Part 10 (1/2)
The suress at Berlin which followed the Russo-Turkish War Despite all the scares through which we had passed during the winter and spring, we had escaped the war between ourselves and Russia hich we had been so often threatened, and the purpose of the Congress was to render such a war impossible in the immediate future It was this summer of 1878 that also witnessed Disraeli's complete triumph over his enemies and his rivals
He had secured his oay in the Cabinet, though in doing so he had to lose the services of Lord Derby and Lord Carnarvon, and to convert Lord Salisbury to viehich, up to that tiht the Indian troops to Malta, and had thereby given a significant hint to Europe as to the extent of our resources He had got a vote of five reat part of it in the purchase of shi+ps of war, some of which turned out to be wholly unfitted for the requirelish Naval Service His picturesque and audacious policy had won the favour of the multitude, and, despite the criticisms of Mr Gladstone, the Prime Minister was the undisputedback, I do not think I aely due to his power of playing to the gallery
He gave the crowd in the streets the scenic effects which they loved He flattered their vanity, and he played upon their weaknesses, and thus he was able in a great measure to realise the florid drealish influence in that Eastern world which had always exercised so great a fascination over him When he went to Berlin with Lord Salisbury as his co Cross Station to see him depart I was one of the spectators, and was struck by the deference which was paid to hiuished persons who had come to speed him on his journey Lord Salisbury passed unnoticed by his side At Berlin the saress in which all the European Poere represented, Disraeli's figure outshone all others Even Bismarck seemed to take a secondary place to that of the Jew adventurer, who had ht for his own hand, and had achieved so nificent a success The story of his life, the romance of his career, and his personal peculiarities seemed to have produced a deep impression upon people of all classes and of all nationalities, and it is no exaggeration to say that during his residence in Berlin the eyes of the whole world were fixed upon hi by an astute and not very creditable transaction secured the Island of Cyprus for the British Crown, besides coo some of the fruits of her victory over Turkey, he met with a reception of extraordinary enthusias from the wars could hardly, indeed, have been acclaimed more loudly than was Lord Beaconsfield as he drove fro Street If he had seen fit to dissolve Parliament then he would have swept the country, and would have been confirmed in the possession of power But he had his own standard of honour, and it did not permit him to attempt to snatch a victory of this kind His political opponents are bound to acknowledge their indebtedness to him in this ress I took a long holiday froh Europe in the coer of the Leeds Steaed on a business tour, his purpose being to see the different estates on which the system of steam culture--of which his partner, Mr Fowler, was the author--was employed Our trip took us in the first place to Ger, Halberstadt, Berlin, and Saxon Switzerland Thence ent into Bohe some remote parts of that picturesque but most unromantic country--for there is, alas! no kinshi+p between the Bohemia of reality and that of romance After Bohemia came Vienna, Budapest, and the Danube Then at Orsova we turned north, and went by way of Bucharest, Roain to Vienna, and thence to Paris and horound I have lish tourists
The lower Danube, for exah they ithin four days' rail of London, were not so well known to English people as the Nile, the Ganges, or the Mississippi It seeary and in Rouarded as rare and curious animals, people to be run after and stared at as they passed along the village street All this, I presu Cook Yet one cannot believe that even now there are not some nooks and corners of the Bukovina where my fellow countryarded with eyes of curiosity, if not of fear
At all events, in ed from the beaten track than I had experience of the fact that there was still an unexplored world within the confines of Europe The long journey down the Danube in a steamboat, now superseded by the railway, formed in itself an expedition of no common interest It happened that my friend and I had to leave the steaes of Thackeray, in order to visit the vast estates of the Archduke Albrecht, at that time the richest member of the Imperial faenuine Hungarian toith its streets knee-deep in s of ferocious te the steamboat for the inn, I seeery Anything more atrociously filthy and repulsive than this establishment I never saw, and yet it was the best inn of a town of thirty thousand inhabitants
When we reached our destination--a castle of the Archduke's--the next day, we found ourselves once more surrounded with the comforts and decencies of civilised life, but there were many evidences of the fact that ere here far froame of croquet, for example, had been for soland At the Archduke's castle they see it e arrived At one of the outlying farues, was of noble birth When he found that ere Englishmen he suddenly disappeared fro and handsolish,” he declared, in accents of pride It turned out that the lady, who had been educated at Budapest, had never spoken to any Englishman before We seemed to be almost the first who had ever penetrated into that unknown land When the husband found that his as able to converse with us he literally danced for joy, and invited all the rest of the company to witness the wonderful spectacle The hospitality and friendliness of the Hungarians were delightful However unpopular Englishht be elsewhere in Europe, at that tiary, and the mere fact of his nationality was sufficient to secure for the English traveller an unstinted hospitality
