Mr. Odo Russell has explained in his own way the
language which Mr. Gladstone tried to explain away into the mouth of Count Bismarck, and his own way is very explicit. He did use it, and he supposed himself warranted in using it,—because England is bound by the tripartite Treaty of the 15th April, 1856, to consider any infraction of that Treaty a casus belli,—because Russia had announced her intention to break some of the stipula- tions of that Treaty,which involved renouncing the whole Treaty,— because the British Government had declared that it was impossible to give any sanction to the course of Russia, and had not said anything to weaken the promise that they would consider a breach of the Treaty as a casus belli,—and because France being otherwise engaged, and Austria unprepared, it was quite obvious that if we went to war, we might be compelled to go to war without allies. Of this succinct statement of Mr. Odo Russell's reasons for using to Count Bismarck the language he did, Mr. Gladstone has now expressed his approval. Would it not have been better if he had given perhaps the ablest envoy in the British service this sort of support at the time when his authority to state what he did was first questioned ?
