The Press.
London, England, 1854-01-07 00:00:00

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No. 36.—VoL. 11.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1854.

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not have had—WAR. Alternately encouraged
and thwarted by a Coalition Cabinet, the Em-
peror of Resent has been brought to a position
which at first he never contemplated occupy-
ing, the traditionary policy of Russia has
been precipitated ; and a struggle, which, even
if inevitable, was certainly not imminent, may
perhaps engage the remaining years of the
existing generation. The country, we are told,
is now going to war in order to preserve itself
from a disgraceful peace, with the conviction
that, if our affairs had been administered with
the dignity and directness which result from
an united Cabinet, the terrible alternative
might have been avoided.
The most important question of home poli-
tics is that of Parliamentary Reform—to what
classes the power of the State is mainly to be
entrusted. Lord JOHN RUSSELL and Sir JAMES
GRAHAM, two of our most eminent and ex-
perienced statesmen, have given it as their
deliberate opinion that a great change ought
to be effected in our representative system;
that there should be " a large measure " of
Parliamentary Reform; and that the franchise
should be widely extended. As the responsi-
ble Minister of the Crown, Lord Jous has even
prepared a five-pound franchise. Two Prime
Ministers, Lord JOHN RUSSELL and Lord ABER-
DEEN, both now acting, if not united, in the
same Cabinet, have announced Parliamentary
Reform as the basis of their policy. After
such sanctions the question eannot sleep. We
cannot complain of agitators among the mul-
titude when the Queen's chief Ministers set
such an example of discontent. If Lord ABER-
DEEN, Lord JOHN RUSSELL, and Sir JAMES
GRAHAM cannot carry this measure, which two
Ministries have declared indispensable, they
should resign their posts, and, according to
the spirit of our Constitution, advocate their
opinions in opposition until they are ripe
enough to be embraced by general conviction.
Reformers, as well as those who would stand
upon our ancient ways, the supporters of our
free aristocratic Constitution, and the admirers
of transatlantic institutions, have equally a
right to demand this, and equally desire it.
The hopes and the fears of the community on
such a subject should not be tampered with
and kept in suspense. Prolonged uncertainty
in such matters is disquieting to the public
mind, and ultimately may lead to disastrous
consequences. With no standard of opinion,
with no convictions among those in power on
the very principles upon which our common-
wealth is to be founded, a lax, vacillating, and
nerveless tone creeps over the spirit of the
country. In such moods, at the critical mo
ment, an active minority may conspire with
effect against public liberty, and it resolves it-
self into an accident whether communities in
such a plight fall victims to Red Republicans
or Military Dictators.
The vacillating conduct of the present Go-
vernment on these two cardinal points, con-
duct, be it remembered, inseparable from
coalition, is one of the causes of the fallen
'hich the - it blic estil

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1854.

"PRESS" OFFICE,

Friday Night, Jan. 6.

ORDERS have been sent out for one ship fron
the English and one from the French fleet ti
enter the Black Sea, and under flag of true
to approach Sebastopol. WI en there the
are to inform the Russian Admiral that if h 4
leaves the port of Sebastopol he will be im
mediately fired into.

THE country each day feels more acutely the
significance of the last words of Lord DERBY'S
Chancellor of the Exchequer, " England does
not lore Coalitions." At the period these words
were uttered we were vehemently assured by
every means that could influence opinion that
the sentiment was merely a legend of past
times, and could have no application to the
altered circumstances of the age in which we

live. Parties, we were told, were worn out ;
all statesmen were now of the same opinion ;
and the country required, and public morality
sanctioned, that tho ablest subjects of her
Majesty should, for the future, unite together

and devote their energies to her service,
without any reference to obsolete politi-
cal ties

The Coalition Cabinet has existed barely
twelve months, and it is already rent with
divisions on the most important subjects both
of foreign and domestic policy.
Let us trace the effect of a Cabinet of dis-
cordant opinions upon public events and the
public welfare. We will refer first to our
external affairs.
_ _ .

