depreciate the intellectual calibre and importance of Parliament, coincide with such an Administration as Lord Beaconsfield's, the danger is really great. Lord Beaconsfield himself cannot influence the British Constitution much longer. He must go where glitter will not pass for gold; but he will leave behind him many to study his lessons and rehearse his arts. This it is that makes us anxious for the future of the Constitution. The same causes which made France for twenty years endure, if she did not prefer, a Sovereign who kept representative institutions at a very low ebb, yet made much of the people, and studied carefully their least noble instincts and tastes, may bring upon England a régime of Parliamentary inertia and decay, in which Ministerial authority will greatly outgrow the authority of the representatives of the people, and the Crown be led to suppose that a return to the policy of the Tudors, if not to the policy of the Plantagenets, may be possible, in an epoch in which neither Tudors nor Plantagenets are to be found."

One episode of political interest occurred outside Parliament as the Session closed. Many Liberal leaders had been long urging on their party the adoption of some system of organisation, to prevent the multiplicity of candidates which threw so many seats into the hands of their opponents. The Bradford Liberal Association was now one of the first of the recognised bodies organised for this purpose, consisting of three hundred representative members, elected upon the plan followed by Birmingham, Leeds, and other large towns. Among their rules the 15th ran as follows:— "It shall be required of the proposer of any intending candidate for the representation of the borough in Parliament that he shall, at the time of making such proposal (having previously obtained the consent of such intending candidate), give an assurance to the General Representative Committee that the candidate he proposes shall abide by the decision of the Association."

Mr. Illingworth, the chairman of the Association, had with other leading Liberals of the borough of Bradford opposed the return of Mr. Forster, in 1874, on the ground of some of the features of his education policy; and had resented his return by a mixed Liberal and Conservative vote. Now, however, he wrote to Mr. Forster to offer to be his proposer in the Executive Committee of the Three Hundred, subject to the provision of Rule 15. By that rule Mr. Forster answered that he would not be bound, in a correspondence which was published by the Observer :

"I am sorry," he wrote, "that I cannot give the assurance, and I think that my reason for declining to do so can hardly be misunderstood.

"I am perfectly aware that my name, proposed by you, and supported, not only by those who have always voted for me, but also by those who act with you, would, as you say, in all probability be accepted by the committee. But I cannot bind myself to a rule which, even theoretically, enables any association to stand between me and the constituency I have so long represented.

"Do not suppose that I forget the necessity of organisation, or underrate the importance of the Liberal Association, or that I question its right to exercise that influence over the representation of the borough which is due to the number as well as to the individual earnestness and sincerity of its members; nor need I say that I should give any resolution to which the committee might come my most respectful consideration. But I cannot forget that I am a member for the borough, and I cannot think it right to make myself the nominee or delegate of any organisation within the constituency, however important that organisation, or however I may agree with it in political opinion."

And in another letter he added

"With regard to this Rule 15, I cannot but think that you lose sight of the difference between a new candidate and a sitting member. It appears to me that until a sitting member gives notice that it is his intention to withdraw from the representation he has a right to consider himself, and his constituents have a right to consider him, a candidate for re-election; but this rule demands that he should bind himself beforehand to withdraw at the bidding of a majority, however narrow, of a committee. Surely this is not a reasonable demand. It might be that the committee might be mistaken in the grounds of their decision. It is possible that the member might be able to persuade, not merely the majority of the constituency, but the majority of his party, that he is right, and yet the condition to which this rule would have bound him would prevent him from appealing to his constituents or to his party, or even to the second thoughts of the committee.

"I say nothing of my own personal position, and pass over any claim I may have for long service; but I cannot but think that compliance with such a condition would be intolerable to the selfrespect of any politician who rightly regards political duty, and that if such a rule became general, it would greatly injure the political life of the country."

CHAPTER V.

