John Morley: “One of the fated words had been spoken that gather up wandering forces of time and occasion, and precipitate new eras.”

Gladstone protested against the bill as “inequitable, unusual, and unwise,” and it was largely modified in committee.

True merit once resigned, No trick nor feint will serve as well.

Yet he had prepared this document for the very purpose of tempting France into a declaration of war.

People still believe that Russian diplomats are particularly crafty and clever, full of artifices and stratagems, but that is not the case.