WOLSELEY ON THE BASUTO QUESTION. 395

determined to wait and endeavour to influence the Cape Parliament against agreeing to any step in furtherance of South African Confederation. Kruger and Joubert proceeded to Cape Town on this errand in the spring of 1880. In the meantime the elections took place at home, and the Liberals came into office. Advantage of the change of Ministry was immediately taken by the delegates to memoralize Mr. Gladstone; but the answer of the Liberal Government, dated June 8th, gave the final blow to the hopes which alone had induced the Boers to refrain so long from open rebellion. It was in these terms-'Our judgment is that the Queen cannot be advised to relinquish the Transvaal.' Doubtless, in time, the whole question would have been examined, and the wishes of the people conceded; but the Afghan, Irish, and other questions of domestic interest, were considered more pressing, and the Boers, finding their aspirations unsatisfied, took up arms. The unwisdom of reducing the garrisons of the Transvaal, a country as large as France, to two weak regiments of infantry, the 58th and 94th, without any cavalry, while matters still remained unsettled, bore its legitimate fruits; and when the troops were handled in a manner that betrayed extraordinary military incompetence, a succession of disasters ensued, happily without parallel in our recent military history.

Before leaving South African questions, we may refer to one in which Sir Garnet Wolseley offered advice equally creditable to his sagacity and sense of justice. We refer to the Basuto question, which was so unwisely raised by the Cape Government during the time he was administering the affairs of the Transvaal, and which appears to be still unsettled after the expenditure of much money and many valuable lives. The Basutos, who became British subjects in 1869, had enlisted under our banners in the hostilities against the Baphuti chief, Moirosi-whose mountain was carried by

assault on the 20th November, 1879-and during the Zulu War, when, specially at Isandlwhana, they served with great gallantry. But when hostilities were over, Mr. Sprigg, the Prime Minister of the Cape Government, who had borne testimony to the loyalty of the paramount chief, Letsea, brought in a measure, called the Peace Preservation Act, enforcing their disarmament; and in a speech in the House of Assembly, on the 1st June, gave as his reason for its introduction, his fear that these arms would be used to make war against the colony.* Sir Garnet Wolseley indignantly protested against this treatment of loyal allies after the danger that had called for their services had passed away. On the 10th March he wrote to the Secretary of State for the Colonies That the Cape Colony is endeavouring to take the arms from its natives, regardless of whether they had or had not been previously loyal, is a species of news that soon spreads far and wide beyond our frontiers, and is calculated to raise the bitterest of feelings against our rule. . . . This disarmament policy will array against us the native sentiment in every part of South Africa; and should it result in a Basuto war, every native, from the Zambesi to Cape Agulhas, will feel that every shot fired in it against us has been fired in his interests.'

Two and a half years have passed since Sir Garnet Wolseley wrote this warning, during which the Cape Ministry have failed to enforce their policy, though large armed forces have been in the field, and much blood and treasure have been expended. By the last news, General Gordon

* Of course there was some question of annexation concerned, and the Quothing district of Basutoland, occupied by Moirosi's tribe, was to be annexed, notwithstanding the strong protest of Mr. Griffith, the Government Agent, who said that 'to cut it off and dispose of it in any other way would, in my opinion, be acting most unjustly to the Basutos, and would entirely shake their confidence in the British Government. . . . I fail to see why the Basutos, who have staunchly supported us, should be punished for the acts of the rebel chief Moirosi and his followers, who have paid the penalty of their crimes with their lives.'

WOLSELEY RETURNS TO ENGLAND.

397

'Chinese Gordon,' the friend of subject races and a man of chivalric honour-who had been called in to settle the Basuto difficulty, has resigned, as he does not approve the course pursued towards Masupha, the chief who has successfully resisted the disarming policy of the Colonial Govern

ment.

Early in April Sir Garnet Wolseley quitted Pretoria on his return to England, Colonel Bellairs being left in command of the troops on the departure of General Clifford, and Sir Owen Lanyon, Administrator, under the orders of Sir George Colley, the new Governor of Natal, who had resigned his position on the Indian Viceroy's staff, and came out from England with instructions that the Transvaal was to be retained.

