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Herbert neutrality, and on 30 April 1877 it fell to him to announce to parliament the issue of a proclamation pledging England to that policy in the east of Europe. But when early in 1878 it became clear that Russia would come out victor, and it was probable that she would push her successes against Turkey to the last extremity, Lord Beaconsfield deemed it necessary for England to interfere. To this change of policy Carnarvon objected. On 2 Jan. 1878, while addressing a deputation at the colonial office, he expressed his conviction that England ought not to sanction a repetition of the Crimean war. When the cabinet met a fortnight later, the prime minister severely condemned Carnarvon's language, and a proposal, which came to nothing, was made to send an English fleet into Turkish waters. Carnarvon offered to resign, but Lord Beaconsfield induced him to withdraw his resignation. A week later it was determined at another cabinet council to send a fleet to the Dardanelles, and to appeal to parliament for a vote of credit. Carnarvon thereupon renewed his offer of resignation, and Lord Beaconsfield accepted it. In justifying his conduct in the House of Lords (25 Jan.) Carnarvon urged the government to pursue their original policy of neutrality. In 1878 he earnestly recommended the ministry on entering the congress of San Stefano, which had been suggested to the great powers by Russia, to safeguard the interests of those Christian races subject to Turkey on whom he thought England might better depend to thwart the aspirations of Russia than on Turkey herself. In the autumn he delivered an interesting lecture on ‘Imperialism’ before the Edinburgh Philosophical Society, in which he deprecated the identification of imperialism with ‘mere bulk of territory and multiplication of subjects’ protected by vast standing armies, and pointed out that England's imperial function was to draw her colonies closer to herself, and to hold the balance between her colonists and the native races.

Carnarvon was a less conspicuous figure in politics for the two following years, but became chairman in September 1879 of an important commission appointed to consider the defence of colonial possessions. The commission sat for nearly three years, and published its third and final report in July 1882. Although it recommended a large expenditure, Carnarvon claimed that its estimates were framed on the lowest possible scale. After the defeat of the conservatives at the polls in 1880 Carnarvon offered once again to devote his services unreservedly to his party, and for the five succeeding years spoke constantly in parliament and at public meetings. On the third reading of the Irish Land Bill in the House of Lords on 8 Aug. 1881 he was put forward to express the suspicions with which his party regarded the measure. He described it as ‘a very great experiment,’ but finally accepted it without dividing the house (, cclxiv. 1180-1186). When the franchise bill of 1884 reached the House of Lords he energetically opposed it (8 July), on the ground that a redistribution of seats must accompany any further extension of the suffrage, so as to ‘give full play to all the different opinions in the country.’ The Reform Bill of 1867 had led (he said) to violent oscillations of the electoral body, to lower views of duty on the part of candidates, and to a tendency to convert members of parliament into delegates. At his own and his friends' advice the bill was rejected by the House of Lords, and a fierce agitation was conducted in the following autumn throughout the country in support of the bill. The agitators threatened the second chamber with extinction. Carnarvon flung himself with enthusiasm into the conflict, and elaborately defended the action of the House of Lords both in the present and the past. When the ministry consented to combine a redistribution bill with their franchise bill, Carnarvon and his friends withdrew their opposition, but, as the two bills were passing through the upper house, he asserted that duly qualified women were logically entitled to the suffrage. On 13 Nov. 1884 he raised a debate on the proposals made by the liberal government to provide new coaling stations for the fleet and defences for the colonies, and showed the inadequacy of the suggested plans. In November 1884 the Imperial Federation League was formed, and Carnarvon vigorously supported it, taking part in its meetings to the end of his life.

In June 1885 Mr. Gladstone's ministry was defeated on their budget proposals. The Reform Bill had appointed the general election for November, and Lord Salisbury consented to take office after receiving from the liberal majority in the House of Commons promises of support for the few months intervening. The condition of Ireland was the chief difficulty which the new government had to face. The bitterest feelings of hostility against the English government had been roused by the Home Rule agitation of Mr. Parnell and his followers. A Crimes Act had been firmly administered during the last years of Mr. Gladstone's ministry, and the stringency of its provisions had supplied the agitators with their leading cry. When the 