Serbia's resistance was soon overcome, but the Powers forced Turkey to grant her an armistice, and largely through Great Britain's influence, a Conference was held at Constantinople where Lord Salisbury was our representative. A short breathing-space was thus gained, but the Conference was abortive, and war between Russia and Turkey broke out in 1877. _Punch_ was in rather a delicate position: for while distinctly anti-Turk, he had never trusted Russia. Thus, while assailing the _Daily Telegraph_, _Pall Mall Gazette_ and _Morning Post_ for their Chauvinism, and the Tory press generally for their campaign against Russia and their support of the "veracious Turk," he was hardly less severe in his strictures on the belligerent humanitarians who would have welcomed pro-Russian intervention. _Punch_ advocated neutrality, but he was fully alive to the difficulties of the situation, and expressed them in a cartoon in which the British Lion is exhibited in a bothered mood, distrustful of Russia, and unable to make out what the Government meant, or the Opposition either. In his comments on the debate on Mr. Gladstone's resolution, _Punch_ deplores the weakness and dissensions of the Opposition and supports the bolder spirits. Many years were to elapse before Lord Salisbury made his remarkable speech about our having "backed the wrong horse," i.e. Turkey, in the Crimean War. That speech proved that _Punch_ was fully justified in seizing on the caution which the same speaker had given nearly twenty years earlier. For Lord Salisbury declared in 1897 that the defence of the diplomacy of 1878 lay in its traditional character, not in its inherent excellence, and that neither he nor Lord Beaconsfield was free from misgivings as to its results. The music halls have not often enriched the language with permanent additions, but they added "Jingo" and "Jingoism" in 1877. _Punch's_ comment on Macdermott's famous song is instructive. It was inspired by a reference in the Paris _Figaro_:-- On the back page of the _Figaro_ is given one verse in English, with the music, of that "War Song" of the Music Halls, which just now enjoys its share of popularity with "_Nancy Lee_," and "_Jeremiah, Blow the Fire_," and a translation of the whole song into French, of which the _Figaro_ says apologetically, "_Des vers français n'auraient pu arriver à la sauvage énergie de l'original_." The chorus of the song, as sung by most of our London street-boys, instead of "_They all do it_," and "_Woa Emma_," recently shelved, is this:-- "We don't want to fight, but by Jingo if we do," etc. And the translation, which "_n'aurait pu arriver à la sauvage énergie de l'original_," is: "_Nous ne voulons pas la guerre, mais, par Dieu! si nous combattons_," etc.