The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-07-19
The Treaty OF Berlin and the ENG
lisSs Parl la IA eMt.

We glance at below, he did not expect that
the sitting would be marked by so lively an
incident as the statement of Lord Derby as
to his reason for leaving the Beaconsfeld
Cabinet. 1t was most untoward thing to
bring out from the Tory closet such grin
ming skeleton after such feast of the East
wind 10 say, as Derby did, that he left
because he could not support proposition,
made in England's time of panic over the
San Stefano Treaty, to bring secret expedi-
ton from India and without leave OF
on the mainland of Asia Minor was to show
in very sinister colors all that the Prime
Minister had been saying about his friend-
ship for the Ottoman Empire. Lord Salis-'
bury's denial that such a proposition had
ever been made was, it is true, emphatic,
but Earl Derby's reiteration was equally So
1t does not seem at all likely that Lord
Derby could be mistaken upon SO i'm
portant point as that on which he left
the high council of the nation. On the
other hand Lord Salisbury has earned a char
acter for straigh tforwardness which suggests
an error somewhere-exactly where is, we
presume, capable of pretty clear proof. The
incident is valuable in one sense. 1t shows
to what wild counsels the highest men
in England were lending ear in the
'jingo" days of the spending OF
the six million pounds, for the homely say
ing that there can be no smoke without fire
holds, we take it, good in this affair The
fact that Beaccnsteld aiterward made an un-
derLand convention with Turkey, thereby
gaining this very Cyprus, lends color of
truth to Lord Derby's statement which will
be difficult TO remove. 1t is as though
man had planned n burglary and on ac-
count of the want of firmness of his
friends contented himself with coaxing the
property from the owner under the pretence
of being policeman who would take care
of it Tor him. This incident placed on rec
ord, we may turn to what the Premier said
before Lord Derby told his extraordinary
story.
We wish we could look at Earl Beacons-
fields speech in the House OF Lords last
evening through the eyeglass of an English
conservative. Then, in addition to gen.
e.al opinion Of its high ability, we should
be able to praise it's earnestness That
pleasure is i'll great measure denied MS.
1t is able, but it IL more adroit than sincere.
No one better understands than His Lord
ship how to tickle the English lion with a
straw, and last night the royal beast was IT'LL
lated all over. We enjoy all the humor Of
the scene not with the lusty, roaring
Ia of huf OIL
tire menagerie. We knew all he had to an
nounce, but who could foresee how deX.
terously he would give it forth? In Effect,
he had 10 tell that England, in max
ing believe to keep Turkey togeth-
er, had helped Russia and Austria
to slice off her territory and had bagged an
island as her share. This was his triumph,
but we did not expect him to put it in that
way. Nearly all the triumphs of this re-
markabIe man have been triumphs over. lis
own party; but of course it was never his
cue to say SO. He did not begin by
saying that they had Topped off one
third of Turkey in Berlin (; but with his
inimitable flourish, (which has always
something OF the Snowman in it, he said
that they had preserved two-thirds OF
Turkey in Europe to the Sick Man.
1t is true they left him without
any frontier naturally defensible, but
and this is grand Spartan touch
there were six millions of Turks left to form
living bulwirk. Artemus Ward was never
more iacetious about his wife's relations.
They did not leave the Sick Man his Sofia;
but then Mehemet Ali, it appears, thought
the Ichtiman Pass very important place,
so Sofia was let slide. lie was sorry to
say that they let the great fortress and
port of Va-na go too; but then they
held on like grim death to Galatz. Then
as to Bosnia. There His Lordship was
strong His colleague Lord Salisbury it
was, he said, who urged the coy Andrassy to
occupy Bosnia, and the Austrian occupation
was not to be limited, because it would
never do to lenve the dear discontinued
province to it's fate. Never was plain
robbery in the name Of friendship more
delicately gilded 1t was Salisbury that
did it and Beaconsfield that backed it, and
that was enough for any Englishman with
conscience.
A trife daring, to be sure, was His Lord
ships comparison of some unnamed foreign
statc smsn--Bismarc it is surmised-t the
devil tempting the Lord, but Us it came out
that Beaconstield was the person to whom
the Kingdoms of the earth were this time
offered, the modesty Of the Premier stands
forth in fine relief. This Satanic person
wanted the Powers to partition Turkey for
good and all among them. The Earl telling
the Lords how he thrust this aside must
have been very dramatic, but in the light
of the actual partition of the territory
it seems uproariously funny to us. In the
light Of Earl Derby's extraordinary and
reiterated statement it seems funnier still.
Perhaps the funniest of all is the Mark