owever, maintain that Mr. Gladstone's and Lord
Granville's diplomatic dealings with Germany in the years 1884 and 1885
displayed most lamentable weakness, even when Dr. Peters and others were
known to be working hard at the back of Zanzibar, with the results that
have been noted. In April 1885 the Cabinet ordered Sir John Kirk,
British representative at Zanzibar, and founder of the hitherto
unchallenged supremacy of his nation along that coast, forthwith to undo
the work of a lifetime by "maintaining friendly relations" with the
German authorities at that port. This, of course, implied a tacit
acknowledgment by Britain of what amounted to a German protectorate over
the mainland possessions of the Sultan. It is not often that a
Government, in its zeal for "live and let live," imposes so humiliating
a task on a British representative. The Sultan did not take the serene
and philosophic view of the situation that was held at Downing Street,
and the advent of a German squadron was necessary in order to procure
his consent to these arrangements (August-December 1885.)[430]

[Footnote 430: J. Scott Keltie, _The Partition of Africa_, ch. xv.]

The Blue Book dealing with Zanzibar (Africa, No. 1, 1886) by no means
solves the riddle of the negotiations which went on between London and
Berlin early in the year 1885. From other sources we know that the most
ardent of the German colonials were far from satisfied with their
triumph. Curious details have appeared showing that their schemes
included the laying of a trap for the Sultan of Zanzibar, which failed
owing to clumsy baiting and the loquacity of the would-be captor. Lord
Rosebery also managed, according to German accounts, to get the better
of Count Herbert Bismarck in respect of St. Lucia Bay (see page 528)
and districts on the Benue River; so that this may perhaps be placed
over against the losses sustained by Britain on the coast opposite
Zanzibar. Even there, as we have seen, results did not fully correspond
to the high hopes entertained by the German Chauvinists[431].

[Footnote 431: _Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History_, vol. iii.
pp. 135, 144-45. Parl. Papers, Africa, No. 1 (1886), pp. 39-45, 61 _et
seq_.; also No. 3 (1886), pp. 4, 15.]

In the meantime (June 1885) the Salisbury Cabinet came into office for a
short time, but the evil effects of the slackness of British diplomacy
were not yet at an end. At this time British merchants, especially those
of Manches