Gladstone, Disraeli and the Bulgarian Horrors

Early in May 1876, a revolt against Turkish rule began in Panagyurishte in Bulgaria. The Turks responded with vicious reprisals in which many Bulgarian men, women and children died. Estimates of the number of victims, reported in newspapers at the time, varied between 10,000 and 25,000. When news of these events arrived in London, the Conservative Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, reacted by casting doubt on the accuracy of the reports, contemptuously describing them as 'coffee-house babble'. When challenged in the Commons in July about the stories of Turkish atrocities, he cast doubt on their veracity, joking that the Turks 'seldom, I believe, resort to torture, but generally terminate their connexion with culprits in a more expeditious manner'. As the Eastern Question Association organised hundreds of meetings, condemning both the atrocities themselves and the government's refusal to condemn them, Disraeli remained unmoved. 'Our duty at this critical moment,' he said in August, 'is to maintain the Empire of England.'