336 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



by Lord Sandhurst. The Duke of Marlborough 

 regretted the determination not to renew the 

 Peace Preservation Act in Ireland, and said 

 that he considered that nothing had occurred 

 to justify the Government in their resolve. 

 Lord Spencer held, upon a general review of 

 the position of Ireland, that the Government 

 were fully justified in the policy they had 

 adopted. Lord Beaconsfiekl said that the dec- 

 larations contained in the royal message as to 

 the policy of the Government partook rather 

 of an official than of a polemical character. 

 He wished to know the precise nature of those 

 active measures which they were told would 

 be taken by her Majesty's Ministers in respect 

 to the Treaty of Berlin. It would also be satis- 

 factory to know, he said, what were the precise 

 instructions given to the special ambassador 

 at Constantinople, because, if he were invested 

 with powers of an unlimited character, he 

 might involve the country in a war without 

 any one being actually responsible for such an 

 event. He had no hesitation in expressing his 

 conviction that, if the policy of the late Viceroy 

 of India were carried out in relation to Afghan- 

 istan, it would result in a speedy and satisfac- 

 tory settlement of the question of that coun- 

 try. Lord Granville vindicated the Irish policy 

 of the Government, which, he said, they had 

 carefully considered, .and of which they were 

 prepared to accept the responsibility. He was 

 not alarmed about foreign affairs, but was con- 

 scious that there were points which would re- 

 quire great care in their management if serious 

 complications were to be avoided. The object 

 of the dispatch of the special embassy to Con- 

 stantinople was to secure the fulfillment of cer- 

 tain conditions of the Treaty of Berlin, in rela- 

 tion to which the remonstrances of Sir H. 

 Layard had long been neglected. The state 

 of things with reference to the obligations of 

 Turkey under the Treaty of Berlin was most 

 unsatisfactory, and her Majesty's Government 

 were satisfied that a better position of affairs 

 could be brought about only by the united ac- 

 tion of Europe. The address was moved in 

 the House of Commons by Mr. Grey, and sec- 

 onded by Mr. Mason. Sir Stafford Northcote 

 declared that the Conservative party would 

 support in opposition the policy it had main- 

 tained in office. The general tone of her Ma- 

 jesty's speech was of such a character that he 

 could ;igree in the principles on which the 

 Government intended to proceed. In accept- 

 ing the Treaty of Berlin as the starting-point 

 for the consideration of foreign relations, they 

 were taking the wise, the only safe course for 

 the country to adopt. The House ought to be 

 more fully informed as to the nature and mean- 

 ing of the appointment of Mr. Goschen as spe- 

 cial ambassador to Constantinople ; and he 

 wanted, to know what one of the speakers for 

 the Government meant in speaking of ' putting 

 pressure " upon the Porte. Mr. Gladstone said 

 that Mr. Goschen would have the powers of 

 an ordinary ambassador. The Treaty of Ber- 



lin gave the Government the right to insist 

 upon the fulfillment of its stipulations; but 

 Ministers were too well informed of the gravity 

 of the question to come to a conclusion to put 

 pressure upon the Porte until they were in full 

 possession of all the circumstances which should 

 regulate their conduct. A circular dispatch 

 had been addressed to all the signatories to the 

 Treaty of Berlin on the necessity of urging 

 the execution of the unfulfilled stipulations of 

 that instrument; but it was not intended to 

 lay the dispatch on the table until it had borne 

 its natural fruit in the adoption by other pow- 

 ers of a view conformable to that which her 

 Majesty's Government entertained. In allow- 

 ing the Peace Preservation Act for Ireland to 

 expire, the Ministers were fully sensible of the 

 heavy responsibility which must rest upon 

 either the renewal or the abandonment of ex- 

 ceptional legislation of the sort. 



Mr. Gladstone informed the House of Com- 

 mons, May 27th, that Mr. Goschen, the special 

 agent of the Government at Constantinople, 

 had been instructed to inquire into the expe- 

 diency of dispatching agents to the disturbed 

 parts of Roumelia and Bulgaria, to obtain in- 

 formation in regard to the alleged persecutions 

 of Mohammedans, which might help the Gov- 

 ernment in deciding upon the course it should 

 take. On the next day, Mr. Gladstone ac- 

 knowledged that in one of his public addresses 

 he had spoken of the Anglo-Turkish Conven- 

 tion as "insane," and added that he could not 

 retract the language, but he would not repeat it, 

 because a repetition of it could only have the 

 effect of disparaging an instrument as to which 

 the country was not free to act. Sir Charles 

 Dilke repeated an assurance that had been given 

 by Lord Salisbury in 1878, that the country 

 was under no engagements to foreign powers 

 for the future, except those that were before 

 the House, but he declined to state whether 

 or not any diplomatic engagements which were 

 not known to the House had been negotiated 

 with any foreign power within the last five 

 years. Secret agreements, he said, were some- 

 times necessary to meet the convenience of 

 foreign powers, but the Ministry deprecated 

 them. 



Lord Camper down called attention in the 

 House of Lords, June 7th, to the finances of 

 Cyprus. He designated the claim of the Turk- 

 ish Government to the receipt of revenues from 

 the island as a species of black-mail, declared 

 the financial position of Cyprus intolerable, 

 and remarked that in justice to its people no 

 agreement to pay tribute should have been 

 made. Lord Salisbury suggested that while 

 the Government had imposed no additional ob- 

 ligation to Turkey upon the Cypriotes, it had, 

 by increasing their trade and commerce four- 

 fold, considerably added to their means of pay- 

 ing the tribute. Lord Kimberley, representing 

 the Government, remarked, July 8th, that the 

 Secretary for Foreign Affairs was sensible of 

 the difficulties in connection with Cyprus, and 



