The Press.
London, England, 1858-03-13 00:00:00

OPPOSITION CHIEFS.

" Wao is to lead the Opposition ?" has become
a question of the day. Lord PALMERSTON, Lord
JouN RussELL, Lord CLARENDON, Lord GaAs-
VILLE, are each and all spoken of by their
friends as being most fit for the leadership.
Discomfited place-hunters gather round Lord
PALMERSTON, but Lord JOHN RUSSELL IS not
without supporters ; Lord GRANVILLE has an
extensive connection, and the Stafford-house
Whigs do not desire to aid Lord JouN RUSSELL.
Two years ago it was well known that a large
number of Members of Parliament were re-
solved on putting forward the claims of Lord
CLARENDON to the chiefsbip of their party ;
but there are not half a dozen Liberals who
would now propose to do so. Besides these
diserrdant candidates, there is a body of
popular members who wish that some strong
Radical politicians should be cried up, and
that on any further Liberal movement there
should be a prior agreement that the ollices of
the next Liberal Cabinet should be " equitably
adjusted " between Whigs and Radicals.
Unanimity is the last thing to be expected
from such ill-matched confederates.
The difficulty between Lord PALMERSTON and
Lord JOHN RUSSELL is certainly very great.
For the last few years each has done his best
to injure the other. Since 1835 up to 1852
Lord JOHN RUSSELL was the recognised leader
of the Liberals, and he never would concede
that post to Lord PALMERSTON. It was Wily. In
1830 that Lord _.PAT.btERSTON joined the WWI,

and he often damaged as well as served them.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL at the end of 1851 removed
Lord PALMERSTON from the Foreign-office, and
put Lord GRANVILLE in his place : and when
Lord Jowl consented to join Lord ABERDEEN,
the Noble Lord stipulated for the leadership
of the House of Commons. But Lord PAL-
MERSTON had his revenge. It is now of no use
to inquire whether the round-robin addressed
by certain subordinates at the time of the
Vienna negotiations was a spontaneous or a
preconcerted act : it is certain that Lord PAL-
MERSTON availed himself of it, and Lord JOHN
received a " Roland " for his " Oliver," and was
obliged to cede the Secretaryship for the
Colonies, and retire to the back benches.
Even such retribution did not satiate Lord
PALMERSTON. The late Premier's friends did
their best to eject Lord JOHN RUSSELL from
the City of London ; and a few months since
Lord PALMERSTON derided Lord JOHN'S
" opinion " in the face of the House of Coin•
mons. Is Lord JOHN Russlrt.t. a man who
could afford to endure all these provocations,
and to sit second to Lord PALMERSTON ?

The " old Whigs" and " constitutional"
Liberals may remind Lord JOHN RUSSELL that
Cambridge-house does not more differ from
Woburn Abbey than the pretensions of Lord
PALMERSTON and his clique from the claims of
" The Bedford Whigs." If Lord JOHN RUSSELL
yields the pas to Lord PALMERSTON, even at
Brookes's, no one in the present generation
will ever again hear of " The Bedford Whigs "
The reputation of the whole Russell connec-
tion is at stake on this point, which has a
political and prospective significance ; for Lord
PALMERSTON does not represent any positive
principle. and the sight of one bred up under
Lord LIVERPOOL and Lord CASTLEREAGH blos-
soming into a fierce chief of Opposition in the
seventy-fourth year of his age is likely to
please the public taste.
The tone taken by Lord PALMERSTON towards
a great number of Liberal Members must
effectually disqualify him from the chiefship
of the Opposition ; but in order to play that
part with success the Noble Viscount should
give up his bluster, and alter his manner, and
cease to be like himself. As Leader of the
House, the Noble Lord signally failed in sum-
ming up a debate ; and the fact was revealed
that after all his long experience the Noble
Viscount's knowledge was not on constitu-
tional or social subjects, for which he cared
little. His mind was not fertile in political
ideas, and he never argued out a case fairly,
but sought to get rid of a subject with a ban-
tering air, in 'which mere persiflage was sub•
stituted for logic and wit. To meet the exi
gencies of an Opposition, who seek to gain
power by a new Reform Bill, Lord PALMERSTON
is singularly unsuited ; and we can easily
conceive that Opposition is in a serious
dilemma on the subject of its leadership.

LORD PALMERSTON'S INDIA BILL.
THE present is said to be the golden age of
impostors, and it is not, therefore, surprising
that the late Premier should have met for a
time with the success he did. But as the fall
of such when it comes is usually final and de-
cisive, we have little apprehension of seeing
the country again converted into a stage for
the exhibition of his shams. The nation is
sick of him, and will have no more of him at
any price. It sees too plainly the results.
His vaunted humiliation of Russia is found to
end in her present overbearing attitude on the
Black Sea. His " spirited " policy that would
Px el ude Naples from the comity of nations for
her treatment of ber own subjects, is seen to
terminate in an abject submission to her
cruel dealing with our imprisoned engi-
neers. The paltry game of brag in regard to
the Serpent Isle and Bolgrad disputes, so
ably exposed in the late French pamphlet—
but played at the period with such effect on
our public here—has ended fitly in the degra-
dation which caused his overthrow. Nor, in
the home policy of the late Premier, has the
system of imposture he adopted been less
transparent than that pursued by him in re-
spect to foreign States. His conduct in regard
to church rates has been such as to show that
his affect.id ultra-liberality was a mere pre-
tence; while the confidence expressed in him
by the eleckors of Tiverton since his downfall,