n six days; and it was entirely due not to a threat of
coercion from Europe, but to the knowledge that Great Britain had asked
Europe to coerce." Dulcigno was ceded by the Porte to Montenegro. On the
Greek side of the case, the minister for once was less ardent than for the
complete triumph of his heroic Montenegrins, but after tedious
negotiations Mr. Gladstone had the satisfaction of seeing an important
rectification of the Greek frontier, almost restoring his Homeric Greece.
The eastern question looked as if it might fall into one of its fitful
slumbers once more, but we shall soon see that this was illusory. Mr.
Goschen left Constantinople in May, and the prime minister said to him
(June 3, 1881):--

I write principally for the purpose of offering you my hearty
congratulations on the place you have taken in diplomacy by force
of mind and character, and on the services which, in thus far
serving the most honourable aims a man can have, you have rendered
to liberty and humanity.

Only in Afghanistan was there a direct reversal of the policy of the
fallen government. The new cabinet were not long in deciding on a return
to the older policy in respect of the north-west frontier of India. All
that had happened since it had been abandoned, strengthened the case
against the new departure. The policy that had been pursued amid so many
lamentable and untoward circumstances, including the destruction of a very
gallant agent of England at Cabul, had involved the incorporation of
Candahar within the sphere of the Indian system. Mr. Gladstone and his
cabinet determined on the evacuation of Candahar. The decision was made
public in the royal speech of the following January (1881). Lord
Hartington stated the case of the government with masterly and crushing
force, in a speech,(2) which is no less than a strong text-book of the
whole argument, if any reader should now desire to comprehend it. The
evacuation was censured in the Lords by 165 against 79; in the Commons
ministers carried the day by a majority of 120.

Chapter II. An Episode In Toleration. (1880-1883)

The state, in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their
opinions; if they be willing faithfully to serve it, that
satisfies. ... Take heed of being sharp, or too easily sharpened
by others, against those to whom you can object little but that
they square not with you in every opinion concerning matters of