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xxii. Convention of 1904 and of their complement, the Franco-Spanish Convention. The initial secret deal was secret no longer, and men of goodwill and sober judgment were free to reflect upon the injuries inflicted upon the British people and upon the world by the tortuous and dishonest diplomacy of a section of the Liberal Cabinet—a section which included the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary. But they were still in the dark. They fondly imagined that all secret dealings wore now disposed of, that the slate was clean, that Britain, free and uncommited, could labour henceforth to remove the misunderstanding with Germany, and use her influence for international peace. For the international sky was heavily overcast. A seven years' estrangement between the two most powerful peoples in Europe had played havoc with international relations. International morality was seldom at so low an ebb. "Never," declares a writer in the Fortnightly Review, "has there been such a holocaust of treaties." Following the violation of the Act of Algeciras by France, with British concurrence and support, had come the violation of the Berlin Treaty by Austria in the matter of the Bosnian annexation, and by Bulgaria in denouncing Turkish suzerainty; to be followed in turn by the violation of the integrity of Persia guaranteed by the Anglo-Russian Agreement, in which the Liberal Cabinet was seen to be playing the same part towards the Russia of the Tsars as it played towards France in Morocco—but this time, with no one to oppose; and by the violation of the Berlin Treaty by Italy in her unprovoked descent upon Tripoli—upshot of secret bargains with France and Russia [afterwards to be revealed], and with the almost certain connivance of tho British Foreign Office although up to the present the evidence on that point is presumptive only.

But that the breach with Germany must be healed was the determined purpose of Liberalism in Britain. The forces of progress moved forward steadily to that end, and with sufficient driving force to drag the Liberal Government along with them. But they moved forward blindly. Their belief in the absence of continental entanglements was erroneous. Their faith in the declarations of the leaders of the Liberal Party in that respect was misplaced. Morocco had vanished from the international horizon. But its legacy remained in the of a military and naval collaboration; in the making