Mr. Gladstone, upon his appearance in the House, was greeted as a Daniel
come to judgment. He was taken to task by Mr. Chaplin, who complained
that Mr. Gladstone and others of the Liberal party "had endeavored to
regulate the foreign policy of the country by pamphlets, by speeches at
public meetings, and by a so-called National Conference, instead of
leaving it in the hands of the Executive Government," and intimated that
Mr. Gladstone was afraid to meet the House in debate upon the question.
Mr. Gladstone, rebuking Mr. Chaplain, said that it was the first time in
a public career extending over nearly half a century, he had been
accused of a disinclination to meet his opponents in a fair fight, and
promised him that neither he nor his friends would have reason to
complain of his reticence. Tories and Liberals knew he had not shrunk
from meeting the public on this question. He was glad that there was a
tremendous feeling abroad upon this Eastern question. He had been told
that by the pamphlet he wrote and the speech he delivered, he had done
all this mischief, and agitated Europe and the world; but if that were
the case why did not the honorable gentleman, by writing another
pamphlet, and delivering another speech, put the whole thing right? If
he (the speaker) had done anything, it was only in the same way that a
man applies a match to an enormous mass of fuel already prepared. Mr.
Gladstone closed with the following words: "We have, I think, the most
solemn and the greatest question to determine that has come before
Parliament in my time.... In the original entrance of the Turks into
Europe, it may be said to have been a turning point in human history. To
a great extent it continues to be the cardinal question, the question
which casts into the shade every other question."

April 24, 1877, war was declared by Russia against Turkey. The Czar
issued a manifesto, assigning as reasons for this war the refusal of