The Press.
London, England, 1855-09-08 00:00:00

PEEL UPON PALMERSTON.

THE sayings and doings of Sir JAMES GRAHAM
have attracted much attention this week.
Three speeches in one day from an ex-Cabinet
Minister, out of session, have been boons to
the quidnuncs, and there is certainly material
for reflection upon the Right Honourable
Baronet's reticence, as well as his utterances.
His first speech was upon peace and the
horrors of war, his second was a panegyric
on PEEL, and his third oration was on the
toast of " The glory of our native land." On
the first of those addresses we shall only
remark that the dexterous speaker oracularly
talked platitudes in sentences of ominous
length, which, like the Silloth Railway, seemed
never likely to find a terminus.
But the speech in honour of Sir ROBERT
PEEL was most remarkable in many ways. No
man knows more of the traditional saws and
sayings of Parliamentary leaders and skilful
orators, and we surmise that in his pane
gyric on the celebrated statesman Sir JAMES
recollected the advice of Sir PHILIP FRANCIS—
" Never praise any one in politics, except in
" odium tertii." " I feel every day," said Sir
JAMES GRAHAM, "more and more the loss of Sir
"R. PEEL'S friendship." The Netherby Baro •
net finds poor comfort in thinking of Lord
PALMERSTON and Lord JOHN RUSSELL, or all
the Whig families, with whom he was recon
ciled. " Time has not abated my sorrow for
" his loss," and many other sentiments to
the same effect, must, in the minds of Whig
Ministers, be anything but complimentary
to the use they have made of their oppor-
tunities since the decease of Sir ROBERT PEEL.

SATURDAY,

Such matters might prove invidious in illus-
tration, and we leave Sir JAMES to settle his
condoleiibth mitt cottildliiiitpts as he pleases.
On one ihiportaiit 010, fitwever, we must
with Ail iiiiipect teriblbr him in emphatic con-
tradhOti;
Si ' bath einAnAli stabiti that it would be
" a
Si
• *tlillits qatstidtii a titiidless and uupro-
" fitt hpecdliticitl7 th discuss " What
wood IliVe beeti MN bonduct of Sir ROBBIIT
" PERI. (if alive) in existing circumstances?"
We are astonished to find so clever a man as
Sir JAMES GRAHAM saying, "He cannot pre-
" tend to say' what would have been the
position taken by Sir R. PEEL. Does Sir
JAMES GRAHAM forget the last speech ever
spoken by the eminent statesman whom he
so feelingly laments ? A copy of it lies before
us as we write; and even at this distance of
time we remember the calm emphasis with
which many of its passages were delivered to
an attentive House of Commons. We defy
any one to read that most significant address
and not come to at least one conclusion, that
whatever course Sir R. PEEL might now re-
commend, that able man would never have
endorsed with approbation the studied am-
biguity and irritating tone of the present
Prime Minister in his relations with foreign
Powers.

Thus, let our readers recollect the way in
which Lord PALMERSTON has vacillated during
the last four years. At one period, before the
fall of the Russell Cabinet, his Lordship left
us without an ally, and even Royalty had
specially to interfere to check his proceedings
about despatches to foreign Courts. He was
obliged to leave the Russell Cabinet, and
then he intrigued against it. He took up a
doubtful position on the flank of Lord DERBY'S
Administration. With faltering steps he
joined the Coalition, and left his colleagues to
act as they pleased, while he busied himself in
London sewers, and allowed his friends
throughout Europe to circulate all sorts of
rumours as to his secret designs. He sup
ported Lord ABERDEEN in refusing a committee
on the conduct of the war ; then he played
fast and loose with the Peelites, while he pre-
tended to be ready to join Lord bERBY ; and
afterwards, availing himself of the precipitate
folly of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, his Lordship
offered himself as man-of-all work to the Whig
families, and opened the committee to the
public, whip at the same time he derided all
measures for stringent military reform. That
is not the line of action in public affairs
which Sir ROBERT PEEL would have followed.
Sir ROBERT changed his course on public
questions, and avowed it openly, but he never
balanced himself like a tightrope-dancer in the
Palmerstonian fashion. Whether he was
right or wrong in his mode of acting we
shall not hero discuss ; but PEEL had always a
great public cause for his changes, while Lord
PALMERSTON in his vacillations leaves events
and measures to settle themselves, and is con-
tent to raise himself on the difficulties of the
time.

And thus on the foreign policy of the Pre-
mier, the peroration of the last speech of Sir
R. PEEL reads like a vote of censure on the
proceedings of Lord PALMERSTON. Observe the
words of Sir ROBERT :
It is my firm belief that you will not advance the cause
of constitutional government by attempting to dictate to
other nations. If you do, your intentions will be mistaken;
you will rouse feelings upon which you do not calculate; and
beware that the time does not arrive when, frightened by
your own interference, you withdraw your countenance
from those you have excited, and leave upon their minds
the bitter recollection that you have betrayed them.
It is plain that the statesman who spoke
those memorable words could not possibly
approve of the irritating line of foreign policy
followed by Lord PALMERSTON. Our Premier
hangs not baits to the " oppressed nationali-
ties ;" he hovers on the confines of Austria;
he goads the phlegmatic German States; he
makes the great military monarchies uneasy,
and, after scandalous procrastination in raising
the Scotch and Irish militia, Lord PALMERS-
TON becomes a Hotspur in enlisting the Foreign
Legion. Is that the policy which Sir ROBERT
would have approved ?
Assuredly it is not; and to Sir ROBERT S
opinion on Lord PALMERTON'S mode of using
the servants of the eotnitry we think it right