young man of great 
 talent, afterwards French Ambassador at 
 St. James's, Count Carl Andrea Pozzo di 
 Borgo. Born at Alala, near Ajaccio in 
 1764, he had grown up in the intimacy of 
 a family of boys somewhat younger than him- 
 self — the Buonapartes. The ambition of 
 every young Corsican of that time extended 
 no further than to serve Paoli, and when the 
 deliverer reappeared after an absence of 
 twenty years and, passing over the two older 
 Buonapartes, already young men, chose as his 
 associate the soberer and maturer P^ozzo di 
 Borgo, Napoleon's wrath and jealousy knew 
 no bounds. When Pozzo stood as municipal
 
 CORSICA 199 
 
 councillor for Ajaccio, Napoleon stood against 
 him. Pozzo was likely to win, for he spoke 
 well, and Napoleon was always a poor orator. 
 But these advantages weighed nothing against 
 the younger man's impetuous resolve. Dis- 
 carding the constitutional forms of an election, 
 he cut short his rival's chances by having him 
 pulled off the platform by his legs. Napoleon 
 won the election, but he made of Pozzo a 
 lifelong enemy. He himself soon tired of 
 Corsican politics ; he plotted to restore the 
 sway of France, was detected, and fled for 
 his life. He entered the army of the 
 Republic, and left the parish politics of his 
 native country to Pozzo di Borgo. 
 
 Pozzo, then, as Secretary to the General 
 Assembly, drafted the Constitution of Corsica. 
 It provided for an elective assembly, trial by 
 jury and toleration of all creeds. It contained 
 a civil and criminal code, and established the 
 dynasty of George III. It contained some 
 curious provisions, one being a fine of two 
 hundred francs for a member of Parliament 
 neglecting to attend the session when duly 
 summoned ; it also fixed the quorum for
 
 200 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Government business at the very high per- 
 centage of one- half of a House of two hundred 
 members.* 
 
 The Constitution was read three times in 
 the General Assembly, and passed on June 
 2 1, 1794. Paoli was hailed the father of his 
 country, and a marble bust was voted to 
 him. The Crown was offered to Elliot, who 
 accepted it in the King's name, and the 
 Assembly then broke up until the first elec- 
 tion. 
 
 Under the Constitution, the King's power 
 was to be exercised by a Viceroy resident in 
 Corsica ; and the question every Corsican 
 was now asking himself and his neighbour 
 was, who would the Viceroy be ? Paoli was 
 eager to get the appointment for himself, and 
 was plotting to secure his nomination in direct 
 breach of his pledged word to Elliot. 
 
 Although he had made several attempts to 
 re-enter public life, he had hitherto been 
 thwarted by Elliot's intimation that, if he 
 persisted, the English troops should be at 
 once withdrawn. There does not appear to 
 
 ■^ Costituzione del Regno di Corsica, Tit. iv., Art. 2.
 
 CORSICA 
 
 be any excuse for Paoli's conduct. There 
 was nothing in the pledge that ElHot exacted 
 that was dishonourable, and it had been given 
 as the consideration for help that saved Paoli 
 from the necessity of choosing between a 
 dishonourable flight and the guillotine. But 
 his restless, grasping spirit could not endure 
 that anyone but himself should wield power 
 in the land where he had so long been 
 supreme. In six months he had forgotten 
 the straits from which he had been delivered, 
 and was deep in the plot to overturn Elliot. 
 
 He had not a great following at first. The 
 Corsicans, though not conspicuous among 
 nations for steadfastness, were not as yet 
 capable of such agile perfidy as their leader. 
 But Paoli's influence was considerable, and 
 when the General Assembly broke up, and 
 Paoli went to the hills to take the waters, 
 Elliot thought it as well to follow him. 
 
 They stayed together in the convent of 
 Orezza. It was quite impossible to concert 
 any plans with Paoli, whose ideas of business, 
 even when he was honest, were loose and 
 wandering ; but Elliot and he had many
 
 202 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 long and outwardly friendly talks in the long, 
 cool corridors of the convent, while the last 
 shells were bursting in Calvi. 
 
 Corsica was further from London then 
 than India is now, and the appointment of 
 Viceroy was not a matter to be hurried, so 
 Paoli's suspense lasted a long time. In 
 October it was at last put an end to : Elliot 
 was appointed. 
 
 The post of Viceroy of Corsica was a great 
 one, being at that time the most considerable 
 appointment in the British Empire after 
 Ireland and Bengal, and the salary was fixed 
 at eight thousand pounds a year. Elliot had 
 recommended that it should be bestowed on 
 some great English noble, the Duke of 
 Northumberland being suggested. The only 
 course that he had strenuously deprecated 
 was the appointment of any Corsican, inas- 
 much as, after the first term had expired, 
 every Corsican gentleman who was not ap- 
 pointed in succession would consider himself 
 personally affronted. 
 
 Paoli's services were, at the same time, 
 recognized in the most flattering manner.
 
 CORSICA 203 
 
 A pension of one thousand pounds a year 
 was bestowed on him, and the King sent 
 him his portrait, set in brilliants and hung on 
 a gold chain, as a mark of his personal regard. 
 This was the first time that George III. had 
 shown so great a mark of his favour to any- 
 one not of Royal blood, and if anything could 
 have soothed Paoli's wounded vanity, it should 
 have been these great attentions. They were 
 conveyed by the Viceroy himself, with that 
 prompt courtesy and geniality from which 
 not even the certain conviction of Paoli's 
 treachery could persuade him to depart. 
 
 But Paoli was mad with jealousy and spite. 
 He now threw off the mask completely. He 
 retired to Rostino, his birthplace, a small town 
 to the north of Bastia, and founded a Cave of 
 Adullam there. He entered into correspond- 
 ence with the French, so lately his bitterest 
 enemies, and dubbed himself ' citoyen.' 
 
 The Viceroy of Corsica had his hands full. 
 The island had only two hundred thousand 
 inhabitants, and was surrounded by enemies. 
 France, of course, was hostile ; Genoa claimed 
 the island, and so did the Pope. The furious
 
 204 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 hatred of the Barbary States, who were at 
 that time all-powerful in the Mediterranean, 
 nearly ruined the Corsican fisheries, and 
 sometimes threatened to culminate in an in- 
 vasion. This w^as on account of the national 
 flag — a Moor's head on a silver field — and 
 Elliot thought it politic to change the flag, 
 and add a motto from Dante symbolic of the 
 British alliance. But this was an unfortunate 
 miscalculation. The Corsicans had no par- 
 ticular reverence for their national flag, and 
 knew nothing of Dante, but they cordially 
 detested their enemies. Their coral trade, 
 which the Barbary corsairs half ruined, was 
 certainly very lucrative ; but they preferred 
 that it should pay them less, and bring them 
 the chance of a fight now and then. The 
 change of the flag, therefore, produced an 
 unfortunate effect of weakness. Moreover, 
 it entirely failed in its object, for the British 
 Treasury had to find forty thousand pounds 
 as ransom for the Corsicans taken captive 
 during the brief period of our rule. 
 
 A similar blunder was made when Parlia- 
 ment was summoned at Bastia instead of
 
 CORSICA 205 
 
 Corte. Bastia was a large and important 
 town, w^ith fourteen thousand inhabitants, 
 and was far more convenient than Corte ; 
 but the inconvenience of close quarters was 
 not of the kind likely to be much felt by 
 Corsican members of Parliament. 
 
 On the other hand, Corte was the ancient 
 capital ; and for the Corsicans, a pastoral and 
 half-civilized people, impatient of change, that 
 was everything. 
 
 The pretensions of Genoa to the sove- 
 reignty of Corsica might be considered as 
 merged in those of France, for the Serene 
 Republic was already occupied by the French. 
 The Papal claims were more serious ; not 
 because they had more foundation, but 
 because Elliot wanted Pius VI. to help in 
 re-establishing the Corsican Church — a deli- 
 cate task for an Anglican Viceroy. The 
 claim seems to have been put forward chiefly 
 with the object of opening diplomatic rela- 
 tions with St. James's. However, the diffi- 
 culties were all surmounted, and the Primate 
 of Corsica presided in the second Corsican 
 Parliament.
 
 2o6 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 In the meantime, the army and navy, after 
 the great exertions they had gone through, 
 were in an unpleasant state of depression. 
 Of the army, only one thousand men were 
 fit for duty, and Elliot congratulated himself 
 that there were so many. But the fleet, 
 which had taken the lion's share of the fight- 
 ing, w^as even worse off The crews were 
 two thousand men short. They were posi- 
 tively using condemned sails and cordage, 
 and the vessels were unfit to fight, or even 
 to leave harbour. A naval engagement or a 
 gale would have left Corsica defenceless. It 
 was in vain that Elliot asked for more ships 
 and men ; he could get none, nor could he 
 even get gunpowder, but had to procure it 
 in driblets from Leghorn or Naples, as best 
 he could. 
 
 Perhaps, in their entire ignorance of Con- 
 tinental politics, the home authorities might 
 be excused for thinkincr that Nelson and 
 Moore, with fourteen sail of the line and 
 one thousand regulars, were fit to cope with 
 any army or navy likely to be sent against 
 them. Such a force could not be thought
 
 CORSICA 207 
 
 contemptible though certainly inadequate. 
 At the same time, Elliot's errors of adminis- 
 tration were not in themselves fatal, and 
 could have been easily remedied. They 
 were amiable mistakes of the kind often 
 made by the English in like cases — giving 
 the people improvements that we think they 
 ought to want instead of those they really do 
 want, or, still better, leaving them alone. 
 
 What ruined the English rule in Corsica 
 was not the weakness of the army, not the 
 faults of the administration, but the persistent 
 malignity of Pasquale de Paoli. After having, 
 in the most solemn manner, pledged his word 
 to Elliot to support his administration, he no 
 sooner learnt that he was not to be Viceroy 
 than he sought our ruin by every means in 
 his power, not stopping short of the foulest. 
 
 No man was too lowly for him to win, no 
 man too lofty for his matchless powers of 
 intrigue to corrupt. He promised every man 
 his heart's desire could he but get back to 
 power. Every corporal was to be a Colonel, 
 every shepherd a Privy Councillor ; but 
 nothing could be done until Elliot was got
 
 2o8 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 rid of. Every clay, therefore, he sent forth a 
 fresh crop of hbels from Rostino. When 
 Parliament was summoned to meet at Bastia, 
 this was an insult to the noble old capital 
 Corte. The King's portrait — through whose 
 fault it never transpired — was lost on the 
 journey. Forthwith Paoli proclaimed that 
 the grasping Viceroy had pocketed it for the 
 sake of the diamonds. No slander was too 
 foul or too ridiculous for him to repeat, and 
 his agents industriously whispered them in 
 London ; but there they only got laughed at 
 for their pains. In Corsica, however, it was 
 no laughing matter, as Elliot soon found. In 
 six months the Adullamites numbered half 
 the population ; In a year Pozzo di Borgo 
 could not venture forth unguarded, the King's 
 writ could not run, and Acts of Parliament 
 were publicly burned. The climax was 
 reached in August, 1795. At Ajaccio the 
 \^Iceroy gave a ball, the preparations for 
 which were left In the hands of Simon 
 Colonna, a young Corsican noble, and Aide- 
 de-camp to the Viceroy. It passed off suc- 
 cessfully, but a few days later a petition was
 
 CORSICA 209 
 
 put into the Viceroy's hands, which, besides 
 the usual seditious nonsense manufactured at 
 Rostino by PaoH's own hands, contained the 
 remarkable statement that ' the wicked Simon 
 Colonna has had the audaciousness to lay his 
 parricidal hands on the most respectable 
 statue of the common Father of the Country.^ 
 The Viceroy's camp was hardly safe from 
 insult. The whole countryside rang with 
 the news that Simon Colonna — some said 
 Pozzo di Borgo, some even said the Viceroy 
 himself — had publicly dashed Paoli's statue 
 to the ground. As Elliot had recently, with 
 great pomp and ceremony, unveiled the 
 marble bust to Paoli that the General 
 Assembly had voted him, he felt this to be 
 a particularly unhandsome slander. He re- 
 turned to Ajaccio, and proceeded to the 
 ballroom, where, sure enough, there was 
 a bust of Paoli, not, however, dashed to the 
 ground, but on a pedestal, and showing no 
 signs of violence. The microscope disclosed 
 
 * ' Lo scelerato Simone Colonna ha avuto I'ardire 
 di porre le mani parricide nella rispettabilissima statua 
 del commune Padre della Patria.' 
 
 14
 
 2IO THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 no Injuries to the bust, except a piece gone 
 from the back of the head the size of a 
 sixpenny-bit, and one, rather smaller, from 
 the nose. It was true that Simon Colonna 
 had put his hands on the bust ; he had 
 moved it from the ballroom, where it was 
 not safe, to a room behind, where it was. 
 All this the patient Viceroy detailed at great 
 length to the Duke of Portland, and then he 
 sat down to think. 
 
 It had come to this in twelve short months 
 • — that the peace of the nation hung on 
 Paoli's words, and it was in his power to 
 disturb it by such trifles. The Viceroy must 
 needs spend his days in corresponding with 
 the Minister over malicious absurdities that 
 would not disturb a well-ordered nursery for 
 five minutes. Elliot had borne much. He 
 had endured the most cruel slanders on him- 
 self; he had endured to see his most trusty 
 officers seduced, and even the army tampered 
 with. As he sat down to write his resigna- 
 tion, Colonel Moore was actually staying at 
 Rostino, a guest of the exulting Paoli. Elliot 
 had laughed as long as it was possible, but
 
 CORSICA 211 
 
 now that the whole country was convulsed 
 with a silly falsehood, it was plain that a 
 people capable of being so moved were not 
 only false and riotous, they must also have 
 lost all sense of humour. 
 
 Elliot therefore wrote and said that, under 
 His Majesty's command, he would stay in 
 Corsica until his successor was appointed, 
 but he prayed to be delivered as soon as 
 might be from ' this country of shabby 
 p(3litics.' However, if His Majesty approved 
 of his work, Paoli must go, and so must 
 Colonel Moore. Moore was the chief of the 
 Paolist party among the English. An 
 inquisitive and wrongheaded man, he had 
 been foremost among the sneerers at Nelson 
 and Hood. He carried Stuart over with 
 him into Paoli's camp — so much so that the 
 Commander-in-Chief was induced to dispute 
 Elliot's right to appoint his own Aides-de- 
 camp. 
 
 The letter written, Elliot let its contents 
 be known, and, quitting his genial publicity, 
 withdrew into a silent and haughty retire- 
 ment. The effect was magical. All dis-
 
 212 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 turbances subsided, the flow of seditious 
 petitions stopped, the fountain of slander ran 
 dry. The men who had betrayed Elliot to 
 Paoli now^ betrayed Paoll to Elliot, and pro- 
 tested they had been well affected all along. 
 One by one stragglers dropped off from 
 Adullam. Even Paoli grew anxious, and re- 
 doubled his attentions to the French at Genoa. 
 For two months this state of thinors lasted. 
 The Viceroy took no steps to put down the 
 virtual Insurrection of several villages, and, 
 on their part, the malcontents and Insurgents 
 remained Inactive. Late In September, the 
 Duke of Portland's answer reached Corsica. 
 After what had passed, It would have been 
 painful, and perhaps hardly possible, for 
 Elliot to meet Paoli. Frederick North, the 
 Viceroy's right-hand man, therefore Invited 
 him to the Inn of Porte Novo, a few miles 
 from Rostlno. They met at nine o'clock 
 in the mornino- on (October s, and for six 
 hours Paoli endeavoured to find out what 
 was the purport of the despatch. He de- 
 claimed and gesticulated while he paced the 
 inn, now tirading on liberty In general, and
 
 CORSICA 213 
 
 now on Corslcan politics in particular. The 
 impassive North confined himself to such 
 trenchant questions as how Paoli justified his 
 attempt to seduce the British troops, or his 
 orders to the villagers of Farniola not to 
 allow a judge appointed by Elliot to enter 
 their village. Otherwise he did not inter- 
 rupt, except when Paoli referred to Elliot's 
 Government as a nest of traitors, which was 
 a surprising comment, coming as it did from 
 a man outlawed for treason by France and 
 notoriously a traitor to England. At three 
 in the afternoon Paoli took his leave, con- 
 vinced that Elliot was not empowered further 
 than to invite him to return to England. 
 
