FINAL ADDRESS TO HIS CONSTITUENTS.

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Commons. Writing to the electors of Buckinghamshire on the 21st of August, 1876, he said :

"Gentlemen,―The Queen having been graciously pleased to summon me to the House of Peers, I return to you the trust which for so many years you have confided to me as your member in the House of Commons, an assembly in which I have passed the greatest part of my life. It has been a period of trying occasions and memorable events, and if I have been permitted to take some part in their management and control, next to the favour of our Sovereign I am deeply conscious I am indebted for that opportunity to the fidelity of your feelings. Throughout my public life I have aimed at two chief results. Not insensible to the principle of progress, I have endeavoured to reconcile change with that respect for tradition which is one of the main elements of our social strength; and in external affairs I have endeavoured to develop and strengthen our empire, believing that a combination of achievement and responsibility elevates the character and condition of a people. It is not without emotion that I terminate a connection endeared to me by many memories and many ties; but I have the consolation of recollecting that, though I cease to be your member, I shall still have the happiness of living among you, and that though not directly your representative, I may yet, in another House of Parliament, have the privilege of guarding over your interests and your honour.

"Your deeply obliged and ever faithful servant,

"B. DISRAELI."

CHAPTER XV.

THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD.

A partial retirement-Speech from the throne-Mr. Gladstone on "Bulgarian Horrors”—Accusations against the Government-Liberal sympathy with Eastern Christians-Lord Beaconsfield's defence of his policy-Speech at Aylesbury-Why he accepted a peerage-The state of the country-Work of the Government-A Policy of peace-Mr. Gladstone's "bag and baggage" policyA silent Minister-Russian pressure on the Porte-At the Lord Mayor's dinner -Why the Berlin Note was rejected-The Andrassy note-A Policy of Peace -Russia defiant-Lord Salisbury at the Conference-The Turkish Constitution-Collapse of the Conference-The Session of 1876-The Queen's Speech -Debate on the Address-Speeches of the Duke of Argyll and Lord Granville -Lord Beaconsfield's reply-Russian negotiations-Declaration of warMr. Cross's explanation-Mr. Pigott's case-A declaration of policy-Prorogation The Government misrepresented-At the Guildhall—England's policy a patriotic one— -Speeches of Sir Stafford Northcote and Lord Salisbury— The patience of the Government-Surrender of Plevna-Mr. Layard's appointment-Opening of Parliament-Lord Beaconsfield's Speech-The Fleet ordered to Besika Bay-Retirement of Lords Carnarvon and Derby-The vote of £6,000,000-Treaty of San Stefano-Calling out the Reserves-The Queen's Message-Indian troops brought to Malta-The Congress decided on-The Cyprus Convention-Lord Beaconsfield's statement-The Congress at BerlinReturn of the Plenipotentiaries-Speech in the Lords-Banquet at Knightsbridge-Lord Beaconsfield on the "sophistical rhetorician "-Freedom of the City-Trouble in Afghanistan-Session of 1878-An Amendment to the Address-Division in the Lords-Zulu War-Sir Bartle Frere-Why not recalled-At the Guildhall-Imperium et Libertas-Mr. Gladstone in MidLothian-Session of 1880-A Meagre Programme-Home Rule-Letter to the Duke of Marlborough-The elections of 1880-Out of office once moreRural retirement-Endymion-On the abandonment of Candahar-Failing strength-Last weeks-Conclusion.

WITH the retirement of Lord Beaconsfield from the House of Commons to the serener atmosphere of the Upper Chamber, his public life naturally became somewhat circumscribed. Up to the close of 1876 he had lived in the fullest blaze of publicity, but thenceforward he was, though as powerful in all respects, hidden to a great extent from public view. Until the history of our times comes to be written by the help of those documents, of which so great a mass is accumulating from day to day, it is, of course, impossible for even the most zealous biographer to follow in detail the influence which he brought to bear upon public affairs. All that can be done is to trace as accurately as may be the course of his public appearances, remembering always that throughout his Administration the Prime

MR. GLADSTONE'S PAMPHLET.

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Minister was, as Mr. Bernal Osborne said on a memorable occasion, "the Government in himself."

When the House adjourned on the 15th of August, 1876, the Speech from the Throne naturally gave an important place to the Eastern Question. The first paragraph, after the usual assurances of friendship with foreign Powers, ran as follows:-"The efforts which, in common with other Powers, I have made to bring about a settlement of the differences unfortunately existing between the Porte and its Christian subjects in Bosnia and Herzegovina have hitherto been unsuccessful, and the conflict begun in those provinces has extended to Servia and Montenegro. Should a favourable opportunity present itself I shall be ready, in concert with my allies, to offer my good offices for the purpose of mediation between the contending parties, bearing in mind alike the duties imposed upon me by treaty obligations, and those which arise from considerations of humanity and policy." A paragraph such as this may be thought to be open to no hostile criticism, and certainly to require no defence. The claims of humanity are recognised: considerations of policy are not neglected, and treaty obligations are placed, as they should be, in a prominent position. Mr. Gladstone, however, saw in this declaration of the attitude of the Government an opportunity for making an effective attack. Early in the month of September therefore he brought out the first of that series of pamphlets and magazine articles in which he expounded his hostility to the Government and his Panslavonic leanings. "Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East" was dedicated to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, and may be summed up as consisting in a violent assault upon the Tory Government in the shape of an attack upon the mal-administration of the Ottoman Empire. Mr. Gladstone is compelled at the outset to admit that the policy of England was " entangled by many cross purposes," and that the people of England, recognising this fact, had reposed great confidence in the Government. That confidence, he does not hesitate to say, was abused, and as a result England was "involved in some amount, at least, of moral complicity with the basest and blackest outrages upon record within the present century, if not within the memory of man." The Government was accused of ousting the House of Commons from its legitimate share of influence in the matter, and then Mr. Gladstone went on to describe certain excited Liberal meetings at which the subject had been dealt with as having "shown that the great heart of Britain had not ceased to beat." What followed is perhaps a little surprising. The nation, having demonstrated this interesting physiological fact, was bound, according to the ex-Leader of the Liberals, "to teach its Government, almost as a lisping child, what to say. Then," went on Mr. Gladstone, in emphatic italics, "then will be taken out of the way of an United Europe the sole efficient obstacle to the punishment of a gigantic wrong."

