The great danger is the present state of our relations with the United States.  When I acceded to office I did so, so far as regarded the United States of America, with some advantage.  During the whole of the Civil War in America both my noble friend near me and I had maintained a strict and fair neutrality.  This was fully appreciated by the government of the United States, and they expressed their wish that with our aid the settlement of all differences between the two governments should be accomplished.  They sent here a plenipotentiary, an honorable gentleman, very intelligent and possessing general confidence.  My noble friend near me, with great ability, negotiated a treaty for the settlement of all these claims.  He was the first minister who proposed to refer them to arbitration, and the treaty was signed by the American government.  It was signed, I think, on November 10th, on the eve of the dissolution of Parliament.  The borough elections that first occurred proved what would be the fate of the ministry, and the moment they were known in America the American government announced that Mr. Reverdy Johnson, the American minister, had mistaken his instructions, and they could not present the treaty to the Senate for its sanction—­the sanction of which there had been previously no doubt.  But the fact is that, as in the case of the Crimean War, it was supposed that our successors would be favorable to Russian aggression, so it was supposed that by the accession to office of Mr. Gladstone and a gentleman you know well, Mr. Bright, the American claims would be considered in a very different spirit.  How they have been considered is a subject which, no doubt, occupies deeply the minds of the people of Lancashire.  Now, gentlemen, observe this—­the question of the Black Sea involved in the Crimean War, the question of the American claims involved in our negotiations with Mr. Johnson, are the two questions that have again turned up, and have been the two great questions that have been under the management of his government.

How have they treated them?  Prince Gortschakoff, thinking he saw an opportunity, announced his determination to break from the Treaty of Paris, and terminate all the conditions hostile to Russia which had been the result of the Crimean War.  What was the first movement on the part of our government is at present a mystery.  This we know, that they selected the most rising diplomatist of the day and sent him to Prince Bismarck with a declaration that the policy of Russia, if persisted in, was war with England.  Now, gentlemen, there was not the slightest chance of Russia going to war with England, and no necessity, as I shall always maintain, of England going to war with Russia.  I believe I am not wrong in stating that the Russian government was prepared to withdraw from the position they had rashly taken; but suddenly her Majesty’s government, to use a technical phrase, threw over the plenipotentiary, and, instead