This agitation culminated yesterday in a monster meeting at Liverpool at which Mr. Gladstone delivered the first great speech which he has delivered since his retirement from public life. The speech has on the whole pleased all parties—the Conservatives by its comparative moderation, and the Liberals by its vigour and by the evidence which it afforded of the unabated intellectual powers of the man who is still the idol of their admiration. It is not difficult, even without reading the glowing accounts of those journalists who were privileged to be present, to, realiseJZthe enthusiasm of the meeting when the aged statesman rose to his feet and in a sense entered the arena of public life once more in the cause of oppressed humanity. It cannot be complained on any hand that his was a party speech. A mere declaration on his part that it was not a party speech would have been in itself of little avail, bub the declaration of his belief that the British Government was not responsible for Abdul Hamid's successful defiance of the Powers, and in fact the whole tone of his speech, bore out the truth of his declaration, The only complaint which his political opponents can make is that he propounded no practical scheme for dealing with this most difficult question. His only definite suggestion was that the British Ambassador should be withdrawn from Constantinople and this suggestion is not very warmly received even by the Liberal Party. It would perhaps have been better if he had made no suggestion at all. The object of the leader of this Armenian agitation—at least of those who are not animated by party feeling—is to manifest the indignation of this country at the crimes for which the Sultan has been proved responsible. They have every faith in Lord Salisbury's Government, and_their genuine desire is to strengthen the Prime Minister's hands in his efforts to induce the other Great Powers to champion the cause of the oppressed subjects of the Sultan. There are some who believe that the agitation is more likely to hamper Lord Salisbury than to strengthen his hands but there are at least some signs that the outburst of indignation in England is having a salutary effect on other nations.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.