Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

It is my intention to bring before the British public some facts regarding the relations of Mr. Henry Stanley to Emin Pasha. In the controversy which has arisen with reference to this subject, the old motto,, "audiatur et altera pars" should be applied ;-the more so, as many charges have been brought against Emin Pasha which he cannot contradict or refute because he is absent.

The accusation of being partial cannot certainly be raised against me. I have ever been as much a sincere admirer of the explorer of the Congo river as of the man who, under Gordon, organized the equatorial province of Egypt, and alone resisted successfully for years the advance of Mahdism. But I know that the English public will care to hear Emin Pasha speak for himself rather than come to conclusions unfair or even unjust.

What I am about to publish now was told me at Mpwapwa by Emin Pasha himself, with the understanding that I should be permitted to publish it.

According to what Emin told me, the first time Stanley arrived the Mwata Nzige, he was in an almost ruined condition. Emin thought that Stanley would not have been able to return if he had not given him food and help. Naturally I am unable to endorse or refute this opinion. According to my views existence in Africa depends not so much on exterior resource, as on personal resource, and in the latter kind Mr. Stanley has never been wanting. His capacity of finding expedients of all kinds was fully acknowledged by Emin Pasha, and his presence of mind, his resolution, had made on him a deep impres

sion.

When Stanley arrived at the Mwata Nzige for the second time, he at once anNEW SERIES-VOL. LII., No. 6.

nounced to the Pasha that he had with him orders from the Khedive to evacuate the equatorial province. The Khedive, he said, wished to give up the whole Soudan, and could not allow any longer that one of his Governors should maintain himself on the Upper Nile. This communication of Stanley cannot fail to appear strange ;the more so that it was in direct opposition to the interests of civilization and European politics, the only motives which had ostensibly led to Stanley's expedition. Stanley, by making himself the carrier of a message doing away with all the work of civilization on the Upper Nile, was working for barbarism in general,. and for Mahdism in particular. If it was intended to open up Central Africa to European civilization, the first thing to do was to strengthen Emin's position in Equatoria, not to abolish it. What interest could Europe, and especially England, have in removing this last stronghold of a higher civilization?

The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition had been organized in Europe, not so much in order to save the person of Emin as in order to strengthen the bearer of European civilization and culture, and political influence on the Upper Nile.

I must say that in this proposition of Stanley, as made to Enin, there is something quite unintelligible; nor can I help thinking that it was made for the purpose only of rendering Emin Pasha more willing to accept the propositions to be made afterward. After having given up the political position lawfully occupied by him up to the time of Stanley's arrival, Emin might be expected to receive the proposition of a new political basis to work from. Το impress him more strongly, Stanley made him understand that he had instructions to 54

carry out the Khedive's orders in the last resort by force.

Now let us attempt to understand Emin's position. For years his people had been informed that the whites were going to relieve him, and now that this expedition of Europeans had come at last, how could he dare to fight them without utterly denying the moral principles on which he had based his policy. So it came that he was forced to try to compromise with Stanley; and all fair-minded people win grant that, under the circumstances, even the boldest and most inconsiderate could not have afforded to take any other course than the one taken by Emin.

After several days (said Emin), "while I was considering Stanley's first proposition, he surprised me with a second one. It was just the reverse of the first one, but that did not prevent Stanley from bringing along both of them in his pocket." In the name of the King of the Belgians Stanley requested Emin not to obey the Khedive's orders, not to evacuate Equatoria, but to hoist there the flag of the Congo Free State. If he would do so, the king would make him his Governor-general for that district, and would grant him one thousand pounds per month for the expenses of the administration of the district. As to Emin's personal interest, he was asked to name his figure, and was told in advance that it would be granted. But Stanley, said Emin, very soon afterward told me that he did not advise me to accept that proposition. The Congo Free State, he said, was in a bad state of confusion, and Emin could plainly see how he, Stanley, had been treated by the King of the Belgians. It was only several days later that Stanley came out with his real plan, the third proposition, which again stood in direct opposition to the two former ones. In the name of the British East African Company he proposed to Emin to go round the Victoria Nyanza to its north-east corner, to Kavirondo. There Emin was to be established on an island, and left to fortify his position. Stanley would then hurry to the coast, and go to Mombasa to raise ammunition and troops for Emin. The British East African Company was to take the whole Army of Einin into its service, every man with the rank and pay he possessed while under Egyptian rule. Emin Pasha was to be Governor under the Company of all lands on the Upper Nile. As

for his salary, that was to be settled by him with the Company. Stanley brought forward a contract with that Company, stamped and sealed in London, and only needing Emin's signature to make it perfect. Finally, £3000 was agreed upon as the salary.

