The Press.
London, England, 1855-05-19 00:00:00

462

On this great question it is time that the
House should be called for a decision. The
Opposition bas been too supine. Forbear-
ance may be imputed to an unworthy dread
of responsibility, as eagerness n;kay be imputed
to faction. There point 04 which aft
Opposition is bound to assert its claime to
office, and that point is
oattained when tke
Government of the day is notoalatisly unequal
to its duties.

We can understand the reluctauoe of the
Conservative leaders to make a direct attack
on the Government. It seemed fitting to
wait for the whole evidence of that committee
of iuquiry which had been demanded by so
large a majority of the House ; and while
pacific negotiations were pending, criticism
on the foreign policy of the Ministry
might have been damaging to the pub-
lic interests. These causes for delay exist
no longer. The Sebastopol Committee are
about to conclude their labours. The
proceedings of the Vienna Conferences
to the point of their adjournment, are
published. Now, therefore, the House and the
country will have ample materials before
them for a survey of the policy and conduct of
the late and present Governments (if they
can be considered as distinct) from the com-
mencement of the war. It will be the duty
of the Opposition leaders—immediately after
the Whitsuntide recess—to show from the
published documents and evidence why the
present Government is unworthy public con-
fidence, and to call on the House of Commons
to decide whether it is willing that the desti-
nies of the nation shall longer be confined
to the hands of men whose whole
career as a Government, since they first
assumed office in December, 1852, has been
marked by glaring incompetency and most
,calamitous blundering. We shall then see how
tar the "independent" members of the
House are sincere in their censure of the Go-
vernment, whether they can shake themselves
free from the party influences they affect to
despise, and whether there is really in the
House of Commons enough of common
souse—we will not say of patriotism—
to adopt that one resource which iu constitu-
tional Governments is the sole remedy for
mal-administration, and which in former
periods of our history has suddenly changed
the whole face of public affairs, converting
despondency into exultation, shame into re-
joicing, defeat into victory.
The leaders of Opposition have taken their
decision. They will be no longer a party
to the misgovernment which has prevailed. It
is for the country to afford them encourage-
ment and support.

SIR JAMES GRAHAM AS QUEEN'S
EVIDENCE.
THERE was a dramatic propriety in the Earl of
ABERDEEN closing the long list of witnesses
examined before the Sebastopol Committee.

The Noble Earl's evidence was taken appa-
rently pro forma, for he had nothing to tell
but what was already too well known, and he
intimated as much in a particularly anile way.
As he sat in the chair—cold, dry, and cynical,

mumbling out his icy words with even more
than his customary frigidity of manner—we
could not help feeling how "the race is not to
" the swift, or the battle to the strong," when
such a public character as that deposed Minis
ter was honoured with the Garter ! Bitter
thoughts about regiments starved to skeletons
would intrude themselves while observing the
repulsive rigidity of the ex-Premier's deport-
ment. There he sat, composed and as self-
complacent as it is possible for a man to be
who seems to grudge himself a smile, and to
demean himself as if he were " a spy on his
" own importance."

Very different was the impression left upon
us by the way in which Si: J♦MES GRAHAM
gaye his testimony. As he always is when he
ias received due Aotice, be was carefully made
up fur his performance. The peculiar wonting
of some of his answers showed that he had