The Press.
London, England, 1855-04-14 00:00:00

LORD CLARENDON.

IN the foreign policy of this country there has
been for the last two years a most remarkable,
and, as some would say, a disgraceful want of
energy. England has pursued no distinct
course of her own, but followed at the corn
mencement the advance of France with an ap-
pearance of timidity and constraint. Subse-
quently she resigned herself to the lead of
Austria with undisguised deference, even
though the views of the Emperor of the FRENCH
and of the head of the house of Hapsburg were,
in some important particulars, not identical.
It is obvious that we have acted on no system,
—plain, firm, and decisive. Prolonged vacilla-
tion and habitual " drifting " have marked
our interference in the affairs of Europe.
It might be difficult to determine exactly
how much of this fluctuating conduct is to be
attributed to our ostensible Foreign Minister,
the Earl of CLARENDON. It is only fair to pre-
sume that some of his colleagues in the Cabinet
exercised a considerable influence in every
step taken upon the Eastern question. The
peculiar relations of Lords ABERDEEN and
PALMERSTON to each other, and of Lord JOHN
RUSSELL to both, must have often seriously
embarrassed a politician like Lord CLARENDON,
of an excessively nervous temperament, an
undecided cast of thought, and delicately
situated in his own personal connection with
the " Old Whigs," by many of whom the Noble
Lord is looked on as a merely professional
statesman. At a time when boldness was em-
phatically required, f is to be regretted that a
Minister with more ascendancy of will than
could be expected from the dangerously ductile
nature of Lord CLARENDON did not preside over
the foreign policy of England. _

Seen in society or in the senate, Lord CLA
BENDON cannot fail to arrest attention. That
tall attenuated form, with the stooped shoul-
ders, and mingled appearance of feebleness
and grace, might of itself suggest an inquiry
as to who was that elegant invalid, so frail in
body and so fashionable in appearance. The
haggard, worn face still retaining the handsome
traces of the " Mr. GEORGE VILLIERS" of thirty
years ago ; the smile still sweet and winning,
even in spite. of a certain insincerity ; the
voice in conversation so pleasingly modulated;
high bu' itin;
tout

_tlkepe4sad high but narrow, suggesting acute land that a statesmen of his timid na- native regiments, which would, as regards tne
TUE IW•°°e4t.*ithout massiveness—combine to in ture should have at the present time been British army, be most injurious to discipline,
„,,,,...._ . itn even prepossess, an observer. The placed in the Foreign-office. His Viceroyalty and as regards the native army utterly de-
-6
iS ,7N-7 citi • look, with its airy and animated of Ireland caused ridiculous delusions about structive of it. An officer accustomed to the
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. ; " ii,t, , nee suggests the presence of the abilities of Lord CLARENDON. He had lax discipline of the native army would have
, :',46 1::!s::.:,, .0, en though the rapidly succeeding thirty thousand British soldiers and some everything to learn if transferred as captain
4'-- ..s. ' is
) -•' ' stiun reveals that we were not sixteen thousand police, aided by all the Pro- or major to a European regiment; while if a
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