The Home Secretary, Sir Matthew White Ridley, was entertained at
dinner by the Northern Conservative Club at Newcastle-on-Tyne on Tuesday, and made a speech from which it would appear that the majority of the Ministers,—so far at least as they have confided their intentions to the full Cabinet,—regard their efforts to save the Armenians as, on the whole, vain ; and have made up their minds not to risk a great European war, by separating themselves from "the Concert of Europe." " He thought there was hardly any responsible statesman who would be rash enough to urge independent action, to take independent action, or to encourage independent action, which would have the effect of stirring into flame those ingredients which existed in such a marked degree in that portion of the East, and which were ready to spring into flames and might bring about a European war." If that sentence speaks the mind of Lord Salisbury, we must infer that the Armenian cause is virtually abandoned in despair. And if that be so, we must admit that England has lost greatly in relative influence since the beginning of this cen- tury, since even the great wrongs which she voluntarily assumed a special responsibility for terminating, it is now beyond her power to forbid. That does not exactly add to our pride in bearing the English name.
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