The Press. — London, England, 1855-02-10 00:00:00

gb tht6,sl • M .. No. 93.—VoL. 111. ress. LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1855. PRESS OFFICE. Friday Night, Feb. 9. Ansa the resignation by Lord DERBY of his commission to form an Administration, Lord Jour; RUSSELL, at the latter end of last week, was invited by her Majesty to attempt that result. The refusal of the Peelite section to serve unaer his Lordship, and the discouraging replies of his former Whig colleagues, obliged the Noble Member for the City of London speedily to relinquish the task, and on Sunday Lord PAI.MERSTON was authorised by the Queen to take the necessary steps, which, it was understood, would result in the return to office of the Coalition Cabinet reduced in numbers. On applying, however, to the Peelite section, unexpected obstacles were experienced by Lord PALMERSTON. An opinion was expressed that if the Coalition Cabinet returned to office, it was both logical and just that it should again be under the superintendence of Lord ABER DEEN. Without, however, insisting upon a point which might be esteemed an interference with the prerogative, it was distinctly an nounced by the Peelite section that its mem oers could not form a portion of Lord PALMERS TON'S Cabinet unle3s Lord ABERDEEN had a seat in it, and should fill at least the office recently occupied by Lord JOHN RUSSELL. It was, as we have been informed, even added, in a tone not less peremptory, that the only reason that the condition of the presence of the Duke of NEWCASTLE also in the Cabinet was not made, was the determination of his Grace to accept no public post at present • The ground upon which this demand was urged was, that Lord PALMERSTON had agreed that no change in the policy of Lord ABER DEEN, either foreign or domestic, should take place. As Lord PALM ERSTON, however prepared to follow, in every particular, the course of the Aberdeen Cabinet, was aware, as a practical man, that the presence of Lord ABERDEEN in his Cabinet at this moment would be imme diately fatal to its continuance, a strong, and eventually an uncompromising, opposition was offered to this project, and on Monday evening it was understood that the Peelite section had formally declined to become members of the Palmerston Cabinet. On Tuesday they surrendered their point, and the Palmerston Cabinet was formed ; that is to say, the Cabinet of 1853, condemned by an overwhelming majority of the House of Commons, returned to office with the LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1855. absence of two individuals who had been Prime Ministers of England, and to reconcile whose rival ambitions the Coalition was con structed. All has been happily arranged: the House of Commons is to support the Government which it has condemned ; Lord ABERDEEN is rewarded for the Crimean expedition by being made a Knight of the Garter; Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT is recompensed for his successful labours at the War-office by being appointed Secretary or State; and Lord PALMERSTON kisses hands as Prime Minister, because, at a moment of national peril, he has prevented the formation of a strong Government. WE must not, it seems, expect the final fall of the Coalition until it has exhausted all its capacity for mischief. It has more work to do yet. In its case we are doomed to experience that there may be "in the lowest deep a " deeper still." Its chiefs are gone, and in full view of their fate, its subordinates under take the task of continuing the perilous system they founded. The Coalition was avowedly a junction of two parties in the Legislature totally opposed to each other in policy and sentiment—the Whigs and the Peelitcs; and at the head of these parties were Lord ABERDEEN and Lord JOHN RUSSELL. They succeeded in overthrow ing the Government of Lord DERBY ; they formed an Administration of their own on the principle of a division of power. But here their triumph ended, and it would be im possible for flattery itself to credit them with any other achievement than that they have succeeded in pulling down each other. The position of Lord ABERDEEN deserves not moment's thought; he cannot hold a lower place than Nature designed him for; but we cannot view the degradation of Lord JOHN RUSSELL without regret. For the last thirty years he has borne a leading part in political affairs. We do not sympathise iu his suc cesses, nor. always approve the means by which they were gained ; but it is undeniable that he has been oue of the most dexterous chiefs the Whig party has ever known. Am bitious as he is, his present state must be the keenest mortification he could experience. Marius amid the ruins of Carthage does not present a more pitiable spectacle of fallen power than Lord JOHN on a fourth row of the Ministerial benches, exposed to the gibes of the party he has so long been accustomed to lead. The other principal in the Coalition was the Duke of NEWCASTLE. Lord ABERDEEN and Lord JOHN RUSSELL were its elements—the Duke was the agent who brought them together. It was he who prevented Mr. GLAD STONE and Mr. HERBERT, with their adherents, from joining Lord DERBY in 1852, and who, by carrying over a section of the Conservative party to the Liberal camp, has been the author of that political weakness which now afflicts the nation. What has been the result of his intrigues? He, too, falls ; and more broadly branded with incompetency than any PRICE SIXPENCE. Minister in England since the Duke of ninety years ago whose name and reputation he in herits. The career of the Coalition was spasmodic from its commencement. Hardly was it formed when the Romanist members seceded in consequence of a Protestant speech from Lord JOHN, and the Peelite head of the Cabinet was reduced to the necessity of expressly disavowing_ the sentiments of his Whig col league. Next came the secession of Lord PALmErtsroa himself, and his sudden return, from a conviction, probably, that opposition in the Cabinet might be a more profitable game than opposition in the house. During the short life of the Coalition, the restless and erratic conduct of Lord JOHN showed how little lie was satisfied with either himself or his colleagues. First he was Foreign Secretary for a kw weeks, then Leader of the Commons without office, then President of the Council, unceremoniously transferring Lord GRANVILLE to another and humbler place, and expelling ?Ir. STatirr altogether ; then, seized with a conviction that his vast abilities were not sufficiently exercised, pant ing to be War Minister ; then, quitting the Government in a fit of disgust, just as Lord PALMERSTON had done a year before, and timing his resignation so well, and justifying it on such grounds as to insure the fall of the Coalition with his retirement. A " strong Government " is now admitted to be the great necessity of the time. It is re quired by the Queen and the country. But what Government have we got? A weaker one than the last. The new Cabinet is the Coalition diluted. The Ministers commenced by quarrelling. The whole of the Peelite sec tion struck for higher terms than Lord PALMERSTON knew it would be possible to con cede, and they sullenly acquiesced in his arrangements only when they saw that per sistance in their demands would lead to their defeat. The key to a strong Government for the effective prosecution of the war, was the pro- posed junction of Lord PALMERSTON with Lord DERBY. With Lord ELLENBOROUGH and Mr. DistutELl this would have been the strong est Government formed since that of It4l. But Lord PALmxuaToN thought his own time was coming. He refused to join Lord DERBY on a fraudulent pretext. He sacrificed the public interest to his personal vanity, de termined, at all risks, to be enrolled among the Prime Ministers of England before he died. We do nut believe that his accession would have brought to Lord DERBY any real increase of strength ; but it would have done this,—it would have disarmed opposition by showing that no other Government was possible. In a side office he might harmlessly have exer cised his desultory activity, and his own short comings as a member of the Coalition would have been forgotten. But his piesent course must be viewed with suspicion and distrust, as he stands before the country the chief of a condemned Cabinet. What hope of increased energy and success can we form from his Ministry ? Lord I'AL MERSTON is advanced in years—as old, in fact, as Lord ABERDEEN. He is overwhelmed with physical infirmities, very deaf, and nearly blind. His administration of the Home office was the most incapable on record. Never regular in his attention to business, his energy is now flickering, and assumes, both in _~ o