Bucharest, e reached it, was still in the occupation of the Russian army The ith Turkey had ended many months before, but the Russian troops had not yet been withdrawn from the Danube, while thousands of Turkish prisoners of ere still under detention in Rou to observe the unveiled hostility of the Russian and Roumanian officers when they met in the streets and cafes The only salutation that passed between them was a scowl I heard many stories as to the jealousies and dissensions which had broken out during the war between the Russians and their allies The siege of Plevna, in particular, had left bitter memories behind it The Rou selfishly sacrificed the soldiers of the little principality in order to save the lives of Russians Great fear was felt in Bucharest that the Russiansattitude certainly see the people I encountered during my stay in Bucharest were the Turkish prisoners of war and the gipsies The prisoners were cheerful and good-natured fellows Most of theer to eke out their scanty allowance for food by doing work of any kind, and I was told that when Prince Charles returned in triumph at the head of his arged for and obtained the work of erecting a triuipsies, they abounded in Bucharest now that winter had begun to close in upon the country, and the stirring strains of their quaint melodies were to be heard in every cafe and at almost every street corner
Brofft's Hotel was at that time the chief place of entertainment in Bucharest The principal bedrooms were occupied by ladies who purported to be the wives of the leading Russian officers, but about who smack of the boulevards In the restaurant the officers themselves dined and drank freely at nu care to keep apart from each other You could dine very well at Brofft's, but you had to pay for your dinner at a rate which cast into the shade the highest charges of Paris or Vienna It was here that I had experience of an a piece of effrontery on the part of the proprietor On our first evening in Bucharesthad been joined by another member of his firm--dined very well, but ere somewhat startled e had to pay the bill, which a, determined to be economical, we ordered a veryit, Brofft hi so poor a dinner to-night, gentle to it, for, you know, the price will be the saain had to pay more than a pound apiece for this very unsatisfactory dinner After that experience, ays took care to order the rarest and most costly viands on the _carte du jour_
Iacquaintance at Bucharest This was Mr White, the English Consul Few at that tiht never before attained by a member of the Consular Service, and to end his career as Sir William White, her Majesty's Ambassador at Constantinople Yet all who are acquainted with the facts are aware that Sir Williah position, and that his death was nothing less than a nationalin the si Consulate When I first went to call upon him he hi conversation upon Eastern politics, in the course of which he explained his own perfect knowledge of affairs in the Balkan Peninsula by telling es spoken in that part of the world, and was consequently able to study the local newspapers for hi, powerful ood-nature that seemed to belie his character as a diplo careers in the public service of this country In diplomacy he climbed from the very botto any special personal influence The Russians both hated hi he enjoyed so ame of diplomatic boith Prince Gortschakoff or his successor Some years before he went to Constantinople Lord Salisbury offered to make him our Minister at Pekin, and rumour has it that he recoround that it was at Pekin that the battle between England and Russia would have to be fought out But White's great ambition was to be her Majesty's Ambassador to the Subliht have been of even greater service to us than he was at Constantinople
On land I wrote sohtly Review,_ then under the editorshi+p of Mr John Morley
My journey had undoubtedly opened my eyes to the economic possibilities of Eastern Europe, and it had also proved to land ell able to hold her own in the race for coain, in visiting German workshops, I found that the practical direction of the establishlishman or Scotslish workman, his readiness of resource, and his reliance upon himself in difficulties, were the I am afraid that the case is somewhat different now, and that we are not so well able to coround, with the artisans and business men of Germany as ere in 1878
CHAPTER XII
A CHAPTER OF MISFORTUNES
Death of my Sister's Husband and of e Woade--His Adventure on the Ouse--Editing a Daily Newspaper from a Sick Bed--Reflections on Death--Death of hter
