'… I think the noble Earl is aware that it [the question] answers itself—of course, we have never suggested any limitation to the power of the German Government to fortify the island if they please. I quite recognise that the noble Earl and his friends owe acted with great consideration in reference to all these-affairs, and I am also willing to concede that full information is due to them; but I think it is a rule that has always been observed in the Foreign Office, and a very valuable tule, that discussions should not take place until negotiations of this kind are concluded, We thought it desirable to issue a Despatch for the purpose of stating what our general intentions were; because such matters as these become subjects of discussion and of public comment, and strange and distorted accounts of them are apt to get before the public eye. …
'The Earl of Rosebery: Would the able Marquess object to state what the means were which he took to ascertain the feelings of the population?
'The Marquess of Salisbury: Obviously they were means of a confidential character, and, therefore, it is not possible for me to discuss them.
'Earl Granville: Confidential with the population, does the noble Marquess mean?'—Ibid., cccxlvi. 305, 307.
'[Lord Salisbury, when in Opposition, spoke as follows in the House of Lords on May 12, 1885, with reference to Earl Granville's assertion of the great danger of public criticism of negotiations while they were still in progress between Russia and Britain with regard to Afghanistan: 'The noble Earl seemed to me to lay down a doctrine which we cannot pass unnoticed, when he says it is the duty of an Opposition not to canvass or condemn the conduct of the Government, if by so doing it should have the effect of discouraging friends and allies in other parts of the world. That seems to be a very far-reaching doctrine, and one which it is impossible to assent to. The noble Earl must remember that if we are of opinion that the course of public affairs is going ill, and that our Government has mismanaged, that faults are being committed and dangers are being incurred, we have no absolute Sovereign to whom we can appeal in order to correct the evil; our absolute Sovereign is the people of this country, and it is