 He was joined outside by his panic-stricken 
 suite, who had passed the long hours break- 
 fasting in an inner room. They had cause 
 for alarm. As the old man rode slowly home 
 under the olive-trees, they told him a story 
 that filled him with consternation. They 
 had been joined at breakfast by Colonel 
 INIoore. He, too, had been invited to 
 England, but his invitation came in rougher 
 terms than Paoli's. He was ordered to leave
 
 214 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 in twenty-four hours, the materials for his 
 court-martial to be collected by Elliot in his 
 absence. This was a heavy blow to Paoli, 
 and caused a sensation throughout the island. 
 Moore had succeeded Sir Charles Stuart as 
 the head of the English Paolist party (the 
 new Commander-in-Chief, General Trigge, 
 not having a turn for intrigue). If he was 
 thus publicly disgraced, what measures might 
 not Elliot be empowered to take against 
 Paoli ? As a matter of fact, Elliot was not 
 empowered to take any, or to do more than 
 invite him to o-q to Eno^land ; but North had 
 been mysterious and silent, and on the whole 
 he thought it best not to let the day of grace 
 pass by. His letter, accepting the King's 
 invitation, reached the Viceroy just as he 
 and North had written the orders to the 
 troops to advance on the disturbed districts. 
 These orders would now happily be unneces- 
 sary. In one of the \^iceroy's own carriages, 
 and attended by the Viceroy's Aide-de-camp, 
 Pasquale de Paoli travelled to St. Fiorenzo, 
 and embarked with full military honours. 
 True to the last to his habits, he made a
 
 CORSICA 21 s 
 
 Speech from the plank joining boat and shore. 
 He was going, he said, to lay the grievances 
 of the Corsican people at the foot of the 
 throne. Elliot would be removed, and he 
 himself would return in the spring with 
 Stuart, who had been so long- working for 
 Corsica in London. The last sentence was 
 a pure fabrication. Stuart, though a good 
 soldier, was narrow and prejudiced. He dis- 
 liked Elliot, and showed his dislike unwisely ; 
 but he was a gentleman, and not a spy. 
 
 Elliot wrote of Paoli : ' He is more regard- 
 less of truth than any man I ever met with. 
 He seems totally incapable of truth, honour, 
 or good sense, even in those actions which 
 are useful.' Pasquale de Paoli was treated 
 most indulgently. His pension was con- 
 tinued to him, and he lived a retired life till 
 1807. He was buried in St. Pancras 
 Cemetery, whence his remains were removed 
 to Corsica with some ceremony in the summer 
 of 1889. A bust by Flaxman was erected to 
 his memory in the south aisle of Westminster 
 Abbey. 
 
 Moore, on the other hand, was refused his
 
 2i6 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 travelling allowance, which amounted to one 
 hundred and thirteen pounds ; but he was too 
 good an officer to be spared long. Soon 
 after his disgrace he w^as made Governor of 
 Jamaica. He commanded a division in the 
 Peninsula, and earned by the Battle of 
 Corunna a fame second in most English 
 ears to the Duke of Wellington's only. An 
 elaborate monument representing his burial 
 was erected to his memory by the south door 
 of St. Paul's Cathedral. 
 
 In Corsica matters were improved by the 
 removal of the two conspirators. Parliament 
 met for the second and last time, and passed, 
 among other useful measures, an Act abolish- 
 ing trial by jury, with the following frank 
 preamble : * Considerando che I'istituzione 
 del Giurato ha favorita fin' ora I'impunita dei 
 Delitti.' The fable of the broken bust died 
 a natural death, and though secret sedition 
 was rife, the land was outwardly at peace 
 with its rulers. If the Ministry had at this 
 juncture realized the potential importance of 
 this stronghold placed between PVance and 
 Italy, the history of the next twenty years
 
 CORSICA 217 
 
 might have been changed. A small army in 
 the island, and a strong fleet under Nelson 
 commanding the open sea, would have been 
 formidable obstacles to the conquest of Italy. 
 But it was not to be. 
 
 Elliot stood despairingly to his post, but 
 on this expedition, while the civil arm was 
 directed by a firm and sagacious statesman, 
 and the fleet was commanded by sailors like 
 Hood and Nelson, it was the fate of the 
 army to be led first by Dundas, who would 
 not fight ; then by D'Aubant, who would not 
 fight ; then by Stuart, who fought well, it is 
 true, but whose subsequent behaviour did 
 the English cause a great deal of harm ; and 
 finally by Trigge, who would not fight. In 
 March, i 796, there were disturbances in the 
 south of the island. The troops sent to deal 
 with them were too few ; the insurrection 
 spread, and when Trigge was ordered to 
 suppress it he refused to march ; when 
 urged, he resigned the command. A substi- 
 tute was found in Colonel Villettes, who at 
 Elliot's urgent summons hurried home from 
 Venice, where he was on sick-leave. On
 
 2i8 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 May 20 the Viceroy took the field and 
 camped the first night at Vivario, fifteen 
 miles out of Corte. With the first streak of 
 dawn came a messenger bearing the news 
 that hardly had the King's troops left the 
 capital w^hen the convent bell of Orezza rang 
 to arms. All that day it rang, and all the 
 night ; the messenger had with difficulty 
 found his way through the bands of insur- 
 gents, who were pouring down from the 
 hills and had invested the capital. Villettes 
 pushed on, keeping ahead of the news of the 
 revolt, reduced the rebels at Bogognano, and 
 then turned back to Corte. He relieved the 
 blockade, and the rebels, seven or eight hun- 
 dred strong, took up a position at Bistuglio. 
 They demanded that all taxes should be 
 repealed, and that Pozzo di Borgo and the 
 other Ministers who remained faithful to the 
 English should be dismissed. To accept 
 such terms was to reduce the English rule 
 to an absurdity. But to refuse them would 
 only have brought about useless bloodshed ; 
 and as Elliot was now sure that the Ministry 
 did not mean to support him, he accepted.
 
 CORSICA 219 
 
 It was Indeed high time for us to go if we 
 did not mean to hold our own by force of 
 arms. In July, 1796, the Duke of Portland 
 wrote : ' In the present state of Europe there 
 is not a possibility of adding a single man to 
 the strength of your army ;' and by the next 
 mail the looth Regiment, still eight hundred 
 strong, was ordered from Corsica to Gibraltar, 
 a measure which left the Viceroy almost de- 
 fenceless. For a month past he had had to 
 send his letters to England by Barcelona, the 
 route by Ancona being closed by the French 
 troops. Naples was the only port friendly 
 to us in the Mediterranean. Spain was on 
 the brink of declaring war — the Spanish and 
 French fleets united would number forty sail 
 to our fourteen — and Genoa fired on our flag. 
 It must have been with a sense of relief from 
 a hopeless and thankless task that Elliot 
 received, late in September, his orders to 
 evacuate Corsica. Within a month the 
 English were gone. By a cruel irony of 
 fate, it was Nelson who was directed to 
 superintend the evacuation. 
 
 To the Corsicans w^ho remained to the last
 
 220 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 true to King George an asylum was offered 
 either in Canada or the Bermudas, but the 
 suggestion was not warmly received. For 
 Pozzo di Borgo, whose private means were 
 only thirty or forty pounds a year, and who 
 had carried his life in his hands for years 
 in our service, Elliot tried, unsuccessfully, to 
 get a pension of three hundred pounds a 
 year. 
 
 After many years passed in vain but cease- 
 less plotting against Napoleon, he at length 
 struck the Emperor a blow which avenged 
 him for the day when Napoleon had him 
 pulled off the hustings by his legs. The 
 defection of Bernadotte was solely the work 
 of Pozzo di Borgo. He entered Paris with 
 the allies, and was afterwards made French 
 Ambassador at St. James's. He died at 
 Paris in 1842. 
 
 Elliot was granted a peerage for his services. 
 He died in 1814, and was burled in the north 
 aisle of Westminster Abbey.
 
 [221 ] 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 BUENOS AYRES AND MONTEVIDEO. 
 
 When the Duke of Wellington was staying 
 at Deal Castle in 1806, he occupied his 
 spare time by drawing up a plan for the 
 conquest of Mexico. 
 
 Ten years before he had talked of retiring 
 from the army In disgust ; but In 1 806, though 
 he certainly could not have foreseen the course 
 of the next nine years, he was — and with good 
 reason — more contented with his lot. He 
 was at this time thirty-seven years of age ; 
 he was already a Major-General and a K.B. 
 He had fought Assay e and Argaum, and was 
 admitted to be one of the most promising of 
 our Generals. 
 
 To him it was that (with unwonted pre- 
 science) the Government turned for a scheme
 
 222 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 for the conquest of Mexico, an enterprise 
 which was only one of many similar schemes 
 that had sprung up in the fertile brain of 
 General Miranda. They were all duly con- 
 fided to the younger Pitt ; but, transplanted 
 to that chilly soil, the exotic schemes mostly 
 withered away and died. They had for their 
 object, one and all, the deliverance of the 
 New World from the yoke of Spain. What 
 is particularly interesting is that the American 
 Minister in London was taken into council 
 by the English Ministry, and undertook, in 
 the name of his Government, to allow re- 
 cruiting in the United States for the purpose 
 of furthering Miranda's plans. 
 
 To wrest from Spain all her possessions 
 in South and Central America was certainly 
 a mighty scheme. It would have fired the 
 brain of the great Earl of Chatham, but his 
 son had no head for that kind of work. 
 Nevertheless, the idea persisted, and after 
 Pitt's death Sir Arthur Wellesley was sounded 
 as to its feasibility. The plan that the young 
 General drew up was in entire accordance 
 with his character, and he only consented
 
 BUENOS AY RES AND MONTEVIDEO 223 
 
 to put his views in writing when he had 
 talked over all conditions of climate and 
 seasons with a man who was full of local 
 information derived from his own residence 
 in the country. 
 
 According to Sir Arthur Wellesley, the 
 expeditionary force must be of sufficient 
 strength to force its way unchallenged through 
 the belt of unhealthy country round the coast, 
 and gain the dry uplands immediately after 
 landing. For this purpose he estimated that 
 a force of eight thousand infantry would suffice, 
 if supported with one thousand light cavalry 
 and a suitable train of artillery. A second 
 and smaller force of Sepoys, numbering two 
 thousand, with one European regiment, if 
 possible, was to co-operate from India, and 
 invade Mexico from Panama. 
 
 Another point strongly insisted on by Sir 
 Arthur was the necessity of arriving at the 
 right time of the year. No doubt his emphatic 
 language on this head was prompted by the 
 frightful losses endured by our troops at the 
 siege of Havana, where, ignoring all climatic 
 conditions, we commenced operations at the
 
 224 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 beginning of the season, when no prudent 
 General would have suffered his troops to 
 be exposed to the sun. The troops were 
 to rendezvous at Jamaica, so as to make 
 Vera Cruz in January, and have all the cold 
 weather in which to operate. 
 
 In order to make perfectly sure of keeping 
 to these times, the fleet was to sail from 
 Falmouth, and not from the Downs, so as 
 to avoid the possible danger of baffling winds 
 in the Channel. When every precaution had 
 been taken, the General went on, we must 
 remember how completely all men of Spanish 
 extraction were under the control of their 
 priests ; and we must look forward to little 
 or no encouragement from the natives, w^ho 
 could, and would, only be taught to regard 
 us as dangerous infidels. 
 
 It was a great dream, a great 'might have 
 been': the superb military genius of the Duke 
 of Wellington concentrated in the absorption 
 of South America by England. But the 
 Peninsula claimed him soon after, and the 
 Englishman who took the lion's share in the 
 work of driving Spain out of South America
 
 BUENOS AYRES AND MONTEVIDEO 225 
 
 was not Wellesley but Cochrane, Earl of 
 Dundonald. 
 
 Nevertheless, the ceaseless prompting of 
 Miranda, joined to the wilful genius of Sir 
 Home Popham, ended in bringing about one 
 attempt on South America — an attempt which, 
 after a passing gleam of success, was destined 
 to end in the most serious disaster suffered 
 by our arms in this century until the retreat 
 from Cabul. 
 
 In 1806 an army was fitted out for the 
 conquest of Cape Colony from the French, 
 which was completely successful. On this 
 occasion Sir Home Popham was in supreme 
 naval command. When the primary object 
 of the expedition had been attained, Popham 
 proposed to detach a small force and attack 
 Buenos Ayres. The General, Sir David 
 Baird, being — and feeling himself — quite 
 secure at Cape Town from any possible 
 attack, assented; and in April, 1806, the 
 new expedition set sail. It picked up a small 
 reinforcement at St. Helena, and made its 
 way to Buenos Ayres in safety. It landed 
 unopposed, and fought a small engagement. 
 
 15
 
 226 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 The Viceroy fled, and Buenos Ayres was 
 occupied by the British without further re- 
 sistance. But, after a peaceful occupation of 
 three weeks, the prosperous city of seventy 
 thousand inhabitants began to feel a little 
 ashamed of being held in subjection by a 
 mere handful of foreign soldiers. They turned 
 on the garrison, who were compelled, after 
 some smart fighting, to surrender to a 
 man. 
 
 Still, a good deal had been done. The 
 enormous Government property captured, and 
 still more enormous private property spared, 
 showed what, even then, the wealth of the 
 place was. Popham had certainly forced the 
 hands of the Government by his dashing 
 exploit, and had shown conclusively that the 
 schemes so often put forward for capturing 
 the Spanish possessions in South America 
 were not mere schemes, nor even merely 
 feasible : they were highly profitable enter- 
 prises of the kind most suited to our 
 genius. 
 
 If any other man but Popham had done 
 this, he would, no doubt, have been forgiven,
 
 BUENOS AY RES AND MONTEVIDEO 227 
 
 possibly thanked, and certainly entrusted 
 with the conduct of the next expedition 
 which was almost immediately equipped for 
 the recovery of Buenos Ayres. But Popham 
 was a man of a very peculiar type. Nelson 
 was only recently dead, and Popham looked 
 on himself as a second, if not a greater, 
 Nelson. Possessed of all Nelson's assertive- 
 ness, with only a scintilla of Nelson's genius, 
 and not a' ray of that bright and happy 
 manner that carried Nelson through so many 
 difficult places, Popham had contrived to 
 make himself an abomination to the Admiralty 
 without arousing the smallest general sym- 
 pathy for himself in the country. 
 
 He was an able officer, without any doubt ; 
 but that has never been any particular dis- 
 tinction in the Royal Navy, where there were, 
 and always will be, hundreds as good as 
 Popham. But his own accounts of his own 
 achievements are like no other literature 
 penned by man. Whenever he did a piece 
 of work, he congratulated the country on the 
 substantial benefits that they would reap from 
 his labours; he congratulated the Ministry
 
 228 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 on their acumen In selecting him for the job, 
 and only just stopped short of congratulating 
 the King himself on possessing as a subject 
 such a wonderful person as Sir Home 
 Popham. 
 
 When in fault or censured, he rent the 
 welkin with his yells. Never was there such 
 an ungrateful country, such a corrupt Ministry, 
 such an incapable Admiralty. Never was so 
 good an officer with so large a family so 
 abominably treated. When in England and 
 on leave, he bearded private secretaries, he 
 buttonholed Cabinet Ministers, he bored 
 even the great Pitt himself. He flooded the 
 town wuth pamphlets about himself, with ' A 
 Few Brief Remarks ' and ' Concise State- 
 ment of Facts.' He took offence on the 
 smallest provocation and was a pugnacious 
 and remorseless correspondent. 
 
 It may be true that corporations have no 
 souls ; but It Is very certain that they have 
 nerves. After ten years of this sort of thing, 
 the Admiralty had got Sir Home Popham 
 on their nerves, and when they heard of the 
 Buenos Ayres expedition they exploded.
 
 BUENOS AYRES AND MONTEVIDEO 229 
 
 Popham was brought to trial by court-martial 
 for leaving his station without orders, and was 
 severely reprimanded. 
 
 On the same day that the court-martial 
 published its finding, the Commander-in- 
 Chief signed General Whitelocke's commis- 
 sion as commander of the new expedition to 
 La Plata, and also his commission as Civil 
 Governor of the province, with a salary of four 
 thousand pounds a year. 
 
 The expedition was a large one for 
 England, and was fitted out with far-reaching 
 arms. Four thousand men under Craufurd 
 were to conquer Chili. Sir Samuel Auch- 
 muty had already struck the first stroke in 
 La Plata, having been sent forward with a 
 small army for the conquest of Montevideo, 
 which place he held at the moment that 
 Whitelocke sailed. These two armies were 
 to co-operate with the latter General, who, 
 with the reinforcements that he was now 
 carrying with him, would undertake the re- 
 conquest of Buenos Ayres and La Plata with 
 an army numbering over eleven thousand 
 men.
 
 230 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Sir Samuel Auchmuty was a Bostonian 
 who had stood by us In the War of the 
 American RebelHon. He had served in India 
 and at the Cape, and had been with Baird in 
 his march through the desert in 1800. He 
 was now fifty years of age, and a Brigadier ; 
 he had been for three years a K.B., and had 
 received the thanks of Parh'ament for the 
 capture of Montevideo. He was destined 
 to capture Java, and he died Commander-in- 
 Chief in Ireland In 1822. Of the other chiefs 
 we need only mention Craufurd and Beres- 
 ford — Craufurd, who had already served 
 under Suwaroff, and who proved himself, in 
 the Peninsula, a brilliant leader of light 
 troops, and who fell, and was buried, in the 
 breach at Ciudad Rodrigo; and William Carr 
 Beresford, afterwards Viscount Beresford, of 
 whom the Duke of Wellington said that he 
 was the only man who could feed an army. 
 
