In 1897 we again see Lord Salisbury directing the
destinies of the mighty empire--a task of exceptional difficulty, now
that the gravest complications exist in Europe itself and in Africa.
The horrors suffered by the Armenian subjects of the Turk have called
for intervention by the great powers; but no sooner had Turkish
reforms been promised in response to the joint note of Great Britain,
France, and Russia, than new troubles began in Crete, its people
rising in arms to shake off the Turkish yoke.
Meanwhile our occupation of Egypt is compelling us to use armed force
against the wild, threatening dervishes in the Soudan, and
well-grounded uneasiness is felt as to the position and action of our
countrymen in Southeastern Africa in connexion with the Boer republic
of the Transvaal. The British South Africa Chartered Company, formed
in 1889, adventurous and ambitious, loomed large in men's eyes during
1896, when the historic and disastrous raid of Dr. Jameson and his
followers startled the civilised world. The whole story of that
enterprise is yet to unfold; but it has added considerably to the
embarrassments of the British government.
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