At the Engineers dinner on Wednesday, Lord Carnarvon made a
speech which cannot have been pleasant reading for some of his colleagues. Lord Derby says he signed the Protocol in the interests of peace alone, and Mr. Hardy says the single point to be considered is the interest of Great Britain, while Lord Beacons- field is known to think that if there is another point deserving of attention, it is the interest of the Turks. Lord Carnarvon, however, has not forgotten the original professions of the Govern- ment, Lord Salisbury's utterances, and he told his audience that while the strictest watchfulness was necessary, and while he hoped the war would-be localised, he trusted that its "issue would be the better government of those fair but unhappy provinces, whose misgovernment has-na doubt been the cause, as it must be in all times to come, which has brought about the impending convulsion." Thesearenot the proper official ideas, which are, as expressed day after day in the Pall Mall Gazette and Lord Derby's speeches, that the cause of the convulsion is not Turkish misgovernment, but Russian ambition, that peace of any kind, however unreal, would put a stop to the " great calamity im- pending ; " and that if Russia would only mind her own business, the slaughter of Christians ad libitum would not produce any catastrophes at all. They are due solely to Russia's effort to put an end to such crimes, in the only possible way,—namely, by abolishing the power that relies on them for safety.
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