category comprising the "Dreadnought," " Inflexible," "Nelson," and "Northampton;" and twenty-eight torpedo-boats would be built. The appointment of a Roman Catholic chaplain to every fleet of five or six ships stationed at a distance from any port would, he hoped, satisfy the Irish members who had moved in the matter; and, with a concluding eulogium of his predecessor's work in the office, the First Lord brought his practical speech to a close. A desultory discussion was wound up by Mr. Smith, who obtained the vote for the men, 2,702,000l. for wages; 1,146,000l. for clothing; 260,000l. for the expense of the Admiralty Office; 207,000l. for coastguard; and 210,250l. for conveyance of troops —an increase of some 42,000l. on this head being due to the war at the Cape.

The month of March was not to close, however, in spite of peace estimates, without new and serious alarm. The rumours of disagreement in the Cabinet, which had so long been rife, and which had been justified by the retirement of Lord Carnarvon and the threatened retirement of Lord Derby, were to be yet further and more gravely justified. The Foreign Office controversy with Russia, on which Lord Derby was of one mind with his colleagues that Russia must not decide what clauses of her treaty the Congress should discuss, induced Lord Beaconsfield to determine upon a step upon which Lord Derby disagreed. Through our new Ambassador at Vienna, Sir Henry Elliot, a precise enquiry was made whether the understanding was that the whole treaty in its relation to existing treaties was to be examined and considered in Congress. The reply was in very distinct words-that Russia "leaves to the other Powers the liberty of raising such questions at the Congress as they might think fit to discuss, and reserves to itself the liberty of accepting or not accepting the discussion of these questions." Prince Gortschakoff held to his first answer, that, as the Treaty had been communicated to all the Powers, and as every Power had full "liberty of appreciation and action" in relation to any article which might seem to it to concern Europe, so Russia claimed the same liberty for herself of accepting or declining a discussion on any one point. On this point Sir Stafford Northcote stated to the Commons that the negotiations for a Congress had been broken off; and on the same evening the House of Lords was startled by a report that Lord Derby had resigned. On his entrance it was at once seen that the report was true. He took his seat below the gangway, and rising at once, stated that he had tendered his resignation to her Majesty, and that it had been accepted. "My Lords," he said, "it is my duty to take the earliest opportunity of stating to your lordships that I have ceased to hold the office of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; or, to speak with more verbal accuracy, that my resignation of that office has been tendered to and accepted by her Majesty, and I only continue to hold that office till the appointment of a successor relieves me from its duties. As a general rule, it is

equally the right and the duty of a Minister who retires from office to explain-usually in some considerable detail-to Parliament the character and nature of the differences which have arisen between him and his colleagues, in order that he may justify himself from the imputation of having taken what in any circumstances is a grave and important step on light or inadequate grounds. My lords, I regret that under present circumstances it is not possible, or at least desirable, for me to follow that customary and convenient rule. My lords, I have received from her Majesty and from my noble friend at the head of the Government, full permission to use my own discretion in the matter; but your lordships will easily understand that in the present state of our foreign relations there are many things which require to be considered and consulted upon by those who are responsible for the conduct of public affairs which it is not in the interests of the State should be made public at the time when that decision is taken. My lords, the Cabinet have arrived at certain conclusions which, no doubt, are of a grave and important character. In the measures which they propose I have not been able to concur. My lords, to prevent needless alarm from any words of mine, let me say at once that I do not consider that those measures necessarily or inevitably tend to bring about a state of war. I give those with whom I have acted entire credit for desiring as much as I desire the maintenance of the peace of Europe. We agree as to the end, but, unhappily, we differ as to the means; and I cannot, in the exercise of my deliberate judgment-however willing and anxious I may be to submit that judgment to what I know to be in many respects the better opinion of my colleagues-I cannot consider the measures upon which they have decided as being prudent in the interests of European peace, or as being necessary for the safety of the country, or as being warranted by the state of matters abroad. My lords, when the concurrence of Parliament is asked for those measures of which I have spoken, I shall be ready, if necessary, to vindicate the opinion which I have entertained; but until then I consider I am bound by public duty to speak only in the most general terms, leaving it to those who are responsible for the management of public affairs to choose the time and the manner in which they will think it their duty to bring them before your lordships. My lords, there is one possible miscontruction of my conduct against which I think it is desirable I should guard. It might possibly be inferred, from the time at which I speak and the nature of what I have said, that I have dissented from the view taken by the Cabinet of the conditions on which England ought to go into the Congress. I am bound to say that is not the case. I deeply regret the obstacles which have sprung up-sprung up without any expectation-in the way of tha Congress being called together; but the fault in my judgment does not rest with the Government of this country, and the dispute in which we are engaged is not one of form or of words,

