[Note 76], [p. 339].—The reader perhaps hardly needs to be reminded that the cases were not parallel. Russia had overwhelmed her weak foe, and now proposed to dismember her fallen enemy as a reward for her trouble. This was not only in clear violation of the principles set down by the Treaty of Paris in 1856, but also obnoxious to the traditional policy of Great Britain, as held by Pitt. But neither international obligation nor British usage offered any objection to a peaceful and voluntary treaty between England and Turkey, by which for a just consideration the one should cede a bit of territory to the other.
[Note 77], [p. 341].—On the 9th of November, 1879, Lord Beaconsfield, at the Lord Mayor’s banquet, had expounded his imperial policy, and in the course of his speech had used the words “imperium et libertas.” The speech attracted great attention as an authoritative exposition of the Prime-Minister’s views on domestic and foreign affairs.
[Note 78], [p. 344].—With this position Lord Beaconsfield would probably have heartily agreed. He might even have asked Mr. Gladstone, “Was it not to prevent just such aggrandizement as you condemn that we objected to the Treaty of San Stefano, and insisted upon a Congress?” More than that, he might have asked: “How do you reconcile your plea for the independence of the smaller states with your denunciation of the Congress of Berlin, brought about by ‘needless and mischievous armaments,’ by which alone the independence of Turkey could be saved?” To these questions Mr. Gladstone would probably have replied: “Yes; but you ought to have accomplished all this by preventing the war between Russia and Turkey in the beginning.” How Mr. Gladstone thought this might have been done and ought to have been done he pointed out in the first of the Mid-Lothian speeches, delivered at Edinburgh.
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained; occurrences of inconsistent hyphenation have not been changed.