Policy, and that was wrong”--the “maintenance of the integrity of the Ottoman Empire.” But the net result of Lord Derby’s administration was that he kept the country out of war, and out of enfeebling and disreputable alliances. He thrust a peace policy on bellicose colleagues. Even when they broke from his control he still forced them back to the paths of peace by inflicting on them the penalty of his resignation. In quitting them he left them as his legacy the secret of going into the Congress, and bringing back from it “Peace with Honour.” Mr. Gladstone, in a famous speech at Oxford, said, on the 30th of January, that he had devoted his life, during the past year, to counteract the Machiavelian designs of Lord Beaconsfield. Mr. Gladstone, however, never appeared to less advantage than when he made that statement. It was not Lord Beaconsfield but Lord Derby who was the master-mind of the Cabinet during 1877-78, and who moulded its diplomacy and controlled its action in Foreign Affairs. That Mr. Gladstone strengthened Lord Derby’s hands by rendering a war for the sake of Turkey unpopular is true; but that he weakened them by seeming to advocate a military alliance with Holy Russia for a crusade against Islam, is true also. Lord Derby’s successor was Lord Salisbury. His first act was to issue a Circular to the Powers, which was a furious and unrestrained condemnation of every line of the Treaty of San Stefano. If it were to be taken seriously it meant the condemnation even of the proposals of the Constantinople Conference, to which he was himself a party. Prince Gortschakoff, however, did not take it seriously. He replied to it with polite irony in his Circular of the 9th of April, pointing out that the difficulty Lord Salisbury put him in was that he confined himself to saying what England did _not_ want. The situation, however, could not be understood by the Powers till Lord Salisbury stated plainly what she did want. The only logical answer which Lord Salisbury in terms of his Circular could give was, “The restoration of the _status quo_ in Turkey.” Hence it is needless to say that he did not find it convenient to issue a direct reply to Prince Gortschakoff’s cynical despatch.