GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



363 



the House of Lords, referred to the papers re- 

 lating to the Protocol, and asked that the 

 draft of the document originally proposed 

 by Russia should be laid before Parliament. 

 He criticised the conduct of the Government 

 as manifesting undue suspicion of Russia, and 

 questioned the propriety of the refusal to ad- 

 here to the Berlin Memorandum. .Earl Derby, 

 in reply, intimated that the declaration ap- 

 pended to the Protocol was intended to prevent 

 that document from being used otherwise than 

 as an instrument of peace, and be spoke very 

 doubtingly of the prospect of avoiding hostili- 

 ties between Russia and Turkey. He declined 

 to produce the draft of the Protocol, as the 

 Russian Government objected. In the Com- 

 mons, on April 13th, Lord Hartington moved 

 for additional papers, and, in a speech of some 

 length, he condemned the policy of the Gov- 

 ernment which, in his opinion, had led to the 



existing unsatisfactory state of the Eastern 

 question. 



The great event of the session took place on 

 April 30th. On that day, Mr. Gladstone read 

 out at length the five resolutions which he pro- 

 posed to move in reference to the prospective 

 policy of the British Government on the East- 

 ern question. The first recorded the dissatis- 

 faction of the House at the conduct of the Ot- 

 toman Porte with regard to Lord Derby's 

 dispatch on the Bulgarian atrocities; the sec- 

 ond declared that, until such conduct should 

 have essentially changed and substantial guar- 

 antees for future good government had been 

 given, the Ottoman Porte had lost all claim to 

 the moral and material support of the British 

 crown ; the third expressed a desire that Brit- 

 ish influence should be used to secure local 

 liberties and practical self-government for the 

 disturbed provinces, so as to secure them from 



i 



WESTMINSTER ABBET, LONDON. 



oppression without imposing on them any oth- 

 er foreign dominion; and the fourth, calling 

 to mind the Protocol of 1826 and the treaty of 

 1827 with respect to Greece, expressed an ear- 

 nest desire that the influence of the British Gov- 

 ernment should be addressed to promoting the 

 concert of the European Powers in exacting 

 from the Ottoman Porte, by their united au- 

 thority, such changes as may be effectual for 

 the purposes of humanity, for defense against 

 intrigue, and for securing the peace of Europe. 

 The fifth combined all the other four, and 

 asked that an address to the crown, embody- 

 ing them, should be prepared and presented. 



The debate on these resolutions began on 

 May 7th, with a preliminary inquiry from Mr. 

 Trevelyan whether Mr. Gladstone would mod- 

 ify his second resolution, and would abstain 

 from moving the third and fourth. Mr. Glad- 



stone agreed to the first suggestion, and said 

 that after the division on the second resolution, 

 he might not press tbe others. Mr. Trevelyan's 

 amendment to the second resolution read as 

 follows : 



The House is of opinion that the Porte, by its con 

 duct toward its subject populations, ana its refusnl 

 to pive guarantees for their better government, lias 

 forfeited all claim to the moral and material support 

 of Great Britain. 



During a preliminary discussion as to wheth- 

 er the House should suspend the ordinary bus- 

 iness so as to permit Mr. Gladstone to move 

 the resolutions, Mr. Gladstone explained that 

 he had given notice of his resolutions, in re- 

 sponse to repeated challenges from the minis- 

 ters, and in order that the opposition should 

 declare its views in the House. He had never 

 proposed a removal of the ministry, but had 