 With three such leaders, what could not 
 eleven thousand British soldiers have done ? 
 
 The army landed, and seven days later it 
 re-embarked, having lost half Its numbers 
 and surrendered Montevideo to the enemy.
 
 BUENOS AYRES AND MONTEVIDEO 231 
 
 The disaster was so complete, so crush- 
 ing, and so humiliating ; the utter rout and 
 partial destruction, by a squabbling rabble of 
 Spaniards, of eleven thousand British soldiers, 
 serving under three highly distinguished 
 Generals, is such an extraordinary event that 
 it deserves, and even demands, that our at- 
 tention should be patiently fixed on every 
 miserable detail, and that, so far as in us lies, 
 we should never forget the lessons we may 
 learn from our defeat. 
 
 The climate, no doubt, had something to 
 do with the disaster by rendering a protracted 
 siege impossible. Our troops landed in the 
 beginning of the rainy season, when it was 
 difficult to move, and a very slight delay 
 would have driven us back to our ships. 
 But British soldiers have not yet learnt to 
 look on circumstances as untoward when all 
 that can be said against them is that they 
 tend to force an early engagement with the 
 enemy. By far the greatest proportion of 
 the blame must be laid on the commander. 
 The monumental imbecility of Whitelocke — 
 which actually makes one regret Popham —
 
 232 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 is best realized by comparing the troops that 
 he commanded with the enemy he was 
 directed to oppose. 
 
 At the first colHsion the Spanish Viceroy — 
 the Marquis de Sobra Monte — had fled to 
 Cordoba, at that time a town of about twenty 
 thousand inhabitants. Though invested by 
 his master with absolute authority, and en- 
 dowed, as Viceroy, with the mighty income 
 of forty thousand pounds a year, he had used 
 neither power nor income graciously. He 
 was a very unpopular man, and at his flight 
 the Spanish flag was hauled down , and the 
 supreme command was placed by the popula- 
 tion of the capital in the hands of Santiago 
 Liniers. Liniers seems to have been an 
 honest man. He was at this time in his 
 forty-eighth year, and had been entrusted by 
 the King of Spain with the fortification of 
 La Plata. To him it was that Beresford had 
 surrendered. But his authority was from the 
 first hard to maintain, and soon disappeared 
 altogether. 
 
 On Sir Samuel Auchmuty capturing Monte- 
 video, negotiations were entered into with
 
 BUENOS AYRES AND MONTEVIDEO 233 
 
 the Spaniards. The Viceroy was by this 
 time a captive in the hands of his own troops. 
 There were two parties in the capital — one 
 in favour of Spain, the other, on the whole, 
 in favour of the English, but only prevented 
 from declaring themselves by the anxiety lest 
 we should retire and leave them to the ven- 
 geance of Spain. With the latter party, on 
 this occasion, the clergy were almost entirely 
 in sympathy. 
 
 There was so little discipline in Liniers' 
 army that Auchmuty's messenger feared that 
 he would be assassinated. When at last he 
 reached the General's presence, he found him 
 in a room surrounded by a babbling mob of 
 soldiers and civilians. His despatch was 
 almost torn from his hands before he could 
 deliver it. One junior officer drew his sword 
 unrebuked on his superior in the General's 
 presence. Men leaped on benches and read 
 out the despatch from over the Commandant's 
 shoulders. It was plain that, though Liniers 
 might be honest, he was merely a helpless 
 figure-head, and had not the slightest control 
 over his troops. This was the only opposi-
 
 234 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 tion that Whitelocke had to encounter. His 
 own troops were well fed, paid up to date, 
 and just fresh from a sea- voyage ; there 
 ought to have been no doubt whatever as 
 to the Issue. 
 
 Still, Spaniards will fight well from behind 
 walls, and street fighting Is even a strong 
 point with them. As if determined to avoid 
 success, Whitelocke divided his army Into 
 several columns, and ordered them to march 
 through the streets with unloaded weapons. 
 They were to converge on a given rendez- 
 vous, a place which one of the columns never 
 reached. After enduring frightful losses, It 
 was compelled to surrender to avoid annihila- 
 tion. The other columns were naturally very 
 hard hit. But in spite of everything, Sir 
 Samuel Auchmuty's command achieved a 
 considerable success, took many guns and 
 prisoners, forced Its way through to the 
 rendezvous, and was ready the next morning 
 to complete the conquest of the town. From 
 the favourable lodgment that he had effected, 
 there was no doubt that the town could have 
 been reduced to ashes In a very few hours
 
 BUENOS AYRES AND MONTEVIDEO 235 
 
 without any risk whatever to our surviving 
 troops. 
 
 But Whitelocke seemed resolved on failure. 
 Although he had made his attack at his 
 leisure from the impregnable position of 
 Montevideo, he had sent his troops into 
 action so ill provided that many of them had 
 eaten nothing for twenty-four hours before 
 the fight began. Before that they had been 
 hurried alone, and had eot nothinor but meat 
 and spirits. He had chosen the mode of 
 fighting in which Spaniards excelled ; he 
 had, as if to further ensure our defeat, sent 
 his men through the streets with unloaded 
 arms, and he had exasperated the inhabitants 
 by his proclamations. Now that his fine 
 army and his capable subordinates had 
 wrested a victory in spite of the un- 
 paralleled blunders of their chief there 
 remained only one more step to. take, and 
 he took it. Victory being placed in his 
 grasp, he declined to seize it. Small wonder 
 if the remains of his splendid force chalked 
 up on the street walls. ' General Whitelocke 
 is a fool or a traitor, or both.'
 
 236 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 There have been British commanders who 
 have won o^reat battles with small bodies of 
 dispirited troops ; to Whitelocke belongs the 
 unique distinction of having led a splendid 
 army in the highest spirits against a con- 
 temptible foe, and of having achieved a 
 mighty disaster. He had no call to be In 
 command at all. There have been cases 
 enough where the right man has been passed 
 over, and an important command given to an 
 Incompetent General. But Buenos Ayres Is 
 a flagrant example of a habit which will 
 probably not reappear In English history — at 
 any rate for the present. At the time when 
 Whitelocke was entrusted with the command 
 of eleven thousand men and the civil govern- 
 ment of La Plata, with pay to the amount of 
 eight thousand pounds a year, there were in 
 the United Kingdom, and ready for work, 
 Lord Lake, Sir John Moore, and Sir Arthur 
 Wellesley ; Sir David Baird was in command 
 at the Cape, and there were on the spot at 
 Montevideo, Auchmuty and Craufurd. 
 
 It is some scanty consolation that White- 
 locke was tried by court - martial and dis-
 
 BUENOS AYRES AND MONTEVIDEO 237 
 
 missed the service. LIniers enjoyed for two 
 troubled years the reputation of having fought 
 and beaten a powerful British Army. At the 
 end of that time he attained the usual reward 
 of a South American patriot ; he was tried by 
 a drumhead court-martial and shot.* 
 
 ^ The Duke of Wellington never liked Miranda's 
 schemes for the conquest of Mexico, A^enezuela, and 
 other places. He had a rooted aversion to interfering 
 with Governments, however bad they might be, with 
 which people were satisfied. And though he drew up, 
 when desired to do so, a plan for the invasion of Mexico, 
 he did not hesitate to express extra-officially his dislike 
 of the proposed expedition. 
 
 Nevertheless, England owes something to Miranda's 
 memory, for it was on the recommendation of the 
 ' Greaser ' intriguer that the Duke first sent for, and 
 employed, Thomas Picton.
 
 [238] 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 The island of Java was ruled by England 
 for five years. In 1811 that magnificent 
 dependency of Holland, which now owns a 
 population of nineteen million souls, possessed 
 a history full of interest for the antiquary, 
 great commercial possibilities, and perhaps 
 the worst colonial Government ever devised. 
 Its inhabitants, six million in number, were 
 Mussulmans of a debased type, or aboriginals 
 whose gods and griffins were like realized 
 nightmares. Its peasantry were ground down 
 by degrading servitude to half a dozen masters, 
 and were often the mere slaves of the Chinese 
 who farmed the revenue, and who — too lazy 
 to keep accounts, or finding the back of a 
 slave a more permanent record than a sheet
 
 J A VA 239 
 
 of paper — would brand on the wretched culti- 
 vator's back the forty-seven per cent, of duty 
 which his crop of rice had to bear in the 
 passage from his fields to Batavia. The 
 Government derived its revenue chiefly from 
 the monopoly of rice and coffee. This pro- 
 cess removed all stimulus to industry on the 
 peasant's part, while it turned the Govern- 
 ment into a shopkeeper, and made it dependent 
 on the state of the market. As might have 
 been expected, there came a time when both 
 crops had accumulated to excess, and their 
 possession was a burden to the Government 
 rather than an advantage. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the Governor-General 
 had met his troubles by a reckless issue of 
 paper, while all spare cash was lavished on 
 the military defences of the island. At the 
 moment when one silver dollar was worth 
 six and a half paper dollars, when the very 
 stores of the army had been pawned, when 
 the peasants were on the verge of revolt, and 
 the native Sultans in a merely nominal de- 
 pendence, the British power appeared. 
 
 In 181 1, Java, partly Hindu, partly Malay,
 
 24Q THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 and partly IMohammedan, though officered 
 chiefly by Dutchmen, and soon to fall Into 
 British hands, was in fact French. On 
 June 5, 1806, Napoleon raised his brother 
 Louis to the throne of Holland, and Java 
 was speedily fortified in the French interest. 
 It was, then, against the power of the French 
 Emperor that the Governor-General of India 
 equipped his expedition. The fleet numbered 
 ninety sail, and bore with it Lord Minto (the 
 Governor-General) and — as his agent, and 
 the man who was destined to the lieutenant- 
 governorship of Java — Thomas Stamford 
 Raffles. 
 
 Raffles was at this time in his thirtieth 
 year. He was born at sea off Jamaica. He 
 entered the service of the East India Company 
 in 1796, and early distinguished himself by 
 the ease with which he won the sympathies 
 of Eastern races, and in particular of the 
 Malays, whose character and language he 
 soon learned. His book on the Malay nation, 
 written when at Malacca on sick-leave in 
 1808, attracted the attention of the Governor- 
 General, and his fortune was made.
 
 JAVA 241 
 
 The conquest of Java is set down to Lord 
 Minto, who was made an Earl by the Prince 
 Regent in honour of the event ; but it was 
 Raffles who suggested the expedition, and 
 pointed out the immense value to us of this 
 island — the other India, as he called it. At 
 this time, indeed, most people even in India 
 itself were loath to believe that so large an 
 expedition could be destined to the conquest 
 of such an insignificant place, as they sup- 
 posed Java to be. However, to convince 
 the Governor- General was as much as was 
 needed, and the troops which sailed showed 
 that Lord Minto fully understood the situa- 
 tion, and the strength of the enemy. Four 
 thousand British soldiers, with the same 
 number of native infantry, three hundred 
 cavalry, and some other troops, landed at 
 Batavia on August 4, 181 1. 
 
 While the fleet was on its way down the 
 Straits of Malacca, Marshal Daendels, who 
 had done so much for the army and the 
 defences, had, to his great chagrin, been dis- 
 placed in the Viceroyalty of Java by General 
 Janssens, who now commanded the troops. 
 
 16
 
 242 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 This soldier had an unfortunate record. It 
 was he who had already surrendered the 
 Cape of Good Hope to the English. The 
 Emperor's parting charge, as he sent him to 
 the command of Java, had been : ' Souvenez, 
 Monsieur, qu'un general francais ne se laisse 
 pas prendre une seconde fois.' He gave 
 battle on August 26 at Fort Cornelis, a 
 strong position, strongly entrenched and de- 
 fended by two hundred and eighty pieces of 
 cannon. His army numbered about thirteen 
 thousand men, and included a regiment of 
 voltigeiu^s. He was totally defeated, losing 
 five thousand men in killed and wounded, 
 and as many more prisoners. 
 
 Colonel Gillespie led the victorious troops. 
 His loss was about nine hundred ; but the 
 action did him the greatest credit, both in 
 plan and attack. General Janssens fled to 
 Buitenzorg, whither he was pursued. On 
 the eighteenth he had fled still further, and 
 reached Samarang, a large port on the north 
 side of Java. Here he capitulated to Sir 
 Samuel Auchmuty, who was Commander-in- 
 Chief of the army. A week before, Lord
 
 J A VA 243 
 
 Minto had Issued his proclamation declaring 
 the change of rule. 
 
 Raffles' new charge was an island lying 
 nearly due east and west, with a coast-line 
 of seven hundred miles, and an area of about 
 thirty-six thousand square miles, or four times 
 the size of Holland. It contained within its 
 four seas as many inhabitants as the United 
 States of America, and its dependent islands 
 counted as many more. It had been French 
 for five years, in which time the Batavians 
 had conceived a hearty disgust for their 
 military masters. Before 1806 it had been 
 Dutch for two hundred years. During these 
 two centuries Holland had managed the island 
 exactly like a shop. Batavia was the shop- 
 door, and all other ports were carefully closed. 
 The Dutch did not even possess a map of 
 Java, or any part of it. The interior was 
 o-iven up to growing coffee on lands of every 
 imaginable kind, suitable and unsuitable. 
 
 Later, under French rule, the gardens of 
 the Javanese, and even their graveyards, were 
 given up to its cultivation. The wretched 
 peasant, when not busy doing Government
 
 244 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 work, was delivered over to the Regent of 
 his province. The Regents, thirty in number, 
 including two or three quasi - independent 
 Princes, were relics of the Mohammedan rule 
 of Java, which lasted from a.d. 1400 till the 
 advent of the Dutch. Before a.d. 1400 was 
 the golden age of Javan tradition — the time 
 of a Hindu dynasty. The Regents, originally 
 tax-collectors, had assumed the dignity, and 
 really possessed much of the power, of feudal 
 chiefs. The Dutch had made extensive use 
 of them in their administration, and greatly 
 increased their importance. In 181 1 they 
 were all in a state of barely disguised 
 revolt. 
 
 The Lieutenant-Governor decided to leave 
 the chiefs' discontent to smoulder, confident 
 in his power to deal with it whenever it should 
 burst into flame, and his first efforts were 
 directed to the state of the peasantry and the 
 revenue. Fortunately Raffles understood the 
 Javanese. Without losing time in experi- 
 ments, he could see his way to steady his 
 finances and strengthen his Government 
 through their support. Had they been mere
 
 J A VA 245 
 
 savages, like their neighbours in Borneo, he 
 must have proceeded differently. 
 
 With rare insight into character, however, 
 he saw at once that the true strength of his 
 Government would lie in the willing support 
 of the peasantry. Accordingly he determined 
 to abolish all feudal dues, and do away with 
 the oppression which practically reduced the 
 Javanese to slavery. 
 
 So wretched was the cultivator's state that 
 three Spanish dollars was held a sufficient 
 sum to maintain him and his family for a 
 whole year. The peasantry were sober and 
 hard-working, and — like most peoples fallen 
 from high civilization and resigned to their 
 fate — greatly tolerant of oppression so long 
 as life was left them ; they were, perhaps, 
 even more so than any other conquered 
 nation known to history. They numbered 
 six millions in Java, and another six millions 
 in the dependencies on the chief island. 
 Between them and the Government there 
 stood, of right, no one. By custom, how- 
 ever, the Regents intervened. 
 
 A weaker man might have been daunted
 
 246 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 by the Regents' attitude, a more cautious 
 man would have wasted much precious time 
 in determining their rights ; and, indeed, but 
 for his Indian experience, Raffles might well 
 have been deceived as to their position. But 
 the Lieutenant-Governor was neither weak 
 nor ignorant, and was possessed of a high 
 courage. He waited only long enough to 
 take a rapid survey of the situation, and to 
 get the views of his seconds in command. 
 At a stroke of his pen he then abolished the 
 Regents. They were henceforth treated with 
 respect, and permitted to retain and use all 
 their titles. They were allowed large emolu- 
 ments in consideration of the lucrative but 
 oppressive dues of which they were now 
 deprived. Those who consented to help 
 the Administration by exercising police func- 
 tions — for which their local influence and 
 information well fitted them — were liberally 
 paid for their work. From all share in the 
 administration of revenue or justice they 
 were absolutely excluded. 
 
