The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke V1

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Already Sir Charles was being introduced to the future members of what
came to be called the "Grand Ministere," and was not favourably impressed:

'On November 2nd, Gambetta having informed me that Rouvier would be
his Minister of Commerce, and having asked me to meet him, we dined
together at the Cafe Anglais, but I was greatly disappointed in him.'

On November 5th Sir Charles left Paris for London, nominally for purposes
of consultation; but this was only a pretext to suspend operations till
Gambetta came into office, which he did on November 10th. Sir Charles,
being then in London, found the British Government of his own opinion,
that they could hope for no more than most-favoured-nation treatment; but
opinions differed as to how this should be obtained. Mr. Gladstone wanted
to give a pledge that the low duty on the lighter wines--which favoured
France, since no other country could produce them-should not be raised.
Sir Charles, on the other hand, wanted to threaten the French with a
change in the duties, which would favour Italy by letting in the slightly
stronger Italian wines at the same rate as "Gladstone" clarets.

On November 19th he was back in Paris, seeing Rouvier and Gambetta, both
of whom asked for time to prepare the way for a final meeting of the
Commission, and Sir Charles went to his house near Toulon. On December
28th the detail of the French proposals was known, and they were held to
be unsatisfactory. Gambetta still insisted that an agreement could and
must be reached, but Dilke was of another opinion, and at the thirty-
seventh sitting, held on the last day of the year, negotiations were
really broken off. The last sitting, held on January 2nd, 1882, was merely
formal, and that evening Sir Charles left for London. He had not expected
to succeed in concluding a treaty, and he had not concluded one, but he
had earned high credit from experts. Lord Granville wrote: "From all sides
I hear praises of your knowledge, tact, and judgment." His secretary, Mr.
Austin Lee, [Footnote: Now Sir Henry Austin Lee, K.C.M.G., C.B.,
Commercial attache for France, Belgium, and Switzerland at the British
Embassy in Paris.] showed him a letter from one of the Under-Secretaries
of State in the Foreign Office, who

'said that it was a blessing to have had me at Paris, because any
other negotiator would have sent yards of cipher telegram to the
Office asking to be allowed to give the French all that they demanded
from us, and proving that we must take whatever we could get from
them.'

The British members of the Commission were unanimous in support of their
chairman, and when Gambetta fell and M. de Freycinet became Prime
Minister, they refused to hold any further sittings. Lord Lyons was
uneasy, and in February, 1882, wrote that the most-favoured-nation treaty
was a very forlorn hope." Mr. Gladstone thereupon wished to give his
pledge against any raising of the duties.

'I succeeded in stopping this, for I felt sure that we should get it
for nothing, as, in fact, we did.

'That we obtained most-favoured-nation treatment without giving way
upon our wine duties and sacrificing revenue was a triumph, as we got
all the reductions (which on yarns were very large) which we had
obtained in the course of the negotiations. These had, after being won
by us, been given to the Swiss and Belgians--who were "behind" us, and
signed treaties. The result was that there was an increase, not a
falling off, in our trade with France.' [Footnote: Full information
with regard to the negotiations of a new commercial treaty between
France and Great Britain, will be found in Commercial No. 37, 1881,
and Commercial No. 9, 1882.]

"The foresight shown by Sir Charles Dilke in proposing this arrangement is
brought out by the fact that it has been maintained, and given entire
satisfaction, during the thirty years and more which have elapsed from its
conclusion," says Sir Henry Austin Lee.

M. Hanotaux, in his _France Contemporaine_, observes that Dilke was often
a _precurseur_. He certainly was so in an important matter of Imperial
policy which connects itself with these negotiations. Leave was granted,
through Sir Charles at the Foreign Office, to the Canadian High
Commissioner, Sir A. Galt, 'to negotiate upon his own account, provided
that he concluded no stipulations unfavourable to the mother country. In
this, I made a precedent which has been followed,' and which was not made
without opposition. The Colonial Office, while unable to prevent Canada
from acting for herself, prevented Sir Charles at the Foreign Office from
acting conjointly with Canada. The matter developed in 'the following
spring':

