ean war he had been
opposed to the traditional English policy of supporting the Sultan.
Ever since he had thought about foreign politics at all he had
sympathised with the Christians of the East. So when Lord Beaconsfield
seemed on the point of carrying the country into a war with Russia in
defence of the Turks, no voice rose louder or bolder than his in
denouncing the policy then popular with the upper classes in England.
On this occasion he gave substantial proof of his earnestness by
breaking off his connection with the _Saturday Review_ because it had
espoused the Turkish cause. This cost him L600 a year, a sum he could
ill spare, and took from him what had been the joy of his heart,
opportunities of delivering himself upon all sorts of current
questions. But his sense of duty forbade him to write for a journal
which was supporting a misguided policy and a minister whom he thought
unscrupulous.

His habit of speaking out his whole mind with little regard to the
effect his words might produce, or to the way in which they might be
twisted, sometimes landed him in difficulties. One utterance raised an
outcry at the time, because it was made at a conference held in London
in December 1876 to oppose Lord Beaconsfield's Eastern policy. The
Duke of Westminster and Lord Shaftesbury presided at the forenoon and
afternoon sessions, and the meeting, which told powerfully on the
country, was wound up by Mr. Gladstone. Freeman's speech, only ten
minutes long, but an oratorical success at the moment, contained the
words, "Perish the interests of England, perish our dominion in India,
rather than that we should strike one blow or speak one word on behalf
of the wrong against the right." This flight of rhetoric was perverted
by his opponents into "Perish India"; and though he indignantly
repudiated the misrepresentation, it continued to be repeated against
him for years thereafter, and to be cited as an instance of the
irresponsible violence of the friends of the Eastern Christians.

The most conspicuous and characteristic merits of Freeman as an
historian may be summed up in six points: love of truth, love of
justice, industry, common sense, breadth of view, and power of vividly
realising the political life of the past.

Every one knows the maxim, _pectus facit theologum_,[40] a maxim
accountable, by the way, for a good deal of weak theology. More truly
may it be said that the merits of a great historian are far from lying
who