The Politics of British Foreign Policy in the Era of Disraeli and Gladstone
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE POLITICS OF BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY IN THE ERA OF DISRAELI AND GLADSTONE Marvin Swartz M in association with MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan © Marvin Swartz 1985 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1985 978-0-333-38255-4 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save WIth written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1985 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Swartz, Marvin The politics of British foreign policy in the era of Disraeli and Gladstone. 1. Great Britain - Foreign relations - 19th century I. Title 327.41 DA530 ISBN 978-1-349-17840-7 ISBN 978-1-349-17838-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-17838-4 THE POLITICS OF BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY IN THE ERA OF DISRAELI AND GLADSTONE St Antony's/Macmil/an Series General editor: Archie Brown, Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford Said Amir Arjomand (editor) FROM NATIONALISM TO REVOLUTIONARY ISLAM Anders Aslund PRIVATE ENTERPRISE IN EASTERN EUROPE Archie Brown (editor) POLITICAL CULTURE AND COMMUNIST STUDIES Archie Brown and Michael Kaser (editors) SOVIET POLICY FOR THE 1980s S. B. Burman CHIEFDOM POLITICS AND ALIEN LAW Renfrew Christie ELECTRICITY, INDUSTRY AND CLASS IN SOUTH AFRICA Robert O. Collins and Francis M. Deng (editors) THE BRITISH IN THE SUDAN, 1898-1956 Wilhelm Deist THE WEHRMACHT AND GERMAN REARMAMENT Julius A. Elias PLATO'S DEFENCE OF POETRY Ricardo Ffrench-Davis and Ernesto Tironi (editors) LATIN AMERICA AND THE NEW INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORDER Bohdan Harasymiw POLITICAL ELITE RECRUITMENT IN THE SOVIET UNION Neil Harding (editor) THE STATE IN SOCIALIST SOCIETY Richard Holt SPORT AND SOCIETY IN MODERN FRANCE Albert Hourani EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST Albert Hourani THE EMERGENCE OF THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST J. R. Jennings GEORGES SOREL A. Kemp-Welch (translator) THE BIRTH OF SOLIDARITY Paul Kennedy and Anthony Nicholls (editors) NATIONALIST AND RACIALIST MOVEMENTS IN BRITAIN AND GERMANY BEFORE 1914 Richard Kindersley (editor) IN SEARCH OF EUROCOMMUNISM Bohdan Krawchenko SOCIAL CHANGE AND NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY UKRAINE Gisela C. Lebzelter POLITICAL ANTI-SEMITISM IN ENGLAND. 1918-1939 Nancy Lubin LABOUR AND NATIONALITY IN SOVIET CENTRAL ASIA C. A. MacDonald THE UNITED STATES , BRITAIN AND APPEASEMENT, 1936-1939 Patrick O'Brien (editor) RAILWAYS AND THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF WESTERN EUROPE, 1830-1914 Roger Owen (editor) STUDIES IN THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF PALESTINE IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES Irena Powell WRITERS AND SOCIETY IN MODERN JAPAN T. H. Rigby and Ferenc Feher (editors) POLITICAL LEGITIMATION IN COMMUNIST STATES Marilyn Rueschemeyer PROFESSIONAL WORK AND MARRIAGE A. J. R. Russell-Wood THE BLACK MAN IN SLAVERY AND FREEDOM IN COLONIAL BRAZIL Aron Shai BRITAIN AND CHINA, 1941-47 Lewis H. Siegelbaum THE POLITICS OF INDUSTRIAL MOBILIZATION IN RUSSIA, 1914-17 David Stafford BRITAIN AND EUROPEAN RESISTANCE, 1940-1945 Nancy Stepan THE IDEA OF RACE IN SCIENCE Marvin Swartz THE POLITICS OF BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY IN THE ERA OF DISRAELI AND GLADSTONE Guido di Tella ARGENTINA UNDER PER6N, 1973-76 Rosemary Thorp (editor) LATIN AMERICA IN THE 1930s Rosemary Thorp and Laurence Whitehead (editors) INFLATION AND STABILISATION IN LATIN AMERICA Rudolf L. Tokes (editor) OPPOSITION IN EASTERN EUROPE To my sons Jonathan and Reuben Contents Preface ix List ofAbbreviations xi Introduction 1 1 Imperial and Continental Commitments 6 2 Party Politics in the Eastern Question 31 3 The Stress of Politics 51 4 The Politician as Diplomatist 82 5 Popular Politics 103 6 Imperialism in Egypt 123 Conclusion 145 Appendix A: Montagu Corry's Report to Lord Beaconsfield on the Salford By-election of 19 April 1877 155 Appendix B: Letter from the Conservative Chief Whip , Read to the Cabinet on 23 January 1878 157 Appendix C: A View of the Eastern Crisis from Printing House Square 159 Archival Sources 164 Notes 167 Index 214 vii Preface I must record my gratitude for permission to consult collections of unpublished papers in the list of Archival Sources to Lord Medway and the Suffolk Record Office (Cranbrook Papers); the Liverpool City Libraries (Derby Papers); the Directors of the Goodwood Estate Company Limited and the West Sussex Record Office and the County Archivist; Lord St Aldw yn and the Gloucestershire Record Office (Hicks Beach Papers); the Northamptonshire Record Office (Hunt Papers); the Hon. David Lytton Cobbold and the Hertford shire Record Office ; Lord Clarendon, Lord Harcourt, and the Bodleian Library; Lord Halifax (Hickleton Papers), the Directors of Matheson & Co. Ltd , and the University Library, Cambridge; the Birmingham