746 



VICTORIA. 



they might have the lands rent free. After order 

 was restored a member of the Assembly, against 

 whom no participation in the insurrection was 

 shown, was condemned by an illegal court-martial 

 and hanged because lie was believed to have en- 

 couraged the blacks by his sympathy and cham- 

 pionship whenever their rights were supposed to 

 be in danger. Then, by order of the Governor, 

 homes were burned, men and women to the num- 

 ber ot more than t>UU were Hogged, many under 

 circumstances of hideous cruelty, and 439 persons 

 \\eiv executed. Property of the families of some 

 wli had been executed was confiscated. The 

 cruelty and injustice of the punishment were 

 strongly condemned in Kngland, though there \\as 

 a puty which maintained that Gov. Eyre was 

 justified. That party was led by Thomas Carlyle 

 naturally enough, for he had been one of the 

 loudest supporters of the party of slavery in this 

 country, declaring that " the Almighty Maker ap- 

 pointed the nigger to be a servant." He praised 

 Kyre as "a just, humane, and valiant man, faith- 

 ful to his trusts everywhere, and with no ordinary 

 faculty of executing them," and declared that he 

 merited " honor, thanks, and wise imitation (I will 

 further say) should similar emergencies arise, on 

 the great scale or on the small, in whatever we are 

 governing." Much more surprising are some other 

 names that appear on the same side with Carlyle's. 

 John Kuskin headed the subscription to the de- 

 fense fund for Eyre with 100, explaining that he 

 was able to do it by the sacrifice of an intended 

 journey to Switzerland, partly for his health and 

 partly to complete some notes on the geology of the 

 great northern Swiss valley. Charles and Henry 

 Kingsley. Tennyson, Sir Roderick Murchison, the 

 Earl of Shrewsbury, Tyndall, and Karl Manners 

 also contributed to the fund, and the sympathies 

 of Dickens were on the same side. Active on the 

 committee that undertook the duty of prosecuting 

 Eyre and his associates after the Government de- 

 clined it were John Stuart Mill, John Bright, 

 Thomas Hughes, Goldwin Smith, Herbert Spencer, 

 Frederic Harrison, Francis W. Newman, Thorold 

 Rogers, Prof. Fawcett, Sir Wilfrid Lawson, and 

 others. Carlyle denounced their action as " un- 

 Knglish and disgraceful," and Ruskin said he was 

 " glad to make any sacrifice to show his much 

 more than disrespect for the Jamaica committee." 

 Finally, in 1872, the Government paid the expenses 

 of Eyre in the prosecutions the committee had 

 brought against him ; all the indictments had 

 been thrown out by the grand juries, though the 

 report of the commission of investigation had con- 

 demned the punishments as excessive, barbarous, 

 wanton, and cruel. The representative assembly 

 of the island was then abolished, and the govern- 

 ment administered by an appointed governor and 

 council. 



War with Abyssinia. This took place in 

 |s;s. A I'.ritish consul at Massowah, an island 

 in the Red Sea belonging to Turkey, who was 

 appointed in 1S4S. became' a great friend of Theo- 

 dore. King of Aby--inia. and helped him to quell 

 an insurrection among his subjects, in the course 

 of which the consul was killed. His successor, 

 Mr. ( 'a men m. was warned that his service was not 

 due to Abyssinia. Theodore suspected him of a 

 secret understanding with Kgypt, and regarded 

 the attitude of England as unfriendly. He wrote 

 to the Queen asking aid against Egypt, but re- 

 ceived no answer. There was even a storv that 

 he aspired to marry the Queen, and that" as he 

 ted descent from the Queen of Sheba he did 

 n<>t think his aspirations presumptuous. There 

 d.-s not appear to be any record of such proposals, 

 but foi -HUH- reason he'felt resentful toward the 



English, and he took Capt. Cameron and other 

 British subjects and held them prisoners; demands 

 for their release were disregarded, and Sir Robert 

 Napier was ordered to go against him with a 

 force from Bombay. After a difficult march 

 through a mountainous country they reached the 

 capital, Magdala. The natives fought well, but 

 were beaten. Theodore offered to treat, and sent 

 the captives to Napier. The English general would 

 hear of nothing but unconditional surrender; 

 Theodore would not surrender, and his rock-built 

 capital was carried by assault. He was found just 

 within the gate, having died by his own hand. 

 Magdala was destroyed lest it should be used as 

 a stronghold by a fierce tribe of Mohammedans in 

 that region. Sir Robert was made Baron Napier 

 of Magdala, in recognition of his service. 



The Treaty of Berlin. In 1875 an insurrec- 

 tion broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina against 

 the Turkisn Government, which spread rapidly 

 and received aid from Servia and Montenegro. The 

 Turkish Government appealed to England to pre- 

 vent assistance from being given to the insurgents 

 from surrounding countries. A note drawn up by 

 Count Andrassy, the Austrian minister, called 

 after his name, became quite famous in the his- 

 ' tory of the negotiations entered into for the pur- 

 pose of adjusting the difficulty. In this note Aus- 

 tria, Russia, and Germany joined in declaring that 

 the Turkish Government had failed to carry out its 

 promised reforms, and that the other powers would 

 insist upon immediate fulfillment of them. The 

 note was signed by France and Italy, but not by 

 England until a request came from the Porte that 

 England should sign. Upon receipt of the note 

 promises of immediate action upon the reforms 

 were made, but nothing was done. Then the three 

 powers that had first united in the note drew up 

 what Avas called the Berlin Memorandum, giving 

 Turkey to understand that force would be used 

 unless the reforms were at once instituted, but 

 England refused to join with them, and the memo- 

 randum was not sent. Following this were out- 

 breaks in Turkey; a Mohammedan mob murdered 

 the French and German consuls at Salonica : the 

 Sultan was deposed and committed suicide; his 

 nephew, who succeeded, was deposed three months 

 later and his brother enthroned in his place. Then 

 an insurrection broke out in Bulgaria, and the 

 Turkish troops sent there not only put down the 

 revolt, but proceeded to wholesale massacre of men, 

 women, and children. In the district of Philip 

 popolis 12.000 were killed. The whole civilized 

 world was stirred by the accounts of the " Bul- 

 garian atrocities," as it was in later years by the 

 Armenian massacres. The indignation in England 

 was intense. Mr. Gladstone led in denunciation 

 of the Turkish Government and the policy of al- 

 lowing such a power to tyrannize over the Chris- 

 tians in the provinces. But the humanitarian 

 sentiment that called for immediate interference 

 was checked by the chronic dread of Russian ag- 

 gression. So there came to be a distinct division 

 of sentiment between those who held thai Tin key 

 must be sustained as a barrier against Russia and 

 those who believed that the Turk should no longer 

 be allowed to control Christian peoples, since all 

 his promises of reforms had been proved worth- 

 less. A conference of the powers at Constantinople 

 etVeeted nothing. In April, 1877, Russia declared 

 war against Turkey, and after some repulses se- 

 cured victories that seemed to mean final success. 

 A large party in Kngland was for war. It wa- 

 at this time that the word jingoes came into use 

 as a name for those eager for an aggressive foreign 

 policy. It was taken from the refrain of a 

 popular in the music halls: 