 Their place was taken by the Residents. 
 These were Englishmen, appointed by the
 
 JA VA 247 
 
 Lieutenant-Governor from the body of assist- 
 ants lent him from the Indian services. 
 Their business was to collect the revenue, 
 adjust claims, settle disputes, and make them- 
 selves the friends and confidants of every 
 peasant in trouble. A lucid code of rules 
 was drawn up for their guidance by the 
 Lieutenant-Governor himself. These estab- 
 lished the condition of tenure now prevailing 
 in Western India, where no authority inter- 
 venes between the Government and the 
 owner of the soil. 
 
 Their happy results on the revenue fully 
 justified Raffles' bold step, and their publica- 
 tion alone was enough to change the position 
 of the people greatly for the better. In two 
 regencies, those of Bantam and Preanger, in 
 the west of the island, the old system was 
 retained. Here the sway of the Regents, 
 who had married with the children of the soil, 
 was less oppressive than elsewhere. All 
 classes spoke a different language from Java- 
 nese, and the land was chiefly given up to 
 growing coffee, which species of cultivation was 
 made very easy by a modified feudal system.
 
 248 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 There was much trade in human flesh in 
 Java. On some of the savage islands round, 
 there were tribes who made expeditions to 
 secure human victims for their feasts and 
 sacrifices, and Raffles found it necessary to 
 lay down the forty-second article of his code 
 of revenue regulations as follows : ' The 
 Residents are enjoined to be watchful that 
 no free Javanese are taken or given in pawn, 
 and that no money be ever advanced on the 
 persons of such people on any pretence what- 
 ever.' 
 
 At the same time he abolished torture, 
 which had hitherto prevailed as a mode of 
 legal procedure. 
 
 While this work of reform was in progress, 
 the Sultan of Jokjokarta took alarm. His 
 country lay in the south of the island, he 
 himself was the most violent and intriguing 
 of all the native Princes, and w^as followed by 
 an army of over one hundred thousand men, 
 untrained, but savage and warlike, and entirely 
 devoted to their leader. 
 
 Raffles was averse to a military demonstra- 
 tion so soon after he had taken the reins of
 
 JA VA 249 
 
 Government, and determined If possible to 
 check the Sultan without having recourse to 
 arms. He took a step which, in a less deter- 
 mined man, would have been of the most 
 extreme rashness. He entered the Sultan's 
 territory with his bodyguard, and announced 
 that he had come to receive his allegiance. 
 He proposed an audience. The Sultan 
 accepted, and the interview took place in the 
 great reception-hall of the Sultan's kraton. 
 This was a large square building with sheer 
 wails of masonry. 
 
 The great courtyard in the centre, partly 
 open to the sky, showed at one end the 
 Sultan's throne, and round it, and half filling 
 the space, his crowd of undisciplined warriors. 
 Four thousand men of the fiercest tribes of 
 the East surrounded the chief in his tawdry, 
 but not unimposing, pomp. The hall was 
 half lighted by the fitful glare of torches, half 
 by the dying day, as Raffles rode into the 
 castle. 
 
 Unattended, save by half a dozen troopers, 
 the Lieutenant-Governor reined in his horse, 
 and awaited from the Sultan some sign of
 
 250 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 his fealty. None was given. Raffles spoke 
 first in Malay. He had come, he said, to 
 receive the submission of a vassal who had 
 forgotten his duty, not to treat with a 
 rebel in arms. The Sultan replied that he 
 was no vassal of a usurped Government, but 
 an independent chief who meant to remain 
 so. Raffles rejoined that the British could 
 recognize no Power on the island that was 
 not — as had always been the case in past 
 times — the vassal of the rulers of Java, and 
 warned the Sultan that, if it came to force of 
 arms, the British were unconquered in the 
 East, and would remain so. An angry 
 murmur rose from the armed crowd round 
 the throne, and some swords were drawn. 
 But the Sultan, though with difficulty, held 
 them in. If he thought of murder as a step 
 to power, some impulse of craft or chivalry 
 restrained him. It would be easy to kill this 
 haughty man, but would he be any nearer 
 his end ? The other chiefs were not ready. 
 He had himself, in fact, only moved to 
 embarrass the Government, and was dis- 
 concerted at the sharp alternative thus
 
 JAVA 251 
 
 offered him of Instant submission or war 
 with the English. When he next spoke, it 
 was to temporize, and Raffles felt the game 
 was won. The Sultan repeated the oaths of 
 fealty he had sworn to the French, apologized 
 for the offences he had committed against the 
 Dutch settlers, and promised to receive a 
 Resident at his Court. 
 
 Raffles turned and rode slowly out of the 
 courtyard. A glance behind him, as he 
 passed Into the night, showed a dusky mob 
 of angry savages, furious but quelled, waving 
 their scimitars in the torchlight, and calling 
 angrily for blood. He reached his camp in 
 safety, and continued the work he had barely 
 interrupted by his daring exploit. Though 
 he had failed to secure peace, his visit had 
 been by no means fruitless. The Sultan was 
 quelled for the moment by the Lieutenant- 
 Governor's bearing, and the other chiefs were 
 baffled for some time to come. But the storm 
 must burst sooner or later, as Raffles very well 
 knew, and the time for the rebellion was skil- 
 fully chosen by the Sultan and his fellow- 
 conspirators.
 
 252 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Early In 1812 it had become necessary to 
 send an expedition to Palembang, a place on 
 Sumatra, to avenge the murder by Its Sultan 
 of all the Dutch residents there. Gillespie 
 started in command of most of the forces In 
 Java, and soon conducted to a close a cam- 
 paign which Lord Minto afterwards pro- 
 nounced to be ' very glorious.' 
 
 While the troops were fully occupied in 
 this work, the Sultan of Jokjokarta rose in 
 arms. He was supported by the open dis- 
 content of the Regents of Solo In the North, 
 and the secret aid and sympathy of all the 
 other Regents. The Regents of Bantam 
 and Cherlbon, districts to the east and west 
 of Batavia, had only been hitherto kept down 
 by the near presence of the capital and the 
 victorious British troops. They now again 
 broke out Into mutinous murmurs. Raffles 
 was at Samdrang, and the only troops In the 
 Island were his escort and the Residency 
 guard ; but the news of the rising had hardly 
 reached him when he heard that Gillespie 
 had landed at Batavia. The Commandant 
 brought only his staff with him, but was a
 
 J A VA 253 
 
 host in himself. He had hurried on before 
 his troops, and now joined Raffles at once. 
 
 On June 17, with every trooper they could 
 raise, they were before the Sultan's lines. 
 Their army numbered about twelve hundred, 
 and so prompt had been their movements, 
 that as yet only one army was in the field 
 against them ; but that numbered over ten 
 thousand men. There was some skirmishing 
 with the outposts, and then the main body of 
 the Sultan's army came into collision with 
 the British troops, and was driven into the 
 kraton. This was a regular fortified posi- 
 tion, about three miles in circumference, 
 defended by a wide and deep ditch, a wall 
 forty-five feet high, and garrisoned by eleven 
 thousand men. It was very gallantly stormed 
 on the morning of June 20, but Gillespie was 
 dangerously wounded in the assault. Through- 
 out the fighting our loss was sixty-five. 
 
 The rebellion was at an end, and terms of 
 peace were dictated. ' For the first time,' 
 wrote the Lieutenant - Governor to Lord 
 Minto, June 25, ' the British power is para- 
 mount in Java.'
 
 2 54 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 The Lieutenant - Governor, his military 
 troubles over, now turned his attention to 
 the currency. There was no gold in the 
 island, and silver was rapidly disappearing. 
 The metal coinage was represented by a few 
 shapeless copper lumps, and the ordinary 
 medium of exchange was paper. This had 
 been guaranteed by Lord Minto at the rate 
 of six and a half paper dollars for one silver 
 dollar. Within a year, silver was twice as 
 dear, and still rising. If prompt measures 
 were not taken, buying and selling must soon 
 cease altogether. 
 
 In casting about for some Government 
 asset which he could turn Into cash, the 
 Lieutenant - Governor could find nothing 
 marketable but the land. Had he power 
 to sell any ? The Inquiries of his Land Com- 
 mission had certainly shown that there was 
 no authority between the Government and 
 the soil, and in dealing with the Regents he 
 had accepted and acted upon this conclusion. 
 For Government to sell what it owned was 
 only another step on, and a perfectly logical 
 one. He therefore proposed to his Council
 
 JAVA 255 
 
 to redeem some of the paper with the pro- 
 ceeds of a sale of land. But the Dutch 
 members of Council — Cranssen and Mun- 
 tinghe — who had gone with him in his deal- 
 ings with the Regents, shrank from this step 
 as too bold and hasty, and Gillespie, the 
 other member, was violently opposed to it. 
 
 In the end, and as no other plan could be 
 devised, the Dutchmen were won over, but 
 the Commander-in-Chief shut his ears to all 
 reason. He assailed the Lieutenant-Governor 
 in Council and out, publicly quarrelled with 
 him, and conducted himself with such in- 
 decorum, that at one time Lord Minto feared 
 it would be necessary to institute an inquiry 
 into his conduct. However, the Commander- 
 in-Chief in India interceded, for Gillespie 
 was a daring and skilful commander. Sir 
 William Nightingall was sent to Java, Gil- 
 lespie being transferred to Bengal. Before 
 leaving Batavia a reconciliation was effected, 
 and the Lieutenant-Governor was left in Java 
 in peace, as he thought, with all men. 
 
 When work did not call him elsewhere, the 
 Lieutenant-Governor was always by choice
 
 256 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 at Buitenzorg.^ This house, the official resi- 
 dence of the Viceroys, roomy and light, after 
 the fashion of large houses in the East, had 
 long stood in the uplands of Java, encircled 
 by trim gardens. Here Raffles loved to 
 surround himself with society. In the ab- 
 stract he had a low opinion of the Dutch, 
 and he did not hesitate to extend his mistrust 
 of their character to business relations. The 
 Chinese, too, shared his cordial animosity. 
 In abolishing the farms of taxes, he was 
 deliofhted to be able to record that he had 
 thus ' struck the deathblow to the pernicious 
 influence which the Chinese had been per- 
 mitted to acquire.' 
 
 His estimate of both nations is summed up 
 in the following passage from his pen : ' The 
 Chinese, in all ages equally supple, venal, 
 and crafty, failed not at a very early period 
 to recommend themselves to the equally 
 crafty, venal, and speculating Hollanders.' 
 Of the Malay he had a high opinion, and 
 thus analyzes his character : ' Accustomed to 
 wear arms from his infancy, to rely on his 
 own prowess for safety, and to dread that of 
 ■^ = Sans-Souci.
 
 JA VA 257 
 
 his associates, he is the most correctly polite 
 of all savages, and not subject to those 
 starts of passion so common to more civilized 
 nations.' 
 
 But in spite of his aversion to business 
 relations with the Dutch nation, and his 
 stronor and well-founded distrust of their 
 politics, he loved the specimens with whom 
 his work brought him into daily contact — 
 Cranssen and Muntinghe, for example, the 
 members of his Council. 
 
 Wherever he happened to be, his house 
 was always full of Dutch merchants, English 
 visitors, Malay chiefs, the officers of the army 
 and navy, and anyone else who liked to come, 
 to the number of many score. When not 
 entertaining his friends or writing minutes, 
 he spent his time in collecting materials for 
 his history, and in studying the fauna and 
 flora of Java. The Asiatic Society counted 
 him among its most able and zealous members. 
 Even in the midst of the stir and excitement 
 of the expedition to Java in 181 1, he had 
 found time to hold a meeting of the society 
 at Malacca as they sailed through the Straits. 
 
 17
 
 258 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 In Java itself there had once been some 
 intellectual life, as shown by the existence 
 of a Society of Arts and Sciences, which was 
 established on April 24, 1778, with the motto, 
 ' The Public Utility.' It was dead by Raffles' 
 time, but he formally re-established it on the 
 thirty-fifth anniversary of its foundation. He 
 also superintended the translation of the Bible 
 into the Malay tongue. 
 
 By the end of 1 8 1 3 he seemed to have 
 completed his work. The revenue was 
 reformed, and in all its branches yielding 
 good results. Under Dutch rule the island 
 had yielded yearly about forty-nine thousand 
 pounds — hardly enough to pay the expenses. 
 The French forced the revenue up to ninety 
 thousand pounds ; but they collected it on a 
 vicious system, and by precarious means. 
 Raffles' management increased the revenue 
 to five hundred and thirty-six thousand 
 pounds by means which relieved the pea- 
 santry, abolished vexatious dues, and 
 determined responsibility, and this while 
 maintaining an army of occupation at the 
 cost of thirty thousand pounds a month, and
 
 jfA VA 259 
 
 in spite of the loss of the American trade by 
 war with England. After the suppression 
 of the revolt of Jokjokarta the chiefs gave 
 him no more trouble. The peasantry had 
 always been devoted to him. The services 
 worked with him like one man. 
 
 From this clear sky fell a thunderbolt. 
 
 In 18 13 Lord Minto's term as Viceroy 
 expired, and he left India late in the same 
 year. In April, 18 14, the Lieutenant- 
 Governor was entertaining one of his usual 
 large parties of guests at Buitenzorg. The 
 officers of his staff were engaged in pre- 
 paring some private theatricals. The 
 Lieutenant-Governor was the centre of a 
 busy crowd bent all day on pleasure or 
 business, and himself the busiest of them all. 
 He appeared to be free from anxiety or 
 preoccupation of any kind, and not till long 
 after the party had broken up was it known 
 to any man that in the intervals of promoting 
 his guests' amusements he had been writing 
 his defence to a charge of corruption and 
 maladministration in office. He was accused 
 of selling Government lands when several
 
 26o THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Other courses would have answered equally 
 well, and of marking out the best lots for 
 himself, thus nefariously profiting at the 
 public cost. 
 
 Gillespie was his accuser. 
 
 The Commander-in-Chief had returned to 
 Bengal chafing with wounded vanity. He 
 found a new Governor-General disposed to 
 listen to him, and himself looked on as the 
 hero of the expedition to Java. He allowed 
 himself to use the most intemperate lan- 
 guage, and was soon committed either to 
 formulate a regular charge or to withdraw 
 his words. He chose the former course, and 
 drew up his accusations. They were no very 
 formidable array, and at this distance of time 
 the details possess little interest. One charge, 
 however, may be cited as a fair specimen of 
 the rest — the charge, viz., that Raffles might 
 have employed the funds of the Orphan 
 Chamber to buy up the depreciated paper 
 instead of selling land. The Orphan 
 Chamber had. Indeed, at one time contained 
 a large sum in silver. But it had been with- 
 drawn by Marshal Daendals to pay for war
 
 J A VA 261 
 
 material, and replaced by paper. The step 
 which Gillespie proposed amounted, there- 
 fore, to buying up paper with paper of the 
 same value. This was the childish course 
 which Gillespie had urged over and over 
 again in Council, and which he held Raffles 
 culpable for not adopting. 
 
 The charge that Raffl.es shared in the 
 sales himself, thus nefariously profiting at 
 the public expense^ deserves notice because 
 it was in part true. It was true that Raffles 
 bought some land in the auction, but he did 
 not do so nefariously, and he did not profit 
 by the transaction ; he lost considerably. 
 The facts were as follows : When the sale 
 was announced, the party opposed to it in- 
 dustriously started the rumour that it was 
 illegal. It was in vain pointed out that such 
 sales had often been held before, and that 
 Raffl.es only followed Dutch precedent. 
 They replied — with reason, it must be 
 allowed — that it was not as yet certain that 
 Java would be retained by the English at 
 all ; and even if it were retained, there was 
 the chance that it would be retained as a
 
 262 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Crown colony, and In that case a Governor 
 and Council would probably be sent out from 
 England. 
 
 In only one event, then, out of three might 
 the sale be expected to stand. This view 
 gained ground, and the Lieutenant-Governor 
 saw that his plan would soon be fatally blown 
 upon. In this extremity a chance presented 
 itself for retrieving the market. The former 
 Viceroy of Java — a Mr. Engelhard — settled 
 In the country, proposed to Muntlnghe, one 
 of the Council, that they should share the 
 purchase of a lot together. Muntlnghe 
 examined the proposal and declined it, see- 
 ing no chance of profit In It. Engelhard 
 then proposed the same transaction to the 
 Lieutenant-Governor. He accepted It with- 
 out hesitation, and the sale went forward as 
 announced. Lord Minto pronounced the 
 sale to be ' an able expedient In a moment 
 of great emergency.' As soon as the 
 Lieutenant-Governor heard of Gillespie's 
 charge, he resold the lot at cost price, and 
 challenged investigation. 
 
 It Is well to note, viewing the charge
 
 J A VA 263 
 
 made, firstly, that the sale was made in open 
 day in the Stadthaus of Batavia ; and 
 secondly, that there was no profit to be 
 made in it, as a shrewd business man had 
 already declined it on that very ground. 
 
