What does it all mean ? What Lord Stratford de
Redcliffe thinks clearly attainable, what Lord Granville and Lord Russell and Mr. Gladstone all treat as practicable, cannot be impossible for any reason but this, that neither Lord Beaconsfield nor Lord Derby will hear of it. Austria is the only great Power which is in the least disposed to offer a steady opposition to the plan of autonomy ; and even with her it is not the diplomatic opinion of Vienna, but the diplomatic opinion of Buda-Pesth that objects so tenaciously. Lord Beaconsfield's difficulties are in his own heart. He loves the Turk, and hates the Christian States of Turkey because they have persecuted the Jews ; and that is probably the real explana- tion of the front of triple brass which Lord Beaconsfield opposes
to a policy as pacific as any other now, pregnant (which his own is not) with peace for the future, and sustained (which, again, his own is not) by the enthusiastic support of the nation which he rules.
