Ever since Lord Carnarvon spoke, however, efforts have been made
to whittle away the meaning of his words. He is declared to have spoken for himself alone, to have been most imprudent, and to have pursued a separate policy ; while the Telegraph, in an article of would-be stateliness and moderation, ventures to inti- mate that he was at once sent for to Osborne to be rebuked by the Queen. All these stories, and especially the last, are probably the result of the furious disappointment with which the pro- Turkish party, and especially the Telegraph, which has been posi- tively raving, regard the abandonment of the idea of war ; but it is evidently high time that Parliament should meet. The Premier is absolutely untrustworthy on this question ; friendly counsel rapidly degenerates into intervention ; and the country must tell him in plain terms that it will not go to war to protect an evil despotism, even though he describes that war as a war for British interests. Some of this fog wants clear- ing away, or with such a pilot the ships will be afoul of one another while the passengers are asleep. We never remember a more dangerous crisis, or one in which the advocates of wrong were more energetic, or less under the influence of reason.