 It is also well to note that Raffles' partner 
 was a former Viceroy, a man of dignity and 
 repute. All this was doubtless weighed by 
 the Court of Directors, who in their resolu- 
 tion on General Gillespie's charges gave an 
 unqualified testimony to Raffles' uprightness. 
 But the reader, with the views of to-day, is 
 most struck by the extreme impropriety of 
 the whole transaction, which honesty of 
 intention does little to excuse. Although 
 Raffles was protected by the difficulties of 
 the situation, and his own patent disin- 
 terestedness and great services, yet his 
 excess of zeal brought down on him a 
 certain amount of censure, which was per- 
 haps more implied than expressed. 
 
 He had no difficulty in showing the 
 absurdity of the other accusations, and he 
 speedily did so to the satisfaction of the 
 Court of Directors.
 
 264 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 For the time, however, Lord Moira, who 
 had succeeded Lord Minto as Viceroy, was 
 so prejudiced against Raffles that he forbade 
 the latter to come to Calcutta. 
 
 In the Goorkha war of the same year 
 Gillespie was shot through the heart, at the 
 head of his troops, in leading the second attack 
 on Kalanga Fort. His military talents were 
 great, and after his death Parliament erected 
 to his memory the statue by the south door 
 of St. Paul's Cathedral. 
 
 Between Gillespie's charges and the sur- 
 render of Java to the Dutch, Raffles suffered 
 two heavy personal losses, in the death of 
 Lord Minto and the death of his wife. He 
 found relief and distraction in the unfailing 
 panacea of English exiles in the East — work. 
 He spent his days on horseback or at his 
 desk, working always with an energy that 
 nothing could destroy, neither misfortune nor 
 misunderstandings nor the ill - health en- 
 gendered of twenty years' residence in the 
 tropics. He laboured to interest influential 
 men in England in the fate of Java ; he strove 
 to open up a trade with Japan ; he tried hard
 
 J A VA 265 
 
 to abolish slavery. He knew the island better 
 than his assistants, and often rode sixty or 
 seventy miles a day. He once travelled from 
 Samarang to Batavia, and back, merely to be 
 present at a ball. Two years passed away 
 thus, while he watched his measures take root 
 and bear fruit. 
 
 On March 26, 1816, Raffles left Java. In 
 five years he had built up a prosperous colony 
 out of anarchy. He was spared the pain of 
 seeing it restored to the Dutch, his successor 
 being charged with the duty. In England 
 the only man of weight who understood the 
 value of Java was Lord Minto, and he died 
 soon after his term as Viceroy was over. 
 There was thus no one left to enlighten the 
 Egyptian darkness which shrouded the ques- 
 tion, and the Court of Directors, if truth be 
 told, would not even read Raffles' despatches 
 from Java. Doubdess, too, the Cape of 
 Good Hope, which we had also conquered 
 from Louis Buonaparte, seemed the more im- 
 portant place at that time. It was on the 
 route to India, and the Suez Canal and the 
 Canadian Pacific Railway were yet undreamt
 
 266 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 of. So on August 13, 18 14, Castlereagh 
 signed away Java, and Henry Fagel left us 
 the Cape of Good Hope and some other 
 places. There seems no reason why we 
 should have given up anything, since all were 
 ours by conquest from the Buonapartes ; but 
 the Dutch were pressing, and a statesman 
 who was rearranging the map of Europe 
 could not be expected to disoblige a Pleni- 
 potentiary for the sake of an island somewhere 
 in the Pacific. Still, one may be pardoned for 
 reflecting on what might have been if we had 
 kept the ' Other India,' as Raffles called it. 
 
 On his return to England the late Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor was knighted. He also 
 received the appointment of Lieutenant- 
 Governor of Bencoolen, 'as a signal mark 
 of the directors' approbation.' If it did not 
 appear from Lord Minto's correspondence 
 that Raffles much desired this last appoint- 
 ment, the directors' remark would assume 
 the garb of a grim satire. For Bencoolen 
 was a solitary, grass-grown, pestilential fort 
 in Sumatra, a land of savages, and the lieu- 
 tenant-governorship was a very small post
 
 JA VA 267 
 
 after Java. But it was not In Raffles' nature 
 to measure dignities or rate very highly the 
 comforts of civilization, and he was quite 
 contented with Bencoolen. 
 
 Here he laboured from 18 18 to 1824. 
 Once more the name of Raffles heralded the 
 reign of progress, firm government, and con- 
 sideration for all sorts and conditions of men. 
 To him England owes the establishment of 
 British Influence in the Malay Archipelago, 
 then extinct since the surrender of Java. 
 
 The Dutch hated and feared him, and 
 rightly looked on his policy as a menace to 
 their own power. In 1820 the Resident of 
 BatavIa refused admittance to Java to ' all 
 persons who may any ways be supposed to be 
 connected with Sir Stamford Raffles and his 
 views.' In 1823 Baron van der Capellen, 
 then Governor-General, declined to receive 
 Raffles, whose ship was then anchored in 
 Batavia Roads, or even to allow him to land. 
 He could not be forofiven. His admlnis- 
 tration had thrown their greedy shopkeeping 
 ways Into an Ignoble shade, and with such 
 petty affronts w^as their revenge taken. He
 
 268 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 left Bencoolen on April lo, 1824, and returned 
 to England. There remained yet one more 
 work for him to carry out. There have been 
 few more lasting contributions to the pleasure 
 and instruction of England than the Gardens 
 of the Zoological Society, which Raffles es- 
 tablished in 1826, and of which he was first 
 President. 
 
 He died on July 5 of the same year. His 
 statue by Chantrey stands in the north aisle 
 of Westminster Abbey, and bears the follow- 
 ing epitaph : 
 
 TO THE MEMORY OF 
 
 SIR THOMAS STAMFORD RAFFLES, LL.D., F.R.S., 
 
 LIEUT. -GOVERNOR OF JAVA AND 
 FIRST PRESIDENT TO ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, 
 
 BORN 1781 DIED 1826. 
 
 Selected at an early age to conduct the government 
 
 Of the British conquests in the Indian Ocean, 
 
 By wisdom, vigour, and philanthropy 
 
 He raised Java to happiness and prosperity 
 
 Unknown under former Rulers. 
 
 After the surrender of that island to the Dutch, 
 
 And during his government in Sumatra, 
 
 He founded an emporium at Singapore, 
 
 Where, as establishing freedom of person as the right of the soil 
 
 And freedom of trade as the right of the port, 
 
 He secured to the British flag 
 
 The maritime superiority of the Eastern Seas. 
 
 Ardently attached to science, 
 
 He laboured successfully to add to the knowledge 
 
 And enrich the museums of his native land ; 
 
 Promoting the welfare of the people committed to his charge, 
 
 He sought the good of his country and the glory of God.
 
 [ 269 ] 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE IONIAN ISLANDS. 
 
 When Napoleon I. seized Corfu, the chief 
 of the Ionian Islands, he was preparing for a 
 dash on India. This, the grandest of his 
 many schemes, was also one of his earliest. 
 To occupy Egypt, command the Red Sea, 
 capture Bombay, join hands with ' Citizen 
 Tippoo,' and drive the English out of India 
 — such was the plan which he was revolving 
 in his mind in 1797, and which he in part 
 carried out in 1798. Thus much accom- 
 plished, he would return to Europe through 
 Persia and the Euphrates Valley, take Russia 
 in the rear, envelop Central Europe in a 
 circle of war, and crown himself universal 
 lord. 
 
 The fact that Corfu lay on the route to
 
 270 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 India, and was destined by Napoleon to 
 play a great part in his adventures, makes 
 the struggle for its possession not only in- 
 telligible, but exciting. Without this key it 
 is impossible to understand why he should 
 have preferred to abandon Venice and all the 
 rich provinces of North Italy to Austria, 
 rather than give up Corfu. With this key, 
 we see that, compared with what he was 
 aiming at, the V^enetian dominions on the 
 mainland were a bagatelle, and it is not hard 
 to understand what he meant when he wrote 
 to the Directory that it would be better for 
 France, if she had to choose between Corfu 
 and all Italy, to keep the island. The reason 
 he alleged was that the place would be of great 
 advantage to French commerce. Now, Corfu 
 had certainly once been known as the key of 
 the Adriatic, but the stream of commerce 
 had been long since diverted from \^enice, 
 and the Adriatic was but an empty box. 
 There was no trade there worth securing at 
 the expense of a fortress needing five hundred 
 guns and a garrison of ten thousand men. 
 His arrangements for obtaining possession
 
 THE IONIAN ISLANDS 271 
 
 of the Island were as follows : They were 
 first declared ' free ' under French auspices. 
 Gentili, a Corsican of some military talents, 
 and a determined foe of England, was sent 
 to command the ' protecting ' force of French. 
 With him was sent Napoleon's friend and 
 admirer, Arnault, of the Biographie Uni- 
 verselle, to ' help him write his despatches,' 
 and to report the state of public feeling in 
 the islands. The state of public feeling was 
 reported to be very satisfactory. The people 
 were wild with joy, and in a most gratifying 
 condition of democratic fervour. The hated 
 emblem of Venice, which had dominated the 
 fortress for four hundred years, was every- 
 where erased, and the triumphant crest of 
 France took its place. Liveries and coats of 
 arms were denounced, and persons suspected 
 of aristocratic leanings were ' controlled ' in 
 the public interest. 
 
 Foremost among the supplicants for French 
 protection had been the inhabitants of the 
 island of Zante. When the first speeches, 
 fireworks, and denunciations were over, when 
 the novelty had worn off the proclamations
 
 272 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 concerning the rights of man, and the ' anno 
 primo della Hberta ionia,' their dramatic 
 instinct began to crave further satisfaction. 
 Zante was not insensible to the justice of a 
 contemporary criticism on Ionian Hberty : 
 ' E Corcira si dice independente ! Si, come 
 lo sarebbe una fanciulla inerme in mezzo a 
 armati e poderosi giganti.' How much greater 
 would Ionia be as a part of great France than 
 as an independent State ! The petition of 
 Zante for the absorption of the new State 
 into the French Republic was therefore 
 made, and graciously accepted, and the isles 
 of the Adriatic were duly entered as new 
 departments of the French Republic. 
 
 The annexation of the islands gave 
 Napoleon a freer hand. Admiral Brueys, 
 who was blown up on the Orient next year, 
 was sent from Toulon to Corfu to recruit 
 sailors among the Greeks who had so long 
 manned the fleets of Venice. Chabot was 
 appointed to take the military and Comeyras 
 the civil command. The latter was cousin 
 to the Comeyras who published, in the year 
 1798, a very luminous pamphlet on cutting a
 
 THE IONIAN ISLANDS 273 
 
 canal through the Isthmus of Suez and pene- 
 trating to India. He prophesied that the 
 cutting of the canal would inevitably be the 
 ruin of England, ' et que Dieu en soit benit '/ 
 The sinister results to England to flow from 
 the Egyptian expedition were endless. Con- 
 spicuous among them was the destruction of 
 our Baltic trade, in which four hundred 
 vessels were then yearly engaged. This 
 was to be accomplished by giving Russia a 
 free passage to the Mediterranean, and so 
 drawing all the wealth of the Baltic trade to 
 France. The cutting of the Isthmus of Suez, 
 and the destruction of our settlements in the 
 East, were in Buonaparte's orders from the 
 Directory when he sailed for Egypt. 
 
 The English, on their side, were not idle. 
 Four thousand fresh troops were promised to 
 the Governor-General of India by a secret 
 committee of the Court of Directors, and 
 public subscriptions were opened in Calcutta 
 to meet the public danger. Nelson was 
 watching in the Mediterranean, but Admiral 
 Brueys gave him the slip, and arrived off 
 Egypt. On August i, 1798, was fought the 
 
 18
 
 274 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Battle of the Nile, the French fleet was 
 destroyed, and Nelson was the hero of the 
 world. His first thought was to send a 
 message to Bombay, overland, proud as an 
 Englishman to be able to put the Settlements 
 on their guard. ' Bombay, if they get there, 
 I know is their first object,' Nelson wrote to 
 the Governor of Bombay on August 9, 1798. 
 Even Nelson himself did not then know 
 how completely his victory had ruined Buona- 
 parte's designs. He could, indeed, hear of no 
 fleet capable of transporting a considerable 
 body of troops to India, but so imminent did 
 the danger seem that he judged it right to 
 warn the Governor of Bombay, in the possible 
 event of there being a fleet he had not heard 
 of lying concealed somewhere along the coast 
 of the Red Sea. 
 
 Foremost among the tributes he received 
 was a present of ten thousand pounds from 
 the East India Company, a very fair gauge 
 of the danger they thought they had escaped. 
 The perfidious little island of Zante, un- 
 willing to lose an opportunity of distinguishing 
 itself, presented him with a gold- headed cane.
 
 THE IONIAN ISLANDS 275 
 
 Napoleon had not been without Immediate 
 designs on Central Europe ; fortunately, they 
 were to be effected through a weapon that 
 turned in his grasp. The view of Sir John 
 Acton, then Prime Minister of Naples, was 
 that disorder was to be stirred up in the 
 P)alkan Peninsula, and then turned north- 
 wards upon Poland and Hungary, Ali 
 Pasha of Joannina was the destined instru- 
 ment of this policy. He had corresponded 
 with Napoleon, who addressed him as his 
 * most respectable friend.' The value of his 
 friendship was tested when the news from 
 Egypt reached Cephalonia, upon which he 
 immediately seized the French possessions 
 on the mainland of Greece. After the capture 
 of Prevesa he compelled his surviving French 
 prisoners to flay the corpses of their dead 
 comrades, salt their skins, and carry them to 
 Joannina in sacks. Such was Ali Pasha, 
 ' I'illustre chef Albanais ' of Alexandre 
 Dumas, and Napoleon's ' most respectable ' 
 ally. 
 
 The Sultan was little pleased with the 
 French proceedings in Egypt. He covered
 
 276 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Nelson with presents and distinctions, and 
 followed up the Battle of the Nile with a 
 declaration of war against France. He had 
 a strange ally in the Czar, for all three powers 
 had set their hearts on the Ionian Islands. 
 It has already been seen how Napoleon had 
 written of them to the Directory. On 
 August 9, 1798, he wrote more distinctly : 
 ' The Turkish Empire crumbles daily ; the 
 possession of these islands will enable us to 
 keep it up as long as possible, or to make 
 the most for ourselves out of the situation.' 
 The Porte was perfectly well aware of the 
 facts, and Russia was no more blind to them 
 than the Porte. A tinge of absurdity is lent 
 to this extraordinary alliance by the procla- 
 mation to the lonians which it put forward : 
 ' My master and the Sublime Porte,' wrote 
 Uschakoff, the Russian Admiral, ' equally in- 
 spired with Divine zeal, have come to free 
 you from the infidel French.' 
 
 Under the protection of these two allies, 
 the Septinsular Republic — a State which was 
 to figure in Europe for sixty years — first saw 
 the light. Turkey wished to create a princi-
 
 THE IONIAN ISLANDS 277 
 
 pallty out of the islands after the model of 
 Wallachia, but the same weakness which had 
 prevented her from seizing them for her own 
 benefit allowed Russia to have her own way, 
 and to grant to the lonians such measure of 
 representative government as was understood 
 by the most despotic autocrat in the world, 
 at the end of the last century. The solemn 
 declaration of the independence of Ionia 
 preceded a period of anarchy under Russian 
 supervision, which lasted till Eylau and 
 Friedland had been fought, and the islands 
 were, under the Treaty of Tilsit, again handed 
 over to France ; but this time to an Imperial 
 France whose navy was destroyed, and whose 
 Emperor was for ever cured of any ambition 
 to command the sea. Cesar Berthier was 
 the first Governor - General. He was a 
 brother of the Prince of Wagram, and was 
 himself a soldier of some ability, but he had 
 drunken too deeply of the wine of Revolution 
 and Empire to keep his head in a position 
 requiring much self-command. While all 
 that his little charge needed from him was 
 steady administration, Berthier pictured him-
 
 278 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 self as a monarch. He called his secretaries 
 his 'ministers,' and conducted himself as the 
 soldier-king of a conquered country. His 
 stern and unsuccessful government was short- 
 lived ; he was recalled in January, 1808, and 
 replaced by General Donzelot. 
 
 General Donzelot, whose long life included 
 many years of distinguished colonial service, 
 is best known to Englishmen as a military 
 man and the commander of a division at 
 Waterloo. His kindness, simplicity, and 
 geniality, showed in pleasing contrast to 
 Cesar Berthier's roughness, and endeared 
 him to the inhabitants of Corfu ; but his 
 influence did not extend further than the 
 capital, and the men who governed the 
 other islands were incompetent persons who 
 brought the French rule into discredit. His 
 Commissary - General was a popular man. 
 This was Matthew de Lesseps, brother of 
 the famous traveller, and himself a diploma- 
 tist of mark, but whose name is more familiar 
 to the men of our generation as borne by his 
 son, Ferdinand de Lesseps. 
 