University Library (Chamberlain Papers); the Library of the University of Newcastle (Trevelyan Papers); Times News papers Ltd; the Hon. David Smith (Hambleden Papers); and the National Trust (Hughenden Papers). Lord Derby, the Duke of Devonshire and the Trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement, and Lord Salisbury kindly allowed me to study family papers. Use of material from the Royal Archives is by the gracious permi ssion of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Quotations from Crown copyright records in the Public Record Office appear by permission of the Controller of H . M. Stationery Office . I can mention here only a few of the many people who aided me in my research. They include R. A. H. Smith of the Department of Manuscripts at the British Library; David Aronson; T. I. Rae of the National Library of Scotland; Robert Mackworth-Young and Jane Langton and her colleagues at Windsor Castle; Pauline Dower; Gordon Phillips of The Times; Barbara North, Barbara Tempest and Patrick Wall of the National Trust, Hughenden Manor; Peter Raynor and Diana Kay at Knowsley Hall; T. S. Wragg and Peter Day at Chatsworth House; and J. F. A. Mason of Christ Church, Oxford, and R. H . Harcourt Williams at Hatfield House. Other librarians and archivists helped me at the University Library and the Seeley Historical Library, Cambridge; the Public Record Office ; the IX x Preface British Library; and the Library of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The Graduate Council of that university gave financial support during the early stages of this project; and the under standing of colleagues enabled me to take necessary leaves of absence. I wish to thank the Master, President and Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge, for the privileges which they extended to me. For their hospitality, I remember the President and Fellows of Clare Hall, Cambridge, and especially Derrik and Sheila Adams. To fellow historians I wish to record my debt. James Joll, Arno Mayer and Zara Steiner read all or large parts of an earlier version of the manuscript. Derek Beales and especially Henry Pelling made me welcome in Cambridge. F. H. Hinsley , despite more pressing duties , repeatedly took the trouble to assist me in important ways. The Warden and Fellows of St Antony's College, Oxford, par ticularly Archie Brown, have been interested in my work . Agatha Ramm made numerous helpful suggestions. I alone , of course, am responsible for any errors and all interpretations. Amherst, M. SWARTZ Massachusetts List of Abbreviations Balfour P. Arthur Balfour Papers (British Library, British Museum, London) Bright P. John Bright Papers (BL) B.T. Board of Trade files (Public Record Office, London) CAB Reports of Cabinet meetings (PRO) Cairns P. Cairns Papers (PRO) Card. P. Edward Cardwell Papers (PRO) Carn. D. Carnarvon Diary (BL) Carn. P. Carnarvon Papers (PRO) Carn. P. (BL) Carnarvon Papers (BL) Clar. P. Clarendon Papers (Bodleian Library, Oxford) C.O. Colonial Office files (PRO) Cr. P. R. A. Cross Papers (BL) Cran. P. Cranbrook (G. Gathorne Hardy) Papers (Ipswich & East Suffolk RO) D. Cab. Min. Derby, Cabinet Minutes, February-March 1878 (Knowsley Hall) D.D. Derby Diary (Knowsley) Delane Corr. , J. T. Delane Correspondence, or Papers or P. (Archives of The Times, London) Dev. P. Devonshire (Hartington, also Duchess of Manchester) Papers (Chatsworth House) Dilke P. Sir Charles W. Dilke Papers (BL) Disraeli P. Benjamin Disraeli Papers (BL) D.P. Derby (15th Earl) Papers (Liverpool City Libraries) Escott P. T. H. S. Escott Papers (BL) F.O. Foreign Office files, departmental and private (PRO) Glad. P. William Ewart Gladstone Papers (BL) Goodwood Ms. Richmond (6th Duke) Papers , in Goodwood Manuscripts (West Sussex RO, Chichester) Gran.P. Granville Papers (PRO) xi xii List of Abbreviations Hamb. P. Hambleden (W. H. Smith) Papers (Archives of W. H. Smith & Son, London) Hamilton P. Edward W. Hamilton Papers (BL) Harcourt P. Sir William V. Harcourt Papers (Bodleian) H.B.P. Sir Michael Hicks Beach Papers (Gloucestershire RO, Gloucester) Hick. P. Hickleton (Halifax) Papers (microfilm, University Library, Cambridge) H.O. Home Office files (PRO) H.P. Hughenden (B. Disraeli, also Philip Rose) Papers (Hughenden Manor; now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford) Hunt P. George Ward Hunt Papers (Northamptonshire RO, Delapre Abbey, Northampton) Idd . P. Iddesleigh (Sir Stafford Northcote) Papers (BL) JC Joseph Chamberlain Papers (Birmingham University Library) Lyt. P. Lytton (Edward Robert Bulwer) Papers (Hertfordshire RO , Hertford) M&B W. F. Monypenny and G. E. Buckle, The Life ofBenjamin Disraeli, Earl ofBeaconsfield (London, 1910-20, 6 vols) Mepol. Metropolitan Police files (PRO) Morley, Gladstone John Morley, The Life ofWilliam Ewart Gladstone (London, 1903; 1906 edn, 2 vols) P.H.S. P. Printing House Square (The Times) Papers (archives of The Times) QVL G. E. Buckle (ed.), The Letters of Queen Victoria, second series, 1862-1885 (London, 1926-28,3 vols) RA Royal Archives (Windsor Castle) Ramm, Corr.