Mr. Gladstone's speech yesterday week on the despatch of the
5th September, in which Lord Derby pointed out how humiliating it might be for the British Government, if they were called uponto fulfil treaty obligations to Turkey while the feelings of the nation rendered it impossible for the Government to make any such proposal, was not one of his happiest ones. It was an elaborate apology for the Liberal Government for restoring in 1871 as much as could be restored of the Treaty of 1856, after the Russian repudiation of the Black Sea Fleet clause, without looking more carefully into the condition of the Christians in Turkey. The truth is, no doubt, that the Government of that day was a very hardworked Government; that the subject had not just then been forced on the attention of Europe ; and that it did what most Governments in such circumstances would do,—passed the ques- tion by. But it made a mistake in so doing, which it ought to be now willing to acknowledge. The charge against the present Government is not one of carelessness, but of perverted sympa- thies. The insurrection in the Herzegovina did draw this Govern- ment's attention strongly to the subject, and for a whole year it showed nothing but the most discreditable bias.