 Donzelot's government had scarcely estab-
 
 THE IONIAN ISLANDS 279 
 
 lished itself when an English expedition 
 appeared in the Adriatic. Among its leaders 
 was Colonel (afterwards Sir) Hudson Lowe. 
 His task was an easy one, for Donzelot had 
 no ships. To attempt without ships the 
 defence of the islands, which depended for 
 a part at least of their supplies on the 
 mainland, was to court defeat. The greater 
 part of the French strength, numbering 
 nearly twelve thousand men, was concen- 
 trated in Corfu ; and in 1809 Lowe captured 
 Cephalonia, after a slight resistance, and 
 Zante. In 18 10 he took Santa Maura. Of 
 these three islands and Ithaca he was named 
 Governor. When Napoleon abdicated, Corfu 
 alone held out. Donzelot would listen to no 
 negotiations, hoping to the last that France 
 would retain the fortress and island as a set- 
 off to Malta ; but both were duly delivered 
 over to the English by order of Louis XVHI. 
 on June 23, 1814. 
 
 Thus for twenty years all the Great Powers 
 of Europe had struggled to possess themselves 
 of the Ionian Islands. Russia and Turkey, 
 France— Republican, Royal, and Imperial —
 
 28o THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 and Great Britain, had ruled there in turn, 
 while Austria and Naples had attempted 
 unsuccessfully to win for themselves some 
 part in their government. Many of the 
 present ambitions of the nations of Europe, 
 and some aspirations long since laid to sleep 
 with the mighty dead, found in the posses- 
 sion of Corfu the first stepping-stone to their 
 goal. Through Corfu, Napoleon had sought 
 to conquer India, the Czar to break up 
 Turkey, and Austria to make herself a naval 
 Power. At the Great Peace the coveted 
 instrument of so many balked ambitions 
 was left in the hands of Great Britain. 
 
 Corfu, the chief island, is the same size as 
 the Isle of Man. Zante is a little larger than 
 the Isle of Wight. Ithaca and Paxo are 
 about as large as Jersey and Guernsey re- 
 spectively. Santa Maura has an area of one 
 hundred and eighty square miles, and Cepha- 
 lonia — the largest of all — of three hundred 
 and forty-eight square miles. The six islands 
 lie In a chain along the west coast of Greece, 
 with Corfu at the north and Zante at the 
 south. The seventh — Cerlgo — lies to the
 
 THE IONIAN ISLANDS 281 
 
 extreme south of Greece, as far from Zante 
 as Zante is from Corfu. The rest of the 
 little State was made up by a number of 
 smaller islands, mostly mere fishing-rocks, 
 which made no show in the accounts of the 
 Government, but were found as time went 
 on to be very convenient places of exile, and 
 were used as such under the power of police 
 which the British Lord High Commissioners 
 retained to the last. 
 
 The population numbered about two hun- 
 dred thousand, or not much less than it does 
 at present. They were high-spirited, vain 
 and ambitious, and mendacious above all the 
 other races of the Levant. Naturally the 
 vendetta flourished in so favourable a soil, 
 and during the Russian occupation the 
 murders in Zante averaged one a day. A 
 long administration of the feudal system, 
 under the corrupt and suspicious government 
 of Venice, had kept the lower classes in a 
 state of mediaeval barbarism, while their trade 
 had been systematically starved in the interests 
 of Venice. At the same time no one could 
 exceed the Ionian noble in personal charm.
 
 282 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Of simple, frugal habits and polished tastes, 
 he excelled in all the arts of entertainment. 
 He was graceful and dignified in manner, and 
 gifted with a rare intellectual power. The 
 history of the Ionian government, however, 
 showed that his political capacity confined 
 itself for the most part to writing and speak- 
 ing, and was less apparent when the time 
 came for work. He was attracted by what- 
 ever was striking or theatrical ; the common- 
 place drudgery of life he avoided as unworthy 
 his attention. His devotion to the Church 
 was tempered by an indulgent conscience and 
 an imperturbable temper. 
 
 The law courts were, as might have been 
 expected, fields of battle to which were trans- 
 ferred those feudal disputes which could be 
 there more conveniently or lucratively settled 
 than in the open. Of litigation there was 
 plenty, the Ionian intelligence taking readily 
 to a pursuit which offered so much inter- 
 esting work and so many exciting scenes. 
 Justice was now and then done, but fortui- 
 tously. 
 
 The problem of devising for this little
 
 THE IONIAN ISLANDS 283 
 
 dominion a successor to the six or seven 
 governments it had enjoyed in the preceding 
 twenty years was duly laid before the Con- 
 gress of Vienna. In framing their regula- 
 tions, the Congress had the assistance of 
 Count John Capodistrias, at that time Secre- 
 tary of State to the Czar Alexander, and 
 the most distinguished Ionian of the century. 
 His first suggestion was to erect the islands 
 into a kingdom, the destined King being 
 Euorene Beauharnais. The account of this 
 
 o 
 
 proposal runs thus in the Biographie Uni- 
 verselle : Capodistrias ' avait espere d'abord 
 en former un royaume independent, a la tete 
 duquel on aurait appele le Prince Eugene de 
 Beauharnais, a qui des ouvertures furent faites 
 a ce sujet. Mais, par un noble sentiment, ce 
 prince refusa tout avantage personnel dans 
 le demembrement de I'empire francais.' Un- 
 fortunately, this lofty view of the Prince's 
 conduct is hardly historical. Eugene accepted 
 the fact of the Emperor's ruin with perfect 
 resignation. While at Vienna he used all 
 his influence with the Czar Alexander and 
 other potentates, and his own deserved popu-
 
 284 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 larity, for the purpose of making the best 
 bargain for himself, quite irrespective of any 
 attachment to his stepfather's person or 
 principles. The Congress of Vienna cer- 
 tainly treated him well. They offered him 
 a domain with a becoming establishment in 
 either Italy or Bavaria, or — as Rpis-al/er, as 
 he himself put it — the Ionian Isles. He 
 discussed the alternatives with his wife with 
 great philosophy and in a most business-like 
 manner. Italy and Germany were certainly 
 pleasant, but they might lead to embarrass- 
 ment, Italy especially. In Corfu, on the 
 other hand, there would be some drawbacks ; 
 but it was a fine country, and once there, 
 they would be safe from the complications 
 which he foresaw must arise in the future 
 out of the Vienna negotiations. While they 
 were hesitating, Napoleon escaped from Elba, 
 and all Europe was in a flame. After 
 Waterloo and the occupation of Paris the 
 Powers were weary of the Buonapartes, and, 
 while Eugene retained the affection of his 
 powerful friends, it became quite clear that 
 Europe would not tolerate another Buonaparte
 
 THE IONIAN ISLANDS 285 
 
 kingdom for some time to come. The plan 
 was never again brought forward, and Eugene 
 ended his days peacefully at his father-in- 
 law's Court in Bavaria as Duke of Leuch- 
 tenberg. 
 
 After some discussion it was then decided 
 to create an independent State under the 
 exclusive protection of Great Britain, who 
 should exercise her authority through a Lord 
 High Commissioner. 
 
 The present century has seen the rise of 
 all the South American Republics, and the 
 reconstruction of most European States on 
 representative lines ; it has also seen repre- 
 sentative government granted to the colonies 
 of Great Britain. Except Russia and Turkey 
 and the States of Asia, there is now^ no part 
 of the world, not still plunged in barbarism, 
 where a despotism, benevolent or otherwise, 
 prevails. But seventy years ago it was dif- 
 ferent. With the exception of Switzerland 
 there was only one Republic in the world, 
 and that but a generation old, while among 
 the States of Europe England was the only 
 one really constitutionally governed. The
 
 286 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 erection of the islands into a Republic was 
 therefore an experiment, and, it must be 
 owned, a very hazardous one. It was chiefly 
 brought about by the influence of Count 
 John Capodistrias. The treaty settling the 
 form of government was signed by Metter- 
 nich and the Duke of Wellington, but it 
 shows no traces of their handiwork except 
 their signatures. 
 
 Sir Thomas Maitland was the first Lord 
 High Commissioner of the United States of 
 the Ionian Islands. He had been Governor 
 of Malta, and was known as ' King Tom,' 
 from his arbitrary disposition. He was dirty 
 and coarse, rude in manner and violent in 
 temper. His personal habits were those of 
 a soldier of seventy years ago ; no one more 
 uncongenial to the lonians could have been 
 found. At the same time, he had undoubted 
 ability. His energy was inexhaustible, and 
 he was possessed, further, of an unusual 
 knowledge of men, and a fine appreciation 
 of their motives. He needed all his talents 
 to solve the problem with which he found 
 himself confronted.
 
 THE IONIAN ISLANDS 287 
 
 His difficulties were greatly increased by 
 the presence in Corfu of Count John Capo- 
 distrias, then on leave from St. Petersburg. 
 This noble was born at Corfu in 1776. 
 Like so many Corfiots of ability, he had 
 studied medicine at Padua and Venice, and 
 was made Secretary to the Septinsular 
 Republic under the Russian rule in 1803. 
 When the islands became French, in 1807, 
 Cesar Berthier offered him a post, but his 
 sympathies were all with Russia, who sup- 
 ported the cause of Greek independence, and 
 he betook himself to St. Petersburg, where, 
 in 1809, he entered the Diplomatic Service. 
 He rose rapidly, and as the representative 
 of Russia he bore a leading part in the 
 negotiations of 18 14-15. In November, 
 18 1 5, he was named joint Secretary of State 
 with Count Nesselrode. He was a fervent 
 devotee of the Greek Church, a zealous 
 Russian partisan, and a tireless intriguer for 
 the cause of Greek independence. Steadily 
 closing his eyes to facts, and seeing only 
 those glorious visions he wished to see, he 
 gained a great following in Corfu, and
 
 288 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 rapidly became an embarrassment to Mait- 
 land's Government. 
 
 The Lord High Commissioner's view was 
 bounded by his charge, and the best way to 
 govern it. What he saw was, in brief, bad 
 roads, no markets, a starved trade, a parody 
 of justice in the law courts, restrictive tolls, 
 an empty exchequer, and virtual anarchy 
 everywhere. All his energies were therefore 
 concentrated on bringing about a better state 
 of things. What he cared for was to secure 
 the peace and material prosperity for which 
 he was responsible. He cared not one jot 
 for the 'great Greek idea,' 'the traditions of 
 a noble past,' ' a free democracy rising in its 
 might,' and such-like. At the same time, he 
 was as little liable to shut his eyes to facts as 
 any man ; and it was very clear from the 
 first that a large number of lonians did care 
 a great deal for these things, and were, in the 
 meantime, comparatively indifferent to the 
 state of their roads or the price of their oil. 
 All this party gathered round Capodistrias, 
 who, besides being the embodiment of their 
 dreams, was the channel through which they
 
 THE IONIAN ISLANDS 289 
 
 hoped roubles and decorations still more 
 precious might reach the Ionian who was 
 faithful to him. The idea that Russia would 
 seriously countenance a secret opposition to 
 the Government was probably illusory, but it 
 led, none the less, to a dangerous attitude on 
 the part of many public men of influence, and 
 the formation of intrigues, of which Capodis- 
 trias was the centre. 
 
 The Russian attractions were certainly 
 great ; money and a glittering star would be 
 cheaply earned by doing what was in itself 
 very dear to the hearts of all true Corfiots— 
 plotting, intriguing, speechifying, posing, and 
 denouncing — particularly when earned in the 
 cause of Greek independence, the cherished 
 dream of all lonians. Then, too, the religion 
 of the lonians, a bar to their progress in 
 every other European State, was a recom- 
 mendation in Russia. 
 
 But all these things were in futnro, while 
 Maidand, on the other hand, was in posses- 
 sion — the disposer of good things — and was, 
 moreover, an able, resolute, and extremely 
 crafty man. He had power to bestow — a 
 
 19
 
 290 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 share in the Government, which could never 
 be attained by those who dwelt in the tents 
 of Capodistrias. Then, by exercising the 
 most rigid parsimony wherever it was possible, 
 he contrived to pay public officers in large 
 numbers and on a lavish scale. Finally, he 
 brought about the institution of the Order of 
 St. Michael and St. George for the decora- 
 tion of Maltese and lonians, and thus enlisted 
 on his side all the forces of personal interest. 
 Cupidity, vanity, thirst for power — there was 
 not one impulse of human nature that was 
 not better satisfied by being loyal than by 
 beincr factious. 
 
 To take an example. The Russians had 
 dignified the President of the Senate with 
 the title of ' Prince ' and an emolument of 
 three hundred pounds a year. ' Prince ' was 
 out of the question for an English subject ; 
 but there was comparatively little objection 
 to ' Highness,' a dignity which the President 
 accordingly continued to enjoy under the 
 English rule. A salary of fifteen hundred 
 pounds a year made up for the difference. 
 
 Maitland had no small contempt for the
 
 THE IONIAN ISLANDS 
 
 Ionian love for a title, but he paid little heed 
 to the abstract unsuitability of having so 
 many great people in so small a place, and 
 scattered distinctions with a profusion born 
 of their inexpensive nature and his profound 
 conviction of their usefulness. Thus, the 
 senators were ' Most Illustrious,' the members 
 of the House of Representatives ' Most Noble,' 
 and the Judges were ' Most Eminent.' 
 
 The Government consisted of the Lord 
 High Commissioner, the Senate, and the 
 House of Representatives. The Senate 
 numbered four, one member for each of the 
 larger islands, and one representing the other 
 three, to be elected by each of them in turn. 
 The senators were elected by the Legislative 
 Assembly. The latter body numbered forty. 
 When Maidand was entrusted with the duty 
 of drawing up a Constitution, he saw clearly, 
 after a most careful survey of the islands, 
 that a truly representative Government was 
 out of the question. He accordingly set 
 about making such a Constitution as should 
 give some power to the lonians, but not 
 enough to be harmful, and under which they
 
 292 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF EXGLAND 
 
 should enjoy the semblance of much more 
 power than they really possessed. He 
 appointed a Prlmar\' Council of ten members 
 and a President, the latter being Baron 
 Theotoky, the son of the man who had 
 enjoyed the favour of the Russians, and had 
 been President of the Senate under the 
 Constitution they had granted to the islands. 
 The Primary Council drew up the rules of 
 elections, and regulated the franchise. They 
 assigned eight members to Cephalonia, seven 
 each to Corfu and Zante, four to Santa 
 Maura, and one each to Ithaca, Paxo, and 
 Cerlgo. This made twenty-nine ; they were 
 themselves ex-officio members, and the total 
 number thus reached forty. The franchise 
 was narrow — Cephalonia, for example, with 
 a population of sixty thousand, had an 
 electorate numbering only four hundred. 
 The candidates were elected from a list 
 drawn up by the Primary Council. This 
 was a feature of the Russian Constitution 
 which Maitland preserved. The Russian 
 method of conductino- an election was not 
 followed by Maitland. It was peculiar, and
 
 THE lOMAX ISLAXDS 293 
 
 consisted in locking the electors into a church, 
 and keeping guard over them with fixed 
 bayonets until they had chosen their repre- 
 sentatives. 
 
 It will be seen that, under the forms of 
 a Constitution, Maidand reserved to himself 
 almost unlimited power. His instructions 
 were to govern the islands under a Constitu- 
 tion, and recognizing that his instructions 
 involved a contradiction, he made up his 
 mind to govern, and did so with signal 
 success, displaying great ingenuity in drafting 
 a Constitution that scarcely hampered him 
 
 at all. 
 
 The strongest evidence of his wisdom is 
 the fate of his worst enemy, John Capodistrias, 
 who was led by his enthusiasm and his 
 Russian proclivities Into a violent opposition 
 to Maidand and his Government. He was 
 afterwards elected the first President of 
 Greece, and while holding that position, 
 declared his conviction that the Greeks were 
 utterly unfitted for constitutional government. 
 In 1 83 1 he was assassinated as a tyrant and 
 an enemy of Greece.
 
 294 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Though the effect of Maltland's Constitu- 
 tion was to confine the franchise almost en- 
 tirely to the nobles, he was Incessantly at 
 war with them as a class. He broke the 
 entail of fiefs, and forbade usurious advances 
 from landlords to tenants, and almost de- 
 stroyed their influence In the State as a body. 
 The roads and bridges that he and his great 
 Lieutenant, Charles Napier, built, were the 
 wonder of all travellers. He abolished the 
 farm of Church lands, and, above all, he 
 purified the administration of justice. Mur- 
 der, from being a daily occurrence, providing 
 at most a little gossip, sank to Its proper 
 position as an infamous crime, and became 
 proportionately rare. After twenty years of 
 anarchy the countryside was safe and quiet. 
 Out of an annual income of one hundred and 
 forty thousand pounds he left a surplus of one 
 hundred and thirty thousand pounds. He 
 carried out the spirit of his instructions, and 
 made a civilized Government possible : It was 
 for his successors to make it constitutional. 
 