It is a controversy whether the foreign
policy of Great Britain should be mainly re-
gulated by the French, or by the Russian,
connection. We ourselves have a strong
opinion on this head ; but undoubtedly much
may be urged in favour of both views ; and
with either influence a powerful and prudent
Minister might be able to carry on afl.irs with
general advantage. Lord ABERDERN is a warm
votary of the Russian connection, and, had he
ided Cable ' the Me •

PRICE SIXPENCE.

ment could then decide what opinions it was
most expedient for the country should pre-
dominate; but the present system is a con-
spiracy which deprives Parliament of ita power
and privilege, while, at the same time, it de-
prives the Executive of consistency and vigour,
the only sure sources of influence and success.
There is yet another and a grave point.
When it was declared that "England does not
" love Coalitions," it was urged by the supporters
of Coalitions that they had previously failed,
because the Crown had always been opposed
to them, but that, in the present instance, the
Coalition was especially favoured by the Crown.
We doubt not, whoever may be Minister of
this country, that her most Gracious Majesty,
with that loyalty to the Constitution and that
love of truth which distinguish her, would ex-
tend to her counsellors a cordial and sincere
support. Nor is it at all strange or unreason-
able that her Majesty should feel a peculiar
confidence in Lord ABERDEEN, who ought to
be, though we think he is not, a wise and skil-
ful and trustworthy man. But grant, L6r the
sake of argument, that the Crown ext4hds to
its present counsellors an unusual share of
confidence and favour and support, what are
the respective influences on each other of the
Court and its counsellors in the present in-
stance and at the present moment? In old
days, we are told, the Court was hostile to the
Coalition, and that made the Coalition odious.
In the present day, we are told, the Court is
more than friendly to the Coalition. Has the
Coalition made the Court popular? On the
contrary, that has happened which, twelve
months ago, the most malcontent could never
have dreamed. In addition to aU its miscar-
riages. the Coalition has even succeeded in
alienating the national heart from the most
virtuous and enlightened Court that ever go-
verned England.

A RETROSPECT.
We will not affect the air of offering informs.
Lion which we do not possess, and which no
one in this country at this moment does
possess, as to the ultimate solution of the
Eastern question. It may be known at St.
Petersburg with all the positiveness of de-
fiance—it may be suspected in Downing-
street with the tremulousness of distracted sym-
pathies that the die is cast for a war which will
convulse the civilised world ; but in the ab-
sence of conclusive knowledge of the alterna-
tive for which we must prepare, of inve-
terate war or ignominious peace—in the
interval of inevitable suspense—it will not be
inappropriate briefly to recapitulate the stages
by which her Majesty's Govermnent have
falteringly, but effectually, conducted us to this
issue. We pass by the encouragements to
Russian aggression afforded by the speeches
and antecedent intrigues of some of its mem-

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votary of the Russian connection, and, had he coalition, is one of me causes or me ninon - -
-
presided over a unanimous Cabinet, the Mens- position which they occupy in public estima- and antecedent intrigues of motne of its mein-
chikoff or some treaty in that vein might Lion, and has rendered Lord ABERDEEN the hers, and refer simply t.) their appreciation of
have been concluded without attracting public most unpopular Minister that has figured since the question before them, and the mode 0,
attention, and there would not hive been— the Revolution. What confidence, indeed, can
which they have contributed to its final deter
WAR. On the other hand, had Lord PALMERS- the country have in men who have no confi- J..-'
TON-a strong supporter of the French alliance dente in each other? And how can they have urination.
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—been the chief of a congenial Cabinet, no confidence in each other when their principles So little did they know, or affect to kr,,w, 4
doubt the prompt and vigorous interference on the most important subjects which can the complexities before them, that on Friday, . .
of the British Ministry would have prevented occupy statesmen are diametrically opposed? May the 20th, the leading organ of the (io.
the passage of the Pruth; and in that case If they were ranged in the two Houses of vernment was commissioned to announce that .
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also, though with a contrary policy, we should ' Parliament according to their opinions, Parlia- . Prince MENSCHIROViII ultimatum "had been
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