but one of a very substantial nature. My lords, in my opinion there would be very little use for England to go into a Congress unless we are assured that the discussion which was there to take place was to be one of a real and not an illusory kind; and if we were to choose between the two alternatives, I am bound to say I think that, in the interests of European peace, it would be the less misfortune of the two that the Congress should not meet at all, rather than that, having met, and serious difficulties having arisen at the outset of its sitting, it should break up without any result having been arrived at. My lords, I do not rise to argue this question. I have referred to it merely to prevent the idea going abroad that it was on that question of the Congress the Cabinet and I have been unable to agree. My lords, I need not tell your lordships, and least of all need I tell my noble friend at the head of the Government, that no personal motive has influenced me in the step I have felt compelled to take. Every personal motive and every private feeling influenced me in the opposite direction. My lords, no man would willingly break, even for a time, political and personal ties of long standing, and in the public life of public men of the present day there are few political and personal ties closer or of older date than those which unite me with my noble friend. My lords, I will say more. I have always held that in minor matters a public man is not merely justified in making a considerable sacrifice of his personal opinions, but is even bound by duty to make them, because, without that, party organisation and collective action would become impossible; but, my lords, when questions of European interests are at stake-when the matters in discussion are really matters involving the issue of peace and war-I am sure your lordships will feel, as I do, that those are not matters in regard of which it is possible for any man actuated by a sense of public duty to be influenced by considerations of personal respect and regard. If that were possible, I should be of one mind with my noble friend at the head of the Government. My lords, I end as I began, by saying that I am compelled at present to speak only in these general terms. I must reserve for a later date, if it becomes necessary, any further explanation of the course which I have pursued."

The Earl of Beaconsfield rose after Lord Derby. "My lords," said he, "your lordships have heard that the Queen has lost to-day the services of one of the ablest of her counsellors. Those only who have served with my noble friend can sufficiently appreciate his capacity for affairs, the penetrating power of his intelligence, and the judicial impartiality of his general conduct. My lords, I have served with my noble friend in public life for more than a quarter of a century, and during that long period the cares of public life have been mitigated by the consolation of private friendship. A quarter of a century is a long period in the history of any man, and I can truly say that, so far as the relations between myself and my noble friend are concerned, those years

