An armistice was agreed upon and a treaty of peace, negotiated between the two belligerents, was signed at San Stefano on March 3. It provided for a huge Slav State under Russian protection stretching right across the Balkans and completely isolating Con stantinople. Russia announced that at the approaching con ference of the Signatory Powers required under treaty law to legalize the settlement she would admit discussion on those parts only of the new treaty which were "of European interest." The other Powers hesitated to enforce their rights but England de clared that unless the treaty were submitted in its entirety she must decline to participate in the congress; Russia again refused, the summoning of the congress was indefinitely postponed, and when the British cabinet met on March 27 it was to face an imminent probability of war. They called out the Reserves and telegraphed orders for a contingent of Indian troops to be at once embarked for the Mediterranean. Lord Derby resigned the same evening and Lord Salisbury, who had taken a leading part in these decisions, was appointed foreign secretary the following day.
He signalized his accession to control by a despatch whose con tents were telegraphed on April 1 to every capital and which became famous as the Salisbury Circular. Its object was to show that the Treaty of San Stefano, by reducing the Turkish Empire to vassalage, would constitute a greater menace to the interests of other Powers than would have arisen from its frank dis memberment in Russia's favour. It was by the treaty as a whole that this result would be achieved and it was as a whole there fore that it must be submitted to the judgment of Europe. This document, by the lucidity of its style and argument, the im pression of resolution which it conveyed and the subtly indirect appeals which it contained to the interests or sentiments of the different neutral nations, effected an immediate revolution in the international position. Hesitation disappeared; the rest of Europe ranged itself on the side of the British contention and Russia could do no other than submit.
But danger was not over with the removal of obstacles to the meeting of the Powers. In present conditions a failure of agree ment at the Congress itself must precipitate a general war and Salisbury refused to risk that possibility. He entered into private communication with Russia and satisfied himself that the pro visions which either side regarded as vital were capable of ad justment. On May 3i st a secret agreement was signed between him and the Russian ambassador binding both Powers not to push dispute on these provisions to the point of rupture at the Congress.
Russia's price for this adjustment was her retention of her Asiatic conquests, and to counteract the effect of these Salisbury co-incidentally arranged a convention with Turkey. Under this, in consideration of her ceding Cyprus to England and entering into an engagement of administrative reform in Asia Minor, Eng land guaranteed her Asiatic frontier against further aggression.
These preparations having been effected, the Congress, sum moned by Prince Bismarck, met at Berlin on June 13. Lord Beaconsfield and Lord Salisbury attended it, and a month later a treaty was signed there by the seven great Powers. It secured all the objects for which England had contended, and when the two plenipotentiaries returned to London Beaconsfield was able to announce that they had brought back "Peace with Honour." In Opposition.—At the general election of 188o, the Con servative party was heavily defeated. Lord Beaconsfield died the following spring, and Lord Salisbury succeeded him as leader in the House of Lords, sharing with Sir Stafford Northcote in the leadership of the party as a whole. During this period of oppo sition and in the election campaign which closed it, he spoke continually . on public platforms and developed gifts for attract ing and holding mass meetings of working men which hitherto had had little opportunity for display.
In home affairs his attitude was distinguished alike from that of the Tory Democrats of that day and that of the more old fashioned Toryism. He made no attempt, like the former, to clothe his views in radical or democratic phraseology, but on the other hand he was disdainful of privilege and frankly indif ferent to tradition. That the confidence begotten of economic stability and respect for individual rights was of supreme im portance to the class whose welfare depends on full and well paid employment ; that theorists and phrasemakers are the enemy, always and everywhere; above all, that unity and mutual trust are the indispensable foundation for all moral and all material welfare in a nation,—were the recurrent texts from which he spoke. But he demurred to the title of Conservative : "There is much . . . which it is highly undesirable to conserve." He identi fied himself strongly with the movement for housing reform and in speaking to a bill promoted by a Royal Commission of which he had been a member, he shocked the rigid individualists of his own and the opposite party by his warm advocacy of State expenditure in dealing with the evils of overcrowding.