Mr. Gladstone's speech during this debate is described as
"a long and eloquent address, unsurpassable for its comprehensive grasp
of the subject, its lucidity, point, and the high tone which animated it
throughout." Mr. Gladstone denied that his strictures upon the
Government in a speech made out of Parliament could be construed as Lord
Beaconsfield had taken them as a personal attack and provocation. If
criticism of this kind is prohibited the doors of the House might as
well be shut. He observed that, "Liberty of speech is the liberty which
secures all other liberties, and the abridgment of which would render
all other liberties vain and useless possessions." In discussing the
Congress at Berlin, Mr. Gladstone said, that he could not shut his eyes
to the fact that the Sclavs, looking to Russia had been freed, while the
Greeks, looking to England, remained with all their aspirations
unsatisfied; that Russia had secured much territory and large indemnity,
with the sanction of Europe; that the English Plenipotentiaries at the
Congress, Lord Salisbury and Lord Beaconsfield, as a general rule, took
the side of servitude, and that opposed to freedom.
With regard to the English responsibilities in Asiatic Turkey put upon
England at the Convention, he called them an "unheard of," and
"mad-undertaking," accomplished "in the dark," by the present Ministry.
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