The speech was a fine one, and leaves on the
careful reader the impression that Mr. Gladstone sees a method in which this country, even if it had to act alone, could apply coercion, but the actual method suggested is not a. strong one. Mr Gladstone makes no proposal by which an ally could be secured, he repudiates the idea of even causing a Europear war, and he recommends a course, the breaking off of rela- tions, which would, or at all events might, leave the Sultan more independent than at present. Abd-ul-Hamid, it is evident, possesses a bad kind of political courage in a very high degree, and if he quietly bowed farewell to the British Ambassador, and ordered a massacre next day, we should not only have failed but we should be ridiculous. It is as if a policeman said to a burglar, "If you murder that old gentleman I will never speak to you again." No doubt, as Mr. Gladstone says, the British people would retain their freedom of action ; but how does Sir P. Currie's presence in Constantinople interfere with that ? The notion of British complicity in crime, because a British agent watches and remonstrates against acts which he has neither legal nor physical power to prevent, is surely overstrained. The country must act more decisively than that, and the method, the only method, is to come to an understanding with the Czar.
