Lord Northbrook made a grave and well-considered speech on the
two Treaties, from the point of view of an Indian Viceroy. He maintained that the only route by which Russia can attack India is that of Persia, and that therefore the Asiatic territory of Turkey was not " on the line." " The power of Russia is a bugbear, conjured up by her Majesty's Government." He disbelieved that Mussulmans in India or anywhere else would approve of our forcibly reforming the Sultan's Government, and held that the necessary reforms, particularly the first of all—an improvement of the condi- tion of the peasantry—could not be made by Turkey, from absence of resources. No reforms would be made, and we should then be in the position of guaranteeing a country intolerably mal- administered. The English people would never bear that, and we should have to annex a ruined country, with millions of Mahommedans in it, who could never be contented under our rule. His Lordship evidently thought, though he did not dis- tinctly say, that being discontented, they might ally themselves with the Indian Mahommedans, and so shake down both empires.
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