have passed without a cloud. My noble friend has to-night, with prudence and perfect taste, avoided entering into the particular reasons that have induced him to take a step which on his part is so momentous, and which to the country must be of interest and importance. My Lords, I should be quite willing to refrain from entering into those topics myself until the period when they might be legitimately considered by your lordships; but I have learnt that so much public mischief may occur from unnecessary mystery in these matters that I feel it my duty to-day to say that in consequence of our belief that the Congress would not meet, for reasons which it is unnecessary now to touch upon-especially as my noble friend, with a becoming candour, has admitted that upon this subject there was no difference of opinion between him and his late colleagues-it became matter of consideration for her Majesty's Government, at a period like the present, when the balance of power in the Mediterranean is so disturbed, and when the hopes of rectifying that balance by the meeting of the Congress seemed altogether to cease, to decide what steps should be taken in order to countervail or resist the mischiefs which were impending. It is, therefore, in the interests of peace and for the due protection of the rights of her empire, that we have thought it our duty to advise her Majesty to avail herself of those powers which she has of calling on the Reserve Forces by calling for the service of those reserved forces. With that view a message will be laid before Parliament according to the provisions of the statutes in the case. My Lords, I feel it my duty to make this announcement; and when the occasion, which of course is near, occurs, your lordships will have the opportunity of considering the whole question of the policy and of the conduct of her Majesty's Government. That we shall not be supported on that occasion by the abilities of my noble friend who has been so long my coinpanion in public life, I deeply deplore. Those wrenches of feeling are among the most terrible trials of public life; but we may draw from them at least one noble and consolatory inference-that the sense of duty in our public men is so great that they can bear even these painful trials. My Lords, I have felt of late that the political ties between myself and my noble friend must soon terminate; but I believed they would terminate in a very different and a more natural manner-that I should disappear from the scene and that he should remain, in the maturity of manhood, with his great talents and experience, to take that leading part in public affairs for which he is so well qualified. We have lost his services. I personally, of all his colleagues, suffer most severely in that respect; but I am sustained by the feeling at the present moment that I am conscious and confident that the policy which we have recommended her Majesty to pursue is one which will tend to the maintenance of her Empire, to the freedom of Europe, and to the greatness and security of this country."

In the House and in the country this resignation caused a very

D

painful feeling, both from the loss, in itself deeply to be regretted, of the clearest head in the ministry, and the chief opponent of the War-party, and from the dread that there might be something behind the step now announced, of calling out the Reserves, which seriously threatened war. Mr. Gladstone, who had been reticent in Parliament (where a vote personally adverse to him, which reflected small credit on those who gave it, had been passed in reference to a painful discussion between him and Mr. Layard, who had charged him with fomenting rebellion in Greece, and had declined practical apology), spoke twice outside its doors at this timeonce to the Greenwich "Five Hundred," to whom he had announced his intention of giving up at the next election his seat for their borough, and again to a deputation from Leeds, who brought him an invitation to become a candidate there. In both, he praised the Russo-Turkish War as one which had overthrown an evil Power: in both, he reprobated as he had reprobated in the House, the retrocession of Bessarabian territory as a retrogressive step which he hoped that Russia would reconsider, but one which would justify no Government in plunging the country into a guilty war; and in both, his voice gave out no uncertain sound, as indeed through the whole course of these stirring events none could deny either the force or consistency of his conduct, though its tenour exposed him more than once to personal attacks transgressing the limits of party-license. A mob-attack made upon his house in London might have been taken as a deeper sign of popular fickleness, if it could have been supposed to be the work of any but the roughest and lowest element of the town-populace.

CHAPTER II.

The Reserves-Changes in the Cabinet-Lord Salisbury's Circular―The Budget— Mr. Fawcett on Indian Finance-Liberal Deputation-Answer of Prince Gortschakoff to the Circular-Debates on the Reserves Question-Adjournment of Parliament-Irish Scene-Movement of Native Indian Troops to Malta-Bye-Elections-Nonconformist Conference-Speeches of the RecessWar Rumours-Strike in the North-Mission of Count Schouvaloff to St. Petersburg Meeting of the Houses-Attacks on the Government-Debates upon the Legal Question-Lancashire Riots-Meeting of the Congress arranged-Foreign Opinion-Count Schouvaloff-Appointment of Lords Beaconsfield and Salisbury as Plenipotentiaries-Debates-The Standard upon the appointment-The Indian Troops at Malta.

LORD BEACONSFIELD brought down to the Lords a message from the Crown, stating that her Majesty in existing circumstances had thought right to call out the Reserve Forces for permanent service; and after the message had been read by the Lord Chancellor, some further papers relating to the Eastern Question were laid on the table by Lord Beaconsfield.