I at Saturday, Mr. Gladstone received in the Vestry of
Hawarden Church a deputation intended to plead for the strenuous support of England in obtaining securities against the cruel and intolerable outrages to which the Armenian people are subjected by the Tuikish Pachas and their Km dish neighbours, who find all sorts of excuses for mur- dering Armenian men, outraging their women, and pillaging their houses in Turkish Armenia. Certain Armenians in London and Paris had subscribed to present to the Rector cf Hawarden Church (the Rev. Stephen Gladstone) a silver- gilt chalice for the use of his parishioners. After the presentation, Mr. Gladstone delivered a very effective little speech on the solemn obligation which the Powers of Europe have incurred, after satisfying themselves of the accuracy of the evidence on which the accusation against the rulers of Turkish Armenia is founded, to put an end to this gross and systematic persecution by any means in their power, however severe those means might necessarily be. Mr. Gladstone, however, said very little as to what those means Fhonl d be,—probably because he placed confidence in the present British Government, and wished to leave the choice of means to their discretion. But he denounced the conduct imputed to the Turkish persecutors as "a disgrace to Mahomet the prophet," whom the Turks profess to follow, "a disgrace to civilisation at large, and a curse to mankind." That was strong language, he said, but not too strong. Assuredly not ; but we want something more than strong language. We want gnarantees,—first, that the Turks are not going to exclude from the inquiry the men who are best fitted to expose the true facts; and next, that the British Government is not going to minimise the significance of the evidence, and to acquiesce in very feeble and ineffectual political remedies, when the inquiry has been carried through. "Deeds, not words," should be our policy. Mr. Gladstone hardly said enough on the duty of coercing the Sultan to make of Armenia a separate province under a strong Christian Governor. His speech, however, gave ample proof of his elasticity and returning strength. As he was eighty-five on Saturday, this evidence of returning energy has been eagerly seized on as proof that he might come back to power,—which is very improbable indeed. He leaves on Monday for the Riviera.
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