The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke Volume I Part 43

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

"Je vous embra.s.se 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) ill.u.s.trates 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 a.s.sured 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 Amba.s.sador:

'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 "c.r.a.paud 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 Amba.s.sadors 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 Emba.s.sy 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 Amba.s.sador 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 quant.i.ty 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 Ma.r.s.eille 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 Emba.s.sy 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 Ca.n.a.l 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 const.i.tution 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 Emba.s.sy, 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 const.i.tution 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 Ca.n.a.l 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.