Lord Beaconsfield's speech [Footnote: At the Mansion House on the 10th. See _Times_, November 11th.] shall not put an end to the embarrassments of our Exchange, shaken to its foundations by the curiously tragical episode [Footnote: 'Gigantic swindle' would more correctly designate it. See _Times_, November 7th. Philippart, having made away with some 100,000,000 francs, had judiciously vanished.] of Philippart. _Imperium et Libertas_, i.e. 'Domination abroad and Freedom at home,' is a proud legacy of 'the most high and palmy days of Rome'; but it will be difficult to force the submission to that maxim upon all the powers of the world. If the Turks had studied the history of classical times, they would believe that the days of _Civis Romanus sum_ and the _Reges clientes Populi Romani_ are come again for the East; and what immense space does this name design, since the exclusive and dominating influence claimed by the Premier begins at the Adriatic and ends--nowhere; for the whole of Affghanistan being brought under British control, and Turkish Asia on the other side being claimed as a protected and indirectly governed country, it will become necessary that the intermediate region, Persia, be assimilated to the rest of the dependencies of an Empire which, at the farthest end, shall soon be contiguous to China. The task of the Russian people is very different. The stern decrees of Providence have made of it the antagonist and hereditary foe of the Asiatic barbarics, which it has faced under the walls of Kief and Moscow, and pressed, by dint of repeated battles and immense sacrifices, to the foot of the Himalaya range and the course of the Upper Oxus. Sooner or later, a tremendous shock must happen between the two gigantic Empires which meet upon that debateable ground. I hope I may never witness it; but I do regret much the disparition of the ample neutral ground, which till lately stretched from the Indus to the Yaxartes.... Many wishes for your health and occupations. Yours very truly, A. CIRCOURT. The Journal gives the chronicle of the last weeks of the year:-- _November 22nd_.--Visit to Chatsworth. Delane died. _23rd_.--Chatsworth. Long talk with Lord Hartington. _29th_.--Delane's funeral at Easthampstead. Went down with Barlow and Stebbing; then across by Woking to Lithe Hill (Haslemere); very cold. At Christmas severe illness came on--gout and violent bleeding of the nose. I was totally laid up for two months. The year had been a sad one, and had marked its progress by the death of many of Reeve's dearest and oldest friends--Lady Blackett (to whom he had always been tenderly attached), Longman, Circourt, and Delane. CHAPTER XX OUTRAGE AND DISLOYALTY