The Resolution calling out the Reserves was carried in the House of Commons by 319 against 64, the Liberal leaders, with the exception of Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Bright, refusing to take part in the division. That fewer than half the House supported the Government was bitterly bewailed by the War Party, but was taken by the country as a good omen of peace. So was the proposal to adjourn Parliament for a holiday of three weeks at Easter, though, when the order summoning the Indian troops to Malta was issued immediately after the adjournment, war alarms again vexed the nation. Peace meetings were once more held, and the provinces grew so restive that in the end of April Mr. Hardy and Mr. Cross, speaking at Bradford and Preston, tried to soothe public opinion by the most pacific assurances. When Parliament met after the Recess the Government were taken to task because, in sending for the Indian troops, they seemed to be endeavouring to nullify Parliamentary control over the Army. Though the Opposition were beaten in the division in the House of Commons, independent Conservatives did not conceal the suspicions and the dislike with which they regarded a proceeding which appeared more in harmony with the policy of Rome in her decay, than of the British Empire in the full vigour of virility. Though the War Party were more noisy than ever in London, there grew up a strong feeling towards the end of May that the Congress would meet after all, and that the risk of war was over. Intimidated by the Peace demonstrations, the feeble vote of support on the motion for calling out the Reserves, and the suspicions with which many Conservatives viewed the employment of Asiatic troops to fight the battles of England in Europe, the Government adopted Lord Derby’s plan, and entered into a secret agreement with Russia as to what was to be conceded in Congress. After that agreement it mattered little on what terms the two Powers met. The compromise between Lord Salisbury and Count Schouvaloff pushed back the Bulgaria of the San Stefano Treaty from the Ægean Sea to the limit fixed by the Constantinople Conference, cutting it off from all possible contact with England, an arrangement not altogether disadvantageous to Russia. It divided Bulgaria into two provinces--one to be free, but tributary to Turkey, and the other to have an autonomous government, under a Christian Pasha, appointed by the Porte with the sanction of the Powers. This weakened Bulgaria so as to give Russia a dominant influence in both provinces, which was not shaken till 1885, when their aspirations for union were realised by a Revolution, which it was Lord Salisbury’s fate to sanction, perhaps, indeed, in some measure to encourage. Greek populations were excluded from the new Bulgarias, greatly to the satisfaction of Mr. Gladstone and Lord Derby. Bayazid was restored to Turkey, but Batoum and Kars were to be taken by Russia, who thus had the Asiatic frontier of Turkey at her mercy.