The Cause of our Present Relations.

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preservation of our prestige in the East. If diplomatic action resulted only in the detention of our envoy, it is possible that the adoption of more indirect means might have secured happier results. Though Theodore and the Abyssinians are anything but the uncivilized and barbarous people commonly represented, a tradition seems to prevail among them against allowing strangers to leave their country without a quid pro quo; and it is therefore not impossible that there are other influences to which the Emperor would have been more amenable than to formal diplomacy. If every available means, both direct and indirect, had not been used prior to the despatch of an expensive expedition, Her Majesty's Government have indeed incurred a grave responsibility.

Though the main features in the melancholy history are generally known, various collateral circumstances and influences, which contributed most powerfully towards the production of those Abyssinian complications, have not received the publicity and attention that they merit. An explanation of these influences will afford some assistance in evolving order out of the intricacies of this question, and will show that though Theodore may, perhaps, now be denounced as a ruffian and a scoundrel, whose conduct has been most reprehensible, some palliation may be found in the aggravation he undoubtedly received.

Having cautiously studied this question, and carefully sifted the evidence adduced, we have come to the somewhat startling conclusion that our present relations with Abyssinia are the result of rival intrigues of many years' duration, having for their object the preponderance in that country of English influence and Protestantism on the one hand, and of French influence and Roman Catholicism on the other. We started in the race with manifest advantages; but, however galling the confession, we have to acknowledge our defeat. To secret intrigue may be distinctly traced the misunderstanding that has arisen with Theodore; the imprisonment of Captain Cameron and his associates being simply the result of falsehood and doubledealing. This fact, apparently so little known, should be credited with its due significance, for when a country embarks in war, all doubt should be removed as to the causes of the calamity. French policy has long aimed at the control of the Red Sea, and French settlements on the Abyssinian coast have been deemed necessary in order to counteract the power of Great Britain in the possession of Aden and India. To the necessity of frustrating the designs thus formed, Lord Palmerston was fully alive. When the Thiers Government despatched

an expedition in the year 1840, for the ostensible object of promoting the mercantile interests of France in the East, Lord Palmerston was informed by Mr. James Macqueen, the eminent geographer, that the real design was to obtain possession of the port of Tajoura, so as to form a strong settlement near the entrance to the Red Sea. Communication was at once held with Sir John Cam Hobhouse, the President of the Board of Control, and through him orders were conveyed to Aden, directing the immediate despatch of a ship of war to Tajoura, in order to take possession of the port, and thus, by anticipation, to defeat the French plan. Accordingly, Captain Barker proceeded thither, surveyed the harbour, bought the place of the Sultan, and hoisted the British flag on an island commanding the anchorage.

Part of the French project appears to have been, on getting possession of Tajoura, to send thence a mission to the King of Shoa, in order to establish friendly relations with that potentate. But this design was also anticipated. The Bombay Government, without delay, sent an embassy under Major Harris to Sahela Selassie, and concluded a treaty of peace and commerce with him. The labours of this embassy are ably detailed in the work by Major Harris, which we have quoted at the head of this paper, and though the results achieved were not permanent, the temporary object was attained. When the Guizot Ministry acceded to power in France, the policy which M. Thiers had followed in Eastern Africa was repudiated, probably because it had been unsuccessful. The actual cause of our enterprise being removed, Major Harris's mission was withdrawn, and the advantages which we had so opportunely gained were quietly resigned.

Still, these incidents were not without their effect. Lord Palmerston, believing it to be essential that our influence in Abyssinia should preponderate, decided on establishing official relations with the sovereign of that country. A gentleman happened to be in England at the time who had lived among the Gallas and the Abyssinians, and had acquired great influence with both, having in fact attained to the dignity of chief. Mr. Plowden was consequently appointed by Lord Palmerston as British Consul at Massowah, and was invested with full powers. He concluded He concluded a treaty with Ras Ali, and when that Sovereign was deposed by his son-in-law, the present Emperor, Consul Plowden still maintained his position in the country. Another Englishman, named Bell, had been made generalissimo of Theodore's army; and Plowden and he rendered themselves so useful and popular, that but for their untimely deaths, great

commercial, if not political, advantages would probably have been obtained, and the present complications would never have occurred. From the time of Consul Plowden's death, and Captain Cameron's appointment to the vacant consulship, the influence of 'the enemies of the British name in Abyssinia' has been in the ascendant; while it is more than probable that though the Consul may sometimes have been indiscreet, he has been rather the victim of circumstances he could not control, than guilty of that systematic disobedience of orders which some of his accusers impute to him.

When Theodore's series of extraordinary military successes culminated in the utter rout of the Tigrean army, and his assumption of Imperial dignity, the chief aim of his policy seems to have been directed towards the cultivation of friendly relations with England; and the high value he set on this alliance is doubtless partly indicated in his appreciation of Consul Plowden and Mr. Bell. After the death of these two valuable friends, the Emperor's inclination in this respect had not lessened, and Consul Cameron received from him many proofs of friendship and esteem. At last, when all their business had been concluded, and Cameron was about to return to Massowah, Theodore wrote his famous letter to the Queen, which he gave the Consul to enclose in his despatches to the Foreign Office. On his way coastward, Captain Cameron was interrupted by the sudden rising of a rebel, and was compelled to take sanctuary in the church at Axum, whence, as he had announced to Lord Russell, he proceeded to the neighbourhood of Bogos, whose Christian inhabitants were under the protection of the British Consul. He was simply following the example set by Consul Plowden, whose proceedings must have been known to the Foreign Office, and had received its tacit approval. The injustice with which the tribes on the frontier had been treated by the Egyptian authorities appeared to Consul Cameron to necessitate a remonstrance; and, if the object of sending a representative to Abyssinia were to exercise an influence for good, the Consul's proceedings seem to have been justified, supposing, that is, we believe the following extract from his despatch to ConsulGeneral Colquhoun:—

'A Pasha of Cassala, inflamed by fanaticism, and who makes no secret that Islam ought to be advanced by the sword, falls upon an inoffensive Christian people under our protection, carries into slavery 350 men, women, and children, and distributes among his followers 1,800 head of cattle, besides goats and sheep.'