 But It was not every man who could control 
 a factious nobility, or grasp the truth through
 
 THE IONIAN ISLANDS 295 
 
 the meshes of intrigue which surrounded all 
 questions of Ionian administration. It was 
 not the first -comer, trained in a decorous 
 diplomacy, who could bend to his will the 
 wayward spirits who intrigued and fretted 
 under an orderly Government. Unhappily, 
 on Maitland's death, the sceptre fell into the 
 hands of one who valued the bauble more 
 than the power of which it was the symbol. 
 
 Sir Frederick Adam, who had distinguished 
 himself in the second rank, was now subjected 
 to the severe test of, a leading position in 
 hazardous times. A soldier of great merit, 
 but chiefly distinguished in civil life for his 
 urbanity and tact, he was endowed with a 
 fondness for display and some measure of 
 personal vanity. He found the office of Lord 
 High Commissioner one of great authority, 
 but did not perceive the responsibilities that 
 his power entailed, and by assuming which 
 it had been created and could alone be main- 
 tained. The large number of troops at his 
 command, and the lavish scale of payment in 
 the public service, combined to dazzle him, 
 and give him a totally wrong view of his
 
 296 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 position. The ' Lord High,' as the English 
 called him, was, if he did his duty, a hard- 
 worked official with endless responsibilities 
 and anxieties. Adam made him the happy 
 ruler of a settled State, whose only duty to 
 his subjects was to shine as brightly as pos- 
 sible. Not content with the palace in Corfu, 
 he therefore built himself another house out- 
 side the town, and a residence in Zante. 
 Twenty thousand pounds was expended on 
 only one of these. He donned a gold-lace 
 coat, drove in a resplendent coach, and was 
 with difficulty dissuaded from starting a guard 
 of lancers. 
 
 All this, it is but fair to say, was with the 
 settled design of impressing the lonians and 
 smoothing the troubles of the Government. 
 It is needless to say how entirely mistaken 
 he was. Such proceedings might have im- 
 pressed the half-barbarous folk in some back- 
 ward province of Asia, but the lonians 
 thought them extravagant and out of place. 
 Their net result was the disappearance of 
 Maitland's balance and the appearance of a 
 large debt, which was further increased by
 
 THE lONIAX ISLANDS 297 
 
 the vote of two thousand pounds for a 
 diamond star for Adam, which the Senate 
 passed when the Lord High Commissioner 
 retired in 1832. 
 
 By the end of Adam's term, there was no 
 tradition of Maitland's work and views left. 
 His successors were contented to assume 
 that the Constitcrtion was elective, which it 
 was not, and that they governed through it, 
 which was equally inaccurate. The best 
 directed exertions in the world could bring 
 no good result out of so false a position, but 
 an acute state of things did not set in till 
 1849. Lord Seaton was then Lord High 
 Commissioner. He had a most distinguished 
 military record as Sir John Col borne, and 
 had just been made a peer for his services 
 in Canada. 
 
 Entering on his term of office with no 
 marked Liberal leanings, in 1848 he suddenly 
 resolved to extend the franchise. In Cepha- 
 lonia the number of voters was increased 
 from four hundred to over eight times that 
 number. The same proportion was followed 
 everywhere. \ ote by ballot was established.
 
 298 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 The Primary Council and the double list of 
 electors were abolished, and the lonlans sud- 
 denly found themselves In the enjoyment of 
 greater political privileges than Englishmen 
 themselves. The result was what mlcrht have 
 been foreseen. On the one side was a mass 
 of new voters Ignorant of everything- con- 
 nected with the Government ; on the other, 
 as candidates, a number of men of education, 
 with no occupation and scanty means. 
 
 During many years past the latter body 
 had been growing In numbers ; for the 
 demand for law and medicine In Corfu was 
 necessarily limited, while the supply of lawyers 
 and doctors was almost endless. At the same 
 time, the members of the Legislative Assembly 
 were comfortably salaried. All the clever 
 young men who had spent the preceding ten 
 years in Idling and talking politics rushed, 
 therefore, Into the new and congenial profes- 
 sion of agitation. With no real training In 
 the affairs of life, but fluent and dramatic by 
 nature, and patriotic — as they understood the 
 word — by profession, they gulled the elec- 
 torate with perfect ease, and soon composed
 
 THE IONIAN ISLANDS 299 
 
 a commanding majority of the Chamber. 
 They persuaded their constituents, wholly 
 ignorant as they were of the history of the 
 Protectorate, that their ills came from the 
 English, and by maintaining in the House 
 a steady opposition to all schemes of internal 
 improvement, they prevented any of those 
 ills from being cured. 
 
 It is worth while to take a glimpse at this 
 extraordinary assembly, which was called into 
 existence by the policy of conciliation — con- 
 ciliation of noisy idlers at the expense of the 
 peaceable and hardworking. The Assembly 
 numbered forty-two. It met in a hall with 
 galleries which would hold about nine hundred, 
 and were generally filled with the rabble of 
 Corfu. These ragged spectators were actually 
 allowed to take part in the proceedings of the 
 Chamber, and cheered or groaned at every 
 turn of the debate. The Assembly had so 
 little notion of the forms of debating that it 
 would discuss a motion before it was framed. 
 
 One of its motions was for the reduction of 
 salaries — their own excepted. Another and 
 very" favourite one was for union with Greece.
 
 300 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 For by Lord Seaton's time a new complica- 
 tion had arisen. At first the islanders — even 
 if their natural restlessness would not permit 
 them to be contented with Eno^land — had no 
 Government in particular to turn to as an 
 alternative from our rule. But after the 
 establishment of the Greek monarchy a 
 situation arose which a logical mind could 
 not but confess weighed grievously against 
 the policy of separation. 
 
 On the mainland was a Greek State — truly 
 most disordered and bankrupt — but still a 
 State, with a King, a Constitution, Ministers, 
 and an army and navy. Close by were the 
 islands, inhabited by the same race, speaking- 
 the same lano-uag-e as their brothers on the 
 mainland, with slightly different traditions, 
 but still with a glorious past in common, and 
 yet ruled by a different Government. Two 
 parties thus rapidly grew up — the Separatists 
 and the Unionists. The Separatists were all 
 for keeping the islands apart — the Unionists 
 for joining Greece. The Unionists won in 
 the end, as in similar cases they always must ; 
 but the Union did not take place without
 
 THE IONIAN ISLANDS 301 
 
 years of disgraceful and sometimes ludicrous 
 strife. 
 
 The resolution for union with Greece was, 
 therefore, made from time to time by the 
 Chambers. It was in vain that one Lord 
 High Commissioner after another pointed 
 out that the resolution was 7(/tra vires ; it 
 remained the staple product of Ionian Par- 
 liamentary intelligence. 
 
 The Lord High Commissioner was assailed 
 in the House and out of it with every form 
 of indignity. Even diplomatic language was 
 forced to characterize some of the libels as 
 ' gross and disgusting.' After the speech 
 from the throne on March 20. 1850, and 
 before proceeding to business, the House 
 summoned a priest to purify it from the Lord 
 High Commissioner's presence, and continued 
 to perpetrate this piece of solemn imperti- 
 nence until the Union with Greece in 1863. 
 
 Such was the Ionian Parliament, and the 
 antics in which it indulged. This was the 
 Assembly which presumed to lecture Great 
 Britain on her foreign relations, and held up 
 Greece as an example for her imitation. With
 
 302 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 one hand it fostered lawlessness and outrage 
 among an ignorant peasantry, and with the 
 other would gladly have paralyzed the Ad- 
 ministration that sought to restore order. 
 
 In 1853 died Sir Charles Napier. As 
 Resident of Cephalonia he had filled the im- 
 agination and won the hearts of the lonians. 
 Twenty years after his retirement he wrote to 
 an Ionian friend : 
 
 ' I always think of my second country, the 
 — to me— dear island of Cephalonia ! I have 
 almost cried with vexation to hear of all that 
 goes on there. My friend Lord Seaton has, 
 I hear, been blamed by the English. I cannot 
 think him wrong. I am sure he has too much 
 ability to do ill ; but I know nothing of what 
 has passed, and am no judge. I, however, 
 hear that people have been harshly treated in 
 Cephalonia, and I know there is no need of 
 this ; for the people are good and noble. As 
 to my own countrymen, I well know how 
 ready they are to treat people with violence. 
 Bad government always makes men of courage 
 turbulent ; that is the fault of the Govern- 
 ment, not of those who resist. At the same
 
 THE IONIAN ISLANDS 303 
 
 time, there are in all countries men of an 
 ambitious and mischievous nature, whom no 
 Government can please. I did hear that 
 some of these spirits are in Cephalonia. 
 That they can resist the power of England 
 is an idea so silly that I cannot have much 
 opinion of those who fancy they can. . . . 
 My own opinion is, I confess to you, that for 
 your own Interests you are better off under 
 our protection than under that of Greece, 
 ruled by Bavarians. But If you all wish to 
 be under Greece, I think it would be better 
 to give the islands to Greece — I mean better 
 for England, but worse for you ; because 
 some Cephalonlan faction would gain power 
 at Athens, and oppress all their personal 
 enemies : you would all suffer. This Is my 
 opinion, and all men being liable to error. I 
 may be wrong. Were I King of England, I 
 would give you all to Greece at once, and in 
 a few years you would come back to England 
 of your own accord. We do much wrong, 
 we do much injustice, we are very much to 
 blame in many things, but, take us altogether, 
 we govern you better than the Greek Govern-
 
 304 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 ment would. . . . However, times may mend, 
 
 and I am sure I wish you should have a good 
 Lord High Commissioner, for no Englishman 
 loves the Ionian Islands as I do. I keep 
 Cutupi ' (a small estate of his in Cephalonia) 
 ' because I love Cephalonia ; were I younger 
 I would go and live among you as a private 
 gentleman, but I am seventy, and the night 
 fast closes upon me.' 
 
 This letter so well illustrates Napier's 
 character that its transcription at some length 
 may be pardoned. Unfortunately times did 
 not mend. Even the most conciliatory of- 
 ficials were met with studied discourtesy. 
 What wonder? It was the mdtier of every 
 Ionian agitator to be rude and unreasonable ; 
 he was paid to remain so. Had he deviated 
 into civility or wavered into a compromise, 
 he would have been replaced at once. The 
 fortune of any young aspirant was made as 
 soon as by sedition and disorderly conduct 
 he could succeed in getting himself arrested ; 
 thenceforth his career was assured. Such 
 were the men whom the last Lord High 
 Commissioners were continually urged by 
 the Secretarv of State to conciliate.
 
 THE IONIAN ISLANDS 305 
 
 Mr. Gladstone was Lord High Commis- 
 sioner from January 18, 1859, to February j, 
 1859. He had previously been Special High 
 Commissioner for some time while his pre- 
 decessor, Sir John Young, was Lord High 
 Commissioner. He was in favour of resigning 
 the islands to Greece, and, in fact, matters had 
 by then gone so far that there was no alterna- 
 tive from this but the resumption of the power 
 which had been delegated to the electorate. 
 All useful government had long since ceased, 
 and had it not been for a fortunate provision 
 in Maitland's Constitution, retained under 
 Seaton's, by which the Senate could vote 
 supply for the ordinary business of the 
 country, the government must have come to 
 a standstill. 
 
 The islands were evacuated and handed 
 over to Greece on June 2, 1864. Few were 
 so disconcerted as the men who had so long 
 schemed for the Union. The lonians who 
 would in the future represent the island at 
 Athens would not be numerous, and individu- 
 ally would be of much less importance than 
 they had found themselves at Corfu. How- 
 
 20
 
 3o6 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 ever, they put a good face on matters, and 
 the change was welcomed with much show of 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 In examining the history of our occupation, 
 one is struck by the lack of discernment, 
 almost amounting to dulness, with which our 
 dispositions were made. In the first place, 
 the lonians did not require a Constitution at 
 all. In the second place, having granted a 
 Constitution, it was a pity to draft and 
 sanction a sham one. If, it be answered, 
 expediency was allowed to prevail in London, 
 as it had done with Maitland at Corfu, some 
 semblance of continuity should have been 
 preserved, and the islands not allowed to 
 become a party plaything, governed now by 
 a man who believed them utterly unfit for 
 self-government, and now by a man who was 
 willing to go any length in constitutional 
 experiments. Such a course was unfair both 
 to the islands and ourselves. The lack of 
 harmony and consistency was painfully ap- 
 parent when Lord Seaton, in the speech 
 opening his term of office, publicly censured 
 one of his predecessors for his extravagance. 
 He stultified himself by adding considerably
 
 THE IONIAN ISLANDS 307 
 
 to the debt — the very fault for which he had 
 censured Sir Howard Douglas. The con- 
 fusion was brought to its height by Lord 
 Seaton's reforms, which were far too sweep- 
 ing. An example of the extremes between 
 which our system of government oscillated 
 may be found in Lord Seaton's wild proposal 
 to make the Lord High Commissioner and 
 the Senate responsible to the Legislative 
 Chamber for its work while the latter was not 
 in session — a proposal put forward at the 
 same time that the senators were made the 
 absolute nominees of the Lord High Com- 
 missioner, and while the latter retained the 
 despotic power of banishing political offenders. 
 In looking back, it is impossible not to 
 regret the loss of Corfu and Cephalonia, the 
 beautiful islands, the magnificent fortress, the 
 link in the great chain of our connections 
 with the East. The British Empire, how- 
 ever, has strong forts and rich lands enough, 
 and to spare, and can perhaps afford to miss 
 the Ionian Islands from the long list of her 
 possessions. What she cannot afford to miss 
 are the political lessons taught by the history 
 of our well-meant but unfortunate occupation.
 
 [ 3o8 ] 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 FORECAST. 
 
 The student of Imperial history must make 
 his account with the anti- Imperial spirit. 
 
 This spirit has always been with us, and 
 was even a disturbing- feature In our policy 
 long before the (comparatively recent) date 
 at which England woke up to the discovery 
 that she had an Empire that needed atten- 
 tion, and that was, possibly, worth preserving. 
 The curious may trace early manifestations of 
 this spirit in the intrigues that hampered our 
 operations in Tangier, and may even dis- 
 cover the remote intellectual ancestors of the 
 antlTmperialists In the statesmen who grudged 
 an army to protect Normandy, but poured 
 out English blood like water In the Wars of 
 the Roses. But remembering the name by
 
 FORECAST 509 
 
 which we have learnt to call them, and con- 
 sidering that anti- Imperialists cannot exist 
 until there is an Empire for them to injure, 
 we need not study their record further back 
 than one hundred years ago, when Edmund 
 Burke, greatest of them all, started the first 
 anti- Imperial crusade. This was the im- 
 peachment of Warren Hastings. 
 
 In describing this performance, we find 
 ourselves face to face with the difficulty that 
 besets our dealings with all anti- Imperial 
 movements. It is impossible to describe 
 them as they deserve because of our love 
 and veneration for the blunderers who set 
 them on foot. Even to write the word 
 ' blunderer ' and to apply it to Edmund Burke 
 demands all the fortitude that the study of 
 history will give. But history bears out the 
 word, and justifies the application more and 
 more strongly with the lapse of every decade. 
 In the impeachment of Warren Hastings, 
 Burke was a colossal blunderer ; for Hastings 
 was building up something like a civilized 
 world out of a chaos to which the Parthian 
 Empire in its decline must have been a well-
 
 3IO THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 ordered State, and Burke was judging him 
 by the principles of a society which had 
 lived for five centuries and a half under the 
 Great Charter. 
 
 If England had a greater son than Warren 
 Hastings the Statesman, it was Arthur 
 Wellesley the Soldier. His success was so 
 complete, his glory so transcendent, that we 
 have almost forgotten how bitterly he was 
 opposed in his lifetime. And yet there was 
 a party of powerful and deservedly influential 
 men and women who steadily intrigued 
 against him, and who consistently fawned 
 upon (the word is hardly too strong) his 
 great opponent, the Emperor Napoleon. 
 Assuredly it was from no mean motives. 
 The words Freedom and Right Govern- 
 ment were always in their mouths, and they 
 believed (honesdy, no doubt) that the 
 victory of Waterloo sounded the knell of 
 European Liberty. Lady Holland swooned 
 when she heard the dreadful news. We can 
 read this now with a smile — perhaps with a 
 smile of contempt. Nevertheless these people 
 existed ; and while they had time, and the
 
 FORECAST 
 
 Fates granted them opportunity, they worked 
 their hardest to ruin WelHngton. They were 
 the intellectual heirs of the men who succeeded 
 in ruining Warren Hastings. 
 
