The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-07-10 00:00:00

FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.

MONDAY MORNING.
THE parliamentary proceedings of the past week have been
marked by peculiarities of very opposite character. Both
branches of the Legislature, in obedience to the expressed
wishes of the Crown, and in perfect accordance with the
national feeling, have been engaged in recording the national
sense of the great and valuable services of the late Lord
RAGLAN, and accompanying that testimony by making some
provision for those who were near and dear to the late com-
mander of our armies in the Crimea. A proper degree of
unanimity on this important subject was displayed by both
houses ; and the attempt of Mr. GIBBON to foist some of his
crude theories into a consideration of the claims of the hero
was properly repelled by the House of Commons. A resolu-
tion was unanimously adopted by both houses, recommending
a pension of £l,OOO per annum to Lady RAGLAN during her
life, and to date from the 2nd of the present month ; and also
another annuity of £2,000 a-year to his Lordship's successor,
the present Lord RAGLAN and his heir, was also adopted with
the same unanimity. In recommending the adoption of this
course, Lord PANMURE, Lord HARDINGE, the Duke of CAM-
BRIDGE, the Earl of CARDIGAN, Lord BROUGHAM, the Earl
of DERBY, and other peers, vied with each other in bearing
testimony to the great merits of the gallant general, whose
military virtues they severally extolled, while they also bore
witness to his numerous personal excellences. In the House
of Commons, the same course of emulation, in lauding the
memory of the deceased, was observed by Lord PALMERSTON,
Lord JOHN RUSSELL, Sir DE LACY EVANS, Admiral WAL-
COTT, and Mr. DISRAELI, the latter tastefully remarking that
" half a century of public service—always valuable and some-
times illustrious—could not be allowed to pass away without
record and recognition. The career of Lord RAGLAN was
remarkable. Forty years ago he sealed with his blood the
triumphant close of a great struggle against the danger of
universal empire ; and, after that long interval, he had given
his country his life, in order to guard it from the menace of
a new and overwhelming enemy." As already stated, the only
divergence from entire unanimity in reference to the graceful-
tribute, thus paid on all hands to departed worth, came withcha--
racteristic mal-appropriateness from the peace party. With his-
customary stolidity of purpose, Mr. MILNERGIBSON interrupted.
the harmony of the proceeding by interjecting an address upon
the iniquity of hostilities, and propounding a series of questions-
as to the future policy of the cabinet, in relation to the conduct
of the war. The house was in no temper for indulging in such
unseemly freaks : it felt the business before it was business, of
deep importance to the national character and honour ; it sym-
pathised entirely with the indignant repudiation of such a
course contained in the withering observations delivered in
answer to it by Lord PA.L3IERSTOIf, who declared "he should
not, on the present occasion, be led away by the taunts of Mr.
GIBSON, or any of his colleagues, to discuss the Vienna confe-
rences, or to encounter the hostility of the peace party." In
this view of the case, the house quite concurred with the views
expressed by the PREMIER, and the resolutions were put and
carried nemine contradicente. So far, the proceedings in both
branches of the legislature have been creditable to them, and
in harmony with the feelings of the nation. On Friday night
an occurrence took place in the House of Commons, calculated
seriously to damage the little reputation Lord Josh RUSSELL
had contrived to retain for himself. On the occasion referred
to, Mr. M. Gussox extorted from our recent envoy at the-
Vienna conferences, that he ( Lord Jouß RUSSELL) concurred.
in the third point proposed by Count BUOL, and agreed to
recommend it for the adoption of his colleagues. That, on his
return, he did urge it on the acceptance of the British cabinet,
but was out-voted on the question ; and, instead of retiring -
from the ministry which he had endeavoured to compromise,.
he concurred in the rejection of the proposal, and, with singu-
lar inconsistency, defended in parliament the rejection of that
offer, which, as a plenipotentiary, he had approved of, and
which, as a cabinet minister, he had endeavoured to secure the
adoption of! Well might Mr. DISRAELI say, that evening..
would be " memorable for its revelations—memorable for
confessions more extraordinary than any ever made in
that house. The noble lord had returned from Vienna,
as he now confessed, the advocate of propositions for
peace which had been rejected by his colleagues, and. he
then became the zealous advocate of a proposition for
war, while privately he was of opinion that peace ought
to have been, and could have been, obtained." "We
own," says the Daily News, "we should have hesitated. to
believe any other testimony than that of Lord JOHN himself
on such a subject; but as he has thought fit to place • the
matter ou record, we have no choice but to express-our dis-
appointment at the course he has pursued, and our astonish-
ment at the reasons he has set forth as its justification."
With such revelations as the one of Friday night, and some
others of a scarcely less startling character, how can the
Cabinet expect to enjoy the confidence of Parliament or the
respect of the people ? With such discordant views-upon the
vital questions of peace or war, how can the Ministry expect
to be believed sincere in their pretensions to carry on the war
with energy and alacrity ? Is not the influenceof such divided
counsels a sufficiently strong and pointed explanation of the
inefficient manner in which the war has been. conducted? How
stands Lord Joins RUSSELL'S own position in respect to it ?
At the opening of the present Parliamentary session, his
lordship, in the exigence of his rampant zeal for an energetic
conduct of hostilities, upset the Government of which he was
then a member, because it lacked the element of capacity for
vigorously carrying on the war. On the accomplishment of
this feat, a real war Ministry was of course formed, and the.
valiant member for the City of London contrived to wriggle
himself into it. Having succeeded so far, his next move was.
to obtain the appointment of Plenipotentiary, in which elle-
racter he endeavoured to bring about a close of the war on
terms, which he afterwards, in Parliament, denounced aapusil-
lanimous and discreditable to oar arms—as a mockery and a.
delusion—yet which he had himself expressed approbation of
and done his best to wheedle his colleagues into an adoption
of ! And what is the reason he assigns for this fast-and-loose
policy ? On what ground does he pretend to justify the turn-
ing and turning policy he thus acknowledges himself guilty
of ? Why, forsooth, "he felt it his duty, as a Minister of the
Crown, not to embarrass a Government placed in the difficult
circumstances which surrounded that of his noble fripnd."
This was too much for even the coarse maw of Mr. COBDEN to
digest ; and the honourable representative of the Russias
broadly charged Lord JOUR with " dissimulation" in so long
disguising his sentiments on the subject of the Austrian pro-
positions ; and with " weakness" in yielding to his fellow-mi-
nisters on a point so important. Mr. ROEBUCK was equally
pointed, and still more severe, in his condemnation of the
" inconsistency, incompetence, and weakness," displayed by
our late negotiator at Vienna. The self-reliant PREMIER ob-
viously felt himself much perplexed by the awkwardness of the
" situation," and, with his least nonchalant air, declared, in
defence of Lord Joust., that " no government could be ren-
dered permanent without some sacrifice of opinion among its
component members ;" while, to render the farce complete,
Sir GEORGE GREY denied the existence of any division in the
cabinet, and declared that on the question of the war they
were united and determined ! What may be the result of
such discrepant views on questions of vital policy, it is no easy
matter to determine. The present occupants of office appear
to wear a charmed official life, and to cling to place with ex-
traordinary pertinacity. The vote of censure on the late and
present governments, of which Mr. ROEBUCK has given no-
tice, is fixed for discussion on the evening of Tuesday week.
It is to be met by " the previous question," which will be
moved as an amendment on Mr. ROEBUCK'S motion, by General
PEEL, and much anxious speculation as to the result is indulged
in by both the friends and foes of ministers. In the mean-
time, popular rumour is again busy in asserting that Lord
JOUN RUSSELL has been making the most of his Austrian