Mr. Bright addressed the representatives in the evening, and wag
as outspoken as the delegates. In a magnificent speech,
full of his ancient fire, he reviewed the conduct of the Government in spending the 16,000,000 recklessly, after the Commons had been assured that they would probably not be spent at all ; in having determined on a policy which neither Lord Carnarvon nor Lord Derby could endure, though the latter must have suffered terribly in separating himself from Lord Beaconsfield ; in representing that the Fleet was sent into the Sea of Marmora for the protection of British interests, when it was now acknowledged that it was sent there as a menace ; in declaring before Parliament adjourned that nothing was about to happen, when they were about to import thousands of Mahom- medan soldiers to fight against the Christian nation of Russia ; and in neglecting the House of Commons, which "either dare not ask information, or when it asks is denied." This Government was the only obstacle to the Congress. The "British interests dodge has been dropped," and we are to go to war for European law, which outside these Islands nobody understands. The Premier is the only real disturber of the nation, and his object is to restore Turkey, to sustain "that terrible oppression, that multitudinous crime which we call the Ottoman Government." That Minister for forty years had never been known to do any- thing of his own free mind for the advancement of the country, and no drop of English blood should be shed at his bidding. The speech, which was much stronger as well as, of course, more eloquent than our sketch, was received throughout with a rapture of applause.