'On March 1st (1882) Sir A. Galt asked me to let Kennedy' (Sir C. M.
Kennedy) 'of the Foreign Office go to Paris as Second Commissioner for
Canada to help make a Franco-Canadian treaty. On the 2nd I agreed, and
got Lord Granville's consent, and the Foreign Office officially asked
the Colonial Office, when Lord Kimberley refused. I pressed the matter
in angry, but as I think conclusive, minutest Lord Kimberley, however,
set his teeth, and refused point blank, and Lord Granville then backed
him up, saying that "on a Colonial matter it was impossible to fly in
the face of the Colonial Secretary of State." I wrote, 2nd March,
1882:

'"I think Lord Kimberley's decision a great misfortune to British
trade and to friendly relations with the Colonies, and wish this
minute and opinion to that effect placed on record with the despatch
which he wishes to withdraw. We could have stipulated that the mother
country should have been entitled to all reductions made to France, a
further advantage which, if Canada is angry at the refusal, may be
needed but not obtained."'

'April 20th, 1882: At this moment I called attention to the bearing of
our most-favoured-nation-clause treaties on the commercial condition
of the British Empire generally, and pointed out that the bearing of
the matter on the Colonies would become very important some day; and I
found even too much support from the head of the Trade Department, who
was a Protectionist, or at least a strong Reciprocitarian, and who at
once grasped my idea by arguing that there was a chance that some day
there would be formed a British Zollverein, raising discriminating
duties upon foreign produce as against that of the British Empire. I
had only pointed out the possibility. The representation of Canada by
Sir A. Galt at Paris also provoked minutes by me on this question
later in the year.'

CHAPTER XXVI

GAMBETTA, DISRAELI, ROYAL PERSONAGES, MORIER

I.

The New Year of 1881 had opened for Sir Charles with Gambetta's greetings:

"Chambre des Deputes.

"CHER AMI,"

"Je vous envoie mes voeux les plus ardents pour tous les succes que
vous pouvez desirer dans cette annee qui s'ouvre, et pour la
realisation desquels j'ai confiance que votre bon genie continuera a
vous sourire.

"Quand vous passerez a Paris le 4 ou autre jour venez me voir. Je ne
bouge d'ici jusqu'au 20.

"Je vous embrasse et vous aime,
"Paris, 1 _Janvier_, 1881."

"L. GAMBETTA.

When they met, the Ferry Ministry was in office. Sir Charles met 'General
Farre, the Minister of War, who has left no name except for having
abolished drums, which were shortly afterwards reintroduced, and who, so
far as I could see, did not deserve to leave one,' and also Ranc, one of
Gambetta's satellites, who 'was entertaining with a description of the
various anarchical parties in Paris then engaged in sitting "on each
other's ruins."' A story which Sir Charles tells of his crossing to Paris
(in the end of August, 1881) illustrates the vehemence of prejudice
against Gambetta:

'I had made the journey alone in a compartment with the young Comte de
FitzJames, who was a Lieutenant in the army. He did not know me, and
assured me that, it being Gambetta's custom while President of the
Chamber to ask to breakfast each day the officer of the guard, if he
ever happened to be on duty at the Palais Bourbon, and, consequently,
were asked, and had to go, he should utter not one word.'

Gambetta, who heard the story, was greatly amused by it.

During part of September and part of October, 1881, the friends did not
meet, because Gambetta was away from Paris. 'It was rumoured he had been
to see Bismarck, which was untrue,' says Dilke. "But," he adds in a letter
to Lord Granville on October 24th, "Gambetta visited Memel and Kiel, and
saw the German fleet, of which he does not think much."

The Prince and Princess of Wales were in Paris when Sir Charles returned
there to resume commercial negotiations. On October 24th he breakfasted
with them at their hotel, and met them again on the 28th, when they
lunched with the Austrian Ambassador:

'Beust is a man that I never saw without marvelling how he should have
played so great a part in the affairs of Europe. He always reminded me
of Lord Granville with the brains left out. The same little jokes,
though less good, the same smile, the same courteous manner; but an
affectation and a real stupidity which were all his own.'

'I went in the afternoon with the Prince and Princess of Wales to see
Munkacsy's "Christ," an enormously overrated picture, in which the
chief figure was that of an Austrian village idiot, not a Christ, but
the half-revolutionist, half-idiot that Christ was to the Jews who
crucified Him, and who formed the crowd in the picture. If that was
what the man wanted to paint, he had succeeded, but that probably was
not what he wanted.'