The object of the pamphlet here is allowed to appear. "There have been perpetrated," said Mr. Gladstone, "under the immediate authority of a Government to which all the time we have been giving the strongest

66

moral, and for the time even material support, crimes and outrages so vast in scale as to exceed all modern example, and so unutterably vile, as well as fierce, in character that it passes the power of heart to conceive, and of tongue and pen adequately to describe them. There are the Bulgarian horrors; and the question is, 'What can and should be done, either to punish, or to brand, or to prevent?'" The Porte he holds to be mainly responsible. But the English Ministry are hardly less to blame. "They have been remiss when they ought to have been active; namely, in efforts to compose the Eastern revolts by making provision against the terrible mis-government which provoked them. They have been active where they ought to have been circumspect and guarded. It is a grave charge which cannot be withheld, that they have given to a maritime measure of humane precaution the character of a military demonstration in support of the Turkish Government." Then follows the definite indictment against the Ministry. They did not, it would seem, at once swallow all the stories told by the special correspondent of the Daily News and of Mr. Schuyler which Mr. Gladstone, as one who was among the authors of the Crimean War," considers sufficiently to establish "the facts in gross." The gravest part of the inquiry Mr. Gladstone considers to be as to the share of the British Government in these horrors. First, he indicts the despatch of the British Fleet to Besika Bay-not because such a step was unnecessary, but because it encouraged the Turk, "in the humour of resistance.' The Government had been silent, and that in Mr. Gladstone's eyes was even worse than for the Government to have spoken. Apparently he wished the whole world to be taken into the confidence of the administration whose policy he naturally desired should be shaped by the views of the Opposition. The presence of the British Fleet in Besika Bay must, he said, be "distinctly declared to be in the interest of humanity alone." "The hobgoblin of Russia is out of repair and unavailable,” but in whatever quarter responsibility may be fixed, "do not," said Mr. Gladstone, "do not let us ask for, do not let us accept Jonahs or scapegoats, either English or Turkish. It is not a change of men that we want, but a change of measures. . . . If we are to talk of changing men, the first question that will arise will be that of our Ministers at home, to whose policy and bias both Ministers and subordinate officers abroad always feel a loyal desire as far as may be to conform." Mr. Gladstone then went on to express his confidence in Lord Derby's "clear impartial mind and unostentatious character," and his conviction that the Foreign Secretary would carry out the wishes of the Opposition, which were :

"1. To put a stop to the anarchical misrule (let the phrase be excused), the plundering, the murdering, which, as we now seem to learn upon sufficient evidence, still desolate Bulgaria.

"2. To make effectual provision against the recurrence of the outrages recently perpetrated under the sanction of the Ottoman Government, by excluding its administrative action for the future not only from Bosnia and the Herzegovina, but also and above all from Bulgaria; upon which

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at best there will remain for years and for generations the traces of its foul and bloody hand.

"3. To redeem by these measures the honour of the British name, which in the deplorable events of the year has been more gravely compromised than I have known it to be at any former period."

The summing-up of the whole matter may best be given in Mr. Gladstone's own words. "I entreat my countrymen," he 66 says, upon whom far more than perhaps any other people of Europe it depends, to require and to insist that our Government which has been working in one direction shall work in the other, and shall apply all its vigour to concur with the other States of Europe in obtaining the extinction of the Turkish Executive power in Bulgaria. Let the Turks now carry away their abuses in the only possible manner, namely, by carrying off themselves. If it be allowable that the Executive power of Turkey should renew at this great crisis, by permission or authority of Europe, the charter of its existence in Bulgaria, then there is not on record since the beginnings of political society a protest that man has lodged against intolerable Government or a stroke that he has dealt at loathsome tyranny that ought not henceforward to be branded as a crime. But we have not yet fallen to so low a depth of degradation; and it may cheerfully be hoped that before many weeks have passed the wise and energetic counsels of the Powers again united may have begun to afford relief to the overcharged emotion of a shuddering world."

It is not necessary to enter at any length into an analysis of the motives which very obviously underlie this somewhat remarkable pamphlet. Its meaning so far as Englishmen are concerned lies upon the surface, while as regarded the Eastern races it was at once accepted as an indication that the Liberal party-then regarded as a formidable foe to the Government of the day-had definitely espoused the side of the soi-disant Christians of the Turkish Empire, and were ready to aid and abet them in those insurrections against the Ottoman rule of which so many were in preparation under Muscovite auspices. Ere long the tide of complimentary resolutions and addresses from the Eastern Christians began to flow in upon Mr. Gladstone, and under his inspiration the agitation against the Government began to assume somewhat formidable proportions. Under the circumstances a special interest therefore attaches to the only defence which Lord Beaconsfield could put forward at this time. The occasion was a dinner at Aylesbury, offered to him by the agriculturists of the county which he for so long a time represented, in which his popularity remained undiminished from the commencement of his connection with it. In replying to the toast of his health, he explained that his retirement had been caused simply by physical warnings that he could not disregard, and that he was not so young as he had been when he first solicited their suffrages forty-three years before. He had wished, he explained, to retire altogether from the public service, but at the express solicitation of the