The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-07-01

Pope VINO played the lhvallu SO success
fully that whole conclave believed him to
be at the point of deatn and made him
Pope us compromise of their differences
for the few days of life that remained to
him. But when he was once chosen,
and the reins of government were as q
mere formality placed in his feeble and
trembling hands, then it was suddenly
seen, by the vehepence and power with
which he grasped and held them, what a
game he had played In the same way the
dying diplomatis!s who deprecate the hard
conditions that their physical and mental de-
bility force them to accept are found when
the dust clears up to have not made SO
bad case Of it, and perhaps to have
carried away all the prizes. There is
another school that is always buoyant,
that plays for applause, and whose pres
encc is extollcd as sufficient alone for tri-
umph; in whose paths their admirers scat
ter all the flowers Of rhetoric, and to whom
il becomes an established habit OF organs
to sound p@ans. They pursue this relation
OF opposition to the other sort even to the
end, and very commonly are found to have
given so much attention to keeping in right
tone the choruses of applause that they
have permitted the real treasures of d.
plomacy to slip from grasp uncertain
of any other facts than baubles. Perhaps
it will be found when an authentic chron-
icle of all that has been done in the Radzi-
will Palace shall clear away all uncertain
4; = 80 L.. oS sx~11
there.
In England opinion is ut present not at
all decided between points SO distinctly
different as whetheA the victories Of the
Congress are for England or for Russia. 1t
was possible but few weeks since to at
tribute to party hostility all that was said
against Earl Beaconsfeld's policy, and
while there was harmony of laudation for
his stanch maintenance Of England's in
terest, and for the spirit in which he cried
out against Russia's crime in the name of
Europe and in the name of the general
morality of treaty obligations, it was a
prejudice to criticism to raise its voice
against any part of his acts or utter
ances. But that harmony does not
exist now, and the very organs. the
very voices that were raised to accuse
Gladstone of treason for his fierce denun-
citation of Beaconsfeld's courses-even those
voices are now raised in the utterance of
criticism of Beaconsfield. not so fierce, but
equally filed with surprise. All that part
of the press which holds the same tone MS
the Pail Mall Gazette has raised its eyebrows
at the revelation of the agreement with
Russia, and the attempts made to throw dust
in the eyes Of these hitherto stanch sup
porters are not successful. 1t becomes,
therefore, a somewhat important point of
contemporary history to know whether Bea-
consfeld has really gained at Berlin the
victories claimed, or if he has sustained the
defeats pretended for If he is victor
he is worthy honor, and it would be shallow
and narrow minded to continue to doubt
and criticise; but if he is beaten history
should not be fooled into repeating the APP
plauses intoned ct his own command.
Precisely what the English nation desired
to extort from Russia, precisely the points
it was expected the government would carry
in conference, the keynote and pro-
gramme Of the diplomatic campaign
this was laid down at large in the Salisbury
circular OF April l. 1t was held in that
document that any agreement between
Powers changing the agreements of 1856
and 1871 must be European agreement
and not one between two Powers, and
would not be valid" without the assent OF
all the Powers to the treaties of those dates
and that the San Stefano Treaty was obnox-
ious to this objection, and that it must be
submitted to Congress before which every
article Of the treaty must come for con-.
sideration. 1t was regarded as impos-
siblc for Her Majesty's government to
acquiesce in the withdrawal from the
cognizance of all the Powers any articles of
the new treaty which modified the old ones
any of its articles whatever therefore-be-
cause "every material stipulation which it
contains involves departure from the
treaty of 1856" That was the great objec-
ton on principle. Objection based on the
organization of Bulgaria; to the excessive
indemnity and the cession OF territory; to
the loss of 1.-THE political independence of
the government of Constantinople" and to
the consequent injury of British interests.
In the applause with which that note was
received throughout Great Britain it was
shown that the nation approved the pro-
gramme and gave it to the government ms a
moral mandate, and victory or defeat
should therefore be measured according as
the government did or did not successfully
enforce the principles Of that declaration.
Now, the important principle Of that
note--the centre Of the position was
abandoned by the British government
before it went into the conference at
Berlin by the famous agreement be-
tween Count Schouvaloff and Lord Sails
bury. BY making that agreement by
becoming bound with Russia ON GER