27 MAY 1899, Page 15

LORD SALISBURY AND PRINCE BISMARCK.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]

SIR,—Was not the author of the comparison of Lord Salisbury to "a lath of wood painted to look like iron" General Ignatieff? I have an impression that that once-famous Rus- sian diplomatist invented the saying, either at the time of the Berlin Congress of 1878, or of the Conference at Constanti- nople in the end of 1876, at which Lord Salisbury acted as special Ambassador for this country.—I am, Sir, &c., A SCOTTISH JOURNALIST.