Sir Garnet Wolseley rode the distance of 350 miles from Pretoria to Maritzburg in three days, accompanied by Major Herbert Stewart, now his Chief of the Staff. He arrived at Maritzburg on the 8th April, and on the following day he and Sir Henry Bulwer, the retiring Lieutenant-Governor of Natal, were entertained at dinner, when he expressed a hope that the colony would soon be confederated with the Cape. Sir Garnet proceeded to Grahamstown, where he received a hearty reception, and, after a brief stay at Cape Town, sailed thence for England on the 4th May, accompanied by his staff, in the Royal Mail steamer Conway Castle. On the 25th May, 1880, the ship cast anchor in Plymouth Sound, and receiving the inevitable address from the mayor, he proceeded to London the same day, having successfully accomplished the mission with which he had been entrusted.

Sir Garnet Wolseley received no reward for his services, and surely the pacification of Zululand and the restoration of the prestige of our arms in South Africa by his victory over Secocoeni may be regarded as such. True, he was gazetted a G.C.B., in common with Lord Chelmsford ;

but this honour he had declined on his return from Ashantee, and he might well have anticipated that the local rank of General, conferred on him on leaving for South Africa, should be made substantive; but this was denied, from motives that do not bear consideration.* Sir Garnet, however, did not look for reward as an incentive to serve his country, and bore this treatment in dignified silence; but he had friends who were more outspoken.

* Sir Garnet Wolseley was too plain-spoken to please the Horse Guards, who resent anything like independence; but his position was too assured, and the opinion held of his services by his countrymen too high, for those in authority to do more than retard the advancement which he ultimately wrung from them. At the Newspaper Press Fund Dinner in June, 1880, he spoke his mind in a way that gave great offence at the Horse Guards. He said: To the Press generally the British army now looks with the greatest anxiety and the greatest interest; for the rising men of the army feel that it is only the power of the Press which can bring useful light to bear upon the dark parts of our military system, which they believe not to be in unison with the spirit of the age or with modern military science. You alone have sufficient power to enable us to correct and reform what we believe to be wrong, and to remove from the path of progress those great boulders of prejudice and superstition which now impede the way. You alone can enable us to put new wheels to the military coach, which by its creaking tells us of its present dangerous condition, and which is only with difficulty maintained in an upright position at all.' Again, at a banquet at the Mansion House he said: He was surprised when the shortcomings of the army were attributed to the short-service system by those who remembered how an army raised under the long-service system totally disappeared in a few months under the walls of Sebastopol. He contended that the short-service system had made the army popular, and in consequence of it we were now in a position to obtain any number of recruits we might require. If the system were intelligently carried out it would create a reserve which would prevent such catastrophes as occurred in 1855. At the same time he believed, with many rising soldiers, that the army needed many reforms; and he trusted that the required changes might be effected within no distant time, so that the army might be brought to such a state of efficiency as would make it worthy of the Queen whom it served, and the nation for whose protection it existed.'

CHAPTER XI.

THE EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN.

Sir Garnet Wolseley as Quartermaster-General.-Attends the German Autumn Military Manoeuvres.-Is appointed Adjutant-General.-Nomination of Sir Garnet Wolseley to the Command of the Expedition to Egypt. He proceeds to Alexandria.-Change of the Base of Operations

to

Ismailia.-Transport Difficulties. -Advance of Sir Garnet from Ismailia. The Action at Tel-el-Mahuta.-Capture of Mahsameh.-The Action at Kassassin on the 28th August.-Preparations for 'the final Advance. The Action of the 9th September.-The Night March on the 12th September.-The Battle of Tel-el-Kebir.-The Surrender of Cairo. --Operations of the Cavalry.-Sir Garnet Wolseley in Cairo. -Return to England. -Conclusion.

ON his return from South Africa, Sir Garnet Wolseley was nominated Quartermaster-General, and assumed the duties. of his office on the 1st July, 1880. He had not long been installed when, on the 28th July, news arrived in England of the disaster at Maiwand, involving a recommencement of hostilities in Afghanistan. Sir Garnet was at Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight, and posted up to London on the following day. Public opinion in England pointed to him as the best man to retrieve the disaster, and even in India the Times correspondent at Calcutta telegraphed that the news of his appointment would be hailed with delight by soldiers and civilians alike from one end of the country to the other.' But his time had not yet come, and indeed, as the event proved, there was no occasion for his services, as the Indian Government had at their disposal, in Sir Frederick Roberts, a General competent to deal with the crisis and rehabilitate the tarnished honour of his country.