continued that he hoped that the instructions given to Lord Salisbury,
who had been sent for conference to Constantinople, were not in
accordance with the speech at Guildhall, but that he would be left to
his own clear insight and generous impulses; that the conference would
insist upon the independence of the provinces, or at least would insure
them against arbitrary injustice and oppression, and that the work
indicated was not merely a worthy deed but an absolute duty.

Mr. Gladstone, during the recess of Parliament, delivered speeches upon
the burning question of the day all over England. At Hawarden he
pleaded that it was the wretched Turkish system that was at fault, and
not the Turks themselves, and hoped for a remedy. To the electors of
Frome he spoke of the tremendous responsibility of the Ministers. In a
speech at the Taunton Railway Station, he said, in reference to the
injunction for himself and friends to mind their own business, that the
Eastern question was their own business. And when the Constantinople
Conference failed he spoke of this "great transaction and woeful
failure," and laid all the blame of failure on the Ministry. As to the
treaties of 1856 being in force, his opinion was, that Turkey had
entirely broken those treaties and trampled them under foot.

January 20, 1877, the conference closed. Parliament met February 8, 1877,
and the conflict was transferred from the country to that narrower
arena. In the House of Lords the Duke of Argyle delivered a powerful
speech, to which the Premier, Disraeli, replied, that he believed that
any interference directed to the alleviation of the sufferings of the
Turkish Christians would only make their sufferings worse. He asked for
calm, sagacious and statesmanlike consideration of the whole subject,
never forgetting the great interests of England, if it was to have any
solution at all.