'The Prince was most anxious to meet Gambetta again; Gambetta not at
all anxious to meet him. But the Prince having distinctly asked me to
ask him to breakfast, and to ask Gambetta to meet him, the latter was
obliged to come. The Prince, however, having asked me to invite
Galliffet as one of the guests, Gambetta, who liked Galliffet
personally, but was afraid of being attacked in the Press, absolutely
refused to come, so Galliffet had to be knocked off the list again.
Galliffet has misrepresented this in his Memoirs.'

This breakfast took place on Sunday, October 30th, and made much talk,
though the Prince was officially travelling as a private gentleman, an
incognito which the waiters had difficulty in remembering. Mr. Austin Lee
had been invited to take the place of General Galliffet in the party of
six, which was completed by Mr. Knollys and Colonel Stanley Clarke. The
place was known as the Moulin Rouge Restaurant, soon to disappear in the
rebuilding of the Avenue d'Antin. It is said to have been kept open for
some days beyond the date originally fixed, to furnish a _dejeuner_ worthy
of these guests. In spite of the privacy observed, Rumour was busy, and
_Punch_ of November 12th appeared with an amusing "Monologue du Garcon,"
giving at great length the supposed conversation and the menu of the
breakfast.

'Gambetta said a great many good things. He called Blowitz a "crapaud
de Boheme," which Escott afterwards quoted from me in the _World_, I
think. He said, apropos of the then French Government: "To change a
policy you must have a policy, just as to change a shirt you must have
a shirt." Gambetta told me that he wished to make Tissot Foreign
Minister, and that as he intended to take Chanzy from St. Petersburg,
he should have three Ambassadors to find. Gambetta was satirical about
Ireland. He said, referring to Mr. Gladstone's speech: "Everything is
going on admirably in Ireland, it seems. You have thirty thousand
lawsuits under your new Land Act. Excellent!"'

The Prince returned to London next day, and sent to Sir Charles through
Mr. Knollys an expression of thanks and a request that Gambetta would send
him a signed photograph. The request was duly transmitted, and Gambetta
replied:

"CHER AMI,"

"Pensez-vous que ceci soit acceptable? Si oui, pas de reponse; si non,
dites-moi s'il suffit d'une simple signature comme autographe.

"A vous,

"L. GAMBETTA."

The inscription was: "Au plus aimable des princes--un ami de
l'Angleterre."

Four months later the Prince of Wales wrote to Dilke expressing his
personal regrets for Gambetta's fall from power, and Gambetta's letter in
reply was sent to Sir Charles for transmission on March 6th, 1882.

The Ferry Ministry fell on November 10th, 1881, and the thought of
Gambetta in power acted, said Bismarck, on the nerves of Europe "like a
drum in a sick man's room."

On November 1st

'I heard from Lord Lyons, and gathered from confidential telegrams,
that the idea of disarmament was in the air again in Europe. This, of
course, really meant a disarmament to be imposed by the Empires and
Italy upon France. But it was stopped again, as it had often been
stopped before, by Russia.

'I had told Lord Granville that I thought Gambetta would offer the
Embassy in London to Ferry, and that I did not know if the Queen would
like his marriage being only a civil one, and that the Roman Catholics
in England would certainly make it disagreeable for him. Lord
Granville wrote on this: "I am glad to be rid of Challemel-Lacour. He
must be a clumsy fellow to have got on such bad terms with both Saint-
Hilaire and Gambetta." In the following week, however, Gambetta made
up his mind that J. Casimir-Perier should become his Ambassador in
London. But Gambetta fell before he had been able to give him the
place.

'On the night before I left I dined with Pouyer-Quertier, who had been
Finance Minister of France under Thiers at the time of the Frankfort
Treaty. He told me a wonderful story about how, when the negotiations
had been all but broken off, he went to bed in despair. But in the
morning before light there was a knock at his door. He got up in his
nightshirt, and there was Bismarck in full uniform, who made him get
back into bed, saying he would catch cold. Then, drawing a chair to
the bedside, Bismarck spread out the treaty on the night-table and
wrangled on, till after a while he said that it was dry work, and got
up and rang and asked for beer. After the beer had been brought by a
sleepy waiter, he rang again and asked for kirsch, and poured a
quantity of the liqueur into the beer. Then he made the poker red-hot
in the fire which he had relighted, stirred up the mixture, and
invited Pouyer-Quertier to drink. Pouyer-Quertier said: "I drank it
thinking of my country, and Bismarck clapped me on the back, and said
that I was such a good fellow that the evacuation should take place at
once, and this is how the final article was signed; it was signed on
the table at my bedside." I did not believe the story, but when I
asked Bismarck years later he said that it was true.'

