The Press.
London, England, 1855-03-10 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

has almost confused the public memory of their
authorship. What the Derby Ministry was
enabled to achieve, in spite of the most profli-
gate opposition which has of late years been
ventured in Parliament, and what that Cabinet
was prevented by faction from perfecting, are
placed by Mr. LENDRICH in clear narrative be-
fore the public. It is that " plain truth" which
" needs no flowers of speech," and the careful
reader of it will think no heavier indictment
than this lucid statement needed to show that
with respect to certain notorious members of
the Coalition it is impossible to award them
any other character than that of men seeking
mere place by means in which principle had
no part whatever.
The Administration of the Earl of DERBY
took office at a time which the involvments,
both at home and abroad, combined to con
stitute something more than merely "a critical
"period of affairs." At home, those departments
on the efficiency of which our national rank in
Europe depended, had been left by popularity-
hunting placemen in such a state of neglect that
one would have supposed they believed that
the end of all wars had come ; while abroad,
France, the great keystone of any structure of
European peace or war, had just established a
popular throne, which had been assailed
by Cabinet Ministers of the Peelites and
Whigs with a scurrility unparalleled in political
discussion. The free-trade system, depending
as it must on new systems of finance, had
scarcely begun—at all events, it was denied as
yet to many interests in the State. The
Opposition in Parliament were actuated by
that malice which is the peculiar result of in.
competency and failure, and they were led by
a Minister who did not even conceal that, quo-
cunque modo, the Cabinet was to be overthrown.
Of a Government before which was placed the
task of remedying the blunders and neglects of
many years everything was demanded at once,
their opponents adopting the sentiment so
differently applied in Lucan—
Nil actum raputans xi quid superesset agendum.
What the Derby Ministry did accomplish, in the
face of Lord Jolts RussELL and the Peelites,
will be matter of sincere astonishment to every
candid political historian of the time. While
the most obtuse must have seen that the
cloud in the North and East must be followed
by war, the Militia Bill, brought in by Mr.
Secretary WALPOLE, was bitterly and almost
successfully opposed byLord JOHN RUSSELL. It
was carried ; and Mr. LENDRIOIE remarks on the
curious fact that," Amongst the many changes
"in the measures for the defence of the country
" which have since taken place, none has ever
"been proposed in the Militia Bill of 1852."
But the attention of the Government was
not confined to prospective measures. They
found departments for the support of
which the country was led to believe it was
providing, in a state of the most shameful in-
efficiency and neglect. How this was reme-
died cannot be better told than in the words
of the pamphlet before us :
The next step was to put the Ordnance on a proper
footing. This important department had been grievously
neglected for above thirty years ; and had a large British
army at any time during that long period been forced to
take the field, it would have been found utterly deficient
in many of the requisites for carrying on war. Guns had
rusted, and their carriages were rotten, whilst the soldiers
themselves were supplied only with an obsolete species of
firelock. All these defects were remedied by the energy of
those to whom the department of the Ordnance was
intrusted—Lord Hardinge, Sir George Berkeley, and
Colonel Dunne. The Enfield (miscalled Minis) rifle, now
found so advantageous in the Crimea, was extensively in-
tzoduced in the service ; and large sums were judiciously
expended in fortifying the Channel Islands, Sheerness,
Sconcepoint, Tilbury, and other places along the coast.
The Admiralty, moreover, immediately placed nine
additional screw line-of-battle ships, together with several
smaller vessels, in commission; whilst the first secretary
of the board was despatched to the Mediterranean to inspect
the state of the fleet and the condition of our military and
naval posts in that important quarter.
Most materially in conjunction with mea-
sures for the defence of the country came the
conclusion of that cordial alliance with France
which was perfected by the Derby Adminis-
tration in spite of conduct and language which
cannot have been otherwise intended by the
Peelites than to interrupt or destroy it. This
alliance alone would have been sufficient to
have given a place in history to the Govern-
ment and the Minister (Lord Malmesbury)
who concluded it.

SATURDAY,

When the Earl of DERBY acceded to power
a distinct promise was made, not only of de-
fensive measures, but of internal improvement;
and how well this promise was fulfilled may
be seen by the lists given of measures carried
at pp. 7,8, and 9 of Mr.LENDRICIed pamphlet.
His review of Lord ABERDEEN'S Ministry,
as the late Coalition is sometimes called,
is clever and trenchant, but, as its no-
minal head might have said, it is now
" throwing water on a droon't moose." The
history of the Coalition is a history generally
of want of principle, accompanied by want of
vigour. Lord PALMERWTON, perhaps, was an
exception to some of his friends. He had the
merit of voting for and supporting the Militia
Bill. Public opinion had separated him from
the rest of the clique. He has chosen, how
ever, to sacrifice that opinion, and to accept
the judgment of nosoittir a sociis, which the
nation had been unwilling to fix upon- him.
How we will fare is hardly a question.

WHO AND WHERE IS THE COLONIAL
MINISTER?
EVENTS of mighty importance to the existence
of the British empire are crowding upon us
with fearful rapidity. The auriferous soil of
Victoria is reddened with the blood of our
fellow-subjects, and soldiers of the line have
fallen in open combat with armed insurrec-
tionists. Every mail from the Antipodes is
looked for with intense interest. The desperate
character of the depraved classes in Australia,
and the passions that burst forth with such
fury in all new communities, make colonial
politicians look grave when the state of Aus-
tralian affairs is mentioned.
As if that would not be enough of evil for
our Coloni-office to deal with, the announce-
ent of aal new Kaffir war is simultaneously
brought from the Cape of Good Hope. The
courage and ability of Sir HARRY SMITH and
the late Sir GEORGE CATHCART seem not to
have produced lasting results. The work
will have to be done over again, and more
demands will be made at the Treasury and the
War-office for money and armaments to sup-
port the Queen's Executive in her Majesty's
most important settlements.
Never since the American war was the
British Colonial system in more danger than
now. During the last ten months the
Colonial-office has been visited, we cannot say
ruled, by Sir GEORGE GREY, the Duke of
NEWCASTLE, Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT, and Lord
JOHN Russ Nu.. The first of these politicians
has long been in infirm health, and is noto-
riously unequal to laborious work ; the second
of them has retired from the public service,
totally discomfited ; the third had no special
knowledge of colonial affairs ; and the fourth
is rambling from Paris to Brussels, from
Brussels to Berlin, and thence to Vienna.
To make affairs still smoother, the late Under-
Secretary for the Colonies, Mr. FREDERICK
PEEL, iS now removed to the War office, where
his facility in tying red tape is held preferable
to the manly energy and extensive European
knowledge of Mr. LAYARD. The vacant Under-
Secretaryship kept open for the acceptance of
Sir ROBERT PEEL (1) is at last declined by
him, and at this moment is unfilled.
We really believe that such outrageous
audacity in trifling with mighty nati
interests could be displayed only under a
Ministry of old Whigs. The morbid vanity
of Lord JOHN RUSSELL must be propitiated at
any price. The House of Bedford must
exercise its hereditary right of ruling a sec-
tion of the Sovereign's Cabinet. The fall
from the Premiership must be concealed from
the publio eye, by assuming the office of a
mighty ambassador, and a histrionic air of
greatness must be given to Lord JOHN in the
decline and fall of his power. Hence
European mission, along with the sceptre
of the Colonies, has been confided to a
statesman mortified, but not yet humbled,
by his reverses. And it is with grayef, that
fore•
bodings that we echo the prevalent 'belie
before we have heard the last of Lord Joliti
RUSSELL and his " great Whig party" England
will have to mourn over calamities eontnved
by the little designs of little men in lofty
stations.