Abstract
For the Prime Minister, Lord Beaconsfield, foreign policy was an extension of politics. In aiming to fulfil Great Britain’s imperial and Continental commitments, he was also trying to strengthen the Conservative government and party. Domestic opposition constrained him less between February and August 1878 than at any earlier stage of the eastern crisis. The Liberal factions were more at odds with each other than with the ministry. Within the Cabinet, Lord Derby alone continued to resist an active policy in the Near East; but the Foreign Secretary could merely delay the implementation of decisions over which he had no control, and by the end of March he had finally resigned his place. Lord Salisbury, who left the India Office to succeed him, worked closely with Beaconsfield to improve the diplomatic position of Great Britain after Russia’s victory over Turkey had resulted in the treaty of San Stefano. Together they attended the congress of Berlin, where they obtained treaty provisions which were as favourable as possible, considering that the conflicting interests of the great powers prevented a definitive triumph by any one of them. In attempting to exploit his achievement at home, Beaconsfield discovered that diplomacy was of limited political usefulness.
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Notes
R. A. Cross to the Queen (Confidential), 11 Feb. 1878: RA H20/47. Beaconsfield to the Queen, 9, 10 Feb. 1878: ibid. B56/32, 34; also in M & B, vol. VI, pp. 244–7 (with reference to the ‘cowardice of Derby and Carnarvon deleted); Gwendolen Cecil, Life of Robert Marquis of Salisbury (London, 1921–32, 4 vols) vol. II, pp. 196–9. D.D., 8, 10, 11 Feb. 1878.
On the subsequent controversy over this Cabinet meeting between Derby and his former colleagues see Derby to Granville (Private), 16, 18, 25 June, 19, 24 July 1878: Gran. P. PRO 30/29/26A/2; Derby to Northcote, (Private) 19, 21 July 1878: Idd. P. 50022; D.D., 20, 22 July 1878. As to seizing Cyprus, Northcote emphasized on 19 July: ‘Now I can say with the utmost confidence that no such resolution as this was ever agreed to by the Cabinet. That some proposals of this kind were discussed is quite true. But it was not agreed that anything should be done in this direction beyond making inquiries upon certain points. What I believe to be the real explanation of the painful divergence between your recollection and that of your colleagues is, — that you from the first put an erroneous construction on what passed.’ A few days later Northcote asserted: ‘I have just come across two notes, written in the Cabinet Room on the 27th March, which conclusively prove that no decision was then arrived at.’ Northcote to Derby. (Private, [Draft]) 19, (Confidential, Copy) 22 July 1878: Idd. P. 50022. See also M & B, vol. VI, pp. 267–8, 273–9; but Buckle, obligated to Lord Sanderson, Derby’s former private secretary, for some of his information, made out the best case he could for Derby. See also Nancy E. Johnson (ed.), The Diary of Gathorne Hardy, later Lord Cranbrook, 1866–1892: Political Selections (Oxford, 1981) 19 July 1878; Harold Temperley, ‘Disraeli and Cyprus’ and ‘Further Evidence on Disraeli and Cyprus’, English Historical Review, 46 (Apr. and July 1931); and Dwight E. Lee, ‘A Memorandum Concerning Cyprus, 1878’, Journal of Modern History, 3, 2 (June 1931).
Salisbury to the Queen, 1 May 1878: RA H22/1. See Arthur J. Marder, Documents, ‘British Naval Policy in 1878’, Journal of Modern History, 12, 3 (Sept. 1940) 367–73.
W. H. Smith to G. P. Hornby (Private & Confidential, Copy), 20 Apr. 1878: ibid./83; also in Viscount Chilston, W. H. Smith (London, 1965) p. 116.
Referring to a speech by John Bright, Salisbury added: ‘I believe Bright is going to have an attack of softening of the brain again.’ Salisbury to Cranbrook, 3 May 1878: Cran. P. T501/267. On speeches at the end of April and beginning of May 1878 by Cross, Cranbrook, Bright and Joseph Chamberlain see R. W. Seton-Watson, Disraeli, Gladstone and the Eastern Question (London, 1935; 1969 edn) pp. 391–4. Cross had not ‘been selected as the apologist of official policy in the north of England’ (ibid., p. 393), for he urgently requested, on the day before his address at Preston, that Salisbury provide him with information: Secretary of State to Private Secretary or Under Secy of State, Home Office (Telegram), 29 Apr. 1878: S.P. E.
