the agonies of famine in Central India when that title was proclaimed at Delhi. [Illustration: TROOPING THE COLOURS IN ST. JAMES’S PARK ON THE QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY.] [Illustration: LORD CAIRNS. (_From a Photograph by Russell and Sons._)] CHAPTER XXI. THE REIGN OF JINGOISM. Opening of Parliament--Sir Stafford Northcote’s Leadership--The Prisons Bill--Mr. Parnell’s Policy of Scientific Obstruction--The South Africa Confederation Bill--Mr. Parnell’s Bout with Sir Stafford Northcote--A Twenty-six Hours’ Sitting--The Budget--The Russo-Turkish Question--Prince Albert’s Eastern Policy--Opinion at Court--The Sentiments of Society--The Feeling of the British People--Outbreak of War--Collapse of Turkey--The Jingoes--The Third Volume of the “Life of the Prince Consort”--The “Greatest War Song on Record”--The Queen’s Visit to Hughenden--Early Meeting of Parliament--Mr. Layard’s Alarmist Telegrams--The Fleet Ordered to Constantinople--Resignation of Lord Carnarvon--The Russian Terms of Peace--Violence of the War Party--The Debate on the War Vote--The Treaty of San Stefano--Resignation of Lord Derby--Calling Out the Reserves--Lord Salisbury’s Circular--The Indian Troops Summoned to Malta--The Salisbury-Schouvaloff Agreement--Lord Salisbury’s Denials--The Berlin Congress--The _Globe_ Disclosures--The Anglo-Turkish Convention--Occupation of Cyprus--“Peace with Honour”--The Irish Intermediate Education Bill--Consolidation of the Factory Acts--The Monarch and the Multitude--Outbreak of the Third Afghan War--The “Scientific Frontier”--Naval Review at Spithead--Death of the Ex-King of Hanover--Death of the Princess Alice. The “green Yule,” which bodes ill-luck, ushered in the year 1877. The attitude of the Ministry to the Eastern Question was still one of indecision; but there was joy in City circles when, on the 11th of January, it was announced that Lord Derby had recalled the British Fleet from Besika Bay. This was a warning to the Sultan that England had no sympathy with the contumacy of the Porte, which still refused to concede the guarantees for reform in its European provinces that the Conference insisted on.