[97] Sir Stafford Northcote, Earl of Iddesleigh, by Andrew Lang, vol. ii. p. 181.
[98] Our ambassador at Constantinople, Sir Henry Elliott, asked (May 9) that a squadron should be sent there to reassure the British subjects in Turkey; but as the fleet was not ordered to proceed thither until after a long interval, and was kept there in great strength and for many months, it is fair to assume that the aim of our Government was to encourage Turkey.
[99] Gallenga, The Eastern Question, vol. ii. p. 99.
[100] For the aims of the Young Turkey party, see the Life of Midhat Pasha, by his son; also an article by Midhat in the Nineteenth Century for June 1878.
[101] Gallenga, The Eastern Question, vol. ii. p. 126. Murad died in the year 1904.
[102] Mr. Baring, a secretary of the British Legation at Constantinople, after a careful examination of the evidence, gave the number of Bulgarians slain as "not fewer than 12,000"; he opined that 163 Mussulmans were perhaps killed early in May. He admitted the Batak horrors. Achmet Agha, their chief perpetrator, was at first condemned to death by a Turkish commission of inquiry, but he was finally pardoned. Shefket Pasha, whose punishment was also promised, was afterwards promoted to a high command. Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 2 (1877), pp. 248-249; ibid. No. 15 (1877), No. 77, p. 58. Mr. Layard, successor to Sir Henry Elliott at Constantinople, afterwards sought to reduce the numbers slain to 3500. Turkey, No. 26 (1877), p. 54.
[103] Parl. Papers, Turkey, No. 3 (1876), pp. 144, 173, 198-199.
[104] See, inter alia, his letter of May 26, 1876, quoted in Life and Correspondence of William White (1902), pp. 99-100.
[105] J. Morley, Life of Gladstone, vol. ii. pp. 548-549.
[106] Bismarck, Reflections and Reminiscences vol. ii. chap, xxviii.