 James Mill, the historian of British India, 
 whitewashed Surajah Dowlah : he justified 
 the Black Hole of Calcutta, and plentifully 
 abused the English who died in it. And 
 this, not by way of an idle paradox, but as a 
 sober view of history. Indeed, the dominant 
 note of James Mill's character was sobriety ; 
 he would have thought exaggeration an 
 offence, and a paradox little short of a crime. 
 Impartiality was his idol. But a fanatic's 
 god is always a grim creation ; and in ex- 
 cusing the Black Hole James Mill lent his 
 authority to a piece of pernicious wrong- 
 headedness. That he wrought no mischief 
 by the publication of his views was simply 
 due to the spread of information on the 
 subject. 
 
 James Mill left a son, John Stuart Mill, 
 who was a greater man than his father. He 
 was a philosopher, a man of profound learn- 
 ing, an experienced public official, and a
 
 Member of Parliament. He was a man of 
 high character, perfect disinterestedness, and 
 perfect fearlessness ; and he conceived it to 
 be his duty to persecute Governor Eyre 
 with a rancour that even his contemporaries 
 thought unbecoming. All this was done in 
 the name of humanity ; and yet the verdict 
 of history will surely be that Eyre was the 
 true humanitarian. We may say the same 
 of James Brooke, whose persecution a quarter 
 of a century before was hardly less bitter. 
 
 These are some of the works of the spirit 
 which we have learnt, in late years, to call 
 anti-Imperial in consequence of the tendency 
 of its later manifestations. We may notice 
 some of these later on. But as regards the 
 outbreaks of this temper down to John Stuart 
 Mill's time, we can say that they wrought 
 nothing worse than grievous personal in- 
 justice. Warren Hastings was ruined ; but 
 his work, the second Hellenlzation of the 
 East, remains. Holland House intrigued 
 against Wellington ; but Napoleon fell in 
 spite of Holland House. The life of James 
 Brooke was embittered ; but the kingdom
 
 FORECAST 313 
 
 of Sarawak remains, an oasis in a wilderness 
 of savagery. 
 
 How are we to account for so much mis- 
 directed activity on the part of such eminent 
 public men ? 
 
 The answer would appear to be that, with 
 every other equipment for public action, they 
 had not the necessary local information ; and 
 they would not give way to the, perhaps, less 
 considerable men who happened to possess 
 that information. They were in the position 
 of Sir Elijah Impey, who, as he took his 
 seat for the first time on the Bench of the 
 High Court of Calcutta, said to his fellow- 
 Judge sitting with him, 'Ah! brother, you 
 and I shall do our duty but ill if each of 
 these poor fellows ' (referring to the bare- 
 legged ushers of the Court) ' have not a good 
 pair of worsted stockings apiece before the 
 year is out.' 
 
 Sir Elijah meant well, but he had not 
 appreciated the local conditions. He did 
 not understand that to wear worsted stock- 
 ings in Lower Bengal would be a sign, not 
 that a man was well-to-do, but that he was
 
 314 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 insane. And It is an interesting speculation 
 whether, if James Mill and Edmund Burke 
 had had an opportunity of visiting India, 
 they would not have considerably modified 
 their views of Surajah Dowlah or Warren 
 Hastings. 
 
 It may be that they both meant well — like 
 Sir Elijah Impey — but they had not the 
 necessary local information, and they would 
 not defer to those who had. 
 
 It would seem, therefore, that accurate and 
 abundant local information is the first re- 
 quisite of any man who would form a sound 
 opinion on an Imperial question ; if he does 
 not possess it from his own experience, he 
 cannot possibly infer it ; and without it, 
 however sound his general principles, and 
 however pure and lofty his motives, he must 
 inevitably blunder, and perhaps blunder 
 disastrously. 
 
 If we now^ turn to the anti-Imperialists ot 
 our own time, we shall find that, in the first 
 place, they are a more numerous body than 
 their predecessors ; and, secondly, we shall 
 find that thev contain a small nucleus of
 
 FORECAST 315 
 
 men actively and avowedly opposed to the 
 existence of the British Empire. 
 
 The third and gravest feature of the 
 modern anti- Imperial spirit is this, that it 
 prefers to attack systems and questions rather 
 than persons. Formerly, its attacks being 
 directed against persons only, the con- 
 sequences of these attacks were correspond- 
 ingly circumscribed, and, in fact, reached no 
 farther than the ruin of their victims in 
 fortune and career. 
 
 This was serious enough ; but even more 
 serious was the recent attempt to regulate 
 the diet of our fellow-subjects in the East 
 in accordance with ideas of wholesomeness 
 formed at Westminster. 
 
 Of the series of events that led to the death 
 of Gordon it is best not to say too much. 
 The statues of the hero in Trafalgar Square 
 and in Melbourne are silent witnesses of the 
 extent to which the conscience of the Empire 
 was shocked by the tragedy. 
 
 Of both of these two achievements we 
 must say that they dealt heavy blows to the 
 reputation of England for courage and just
 
 v<' ////* /(>v/' n^ssicssioNs (»r f ngi^anh 
 
 tl\.m luiiniU'^ yH\{- in,m, Imwrvrt (h".tM \ in\'^ 
 aihl rminrni l\f n\,i\ I >»• 
 
 A i\.\ti»Mi \\lio\(^ |»olirv is li.iMr lo lu' 
 ptTimlic.ilU' rpiwnlsrJ l>\ spasms v^l" srlf- 
 ih'prt'ria(it>n, ami a roimtry wIiimt irrrspon- 
 sil>K' paitirs it>ntinuall\' snr^'c into pro- 
 luiiUMur, with no olhn ol»)iHi apparrul to 
 fortMvMirrs r\rrpt their t^oimtry's disad 
 vanla).M\ air natnialU loi^knl askatirt^ at by 
 tuitions aiul vountiirs that pmsiir. unJrr 
 n\ot't^ sol>rf jMiivlanrr, ,i rv>nsistrnt poliry. 
 
 ()| ronist\ ihnr is nothing; that is. strictly 
 spt'akinv;. luw in ,\ll this. Ihr r\tt'rt\al 
 poHrv {A' V\\y[A\\{\ has t\rv(M' hn n (\\\\{r U'vv 
 tVon) this kind v»t rnthai r,issnirnt. All thronv;h 
 thr riv'htrrnth vrntui\ tho |»irohitrs oHnrvl 
 an oppv»sitiv>n to thr iri^t\it\^ dytiasty o{' \rvy 
 tutirh thr Svuwr nalut'r as that v^lVrfrd itt pur 
 own tiinr to thr itittMrsls ot" thr Hritisli 
 I'anpirr, Thrrr is twnrh ii\ con\n\ot\ hrtsvmi 
 thr t\vv> [KU'tirs, In hoth \vr i\\\i\ th^it thr 
 rhirt soutrr v>l \vri^.;ht is thr prrsrtirr o\ a 
 trw lMtghshti\rti of rv>n\n\ai\dii\^ rharactrr, 
 thr strrtii^th kA' thr n\v>\ru\rt\t bring drrixrd
 
 FORECAST 317 
 
 from Scotch or Irish support, l^oth parties 
 set i)rinciple above reason ; but while the 
 Jacobites were compelled to seek their ends 
 by intrigue, their successors acliievc; at least 
 equal importance by the easier work of 
 agitation. Both parties were endowed with 
 a sincerity and fervour that usually prevented 
 them from beino^ ridiculous whatever else 
 they werc! ; but the Jacobites lal)oured under 
 this disacKantage, that the object of their 
 devotion was mortcd ; with the growing 
 worthlessness of their chief their own re- 
 spectability was tarnished, and when the 
 family of Stuart died out their party 
 necessarily disappeared. 
 
 The anti-Im|)erialists, on the other hand, 
 profess always (and no doubt honestly) to 
 act in the name of eternal principles — the 
 principles of justice, mercy, and righteous- 
 ness — and they sometimes speak as if they 
 believed that those principles had been re- 
 vealed to them alone. It is conceivable that 
 our grandchildren will contemplate with a 
 wondering curiosity the outcome of such 
 exalted professions, but that will not help us
 
 3i8 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 much. The problem of our own generation 
 is how we may best deal with antagonists 
 who are so powerfully equipped, with com- 
 batants who surge out of the darkness, hold 
 their own long enough to deal their blow, 
 and then dissolve into darkness again. With 
 the exception of a small nucleus, the party 
 has no confessed corporate existence, and 
 there lies its strength ; there also lies the 
 chief weakness of those who wish well to the 
 Empire : they cannot tell from which quarter 
 the next blow may fall, nor how to guard 
 against it. 
 
 This is where history comes to our aid. 
 If we examine the record of the anti-Imperi- 
 alists, we shall find, to begin with, that they 
 have always belonged to one political party. 
 That may be an accident, but it is worth 
 noting. 
 
 And history does more than tell us where 
 to look for anti- Imperialists. It furnishes us 
 with a clue to the weak point of their case. 
 For, as we have seen, from the days of 
 Edmund Burke to the days of the Anti- 
 opium Commission, the men w^ho denounced
 
 FORECAST 
 
 319 
 
 Englishmen and English measures were, one 
 and all, destitute of special local information. 
 This is an invaluable guide. It is true that 
 men possessing local information are not 
 always right, but on Imperial matters men 
 who do not possess local information can 
 never be anything but wrong, no matter 
 how earnest or learned they may be. In 
 fact, the more earnest and learned they are, 
 the more serious mistakes they will make, 
 and for this we have the warranty of history. 
 
 It would be too much to say that the 
 existence of the anti-Imperial party is not 
 to be deplored. But that it should exist is 
 only what is to be expected. It is a feature 
 of the English temper that it often opposes 
 merely for the pleasure of opposing. But 
 the party has other, and perhaps more digni- 
 fied, sources of strength. 
 
 In the first place, it is most difficult to move 
 an Englishman by any appeal to honour and 
 glory. This may be a good thing from some 
 points of view, but an insensibility to appeals 
 on these grounds has to be noted. 
 
 What really does move an English audi-
 
 320 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 ence is an appeal to its humanity. This is 
 the very ground on which the Empire is 
 generally attacked, and on which it ought 
 most consistently and ardently to be upheld. 
 ' The English are hated wherever they go,* 
 one often hears men say, men who ought to 
 know much better. It is a mischievous 
 little commonplace, and it is manifestly erro- 
 neous : for if we were hated wherever we 
 went, we should not go very far, and we do 
 go far. Among those of our own race and 
 creed, it depends on the individual English- 
 man what impression he brings home with 
 him. But when we come to what are known 
 as subject races the evidence in our favour 
 is overwhelming. Not only do the English 
 get on w^ell with subject races : they are 
 absolutely the only people that can get on 
 with them at all. It is a case of England 
 first, the rest nowhere. This is not so 
 widely realized as it should be. 
 
 We do not get on by virtue of our polish 
 and amiability ; we get on in spite of an 
 almost complete lack of both those qualities. 
 To Orientals, who, one and all, set a hia-h
 
 FORECAST -,2i 
 
 value on externals, this must be sometimes 
 rather distressing to observe. But since 
 they are contented with rulers who, for the 
 most part, pay no attention whatever to 
 externals, we may be sure that there are 
 good reasons for their deference. 
 
 It is too much the habit of certain obser- 
 vers to credit our fellow-subjects in the East 
 with the mind of a fractious infant who needs 
 to be told what to believe, and what to eat 
 and drink, and when to marry. Men who 
 hold these views will, naturally, not think 
 much of the opinions of such poor creatures. 
 But those to whom experience has taught the 
 folly of such ideas, know that there are no 
 better judges of character than our fellow- 
 subjects in the East. Some are militant and 
 some are quiescent ; but all, without excep- 
 tion, are keen observers, and take the 
 measure of the Englishmen set over them 
 with perfect accuracy. If they decide that 
 the Englishman is, on the whole, to be 
 trusted before the notables of their own land, 
 that decision is a very valuable tribute, and 
 cannot be too highly prized. 
 
 21
 
 322 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 Those who seek (and most righteously 
 seek) to enHst the lovers of humanity on the 
 side of the Empire must often feel that the 
 cause of * the greatest secular agency for 
 good now existing in the world ' is embar- 
 rassed by the use of the expression ' inferior 
 races.' It is a wounding expression, and not 
 a little out of place. For, in truth, there is no 
 question of superiority or inferiority, but only 
 of difference. In the sum total of the virtues, 
 it may even be admitted that the East is 
 superior to the West. Only just at present 
 it happens that the West has a higher sense 
 of public duty and greater physical energy. 
 It is by virtue of these qualities only that 
 the West bears rule. Among the nations 
 of the West, England has not, assuredly, the 
 monopoly of these qualities. But we may 
 say, without pharisaism, that she has a larger 
 share of them than other nations. It is in 
 virtue of that larger share that she retains 
 the confidence that she inspires in her sub- 
 jects, and it is to this confidence that the 
 friends of the Empire can point whenever our 
 rule is attacked on the ground of inhumanity.
 
 FORECAST 
 
 The strength of the Imperial party will 
 always lie in the large number of people who, 
 without going very deeply into the matter, 
 prefer order to chaos ; and the more widely 
 information on the subject is spread, the more 
 steadily may recruits be expected to come in, 
 whether they are influenced by appeals to 
 their sense of honour, or by the impulses of 
 humanity, or merely by the natural, although 
 perhaps not quite so exalted, consideration of 
 material gain. Those who are not to be 
 moved by any of these appeals constitute the 
 kernel of the anti- Imperial party. They are 
 the irreconcilables, the mischief-makers for 
 mischief's sake, the Pucks of politics. 
 
 But do the Pucks of politics matter so 
 much ? Is the British Empire anything but 
 an amiable craze, or — if you will — an un- 
 amiable craze ? Is it really anything of more 
 actual importance than, say, the Decimal 
 Coinage ? 
 
 To answer this question, let us go back for 
 a moment to Chatham. Chatham was a 
 prophet, with the prophet's fervour and the 
 prophet's mingled downrightness and mys-
 
 324 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 teriousness. But he was a voice crying in 
 the wilderness. He founded no school, and 
 because he only dazzled, and did not con- 
 vince, he was misunderstood ; and because 
 he was misunderstood he failed. Where he 
 succeeded most brilliantly he failed most 
 disastrously. The crash was absolute. 
 
 Can we blame his contemporaries ? 
 Honestly we cannot. Ordinary men cannot 
 live on prophetic heights. To ordinary men, 
 a policy — if it is to be handed on to their 
 sons and grandsons, and become part of the 
 traditions of their lives — must be pregnant 
 with actual issues — a living policy fed from 
 their own daily interests. 
 
 Such a policy Chatham's was not, and 
 could not be. The very spirit on which he 
 relied for support was against him in its 
 cooler moments. The Englishman's love 
 of his country, and pride in the 'right little, 
 tight little island,' showed him at once that 
 England was self-sufficient. We could feed 
 ourselves and clothe ourselves, and there 
 was room and to spare for all of us, and for 
 many more than were likely to come in the
 
 FORECAST 325 
 
 lifetime of any man then living. We did not 
 need the colonies, and the colonies did not 
 need us. So must have reasoned the 
 business man in his quiet hours. The quiet 
 business men were quite right in their day, 
 and the twenty years' war which England 
 waged against heavy odds was such a 
 demonstration of the correctness of their 
 views that these latter have prevailed with 
 some of us even down to the present day. 
 
 If these views were still sound, the question 
 of the consolidation of the British Empire 
 might very properly be classed with the 
 Decimal Coinage, and other interesting but 
 unpractical ideals. But to the ordinary 
 observer things appear to have changed a 
 good deal since the wars with Napoleon. 
 The ' right little, tight little island,' the back- 
 bone of the old scheme of existence for 
 England, has disappeared, and this grave 
 transformation must dictate much of the 
 future policy of England. Some of us 
 believe in a great Imperial future for our 
 country, and some of our neighbours hold 
 us to be dreamers for so beHeving. The
 
 326 THE LOST POSSESSIONS OF ENGLAND 
 
 question will be settled one way or the other 
 in the Ufetlme of most men now living ; but 
 in the meantime the sceptics might do well 
 to remember that every great fact has grown 
 out of a great dream.* 
 
 ■^ After the General Election of 1895, it may seem like 
 * slaying the slain ' to devote so much attention to the 
 anti-Imperial temper. But the General Election of 1895 
 is not a more popular or decisive event than the Battle 
 of Waterloo, and only two years after 1815 the victors of 
 Waterloo were hissed and hooted as they landed on the 
 beach at Dover. So short is the popular memory ! The 
 anti-Imperial temper is perfectly certain to break out 
 again, and perhaps at no distant date : some of the most 
 creditable features of our national character would have 
 disappeared if it did not do so. No one wishes those 
 features to disappear, but only that the zeal of those who 
 profess to act in their name shall be according to know- 
 ledge. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD. 
 
 G. C. &r Co.
 
 DATE DUE 
 
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