the competence of that body to overhaul every clause of the Treaty in European interests--a fact of which Lord Derby was well aware. Austria and the Continental Powers were satisfied that Russia had sufficiently recognised the competence of the Congress. England alone denied this, and pressed for a declaration which would have technically left all the Powers except Russia free not only to decide what affected their individual interests, but free to decide what affected those of Russia also. Lord Derby’s demand seemed as if meant to put the Russian Government, behind which stood a great and irritable army, flushed with victory, in the position of a criminal at the bar of Europe, and to force from her an admission that on certain vital points she pledged herself to bow to the decision of the Congress, though no other Power was to be put under a similar obligation.[128] Whilst this pedantic controversy was going on the “Jingoes” beat the war-drum with so much sound and fury that Lord Beaconsfield was misled into the idea that they were strong outside London. On the 26th of March the Cabinet accordingly resolved to call out the Reserves, to summon a contingent of native troops from India, to seize Cyprus, and land an army at a port in Syria. Lord Derby was not much alarmed about the order to call out the Reserves, but to seize one portion of the Turkish Empire, and land an army on another, without a declaration of war, was to his mind an act of piracy. Moreover, it would have instantly led to the catastrophe which he had made every sacrifice to avoid--the Russian occupation of Constantinople.