THIRD MARQUESS OF SALISBURY 271
surreptitiously divulged to the Globe newspaper by a Foreign Office copyist, and Lord Salisbury was asked in the House of Lords whether there was any truth in the statement. His reply that the " statement was wholly unauthentic and not deserving of the confidence of your Lordship's House," has been the subject of much criticism, and has been described as " the most debatable incident in a singularly honourable career." J But it is surely not open to doubt that there are occasions when a statesman, whose duty is to uphold the interests of his country, must act in obedience to higher principles even than verbal accuracy. In the present case silence would have been equivalent to acquiescence, and an affirmation of the authenticity of the agreement would have rendered it useless as a basis of discussion, and, in all probability, have stultified the Congress altogether. " For my own part," says Dr. Traill with much wisdom, 2 " I do not hesitate to avow that a statesman who, so situated, should deliberately prefer to sacrifice what he conceived to be the highest interests of the State to his private scruples, would deserve that his head should be first crowned for his fidelity to his own conscience, and then struck off for treason to his country."
The Congress sat for a month, and the resulting
1 Diet. Nat. Biog., 2nd Supp., I. 334.
2 Life of Lord Salisbury, p. 176. Mr. (now Sir Henry) Lucy wittily fathered on Lord Derby the proposal that " a familiar proverb shall henceforth be quoted cum grano Salis-bury " (Diary of Two Parliaments, I- 445)-
�� �
