LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
MINISTERIAL BOASTS. (TO THE EDT TOR OF THE ',SPECTATOR.") Sia,—The orators of the Government—especially Lord Salis- bury and Sir M. Hicks-Beach—have been loudly boasting that they made the peace and kept the Russians out of Constantin- ople. The decisive answer is in the dates. Their bluster did not begin, the famous Circular was not written, till after the Treaty of San Stefano, by which both these objects were se- cured. The tendency of their proceedings after the peace was signed was to risk a renewal of the war, without any adequate means of taking an effective part in it ; for they had nothing that could be called an- army ready for a Turkish campaign, and it is absurd to suppose that they could have driven back the Russians with a fleet. The real check to Russia came from two of the Great Powers—Germany and Austria—who had intimated to Russia from the first that she must stop short of Constantinople. Prince Bismarck is well known to have put a veto on her entering it (as the Germans entered Paris) merely an a triumph. The menacing attitude of the British Govern- ment, as exhibited by calling out the Reserves, sending for six or seven thousand troops from India, Sm., produced no effect, as is sufficiently clear from their resort to the Salisbury- Schouvalow Memorandum. This was a diplomatic triumph to Russia, for by it all the points she most cared about (such as the cession of Bessarabia) were given up ; and (reserving these) she had always expressed her readiness to submit the Treaty to the Congress. It was never considered or put forward as a final arrangement as regards the distribution of territory. At the Congress, Count Schouvalow might have addressed Lord Beaconsfield in the language of Virgil :— " Non me tun fervidn, torrent Dicta, ferox : Dii me torrent, et Jupiter hostis."
The Jupiter of the situation was Prince Bismarck, and it was by his aid that the British representatives carried the two Bul- garian, which (after probably more disturbance and bloodshed) must eventually become one. It was he who really dictated the Treaty of Berlin.
Lord Salisbury and Sir M. Hicks-Beach say that if the Liberal party had been in office, the Russians would be in Con- stantinople. If the Liberal party had been in office when the Eastern difficulty arose, England would have united cordially with the other Great Powers in compelling the Turks to sub- mit to the Conference ; there would have been no Russian in- vasion; Turkey would not have been what Lord Salisbury calls "consolidated "and other people call "dismembered ;" and (prolt pudor !) we should not be the proud and happy possessors of
Previous page
