Lord Salisbury on Monday delivered two speeches, one in the
House of Lords and one at Merchant Taylors' School, in which he severely satirised the recent outbreak of Russophobia, the de- mand "to declare war against a nightmare." His speeches, which we have described sufficiently elsewhere, have greatly irritated the friends of Turkey, who like ridicule as little as Mr. Urquhart did ; but it must be observed that Lord Derby cordially approved the second and stronger of them, declaring it full of "admirable arguments." The "greatest of British interests was, in his judg- ment, the interest of peace." He added a most characteristic sentence. "Having attended to foreign politics for many years, no conviction has been so strongly impressed on my mind as the utter incapacity, I do not say of the average man, but of the wise man, to foresee coming events." Lord Hammond would entirely agree with that opinion, and so would Count Beru3t, but would Prince Bismarck, or any other statesman to whom Pro- vidence has given the gift of forecast? The "eye only sees what it brings the power of seeing," in politics, as in everything else.
