The Ministry dined as usual with the Lord Mayor on
Novem- ber 9th at the Guildhall, and Lord Salisbury made an interesting speech. He declared that the difficulties in Afghanistan were, for the present, over; and that, like Lord Beaconsfield, he believed there was "room in Asia for both Russia and Great Britain" —an apophthegm which we remark is always applauded, but never acted on. He noticed the Burmese War as "an expedi- tion to reduce a somewhat eccentric potentate within the bounds of reason," and was pleased to believe that in sending it "we are acting with the most complete recognition of the rights of that great empire [the Chinese] whose representative had a few minutes before so admirably addressed the audience," a bit of valuable information most unusually worded. Are we going to acknowledge Chinese suzerainty, or to pay a tribute, or what ? There "should be as little alteration" as was consistent with the demands of India. In Egypt the Government had, with the assistance of Sir H. D. Wolff; removed the religious suspicions and dislike of the Mussulman population by associating the Khalif with us in our work ; and in Ronmelia we were contending for the right of the population to govern itself in its own way. That was said to be incon- sistent; but it was no more inconsistent than for a doctor to prescribe tonics after administering a febrifuge. The States of the Balkan had developed true national life even more rapidly than could have been expected, and they were now able to defend themselves. We have given the Balkan portion of the speech in more detail elsewhere, and need only remark here that it has been well received in Constantinople, where there is some unexplained kindness for Bulgaria.
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