Note 129 — Chapter VI · COLONIES—EMPIRE—FOREIGN POLICY

In 1878, Disraeli, after emphasising the Sultan’s friendliness to Greece and the value of a Græco-Turk entente as a bar to “Pan-Slavic monopoly,” said: “... No prince, probably, that has ever lived has gone through such a series of catastrophes. One of his predecessors commits suicide; his immediate predecessor is subject to a visitation even more awful. The moment he ascends the throne, his ministers are assassinated. A conspiracy breaks out in his own palace, and then he learns that his kingdom is invaded, ... and that his enemy is at his gates; yet with all these trials, ... he has never swerved in ... the feeling of a desire to deal with Greece in a spirit of friendship.... He is apparently a man whose ... impulses are good, ... and where impulses are good, there is always hope.”