Returning to London on November 5th

'I left Paris at a moment of great excitement over the financial
situation, there having been a kind of Roman Catholic financial union
which had beaten a Jewish ring, and which afterwards itself collapsed.
It was said that James de Rothschild had lost his money in this
business; but his brother-in-law told me that ... it was not true that
he had lost a sixpence.'

On November 19th Sir Charles left London, and saw Rouvier and Gambetta
late that evening in Paris. 'The Gambetta Ministry had been formed, and it
was thought important that I should see Rouvier at once.' Next day, Sunday
the 20th, he 'breakfasted with Gambetta, meeting Spuller and General
Billot.' To the latter he had been introduced by Gambetta in January,
1880, when Billot was 'commanding the Marseille Corps d'Armee: an
intriguer who, in the event of war occurring between 1887 and 1890, would
have been second-in-command of the armies of France.' [Footnote: "A letter
to a friend of this date shows that Sir Charles did not think Gambetta's
Ministry was likely to be in a strong position when it came into power:

"FOREIGN OFFICE,
"PARIS,
"21st November, 1881.

"Gambetta is, according to the papers, at war with the Senate and with
the Church. I think that he is at war with the Senate, and that this
is foolish of him. I don't think he is at war with the Church. It is
the Senate, more than the Church, which is offended by the appointment
of a rampant atheist and vivisector as Minister of Religion. The
Church has probably less to fear from Bert than from less known men.
Gambetta is to see the Nuncio to-day, and I don't think that the
Nuncio, who has long been his warm personal friend, is likely to
express much alarm.

"The Senate is more serious. The monstrous folly of Bert's
appointment, the dismissal of the senator de Normandie, governor of
the Bank, and the putting only one senator into the Cabinet, have
irritated it beyond all bearing. Gambetta may gain twenty seats in
January, but even supposing that he is supposed to have a majority in
the Senate, it is a majority in which you have to count semi-
Conservative rivals such as Leon Say and de Freycinet, foes like
Challemel-Lacour, and men of the extreme Left like Victor Hugo, who
are more likely to follow Clemenceau than Gambetta. And yet he needs
the Senate to keep the other House in order by the threat of a
dissolution, which requires the consent of the Senate."]

Gambetta had taken the Foreign Office himself:

'He seemed to me solid, strong, and prudent. Indeed, I never saw him
appear to so much advantage. We walked from his "den" to the dining-
room, where the guests were waiting for breakfast, through his
bedroom. A fine Louis XVI. bed from the _garde-meuble_ was in the
alcove. I pointed, and asked: "Le lit de Talleyrand?" "Le lit de
Dagobert!" At our meeting on the 20th we discussed fully the Danube
question, and also that of Newfoundland, in which I always took a deep
interest, but with regard to which I was far from agreement with the
French. [Footnote: The Danube question was left unsettled by the
Treaty of Berlin. The question of the navigation and outlets gave rise
to constant trouble, owing to the claims of Russia and Austria-
Hungary. After prolonged negotiations the Conference of 1883 arrived
at a compromise. See _Life of Granville._ vol. ii., chap, vii., Lord
Granville's despatch, March 14th, Turkey, No. 3, 1883.]

'During the whole of this visit to Paris I deeply admired Gambetta,
with whom I spent almost the whole of my three days. He showed to
great advantage, sobered by power, rapid in his acquisition and
mastery of new subjects. He had grasped the Danube difficulties and
those of Newfoundland in a moment. How different from those about him,
of whom Spuller, of all men in the world, was one day to be his
successor--a heavy fellow, who, as long as Gambetta lived, used only
to open his mouth for the purpose of "thee-and-thouing" Gambetta in
asking for the salt, just to show that he dared to "thee" and "thou"
him.

'On December 28th I breakfasted with Gambetta, when he told me that he
would himself have given Jules Simon any Embassy or any place in his
Government, for he was fit for any ("the cleverest man in France"),
had he not known that Simon was too bitter, and would think that he
was being bought, and would refuse. Freycinet was at Gambetta's, and
also Spuller, Rouvier, Ranc, Pallain, Reinach, and Gerard. They were
much excited as to the selection by Gambetta of Weiss of the _Figaro_
as Secretary in the Foreign Office' (in place of Baron de Courcel),
'as Weiss was said to have made the anti-Republican Government of May
16th; but Gambetta merely answered that he could not see why he should
not be allowed to employ as a despatch writer "the first pen of
France." The same difficulty had arisen about the army, Gambetta
wishing to make Miribel Chief of the Staff, although he was a
reactionary. This appointment was afterwards made by Freycinet in
1890, amid public applause, although the suggestion had been one of
the causes of Gambetta's overthrow....

