The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-06-19 00:00:00

THE PALMERSTON MINISTRY.

THE Government is just now in that state of
transition which among fowls is described as
moulting. No one from its present scrubby appear-
ance can guess what its plumage is likely to be in a
few weeks hence. It has lost its old feathers before
its new ones have begun to spread, and while shivering
from 'a sense of its destitution it still continues to
pluck itself bare.
Lord Palmerston, with a kind of instinct that he
cannot get rid of his old garb too soon, is pecking
away, as Premier, that system of policy which he cor-
dially approved as Home Secretary. Lord Aberdeen
had no more faithful adherent in his Austrian policy,
and Lord Aberdeen has no opponent more ready to
cast it off. It was to be the salvation of Europe. It
is a mere illusion of pacific dreamers. Lord John as
Secretary of the Colonies is equally ready to discard
all the notions he held as President of the Council
(we think that is the place he occupied under Lord
Aberdeen, though lately he has shifted so often that
we do not pretend to be positive), and more recently
as Minister plenipotentiary. They have discarded
their old sentiments with their old offices, and with a
kind of unnatural cruelty for which we can find no
parallel in gods, men, or brutes, they are eager to hiss
their exploits in their old parts that they may have an
opportunity of condemning the whole performance,
and of reviling the actors with whom they played in
amicable concert.
If war were a mere affair of the mimic scene, as our
Premier by his jocularity seems to suppose, this sud-
den change would be of no great consequence. But
it is of vital consequence to the nation, and may influ-
ence our state for years to come. Lord Aberdeen,
to give dotage its due, was consistent. He was all
for peace ; but his successor has not yet been able to
make up his mind what he is for. A Premier in
search of a policy rightly describes his position. He
is becalmed, and whistling for a breath of wind to bear
him in some direction or another, no matter where.
At this moment the policy of England is at the mercy
of any chance current which may set in to influence it.
It is open to a bid from oppressed nationalities, or
from the houses of Hapsburg and Hohenzollern.
We are in the midst of war and of discontent at the
same time, and the people seem hardly to know which
is most their foe—their own Government, or the Power
with which they are at war.
Those persons are greatly mistaken who imagine
that the ferment will subside until its cause is removed.
The very cry for Administrative Reform is some pre-
sumption of a grievance experienced. A blind man
may feel an injury though he knows not who in-
flicts it, nor can see his way to a remedy. The wrath
which is indiscriminating is the most dangerous ;
there is no conjuncture more threatening to the safety
of a free State than a people enraged against the
Government which is the creature of its will, and de-
pendent on its breath.
Among us there is a certain class of politicians,
reared in those doctrines of expediency which have
been too prevalent of late, who imagine that the whole
art of Government is to yield to popular impulse, and
that they are sure to be right, or at least safe, if they
follow its latest changes. They are under a fatal mis-
take. The people are content to be honestly governed,
but sooner or later they will discover the fraud which,
pretending deference to their wishes, profits by their
trustfulness, and drives a lucrative trade in political
chicane.

Since the Reform Bill the Liberal interest, as it is
called, has proved itself the strongest in the country,
and no marvel, therefore, that abuses have clustered
thickly round it ; but this sham must have an end,
and it is one favorable omen for the cause of good
government that the Opposition, whenever it is called
to power, will come in unfettered by pledges, bound to
no interest, and free to follow that course of action
which it judges best for the public advantage.—The
Press.