The Press.
London, England, 1857-03-07 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 1857.

THE readers of THE PRESS will feel no surprise
at the division of Tuesday night. We had
prepared them for the fall of Lord PALMERSTON.
We had said it was impossible that he could
maintain his position—not because the House
of Commons was factious, but because he was
unprincipled. In his short ministry he has
shown not only that he was contemptuous of
great public ends, but that he was unable to
comprehend them. By a lavish abuse of the
great patronage at the command of the Prime
Minister

:ILIIOW .
compelled
violent,
Ahey.might

With
himself

matures.

Minis of
talent .4epen,_ _ Whig
and young place-hunters crowd the Ministerial
'benches to the exclusion of every man of high
reputation or signal promise.
For what purpose is a " penal dissolution "
to take place at the commencement of the
session, when the Queen is confined to her
palace, and hostilities, which the House of
Commons has decisively condemned, are raging
at the other extremity of the globe ? That a
Premier of seventy-three may be maintained
in power, and that such great Ministers as a
Wood, a Grey, a Lewis, a Labouchere, and a
Vernon Smith, may be rewarded for their
devotion to his will by a new lease of office, or
at least by another three months' continuance
in place.
When dissolutions have before been re-
sorted to on extraordinary occasions, some
great questions have been before the public
'wl►ich it was necessary they should decide.
Either principles of policy or important legis-
lative measures were at stake. But Lord PAL-
mansros has no principles of policy to set
:forth ; no great legislative changes to propose
In plain terms, Parliament will be dissolved,
that Ministers may keep their places.
The only public ground that can be alleged
for the abrupt dismissal of the Commons is
the question on which the Premier was de-
feated. Parliament is to be dissolved, then,
that Sir JOHN BOWRING may remain Governor
of Hong Kong—that those cruel and barbarous
hostilities from which every truly Christian
mind must shrink with horror, and which can
never be justified, except in cases of last
resort and extreniest necessity, may be rati-
fied by the approval of the British nation.
The people are to be appealed to, as the
Morning Post declares, that Lord PALMERSTON
may triumph over Commissioner Ysi, and be
n a position to fulfil his threat to sweep

pures)
Satan reproving sin does not involve grosser
contradiction and hypocrisy than Lord PAL-
MERSTON inveighing against combination. For
the half-century of his political life he bas
been constantly combining with men and
parties, with no other object in view than the
supremely selfish one of securing place for
himself. He was justly described by Mr.
DISRAELI as the " archetype of political corn-
" binations without avowed principles."
This facility which was favourable to his
retention of a subordinate place in successive
Governments is fatal to the continuance of his
power at the head of the State. A Palmers-
tonian party made up of Liberals who pre-
tend Reform as a stepping-stone to preferment,
and of the most obstinate and bigoted oppo-
nents of all progress, can never stand. Let
the next House of Commons be composed as
it may, the system which Lord PALMERSTON
hopes to uphold by a dissolution must fall
His invectives against combination recoil on
his own head. It is impossible to conceive
that a British House of Commons, with its
illustrious traditions, and with the command-
ing ability and sterling integrity sure to be
found within its walls, can ever support the
most detestable kind of combination—Go•
verument without Principle, and Power
without Right.

THE ELECTIONS OF THE WEEK.
THE wondrous telegraphic despatches con-
taining testimonies in favour of Lord PALMERS-
TON, with which the Ministerial journals have
this week been crowded, stand in cdrious con-
trast to the results of this week's elections.
After a warm contest in East Sussex, Lord
PEVENSEY, the Conservative candidate, has
been returned in opposition to the Govern-

peopit. oily.
quence, at least, will certainly ensue from our
recent debates. The necessity of fixing our
Imperial Policy on a basis so firm that no
future Palmerston, or underlings of the Bow-
ring nature, can commit our country's name,
will be forced upon the consideration of our
rulers ; and we have no doubt that when our
IMPERIAL POLICY becomes the subject of con-
centrated public attention, the result will be
worthy of the English people.
Now, the course of Viscount PALMERSTON
has no precedent in the Imperial Policy of
England. The policy of Lord PALMERSTON has
stained our name, and gained for its promoter
the reputation of " the Captain Rock of Chris-
" tendom." The appellation is suggestive of
menace and concealment, beginning with blus-
ter and ending with blood. Lord PALMERSTON
stands alone amongst our living statesmen in
advocating that policy. Before contrasting his
views with those of his adversaries, let us
mark the tone and language employed by the
Prime Minister of England_on Tuesday night.
To judge from —ouli
inferred that Lord

Englishmen kne%,,
people, and that the
them was that the

the Patagonians

menced with an

then proceeded to
in the following sty:

" ter of this YK it' ?

" barbarians that ever

coutrasts the virtues
Sir JOHN BOWRING

whose " flagitious ipt
read of further ,t. Again - again _
changes were rang upon " flagitious false-
" hood." It is then improved into " flagitious
" Chinese falsehood." Then we aro threatened

_
11. y Ull Cl/A11t1.15 na Ws .4.1.11/ll toll•J 11111/140 ,ra .../.7 aura ..as.,
ter he has endeavoured to create a per- most distinguished and principled men of his CHINA AND OUR IMPERIAL POLICY.
following. He has repudiated the tra- party, who on Tuesday evening preferred wit heartily' ',not only ler the eau of
Ls of Whig and Tory, of Conservative and rather to vote with the Opposition than to ~;..4: • , •:ii
violate their sincere convictions !We have 44* i D . itifilfo"4"ll2
ii
al, in order that he might create a new • . ~ . .. . . • - /
elsewhere commented on the weight of the ADA 11414,11* Of mu. AAR- . r
. . .
—a party of Palmerstoniaus—who should • Liberal names found in the list of the ma- pile, that ~the thirii AttiatO 4061 Mall- . f
no other principle than his will, ahcf be jority. Almost every one of them will be treed with Nisi splensiid simple DDite 'VW in.
ft •
oiled to approve all his measures, however recognised by the _public as the repre-
telligence of the land will not bosatiefledwith 0
it, however unjust, and however corrupt sentative of a principle or a sentiment ~
earnestly supported by influential sections mere-Rem sal of the brilliant oratsons delivered
might be. of the community. Is it not perfectly mon- during the last week. The empire otrEngland, *1
th this object in view, ho has surrounded strous to suppose that factious motives and what policy will be best for its preserve-
elf with the most supple and servile could have brought together the highest in )
res. Never was there a Ministry, or a tellect, the keenest intelligence, and the tion, will be discussed with ardour andenlight-
.s,-.......L.
sterial following, so destitute of original purest principle from both sides of the House? ened curiosity by the wisest and most thought
-
t and independent mind. Old Whig hacks Satan reproving sin does not involve grosser i ful people in the community. One conse-

his speech, one would have
PALmEasTos believed that
w nothing of the Obi •
the current .. 4. •
ie Chinese 7"7.
- •
or the Moh -
attack on M 7 rr~m
to abuse the Chi
. •
ityle —" Wha
? He is one of
A•it
ever disgraced.a.,';'l-11/•• 54
tues and Chri
Iso with "
s attempt at imposition we
on. Again and again the