On Tuesday night Mr. E. A. Leathern (M.P. for Hudders-
field) made a speech, on the occasion of the inauguration of a Liberal Club at Longwood, in the neighbourhood of Huddersfield, in which be charged Lord Derby with having, during the earlier stages of the Eastern Question, true to his Tory instincts, encouraged the Porte to "make short work" with the insurrection in the Herzegovina,—which "short work" had made long work for the diplomatists, if not for the armies of Europe. He maintained that we had no right to go to war except to protect vital interests of our own, and such interests of ours were certainly not involved in the present crisis. But, said Mr. Leatham, if we had had the same relations with any oppressed people which the Russians have with the oppressed Sclavs of Turkey, "there was no Government which existed in this country which could have resisted the call to arms." That is, most of it, very true ; but why is it, then, laid down so very strongly that only vital " interests " of our own could justify us in going to war ? Surely, there are great causes which have higher dams' s than any mere "interests ;" and we hold that even in this case we should have been fully justified in identifying ourselves, if Daces- sary even by an appeal to force, with Russia, for the purpose of getting redress for the monstrous oppression of the Christian provinces of Turkey.
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