3 (1876), pp.

144, 173, 198-199.] Of course, neither the British Government nor its ambassador foresaw the awful results of this advice; but their knowledge of Turkish methods should have warned them against giving it without adding the cautions so obviously needed.

Sir Henry Elliott speedily protested against the measures adopted by the Turks, but then it was too late[104].
Furthermore, the contemptuous way in which Disraeli dismissed the first reports of the Bulgarian massacres as "coffee-house babble" revealed his whole attitude of mind on Turkish affairs; and the painful impression aroused by this utterance was increased by his declaration of July 30 that the British fleet then at Besika Bay was kept there solely in defence of British interests.

He made a similar but more general statement in the House of Commons on August 11.

On the next morning the world heard that Queen Victoria had been pleased to confer on him the title of Earl of Beaconsfield.