'Gambetta says that the American despatches to us about Panama raise a
monstrous pretension--that they might as well claim the Straits of
Magellan and Cape Horn'. [Footnote: The Americans had announced that
in the event of the completion of the Canal they intended to keep it
in their own hands.]

On December 29th Sir Charles dined with Lord Lyons to meet Gambetta and
some of the new Ministers:

'On this evening I heard Gambetta for the first time say "If I can,"
for he was beginning to feel how sharply limited by the hostility of
the Chamber was his power. He was speaking of revision of the
constitution for the purpose of the adoption of _scrutin de liste_.'
[Footnote: Sir Henry Brackenbury, in _Some Memories of My Spare Time_,
observes that in 1881 he dined at the Embassy, when "Gambetta and M.
Spullor, his _fidus Achates_, were also present, as well as Sir
Charles Dilke." He thought Dilke "by far the best talker of the
party."]

On January 2nd, 1882, he again breakfasted with Gambetta.

'Gambetta told me that the Chamber would never forgive him for having
suggested _scrutin de liste_, and hated him. At the same time he
informed me of his intention of again proposing it, although he
expected to be beaten, and seemed to have made up his mind to go out.'

Writing to Grant Duff of this coming conflict, Dilke said:

"Gambetta means to put _scrutin de liste_ into the constitution at the
revision--_if he can_. That will be a warm day! I never heard him say
'If I can' before. I wonder if his great exemplar ever said 'If I
can'? Sala and Rosebery, who are the two best Napoleonists I know, can
tell us."

II.

Sir Charles, as representing the Foreign Office in the House of Commons,
was naturally in close touch with Mr. Gladstone; in addition, the
commercial negotiations necessitated frequent interviews. The admiration
which Sir Charles felt for his chief was, however, frequently crossed by
differences of opinion, especially as to his method of approaching foreign
affairs.

'Writing to express his concurrence in my action with regard to the
commercial negotiations, Mr. Gladstone went on to say: "I am glad
Gambetta says that he is in the same boat as us as to Panama. Our
safety there will be in acting as charged with the interests of the
world minus America." This was a curious example of the world of
illusions in which Mr. Gladstone lives. The Americans had informed us
that they did not intend to be any longer bound by the Clayton-Bulwer
Treaty, and that in the event of the completion of the Panama Canal
they intended virtually to keep it in their own hands. Mr. Gladstone
called in France in joint protest with us against this view, although
he might have foreseen the utter impossibility in the long-run of
resisting American pretensions on such a point, and although he
himself would have been the first, when the Americans threatened war
(as they would have done later on), to yield to threats that which he
would not yield to argument. It amused Harcourt, however, to concoct
with the Chancellor and the Foreign Office portentous despatches to
Mr. Blaine, in which we lectured the Americans on the permanency of
their obligations. How childish it all was! Moreover, the Monroe
doctrine suits our interests.'

Sir Charles's letters to Mr. Gladstone, even when short and business-like,
are marked by a deference which he used to no one else; and the deference
at times has the accent of affection. Sir Charles always enjoyed Mr.
Gladstone's old-world courtesy, and especially his playfulness.

"It would be impossible," he said, "to give a true account of Mr.
Gladstone without recalling the manner in which, however absorbed he
might be in his subject, he would break off to discuss some amusing
triviality. When we were talking once of the real and inner views of
French statesmen with regard to our occupation of Egypt, some chance
expression suddenly diverted Mr. Gladstone's mind to the subject of
rowing; and he began recalling in the most amusing way incidents of
his own Eton days of some sixty-eight or sixty-nine years previously,
shivering at the thought of his sculling in cold weather against
strong stretches of the stream near Monkey Island."

But the elder statesman who fascinated Sir Charles's imagination was the
great Tory chief; and in 1881 came at last the realization of a wish long
entertained by him for a meeting with Lord Beaconsfield. More than once he
had been balked of the opportunity by his punctilio of holding rigidly to
even the most ordinary social engagements. After one of these
disappointments he wrote: