severely strained by the more arduous conditions under which the House of Commons had begun to conduct its proceedings, and no one was surprised that he had decided. to bring to a close his service of forty-three years as a member of that House. His place as leader of the House of Commons was taken by Sir Stafford Northcote.

The anti-Turkish agitation continued with great vehemence during the autumn. Indignation meetings were held in St James's Hall and in the country, urging the Government to interpose on behalf of the oppressed nationalities.

On September 8, Smith wrote from Greenlands to the Prime Minister :

DEAR LORD BEACONSFIELD,-I cannot help saying I am very sorry to have to address you in this way, but yet I am satisfied the step you have taken was absolutely right and necessary, if we were to retain your guidance and direction, for I am sure you could not have borne the strain of another session in the House of Commons.

We shall, however, miss you very much, and the night will be dull and triste without you.

To say this, however, was not my intention in writing. I was asked to-day to go to a meeting at Slough to support Mr Fremantle, but I thought it better not to go, as in the present critical condition of affairs I could hardly have avoided reference to the East, and I do not feel I have either the information or authority to speak.

In the present excited state of the public mind, one might easily say too little to satisfy one's friends at home, and too much for the difficult work in which the Foreign Office is engaged.

It is very possible I may be asked again, but I shall refrain unless I have a hint from you.

If at any time you wish to see me, I can easily drive across the country on receiving a note or a telegram; but I am at the Treasury, for the present, on Mondays and Thursdays.-Believe me, yours very truly, W. H. SMITH.

The EARL OF BEACONSFIELD.

Perhaps precipitate folly and sagacious forbearance could not be brought into sharper contrast than in the utterances retaries, Mr J. Daly, on the morning after the debate, before the latter had seen the morning papers. "Well," said Mr Ashley, "you see I drew your chief for his last speech in the House of Commons, and he has had to take refuge in the Lords." It was the first intimation received by Mr Daly of the intention of Disraeli.

A.D. 1876.]

ANTI-TURKISH AGITATION.

151

of two persons representing opposite views on this question. "Perish our English interests," shrieked Mr Freeman in St. James's Hall, "and our dominion in India," rather than we should protect the abomination of Turkish rule. Baroness Burdett Coutts, on the other hand, than whom no individual has ever shown wiser capacity for administering to the wants of her fellow-creatures out of her opulence, wrote to excuse herself from attending a meeting at the Guildhall on September 18, and employed words which, by their dignity and thoughtfulness, deserve a high place in political literature.

If the voice of England be potential and can influence the world's destiny, such a consideration should make us very careful as to how far and for what definite results the voice of the people shall be raised. As one of them, I feel the responsibility which rests upon us very strongly. Naturally, as a woman, I must be timid as to the result of this great agitation. I earnestly pray that in the measures taken to alleviate distress we may be calmly led, and not increase, rather than diminish, the distress of nations by urging on the Government an amount of interference better calculated, perhaps, to light than to extinguish a firebrand—a firebrand which may pass far beyond Europe, or might even come near our own dear shores.

Mr Gladstone, who in taking part in the debates on Eastern affairs had maintained an attitude generally favourable to Lord Derby's Eastern policy, and had undertaken a defence of the policy which led to the Crimean War, suddenly dashed into the fray, unable, it would seem, to resist the opportunity of taking the Government at a disadvantage. He published an article in the 'Contemporary Review' advocating the expulsion of the "unspeakable Turk, bag and baggage," from Europe. The country was moved in such sort as to make intelligible the fervour which, in an age generally supposed to be less enlightened, made the crusades possible.

Retrospect upon these excited times must lead men to credit Lord Beaconsfield with a singular degree of courage in adhering to a line of policy which for the moment was widely unpopular. He believed, and he manfully declared,

that the interest and honour of this country were alike involved in refraining from embarrassing Turkey, and before very long the tide turned in favour of a temperate and forbearing policy. People who had been carried away by the heat of Mr Gladstone's invective began to reflect for themselves. Several Liberals of standing-among others the Duke of Somerset, Mr Forster, who had lately returned from the East, and Lord Fitzwilliam-pronounced firmly against the "bag - and - baggage" scheme; and it was announced by the Prime Minister that a Conference of the Powers was to be held at Constantinople, at which Great Britain would be represented by Lord Salisbury.

The popular understanding of the Bulgarian difficulties was not without its effect upon the majority of the Government in the House of Commons. By the time Parliament met for the session of 1877, five seats had been lost to the Conservatives at by-elections. But there the reaction was stayed; and although the Constantinople Conference had failed, and Lord Salisbury was on his way home before the Queen's Speech was delivered, the Government were able to enter upon the parliamentary campaign without serious apprehension. Mr Gladstone's motion of want of confidence in Ministers was rejected by a majority of 131 votes.

On April 5, the Financial Secretary wrote to the Prime Minister::

DEAR LORD BEACONSFIELD,—I hope you will be satisfied with our financial work.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer will have a surplus of £440,000 on the past year, and a safe estimate of the revenue for the coming year will give a small surplus over the expenditure without any increase of taxation. As this result is not expected out of doors, it will, I think, be the more satisfactory to our friends and to the country.— Yours very truly, W. H. SMITH.

