Angels Ministers | Page 5

Mistress spurs me freshly to my task. But, Madam, there is almost nothing to tell: politics, like the rest of us, have been taking holiday.
QUEEN. I thought that Mr. Gladstone had been speaking.
LORD B. (_with an airy flourish of courtly disdain_). Oh, yes! He has been--speaking.
QUEEN. In Edinburgh, quite lately.
LORD B. And in more other places than I can count. Speaking--speaking-- speaking. But I have to confess, Madam, that I have not read his speeches. They are composed for brains which can find more leisure than yours, Madam--or mine.
QUEEN. I have read some of them.
LORD B. Your Majesty does him great honour--and yourself some inconvenience, I fear. Those speeches, so great a strain to understand, or even to listen to--my hard duty for now some forty years--are a far greater strain to read.
QUEEN. They annoy me intensely. I have no patience with him!
LORD B. Pardon me, Madam; if you have read one of his speeches, your patience has been extraordinary.
QUEEN. Can't you stop it?
LORD B. Stop?--stop what, Madam? Niagara, the Flood? That which has no beginning, no limit, has also no end: till, by the operation of nature, it runs dry.
QUEEN. But, surely, he should be stopped when he speaks on matters which may, any day, bring us into war!
LORD B. Then he would be stopped. When the British nation goes to war, Madam, it ceases to listen to reason. Then it is only the beating of its own great heart that it hears: to that goes the marching of its armies, with victory as the one goal. Then, Madam, above reason rises instinct. Against that he will be powerless.
QUEEN. You think so?
LORD B. I am sure, Madam. If we are drawn into war, his opposition becomes futile. If we are not: well, if we are not, it will not be his doing that we escape that--dire necessity.
QUEEN, But you do think it necessary, don't you?
(_To the Sovereign's impetuous eagerness, so creditable to her heart, he replies with the oracular solemnity by which caution can be sublimated_)
LORD B. I hope it may not be, Madam. We must all say that--up till the last moment. It is the only thing we can say, to testify the pacifity of our intention when challenged by other Powers.
QUEEN (_touching the newspaper_). This morning's news isn't good, I'm afraid. The Russians are getting nearer to Constantinople.
LORD B. They will never enter it, Madam.
QUEEN. No, they mustn't! We will not allow it.
LORD B. That, precisely, is the policy of your Majesty's Government. Russia knows that we shall not allow it; she knows that it will never be. Nevertheless, we may have to make a demonstration.
QUEEN. Do you propose to summon Parliament?
LORD B. Not Parliament; no, Madam. Your Majesty's Fleet will be sufficient.
(_This lights a spark; and the royal mind darts into strategy_)
QUEEN. If I had my way, Lord Beaconsfield, my Fleet would be in the Baltic to-morrow; and before another week was over, Petersburg would be under bombardment.
LORD B. (_considerately providing this castle in the air with its necessary foundations_). And Cronstadt would have fallen.
QUEEN (_puzzled for a moment at this naming of a place which had not entered her calculations_). Cronstadt? Why Cronstadt?
LORD B. Merely preliminary, Madam. When that fortified suburb has crumbled--the rest will be easy.
QUEEN. Yes! And what a good lesson it will teach them! The Crimea wasn't enough for them, I suppose.
LORD B. The Crimea! Ah, what memories-of heroism--that word evokes! "Magnificent, but not war!"
QUEEN. Oh! There is one thing, Lord Beaconsfield, on which I want your advice.
LORD B. Always at your Majesty's disposal.
QUEEN. I wish to confer upon the Sultan of Turkey my Order of the Garter.
LORD B. Ah! how generous, how generous an instinct! How like you, Madam, to wish it!
QUEEN. What I want to know is, whether, as Prime Minister, you have any objection?
LORD B. "As Prime Minister." How hard that makes it for me to answer! How willingly would I say "None"! How reluctantly, on the contrary, I have to say, "It had better wait."
QUEEN. Wait? Wait till when? I want to do it now.
LORD B. Yes, so do I. But can you risk, Madam, conferring that most illustrious symbol of honour, and chivalry, and power, on a defeated monarch? Your royal prestige, Ma'am, must be considered Great and generous hearts need, more than most, to take prudence into their counsels.
QUEEN. But do you think, Lord Beaconsfield, that the Turks are going to be beaten?
LORD B. The Turks are beaten, Madam.... But England will never be beaten. We shall dictate terms--moderating the demands of Russia; and under your Majesty's protection the throne of the Kaliphat will be safe-- once more. That, Madam, is the key to our Eastern policy: a grateful Kaliphat, claiming allegiance from the whole Mahometan world, bound to us by instincts of self-preservation--and we hold