The troops which Stanley was to bring back from Mombasa were to restore the Christians to Uganda under the leadership of Einin, fight Unyoro, and then reoccupy Emin's old province all this to be achieved in the name of the British East African Company. Stanley, after having brought up these auxiliary troops for Emin, was then to withdraw and go off to England.

Of course, the pliability of Stanley, who was himself the bearer of three messages or propositions whereof any one, by its nature, excluded the possibility of even considering the other two, was somewhat confusing; but however that might be, Emin Pasha, with a heavy heart and under the force of circumstances, made up his mind to accept the third offer.

The

Then a part of his people, who would not quit their homes on the Nile which had become dear to them, mutinied, and refused to proceed. Stanley and Emin Pasha, however, left the district and advanced on the west side of the lake. When camping at Busagala, west-south-west of Uganda, they received the messengers of the Christian King Mwanga, imploring their help against the Arab party. chief of this Uganda mission was a certain Marco, who later spent two months in my camp and in my immediate neighborhood, and to whom I owe several details regarding Stanley's departure. Stanley refused to help the Christians, remarking "that he was too weak for such an undertaking,” It was then that Emin Pasha offered to go to Uganda alone with his own people, if Stanley would permit it. But Stanley had Emin Pasha put under watch, and threatened to proceed against him by force should he attempt to carry out that idea.

Thus it came about that Stanley's expedition passed by Uganda without entering it, and missed the right moment for bringing that country peacefully under English influence, just as Mr. Jackson a little later lost his chance while he was on the east side of the lake at Kavirondo. Both leaders, Stanley as well as Jackson, failed to enter Uganda at the right moment, be

canse they over-estimated the danger of such a venture, and so it happened that I, with fifty men only, having left the coast two years and a half later than Stanley and eight months later than Jackson, was the first on the spot.

As for Stanley, having reached the south end of the Victoria Nyanza at Usumbiro, he could not make up his mind to carry out the promise held out to Emin-viz., to bring him around the east coast of the lake to Kavirondo, and establish him there as agreed. He suddenly declared himself unable to do so without an express order of the Queen of England. Emin understood then that he had been taken out of his own country under pretences or promises not to be realized afterward. He had lost what he possessed, and now was forced, against his inclination, to accompany Stanley to the coast. As a matter of course cordial relations could not exist between the two parties under such circumstances.

I shall not personally take part against Stanley, but in the interest of truth I must add that what I heard about Stanley's personal behavior, not from Emin, but from the missionaries on the Nyanza, could not diminish the naturally bad feeling between the two parties. One day two Catholic missionaries came from Ukumbi to Usumbiro to pay their respects to Emin. They found the whole party at dinner, Stanley at the head of the table, with a half bottle of wine and served in European fashion, but all others at the same table without wine and living on negro fare. Such a glimpse of the social intercourse among the members of the expedition

speaks volumes, and it would be perfectly useless for me to add a single word. I am not at all surprised that Stanley should. speak contemptuously of Emin Pasha. The two men were too different to understand one another. I believe Stanley lacks the organ necessary to appreciate a delicate and sensitive character like that of Emin Pasha, just as a man with a bad cold is unable to enjoy the beauty of a field of roses, but the beauty exists nevertheless. To me Emin Pasha appears as a model in the faithful performance of duty, the seriousness of his scientific labors and his mora! tact. The fact of his not caring to go to Europe, to be feasted and honored like others, is proof enough of genuine modesty and candor of principle, as is also the fact that he refrained from taking £3000 to enter the British service, not, however, mainly from national feelings, for he had been willing to take service with the British, but because his innermost feelings had been hurt by Stanley's behavior toward him.

Highly as I estimate Emin's character, I am glad to think that herein I agree with the Englisaman Gordon, who entrusted him with his difficult post on the Upper Nile; also with the Englishman, Dr. Felkin, who has praised Emin for his high administrative qualities, and his tive qualities, and his very noble principles!