In order to remonstrate with the perpetrators of these bar

barities, and having, in the mean time, according to Dr. Beke, received a communication from the Foreign Office, requiring his report on certain opinions expressed by the Doctor as to the development of Ethiopian commerce, Cousul Cameron proceeded to Cassala, and returned to Abyssinia by way of Matemma. The Turks being Theodore's mortal enemies, the Consul's journey into their territories was very displeasing to the Emperor; and on Captain Cameron's return to Gondar, the first symptoms of wrath appeared. But that the ill-feeling thus created was fostered and fomented by another agency we will now endeavour to show.

When Consul Cameron went to Abyssinia, he took with him, as private secretary, M. Bardel, a Frenchman. This individual managed to ingratiate himself in Theodore's esteem, and was sent to Paris by the latter, with a letter to the Emperor Napoleon, at the same time that Captain Cameron received the letter which he forwarded for the Queen. To both these friendly epistles Theodore expected answers; but though Captain Cameron received despatches from Lord Russell, ordering his immediate return to his post at Massowah, no allusion was made to the letter received from the Emperor. This letter Mr. Layard said he never saw, nor did he know that it had been seen by Lord Russell. The ignorance of this important epistle, thus publicly expressed in the House of Commons, seems perfectly inexcusable, when it is well known that the letter was knocking about for months at the Foreign and the India Offices, exciting the curiosity of the permanent officials of these departments. M. Bardel was more fortunate. He returned to Abyssinia within a reasonable period, with a reply from the Emperor Napoleon; while Captain Cameron not only appeared without an answer to Theodore's letter, but was under a cloud, in consequence of his visit to Turkish territory, whither he had gone, partly to prepare a report desired by the Foreign Office. It is significant, however, that Consul Cameron's troubles began to intensify soon after the return of his quondam secretary to Gondar; and he was forbidden to obey Lord Russell's order that he should return to his post at Massowah. The following extract from a letter written by Mr. Steiger, one of the missionaries confined at Debra Tabor, may afford some clue to the great change that had taken place in Theodore's conduct towards the English. After alluding to M. Bardel's arrival in Abyssinia, and his subsequent mission to France, Mr. Steiger continues :

'When he returned from Paris with an official answer, he brought at the same time a private commission from the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, M. Drouyn de Lhuys, and his Jesuit friends, to endeavour by

Intrigues of M. Bardel.

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all means to destroy the Protestant missions in Abyssinia, and to plant Roman Catholic missionaries in their stead-the price for his endeavours being a Vice-Consulship. He did his best to execute his commission; and did it with a subtlety and ingenuity which is truly surprising, and which none but a Frenchman taught in a Jesuit school-I had almost said the devil's-could have learnt. But truly the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God stronger than men ; and wonderfully has the saying been fulfilled, "He that diggeth a pit for others will surely fall into it himself.” Through his own intrigues he has fallen; for ere his work was completed his punishment came, and he is now in prison, chained, with Mr. Stern, whose fall he had so desperately striven to compass. When he saw his plans frustrated, he confessed his wickedness to his companions, whose captivity he shares in the fortress of Magdala.'

Although we have no more positive proof than this of M. Bardel's treachery, there is every reason to believe that the Consul's trouble was due in a great measure to his intrigue. He came back to Gondar, and found Theodore annoyed with Cameron for having visited his enemies, the Turks, and having brought no reply to the letter he had written to Queen Victoria. The moment was most opportune for the inauguration of M. Bardel's secret mission, and no circumstances could be more favourable under which false representations might be made to Theodore as to the duplicity of the British Government. Great Britain had fought for Turkey in the Crimea, to resist the encroachments of Russia-was not Cameron's journey to Cassala undertaken with the object of increasing the Turkish power on the Abyssinian frontier? It was perfectly plain that England did not want his friendship; because, though no answer had been sent to the Emperor's letter, the Consul had received peremptory orders to return to Massowah-the very seat of the Consulate being Turkish territory. In fact, not only was there no evidence beyond the Consul's verbal assurances that the British Government cared in the least about Abyssinia, but everything pointed to their preference for Turkey. Such reasoning as this, insinuated at every favourable opportunity, could not fail to be effective with such a man as Theodore, whose wrath was accordingly demonstrated in Captain Cameron's imprisonment. The Emperor's vanity plainly kindled his anger against Mr. Stern. In the work which he published in England, after returning from a mission to the Falashas, or native Jews, Mr. Stern referred to Theodore's mother as having been a vendor of a herb called kosso. When the missionary returned to Abyssinia, he took a copy of his work with him, and in an evil moment showed it to M. Bardel. There is now no doubt