On Austrian policy see Cecil, Salisbury, vol. II, pp. 245–50; M. D. Stojanovic, The Great Powers and the Balkans 1875–1878 (Cambridge, 1939) pp. 245–55. Salisbury complained: ‘I am in Derby’s old difficulty that Beust mis-repeats everything both Andrassy & I tell him.’ Salisbury to Northcote (Private), 28 Apr. 1878: Idd. P. 50019.
For details of these diplomatic dealings see B. H. Sumner, Russia and the Balkans 1870–1880 (Oxford, 1937) ch. 17 and app. 8; Seton-Watson, Eastern Question, pp. 408–19, 421–9; Dwight E. Lee, Great Britain and the Cyprus Convention Policy of 1878 (Cambridge, Mass., 1934) pp. 82–7; and W. N. Medlicott, The Congress of Berlin and After (London, 2nd edn, 1963) pp. 21–6.
Chamberlain to J. Collings, 2 Apr. 1878: ibid. 5/16/81; also, with omissions, in J. L. Garvin, The Life of Joseph Chamberlain (London, 1932–4, 3 vols) vol. I, p. 248.
Granville to Hartington, 10 Apr. 1878: Dev. P. 340.752; also in Edmond Fitzmaurice, The Life of Granville George Leveson Gower Second Earl Granville K.G. 1815–1891 (London, 3rd edn, 1905, 2 vols) vol. II, pp. 175–6. See also Granville to Gladstone, 9, 11 Apr., Gladstone to Granville, 12 Apr. 1878: Ramm, Corr., vol. I, nos 106–8; Bernard Holland, The Life of Spencer Compton Eighth Duke of Devonshire (London, 1911, 2 vols) vol. I, p. 208.
Hartington to Harcourt, 8 May 1878: Harcourt P. 78. See also Holland, Devonshire, vol. I, pp. 208–9; A. G. Gardiner, The Life of Sir William Harcourt (London, 1923, 2 vols) vol. I, pp. 328–9; Halifax to H. Ponsonby, 18 May 1878: Hick. P. A4/86.
A. D. Elliot, The Life of George Joachim Goschen First Viscount Goschen1831–1907 (London, 1911, 2 vols) vol. I, pp. 190–2. See also Thomas J. Spinner, Jr, George Joachim Goschen The Transformation of a Victorian Liberal (Cambridge, 1973) pp. 56–7.
George Gissing, New Grub Street (1881).
This paragraph based on Northcote to Beaconsfield (Confidential), 29 June, 4 July 1878: H.P. B/XX/N/85, 86; Tenterden to Corry (Private), 26 June 1878: ibid./XXI/T/107. Beaconsfield to Tenterden (Private), 2 July; Tenterden to Beaconsfield (Private, Copy), 4 July 1878: Tent. P. F.O. 363/1, pt 1, ff. 63–8, 59–62. Cross to Salisbury (Private), 26 July [sic: June], 3 July 1878: S.P. E; Tenterden to Salisbury (Private), 27 June, Beaconsfield to Salisbury, 1 July 1878: S.P. Salisbury to Cross (Confidential), 15 June 1878: Cr. P. 51263. See also Cecil, Salisbury, vol. II, pp. 262–3, 282, 285, 289; Seton-Watson, Eastern Question, pp. 419–21; M & B, vol. VI, pp. 303, 320–1; Lee, Cyprus Convention, pp. 88–9; A. W. Ward and G. P. Gooch (eds), The Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy 1783–1919 (Cambridge, 1922–3, 3 vols) vol. III, pp. 591–2; Charles Marvin, Our Public Offices (London, 1879) especially p. 265ff.
Henry Lennox to M. Corry (Confidential), 1 July 1878: H.P. B/XX/Lx/530; also partially in Hugh Cunningham, ‘Jingoism in 1877–78’, Victorian Studies, 14, 4 (June, 1971) 448. Cf. M & B, vol. VI, p. 345.
See Bruce Waller, Bismarck at the Crossroads The Reorientation of German Foreign Policy after the Congress of Berlin 1878–1880 (London, 1974) p. 51.
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Swartz, M. (1985). The Politician as Diplomatist. In: The Politics of British Foreign Policy in the Era of Disraeli and Gladstone. St Antony’s/Macmillan Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17838-4_5
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