The great debate on Lord Hartington's motion regretting the disappointment
of the hopes of the Greeks, the vast and ill- considered responsibilities of the Anglo-Turkish Convention, and the unconstitutional course of deciding on so vast a change in policy without consulting Parliament or the country, commenced on Monday, with an able though somewhat frigid speech from Lord Hartington, in which he apparently forgot altogether to touch on the Constitutional point. There is just the defect of Lord Hartington as a leader. His judgment is sound ; his courage is unquestioned ; his sense amounts to sagacity ; and he is never feeble ; but after all, his heart is, comparatively speaking, so little in politics, that he is even apt to forget the chief point of his case. What he did say was exceedingly good. His criticism on the Treaty of Berlin was moderate in the extreme. He charged the Government only with being one of the coldest in relation to Greece,instead of one of the most favourable ; but on thewhole,the arrangements of the Congress were to Lord Hartington the sub- ject, at worst, of what Lord Beaconsfield called "congratula- tory regrets." He was, however, much more animated in his attack on the Anglo-Turkish Convention,which he agreed with Mr. Glad- stone was insane. He could not understand why Lord Beacons- field thought that it ensured any prompter action on England's part in the future than had been found possible in the past. Why should any future Government act in a manner exactly the reverse of that of Lord Beaconsfield's own Government? If there were in his own case "a hesitation for a time, a want of decision, a want of firmness," why should the Government which might be called to act under the Anglo-Turkish Convention exhibit a different attitude ? That Convention had hastened the time at which a collision with Russia was probable by at least one hundred years, and extended the frontier of possible collision by at least 1,000 miles. And the object of his resolution was, he said, to prepare the
way for the retirement of the country, as soon as might be, from this rash and ill-advised engagement.
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