Lord Beaconsfield, in one of the most apologetic and, at
the same time, most unhistorical of his speeches, re- pudiated the sneer against Russia; found excuses, which turn out to be quite imaginary, for the incredulity and bad information of the Government as to the Bulgarian massacres ; and stuck to it that the great feat of Lord Salisbury had been to get the Great Powers to recognise afresh the territorial integrity and independence of the Ottoman Empire. But it is remarkable enough that while in his Aylesbury speech Lord Beaconafield spoke of the plan of setting up a chain of autonomous States between Turkey and the Danube, as a wild scheme which " out-Heroded the most extravagant con- ceptions," he spoke of that scheme on Tuesday night as "the Russian plan, deserving of all respect," "worthy of a statesman and worthy of the deepest consideration." Lord Beaconsfield's " words " are not so much expressions of what is within, as instruments intended to mould what is without. Un- fortunately they will not long serve the latter purpose, if they are known not to answer the former.
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