I feel certain that, after so many misrepresentations and suspicions thrown on him, the truth regarding Emin's character cannot fail to get known, and if these lines should in any way serve to bring this about they will achieve all they are intended for. Contemporary Review.

FASHION AND DEMOCRACY.

A FEW days ago, there took place a wedding, in itself not an uncommon occurrence in London, nor one that would be likely to excite much interest; but in this particular case, though neither bridegroom nor bride was very well known to the world at large, there would appear to have been present such a formidable number of fashionable guests, that it was only with a feeling of mild surprise that one found the most important daily paper devoting halfa-column to their names and titles. The wonder, however, grew considerably when it was found that several other papers

had

devoted an equal portion of their space to recording this interesting event; but when it was seen that the most popular, the most democratic, the most scornfully Radical journals of all had given the longest and most detailed accounts of it, astonishment passed all bounds. Can it really be a fact, then, that these dry and uninteresting lists of mere names, these unintelligible descriptions of dresses, these inventories of jewellers' shops that represent the wedding-presents, are inserted, not for the benefit of the few people concerned, but as a matter of absorbing interest to the

multitudinous public? Do they really care to learn that a bride whom they have never seen or heard of, was draped in shrimpcolored crêpe de Chine, garniture de Gelée d'Aspic, and wore a tiara of sapphires and emeralds, the gift of the bridegroom; or that she went away in a dainty confection of sky-blue plush, decorated with choux au naturel? It would seem that they do care very much indeed, for the wider circulation of the paper and the more popular the class of its readers, the more full and accurate is its account of such details.

There is a daily paper, which we will call the Morning Tatler for want of a better name, that is largely devoted to the dissemination of fashionable intelligence of this kind, and is published at the moderate price of one penny. It was not always so cheap; once it cost threepence, a price that, considering the very limited number of people who could possibly be expected to take an interest in such inatters, could hardly be called excessive. But the proprietor of that paper is a man who knows his British public well; without changing the character of the paper in the least, he simply published it at the popular price of one penny, and straightway the outside world bought it eagerly, its circulation increased tenfold, and a fortune fell into his lap. He did know his public, and what it wanted; but surely his knowledge was of a melancholy kind. For what is there more melancholy than the reflec tion that the lives of the great mass of people are so empty, so utterly devoid of interest, that they are driven to find amusement in reading of the lives of a select few, of interests that they cannot understand, and of pleasures that they cannot share? There are few sights more pathetic than one which may often be seen in the big London squares. Inside the garden, a few well-fed, well-dressed children, laughing, shouting, chasing each other, playing at hide-and-seek, and any such games as can be invented by childish imaginations and are dear to childish hearts; and outside in the road, a number of poorly clad little mortals, pressing their grimy little faces between the grimier railings, having no heart to play themselves, but filled with a consuming wonder and envy of the joy and gaiety that they sec within. There is nothing to prevent their playing together also; the iron railings are but an imaginary barrier, for the scene

would not be altered if it took place in a public park that was common to all. It is simply that the sight of that brighter and more light-hearted play has robbed them of all pleasure in their own; they can only wistfully watch and wonder, contrasting with a dull feeling of envy the dullness of their own little lives and the brightness of others'. And somehow, it seems to us as if that feeling, engendered in childhood, is carried by most of them all through life, and the attitude of lookerson at the games of a fortunate few is the one that they have adopted then and for always. The old Provençal proverb of "Joy in the streets and sorrow in the house," may be changed with us into "Joy in the house and envy in the streets,"-not a malicious nor an angry envy, but a dull wonder that patiently waits and watches and goes away unsatisfied. Outside the house. they stand in thick ranks upon the pavement to watch the guests that come and go from the entertainment to which they themselves are not bidden; outside the church, the wedding party struggles through crowds of these same idle and listless sightseers; outside the Row, they stand for hours looking at the horses and carriages that pass, gazing with a vacant stare that shows neither pleasure nor any other emotion, always on the outside, always looking on at amusements in which they do not partake. Their attitude is much the same as that of the children outside the Square railings. Five centuries do not seem to have removed the reproach of Froissart, that the English people are wont to take their pleasures moult tristement; for few forms of pleasure can be much more dull and sad than looking on at amusements in which one cannot join. But what a Barmecide's feast must be the perusal of a paper which records all these entertainments! There is little wonder that an appetite for these records, if such an appetite exists, should go on increasing, since it is hardly likely to be surfeited with so unsatisfying a fare. And, indeed, the existence of this appetite is beyond a doubt; not only are the newspapers that are most popular with the masses full of fashionable intelligence and the doings of society, but the novels in which they chiefly delight are those that are occupied with the same theme. Thackeray's production of "Lords and Liveries," by the author of "Dukes and

