too poor to enforce it is a blackguard. [Loud applause.] We entered into
a treaty--a solemn treaty--two treaties--to defend Belgium and her
integrity. Our signatures are attached to the documents. Our signatures
do not stand alone there; this country was not the only country that
undertook to defend the integrity of Belgium. Russia, France, Austria,
Prussia--they are all there. Why are Austria and Prussia not performing
the obligations of their bond? It is suggested that when we quote this
treaty it is purely an excuse on our part--it is our low craft and
cunning to cloak our jealousy of a superior civilization--[Laughter]--that
we are attempting to destroy. Our answer is the action we took in 1870.
["Hear, hear!"] What was that? Mr. Gladstone was then Prime Minister.
[Applause.] Lord Granville, I think, was then Foreign Secretary. I have
never heard it laid to their charge that they were ever Jingoes.

France and Belgium in 1870.

What did they do in 1870? That treaty bound us then. We called upon the
belligerent powers to respect it. We called upon France, and we called
upon Germany. At that time, bear in mind, the greatest danger to Belgium
came from France, and not from Germany. We intervened to protect Belgium
against France, exactly as we are doing now to protect her against
Germany. [Applause.] We proceeded in exactly the same way. We invited
both the belligerent powers to state that they had no intention of
violating Belgian territory. What was the answer given by Bismarck? He
said it was superfluous to ask Prussia such a question in view of the
treaties in force. France gave a similar answer. We received at
that time the thanks of the Belgian people for our intervention in a
very remarkable document. It is a document addressed by the Municipality
of Brussels to Queen Victoria after that intervention, and it reads:

The great and noble people over whose destinies you preside have
just given a further proof of its benevolent sentiment toward our
country.... The voice of the English nation has been heard above
the din of arms, and it has asserted the principles of justice and
right. Next to the unalterable attachment of the Belgian people to
their independence, the strongest sentiment which fills their
hearts is that of an imperishable gratitude. [Great applause.]

That was in 1870. Mark what followed. Three or four days after that
document of thanks a French army was wedged up