The note from the Prime Minister in reply was one of those rewards which come to lighten a life of conscientious toil:

A.D. 1877.]

VISIT TO FRANCE.

153

HUGHENDEN MANOR, April 7, '77.

MY DEAR MR SMITH,-I thank you for your Budget Report, & heartily congratulate you & the country on the result. After forty years' experience of parliamentary life, I can sincerely say that I never knew the affairs of the Treasury conducted with more thorough sense & efficiency than while they have been under your management & control.-Yours sincerely, BEACONSFIELD.

During all his foreign tours, it was Smith's practice to send to some correspondent at home letters forming a consecutive itinerary. As is usually the case in such literature, much of the interest is ephemeral; but a few passages may be quoted from his description of a visit to Normandy which he paid with Mrs Smith in the Whitsuntide recess of this year. In it he endeavoured, with but partial success, to pose as an unwilling victim, and the document is entitled

THE JOURNAL OF A DISCONTENTED MAN.

May 18.-My wife insists on a little holiday, and I must go with her. Where will I go? What trouble! I do not care: just where you please: only decide. Well, then, we will go to Normandy. I ask for a deck cabin: they are all engaged. I go out to get some money, and my eyes and mouth are filled with dust and dirt. The high wind must make dirty weather in the Channel, and the boat is sure to be crowded. No deck cabin, no shelter; how miserable we shall be ! We started. A crowd in Regent Street. Bohren's cab with the luggage is passed-the man driving slowly. He is sure to be late. We arrived first at the station, and instantly fall on the R-s, who are also off to France for a holiday. It is impossible to be alone. We talked, and then-weary of each other-three out of the four fall asleep. I became more composed when I reflected on the miseries of friendship and of society.

On board the steamer came a crowd, all of whom were disagreeable to me, and some particularly so. I had deposited my wife on the sofa in the ladies' cabin and secured a sheltered seat for myself, when the steward came and intreated me to give it up for a lady. Of course I consented; what tyrannical power attaches to this fanatical subserviency to the sex-female. Why should not a man retain a comfortable seat when he had once got it? . . . Half-way across, the lady tottered up from her seat in some sort of trouble and made a rush for the cabin. Presently the gentlemen sitting on either side of me groaned and began to kneel on the seat with their heads doing homage to the sea. We got into harbour nearly an hour late of course, and of course the water was low and we were landed near the end of the jetty. When is the water high at Calais? . . . May 19.-The lumbering carts bringing in market people filled my

disturbed sleep with dreams, until I fairly woke under the influence of the horrible cries of a quiet street in Calais. If half-a-dozen old women were being squeezed to death, the screaming could hardly be worse. My wife however slept like an Angel, as I am sometimes inclined to think she is, so I smothered my resentment against the sea, breakfasted, and descended into the street for a cigar. There I instantly fell on another M.P., who would be a good fellow if he was a Tory. We introduced each other's wives and parted smiling, only to fall on another, the Bart., who inquires how Mrs Smith could having left hers. I gave him an

leave her children, Lady

answer we did not speak again.

Our seats had been taken in the train by Bohren, but a very fresh English husband and wife appropriated one of them, and although roundly abused by the French guard, the woman retained the seat; but I had the satisfaction of looking straight at the husband all the way to Amiens, and of making him feel uncomfortable. At all events, I began to be happier.

We ought to have had 20 minutes for luncheon at Amiens, but the train was late, the Rouen train was waiting, and so we were hurried into it without any food. Was I not right to be angry? And now it rained heavily, and the country looked dreary and very like England? Does it not rain in England? Was it necessary to leave the comforts of home to see Rain?

We reached Rouen-everything wet, every place cold and dreary. Our inn is, of course, Hôtel d'Angleterre by way of sarcasm. Our room is several inches lower at the door than at the window, and there is not room to swing a cat. We descend to dinner, hungry and tired. Presently up trots a small French poodle, shaved up to its neck, with very dirty hair over its head, and red, bleary, weaklooking eyes. It looks at me, and exercising a sound discretion, prefers my wife, jumps up on a chair by her side and begins instantly to beg. This is intolerable!

Of course the fish, the chicken, the meat, are all offered in succession to this insufferable dog. I say severe things, but it is of no avail. How I hate most dogs, and all little ones! A big hound walks in. My wife offers it something and pats it. The little one-a tenth of its size-jumps down and barks furiously at the hound, which slips and flounders on the polished floor, turns round and goes out, chased by the little poodle, who returns triumphant to the chair by the side of my wife.

May 20.-More rain.

May 21.-No rain, but a sharp, cold north-east wind-as cold as England. Again I ask, Why should I travel to France to meet rain and east wind, which are to be had plentifully in England? Could not get a carriage to-day, because it is a holiday and everybody is out. These holidays are a nuisance. At last we are allowed by a driver to get into his carriage, and we proceed slowly to Bonnesecours, a church on a high hill two miles from Rouen, overlooking the Seine, which is here about half as pretty as the Thames at Richmond. Many holiday folk in the cemetery, which is a cheerful way of spending a happy day.