The presentleader of the Howie of Commons evidently felt in
a moment the necessity of putting a new face on the pur- poses of the AdMinistration, and in his speech at Edinburgh on Saturday afternoon, after insistiag on the necessity of not using language by which the nation Was not afterwards prepared to abide, and exciting hopes which they could not fulfil, he went on to traverse directly Lord Derby's assertion that he was sticking to the policy of the last fifty or sixty years, and the assertion made on his behalf by almost all his exponents that he was counter- mining the schemes of Russia, and to deny that " in the course which has been pursued by her Majesty's Government, we have been diverted, either by a superstitious respect for her traditional policy, or by an unworthy jealousy of the great empire of Russia," from taking the course which seemed the wisest and best. " We have long known that it was our duty, we accept the duty, weacceptit as freely as any of those who challenge us could wish, to fulfil the moral obligationinto which this country entered by the Treaty of 1856, at the close of the Crimeanwar, to use its efforts to protect the Christ- ians of the Turkish provinces frommisgovernment." [Lord Derby, it- will be remembered, expressly disavowed our having any greater obligation in this respect than France, or any greater power than any other European Government.] " We know now, from the terrible emphasis with which these words have been spoken from Bulgaria, what the misgovernment of Turkey means ; and be assured that the revelations which have been made have in no degree weakened the sense of duty with which we have been im- pressed." [No, but has it strengthened it, in either the Prime Minister's mind or the Foreign Secretary's?] "We know now that it is a question which 'must be dealt with firmly and vigor- ously, but it is question with which England cannot deal alone." No one ever-suggested so wild and impracticable a proposal. What is desired is, -as Mr. Gladstone says, that England should endea- vour to "guide the chariot of Europe, and be no longer :the drag upon the wheel." Sir Stafford Northcote would evidently be glad to assist in the former operation, but Lord Beaconsfield and Lord Derby work the drag, and even insist on putting it on when "the chariot" is going up-hill.
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