Passing over without notice the new Turkish Constitution, the Powers declared that they would carefully watch the carrying out of the promised reforms, and that, if no improvement in the lot of the Christians should take place, "they [the Powers] reserve to themselves to consider in common as to the means which they may deem best fitted to secure the wellbeing of the Christian populations, and the interests of the general peace[117]." This final clause contained a suggestion scarcely less threatening than that with which the Berlin Memorandum had closed; and it is difficult to see why the British Cabinet, which now signed the London Protocol, should have wrecked that earlier effort of the Powers.

In this as in other matters it is clear that the Cabinet was swayed by a "dual control." [Footnote 117: Parl.

Papers, Turkey, No.

9 (1877), p.

2.] But now it was all one whether the British Government signed the Protocol or not.