Déjeuners," is but a faint and feeble imitation of the kind of story that finds a place in a journal that announces itself to be written for the people by the people. Wealth and titles are distributed among the characters with a lavish hand by an author who also rejoices in making his heroes and heroines all supremely beautiful, and supremely virtuous or villainous, as the case may be. It is to be hoped that his readers do not put too great faith in these presentments, otherwise they would have fair reason to regard the aristocracy as made of strange and inhuman monsters. As to the cause of this curious attraction that is exercised by a small portion of society over the imagination of the rest, we can only fall back upon the one already suggested, namely, that the lives of the great mass of the people are to themselves so dull, so unpicturesque, and so devoid of romance and interest, that they get no pleasure from contemplating them, and despair of improving them. And why this should be so it is beyond our power to suggest perhaps it is a matter of temperament, an unchangeable phase of the English character, or perhaps it is that the Puritanism from which the upper classes rebounded so quickly, really succeeded in crushing the gaiety and stifling the merriment of the bulk of the population.

In the last number of a weekly paper of democratic principles, a paper in which the doings of the aristocracy are recorded for admiration upon one sheet, while its vices are lashed on another-a proceeding, by the-way, which at least contains an element of impartiality-there appeared an article which made very severe reflections upon the unequal distribution of pleasure and amusement in this country,-a very able and a very well-written article, but, as it seemed to us at least, a rather illogical and wrong-headed one. The main contention was to the effect that a small portion of the community amused itself too much, and the rest amused itself too little. That might or might not be entirely true; but certainly the later statement was true. But the writer went further yet, and stated that the rest of the community could not amuse itself enough because that small portion amused itself too much. That, to characterize it mildly, is simple nonsense. It is to suppose that a certain and limited amount of amusement has been thrown into the world to be

scrambled for, and that the upper classes have grabbed more than their fair share. Ridiculous though this supposition is, it seems to have taken a strong hold on the imaginations of the working classes. As a matter of fact, we believe, the laboring ma has just as much leisure at his disposal as the hard-working professional man, and, as leisure is almost the only condition by which amusement is limited, he has just as much opportunity for amusement. That he does not profit by it, is entirely his own fault; and if his life in consequence is dull and monotonous, he has only himself to blame. For what does the man want? He is not a baby, that has to be fed with pleasure as with a spoon. It is hard to believe that the "poor working man,' as he loves to describe himself, is quite so poor-spirited a creature, quite so devoid of will and initiative, that he cannot amuse himself. Nevertheless, that seems to be the main idea entertained by himself and his friends, that the only possible pleasures and amusements in this world have been wickedly monopolized by the wealthier classes, and that there is nothing left for him but to look on from the outside, no other interest but to watch others at play. It is a thousand pities that he does not know how to amuse himself better, for, as the writer of that article justly remarked, the measure of enjoyment is largely dependent upon the amount of labor or pain by which it is preceded, and, consequently, a hard-working man bas a greater capacity for enjoyment than any other. We believe that there are people who have undertaken the charitable task of teaching the East-End Londoner how to enjoy himself. Probably there is no other country in the world-certainly no other that we have ever heard of-in which such a lesson would be necessary.

For what other European nation is there in which the lower classes are content to trail behind the lead of a fashionable few, like the draggled tail of a kite? to inherit their cast-off clothes and finery, and to copy humbly their folly and extravagance? The sturdy independence of the Continental peasant which causes him to cling to his own dress, as better suited to the requirements of his life, and infinitely more comfortable and picturesque than that of his wealthier neighbors, causes him also to cling to his own distinctive customs and amusements, to make his own music, to

« ZurückWeiter »