LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
MR. WEMYSS REID'S DEFENCE OF LORD DERBY.
ETo THE EDITOR OF THE"SPECTATOR."]
Sra,—It seems to be generally assumed that Mr. Wemyss Reid's article on Lord Derby in this month's Macmillan's Magazine has been inspired by Lord Derby himself. This assumption appears to me quite untenable. Lord Derby could hardly have- offered the British public so suicidal an apologia, and, as a matter of fact, he has repudiated it by anticipation.
Mr. Reid's case rests on the assertion that Lord Derby was cognisant of a conspiracy on the part of the three Emperors to. partition Turkey. He was "convinced that the three Empires really wanted war," and consequently "that war must come, and that war would be followed by a partition of Turkish terri- tory." It was for this reason, and for this reason only, accord- ing to Mr. Wemyss Reid, that Lord Derby rejected the Berlin_ Memorandum.
But, unfortunately for Mr. Reid's argument, on July 14th, 1876—that is, two months after the rejection of the Berlin Memorandum—Lord Derby received at the Foreign Office a deputation, headed by Mr. John Bright. One or two quotations from Lord Derby's speech on that occasion will suffice to dispose entirely of the case which Mr. Reid has attempted to set up:—" So far as it is possible for any one-to forecast the future of events, I think it is the most improbable thing in the world
that in consequence of anything that is now passing in the Turkish Empire a general European war should ensue. That seems to me one of those hypotheses which are so remote, that it is scarcely worth while to speculate upon them. I do not see the quarter from which the war is to come."
France did not want war (he went on to say), nor Italy, nor Germany. "There remain only ourselves, and Austria, and Russia." England was out of the question. Austria was para- lysed by her "dual system" and "great diversity of races ;" and therefore, said Lord Derby, "you may be quite sure that, if it is only in the interest of her own security the Austrian Government will not desire to break the peace." But Russia ?—" If any one thing is certain in this world, it is certain that the Emperor of Russia, upon whose personal will and disposition more turns than upon that of any other man, is a sincere lover of peace. There are other reasons, such as the condition of Russian finance, the difficulties—perhaps greater than we are aware of here—of Russian administration, the enormous cost of the late Asiatic conquests, and various other causes which I need not go into, which make an aggressive policy one at the present time utterly unsuited to the policy of the Russian Empire."
Yet at the very time that Lord Derby was uttering those pacific assurances he was, according to Mr. Wemyss Reid, "con- vinced that the three Empires" (the Czar being the ringleader of the triumvirate) "really wanted war," and consequently, "that war must come." Mr. Reid denounces with just severity the scandalous personal attacks of which Lord Derby was for some time the target. But I doubt whether any of the attacks made on Lord Derby by his avowed assailants conveyed so damaging an imputation as that which is implied, though un- wittingly, in the defence volunteered on his behalf by his professed admirer.—I am, Sir, &c., MALCOLM MACCOLL.
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