Speeches in the Country--Prospects in the East-Matters in Cyprus-Sickness of the Troops-Accounts of the Island-Afghanistan-Sir Neville Chamberlain's Mission-Mutterings before the Storm-Advance of the Mission-Reported Insult to Major Cavagnari-Opinions at Home and Abroad-Retrospect of the relations between England and the Ameer- Letter of Lord Lawrence to the Times-Newspaper Views-Sketch of Afghanistan-Letter of Earl GreyPreparations in India-Letter of Sir James Stephen-Minute (1874) of Sir Bartle Frere, published-Sir John Adye-Lord Lawrence again—Telegrams from India-Contradiction of the reported "Insult "-Visit of Mr. Smith and Colonel Stanley to Cyprus-Sir Stafford Northcote in the Midland Counties. No sooner had Parliament adjourned than the "extra Parliamentary utterances," as the newspapers call them, began with fresh vigour. But there was as yet nothing new in the text; for

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while the Ministers and their friends, headed by Lord Sandon and Mr. Cross in Lancashire, who took up their platform-parable within a week of the closing of St. Stephen's, claimed for themselves that they had saved England from a dangerous war, the Opposition speakers maintained as strongly that there never had been any danger of war except what the Government had raised, either through a policy of blunder or for the sake of winning the appearance of a diplomatic victory. There were those of them who thought with Mr. Gladstone in one of his polemics in the Nineteenth Century Review, in which his restless spirit had of late made him very prominent as a political pamphleteer, "that they have been hindering peace by wanton obstructions, and frightening away the gentle messenger of heaven by the tramp of armed men." The Liberals predicted failure for the Treaty of Berlin somewhat too soon in a case where time was so obviously needed. But at first, certainly, the prospects of peace were not bright in the East, whatever the Plenipotentiaries might have brought back with them to England. Bosnia and Herzegovina resisted the Austrian occupation by force of arms. Turkey refused to consider the advice of the Congress in the claims of Greece, and the latter country appealed to the Powers in vain. Eastern Roumelia, consigned to Turkish rule, began to intrigue at once, if the word be appropriate, for union with the free Bulgaria from which her new division was purely arbitrary. Rebellion broke out in Albania, where Mehemet Ali, the Turkish General and Plenipotentiary, was treacherously murdered by the rebels whom he was sent out to conciliate, carrying out the Berlin Treaty. Roumania pleaded hard against the retrocession of Bessarabia, and protested against taking the Dobrudscha in enchange; and a commission appointed under an order of Congress to enquire into "atrocities" in the neighbourhood of Rhodope, proceeded to report upon Russian atrocities and reprisals instead, which wore a black look. "In the execution of the Berlin Treaty," wrote the summarist in a weekly journal in mid-September, "we find fresh difficulties springing up daily in almost every quarter. There are some territories to be ceded, and others to be retroceded; some to be occupied, and others to be organised. In scarcely a single instance have any of these operations yet been effected, and in most instances new arrangements will have to be come to if they are to be effected at all. The only exception to the general grating is the case of Servia, which may by this time be considered permanently settled. The accession of territory to this principality is very small, and, even if the whole of Old Servia had been restored to her, the people would have offered no resistance. As it is, the small piece of land allotted to Servia by the Berlin Treaty has quietly and cheerfully submitted to the rule of Prince Milan, and is to be represented in the Skruptchina, the same as the rest; and there the matter ends.

"In all the other territories affected by the Berlin Treaty--in

Bessarabia and the Dobrudscha, in Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, at Batoum and Erzeroum, in Thessaly and Albania, we meet with nothing but discontent, strife, and bloodshed. Roumania adheres to her case to the last of not yielding up her part of Bessarabia save under compulsion, but she spoils it by taking over the Dobrudscha, which at first she refused to have anything to do with. In this way she is placed in the inconsistent position of the boy who wants to eat his cake and have it. Bulgaria north of the Balkans is quiet enough, but in Eastern Roumelia, which is waiting to be organised by a European Commission, the Russians and the native Slavs are working together to exterminate the whole of the Moslem population, and the majority of the commissioners of the Powers sent to the Rhodope district have reported on massacres perpetrated by the Russians equal to any laid at the door of the Turks in the atrocities of 1876. At the same time an undercurrent is skilfully kept up by the Russians between the two provinces north and south of the Balkans, so that in due time they may be rolled into one, on the Roumanian precedent.