There is a great deal of truth in the lines which declare that sorrows and troubles do not cole spies, but in battalions” I have had experience of the fact more than once in my own life; but never was it presented toforce as in the year 1880 On January 1st in that year I attended the funeral of my only sister's husband at Kilate, DD, was a Scottish minister, a ical works which had attained considerable popularity His death is associated in reat public calae, when a train with all its passengers was destroyed The wind that toppled over the Tay Bridge proved fatal to ht--the last Sunday of 1879--and he had gone to visit one of the Sunday schools attached to his church The furious gale, which about the sae, burst in its full fury upon hiainst it for some time he found himself so much exhausted that he was unable to move It was only with the assistance of a kindly passer-by that he was enabled to return home Half an hour later he died in an the year, consequently, in melancholy circumstances, in attendance at his funeral
A feeeks later, at the beginning of February, a loss which I felt still more keenly fell upon me My elder brother, James, who had been my constant co years of his life in inti illness The loss of one who had been for so many years my closest companion and my most confidential friend, hom I consulted over almost every step of my life, was irreparable, and to this hour I continue to feel the lack of his sympathy and advice in moments of personal perplexity Always more or less of an invalid, he lived much in the life of his brothers, and his cheery fortitude, kindly hu sympathy made his loss keenly felt in our fae coincidence, on the tenth anniversary of the death of my first wife
Three months later, I reat suffering upon me, but almost cost me my life It was in the month of May, when, after the severe exertions imposed upon me by the General Election--of which I shall speak fully later on--I had left Leeds for a few days' rest and change Sir George Wombwell, of Balaclava fame, had invited a s tour a The other members of the party were Willia before taken up his residence in England, and C O Shepard, the American Consul at Bradford Our rendezvous was at York, on a certain Saturday, and we had agreed to spend that afternoon in visiting the battlefield of Marston Moor We drove out to the field in the highest spirits I, in particular, was elated at the thought of ery of reeable companionshi+p of Black and Harte, not to speak of Shepard, as an admirable teller of American stories, of which he possessed an inexhaustible fund
We were crossing the battlefield on foot e found our way stopped by a hedge It was a long way round to the gate of the field, and the hedge did not seem very formidable At all events, Black and Shepard cleared it at a bound, and laughingly challenged Harte and me to follow their exaratulated ourselves upon that fact e discovered a gap, through which it seeh without difficulty, and I followed his exahteen inches fro seeht in soround, and whilst it was held as in a vice, my body renched round on the axis of my knee To this day I do not understand how it happened
All I knew at the iven way in the knee-joint, and that when I atte it froat hold upon me” I suppose I must, up to that time, have been fairly free from physical torments of any kind I had certainly no conception, before thatto suffer such torture as I had then to endure
I turned away ht not see that I was suffering, and they went on unconscious of anything having happened I set off to follow the myself as best I could with an u When they saw that I li that it was nothing ht sprain I was determined that I would not spoil sport, or cast a shadow over the good spirits of our party But, Heavens, how that knee tortured me! I suppose I was a fool Indeed the doctor told , with some heat and quite unnecessary e had happened, crawling with the aid ofup soht before--or was it the night after?--the battle Then I walked on to the place where our carriage aiting for us It was standing at a little country public-house ”I aet a drink,” said I to Black ”What!” cried he ”Drink anything here? Why, they'll poison you!”
”So an to realise that I was hurt They consulted together as to the stimulant that was in I had never drunk gin in lasses in quick succession It was very nasty, and it did not take away the pain, but itthan I had done before
Soot back to York, and, with the aid of the hotel porter, undressed and got to bed By this tinorant of the actual position of affairs that I honestly thought that all that was necessary to put ain was a rest of a few hours Unfortunately, I was not allowed even that hoe Wo I proposed to stay in bed at the hotel, but to this Black deers, and he declared that if I did not go with hio at all So once ed to get into evening clothes Arrived at the club, the quick, soldierly eye of Sir George Wonosed it more accurately than either I or -rest was provided fordone to er to Mr Husband, an e hi
The evening passed like a nightmare, but I still have a vivid recollection of the account which Sir George Woade at Balaclava His horse was shot under hi left behind whilst the brigade thundered onward, he was made prisoner by the Russian cavalry, which closed in behind our English horse His captivity lasted, however, for but a fewfrom their mad but heroic enterprise, and instantly the Russians scattered and fled As Lord Cardigan, as riding in front of the reade, passed Wo fool, and come with us!”--advice which Woer of a Russian officer, and,it, came back in safety with the few survivors of the awful day