ractical results, Russia
would be forced to take up arms; and he counted on the support of his
people. A week later 160,000 Russian troops were mobilised.

[Footnote 107: Hertslet, iv. p. 2508.]

The issue was thus clear as far as concerned Russia. It was not so clear
for Great Britain. Even now, we are in ignorance as to the real intent
of Lord Beaconsfield's speech at the Guildhall. It seems probable that,
as there were divisions in his Cabinet, he may have wished to bring
about such a demonstration of public feeling as would strengthen his
hands in proposing naval and military preparations. The duties of a
Prime Minister are so complex that his words may be viewed either in an
international sense, or as prompted by administrative needs, or by his
relations to his colleagues, or, again, they may be due merely to
electioneering considerations. Whatever their real intent on this
occasion, they were interpreted by Russia as a defiance and by Turkey as
a promise of armed help.

On the other hand, if Lord Beaconsfield hoped to strengthen the
pro-Turkish feeling in the Cabinet and the country, he failed. The
resentment aroused by Turkish methods of rule and repression was too
deep to be eradicated even by his skilful appeals to Imperialist
sentiment. The Bulgarian atrocities had at least brought this much of
good: they rendered a Turco-British alliance absolutely impossible.

Lord Derby had written to this effect on August 29 to Sir Henry Elliott:
"The impression produced here by events in Bulgaria has completely
destroyed sympathy with Turkey. The feeling is universal and so strong
that even if Russia were to declare war against the Porte, Her Majesty's
Government would find it practically impossible to interfere[108]."

[Footnote 108: Parliamentary Papers, Turkey, No. 6 (1877).]

The assembly of a Conference of the envoys of the Powers at
Constantinople was claimed to be a decisive triumph for British
diplomacy. There were indeed some grounds for hoping that Turkey would
give way before a reunited Europe. The pressure brought to bear on the
British Cabinet by public opinion resulted in instructions being given
to Lord Salisbury (our representative, along with Sir H. Elliott, at the
Conference) which did not differ much from the avowed aims of Russia and
of the other Powers. Those instructions stated that the Powers could not
accept mere promises of reform, for "the whole history of the Ottoman
Empire, since it was a