"Greece wants Thessaly and the whole, or at least part, of Epirus, and Turkey does not see any reason for giving them up. The negotiations between the two for the rectification' of their frontier have hopelessly failed, and now the Powers' are again to be appealed to. But the Powers are themselves divided on the subject, and only Germany feels inclined to put the screw on Turkey in the shape of a casus belli. So the matter rests in suspense for the present, but the factitious insurrection in Thessaly continues. In Albania the loyalty of the semi-savages who inhabit that inhospitable district goes so far that they have actually assassinated Mehemet Ali, who had been sent to appease the district, which by the Berlin Treaty is to be annexed to Montenegro. The Sultan will now have to send troops to that district, first to pacify it, and then to hand it over to an hereditary foean operation equally repugnant to all parties concerned, save the Montenegrins.

"In Bosnia and Herzegovina the resistance of the Moslems to Austrian occupation continues as obstinate and implacable as ever. All the large towns are now in the hands of General Philippovitch; but in the open country and in the mountains a kind of guerilla warfare is kept up, which bodes to last fully as long as either of the Carlist wars did in the Basque provinces, the natural configuration of which is somewhat similar to that of the districts invaded by Austria. It appears that General Philippovitch, who is looked upon as an organ of the Jesuit Camarilla of the Vienna Hofburg, treats the Roman Catholics of the provinces kindly, the Greek Schismatics indifferently, and the Mahomedans very harshly. This is the safest means of keeping up a permanent war in Bosnia, which will keep the monarchy in a state of chronic bankruptcy. In the extreme East the resistance of the Lazes has for the time

been overcome, and Batoum has been occupied by the Russians, who will evacuate the territory that remains Turkish as soon as it suits their convenience."

In Cyprus meanwhile the situation became curious. As the Government, in pursuit of their policy, would not admit the island to be English, it was said that Sir Garnet Wolseley doubted whether he served Queen or Sultan. He hesitated to take the State lands, and to remedy the admitted defects in the administration of justice. The Turkish judges getting no bribes, struck for more pay, the criminal law was badly enforced, and one Cadi calmly continued to reject Christian evidence, and was not punished. The Turkish Government granted, in view of the cession, all manner of rights over forests and other public estates, and the Christians asserted that the Farmers-General had received payment of taxes in advance. Moreover, it was doubtful whether goods imported from Turkey ought not to be admitted duty free, as Cyprus in theory was Turkish. As at Batoum, however, so in Cyprus, the rise in values consequent on the abolition of direct Turkish rule was soon enormous. In Batoum land and houses were tripled in value in a week, and in Cyprus the rise was sevenfold. One banker, M. Zarify, of Constantinople, who had early information of the cession, bought for 40,000l. real property, which now became saleable for 300,000l. Meanwhile the troops at Cyprus suffered terribly, though perhaps not more than has been the case more than once in history, when Englishmen have first entered upon new quarters in such treacherous climates, under all the difficulties of bad drainage, and other unhealthy conditions of life. One outbreak of fever followed another; twenty-one deaths were reported up to September 17, and a telegram from Larnaca said on the 24th: "The sickness amongst the troops has increased, principally caused by relapses and debility resulting from past fever. At present there are about 400 in the hospitals, and hitherto there have been 14 deaths. This month it is rumoured that some of the sick will proceed to Malta for change of air. Most of the men in the hospitals are to appear before an invaliding board, arrangements for which are being made by Commissary Downes and Dr. McEwen. Another hospital has been opened in Larnaca, and twenty-four patients have been admitted already. The others are full. Hospital and other huts are being disembarked rapidly from the Abbotsford,' and another steamer is daily expected with the remainder. The principal medical officer at Dali has been examining men of the 71st Regiment, who are proposed for invaliding. Extra blankets, bedding, and preserved vegetables have been issued, and much has been done to increase the comfort of the men who are encamped, as the days are warm and the nights cool. The Greek labourers unloading stores struck to-day for higher pay. At present they receive 18. 6d. per diem. The Greek and Turkish merchants express unlimited dissatisfaction at the treatment they have received, saying that they now feel themselves

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