We have received from Mme. Olga Novikoff a letter commenting on the recent debate in the House of Lords, She says:—

The quality of the Anglo-Russian Entente seems to be twice blessed: it has produced harmony, not only between the two Governments, but also between Lord Curzon and Lord Morley. . . .On Thursday the rivals simply pelted each other with charming compliments. It was roses, roses all the way—pure Nice Carnival. . . . As a Russian, I am well contented. For now the spokesmen of both your great political parties are agreed that the hope of Persia lies in common action between Great Britain and Russia. . . .

I could not repress a smile on Lord Curzon’s alarm “lest this British Government should wrongly interpret the Anglo-Russian Agreement or that England may follow silently and meekly in the footsteps of her allies.”

Except what my old friend Mark Twain described the British Empire, as a fulfilment of the promise that “the meek shall inherit the earth.” I never heard any one maintain, even satirically, that meekness and silence were Great Britain’s besetting sins. That is quite inadmissible in a land blessed with Parliamentary government and the liberty of the Press.

Lord Morley admitted the difficulties of attempting to establish Constitutional government in Oriental countries like Persia. That admission was most gratifying. It explains clearly why the English Russophobists, mad with Constitutional ideals, never propose to introduce them into India. . . . The risks would probably be much less in India than in Persia; there is no kindly, authoritative mentor to guide the trembling steps of the new Persian beginners. Lord Morley said:—

“New systems, founded on new and free principles are all exposed to the risk of extreme men who, whether they are Mahomedan or Christian, are carried away by foolish logical principles, on which the new system was first started, to all sorts of logical conclusions, without any regard whatever to qualifying conditions and circumstances.”

Lord Morley was speaking of the Persian Mejliss, but he might just as well explain why it was necessary to dissolve our first two Dumas. . . .

If an evil fortune should compel us to send a handful of Russian troops to Tehran, why then, on earth, should people assume that they will stop there for ever? Where and what is the temptation to do so?

Russia has occupied many foreign capitals, not with a regiment, but with an army, which retired in due course, after doing her work thoroughly, and often leaving many regrets behind. Have I not still in my possession Mr. Gladstone’s letter congratulating me upon the way in which Russia had fulfilled her pledges in evacuating Bulgaria, and adding:—“I hope the future will show that we shall be equally punctual in evacuating Egypt”?