3 JUNE 1876, Page 1

The Ministry still refuse to give any clue to their

Eastern policy. Lord Derby on Thursday declined to give any answer at all to questions, and Mr. Disraeli, in reply to .Lord Hartington, would only say that "he trusted it would be unnecessary to present the Berlin Note," that "it would be affectation to deny that the state of affairs was critical in the East," that her Majesty's Government strongly desired peace, and that they had taken "all measures of precaution to maintain the honour and interests of the country." Those, however, are important sentences, and taken together seem to indicate that in certain contingencies her Majesty's Government intend to resist the coercion of Turkey. The French Government deems the situation so serious, that it has pressed Sultan Murad to constitute Bosnia and the Herze- gOvina an autonomous vassal State. '