Mr. Monk tried on Thursday in the House of Commons
to obtain an expression of opinion in favour of Crete, but only elicited a most unsatisfactory and rather audacious speech from Mr. Bourke. The Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs admitted the claims of the islanders, whose condition, he said, had never been "either satisfactory or promising ;" but added that Lord Palmerston thought Crete should belong to Turkey, and that "it was impossible for this country, or any country, to take upon itself to say that any portion of the Turkish dominions should be annexed to a foreign country." Nevertheless, Lord Beaconsfield has taken upon himself to propose that Bosnia, a part of the Turkish dominions, shall be annexed to Austria, a foreign country,—which, like Greece, has not fought. The Government talks with a dozen mouths. When it wants a success, it declares that Batoum must not be surrendered, because it has not been taken ; but when it does not, it hands over Bosnia, which has not even been entered. When it wants to prevent Greece from acting, it promises consideration for its claims ; but when it wants to seem friendly to Turkey, it throws those claims overboard, and coolly tells Cretans, whose title to be Greek is older than Homer, that Greece is a "foreign country."
