The Express.
London, England, 1858-05-14 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY E

THE DAILY NEWS : LONDON MORNING
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4and the# the Resolution sou prepared by Mr.
filainsrau submitted on Sunday last is the appro-
' badon of the members of the ex-Cabinet, assembled

is solemn oonclave at Cambridge ' HOMO ; and
adopted by them. U this be trwi—as we have
no doubt it substantially I. this Resolution
is the Resolution of the late Government. It
is brought forward with their sanction and
connivance for the purpose of damaging their rivals
and successors in office. Now in what relation do
the ex-Government stand to that sot of the present,
which they now call upon the House of Commons to
censure P On the 12th or 13th of last month,
Government received a copy of Lord CANNING'S
draft Proclamation, unaccompanied by any explana-
tion or any pieces flub:fleets:fa. Lord ELLEN-
BOHOL OH had previously transmitted to Lord
CANNING a recommendation to adopt a diffetent

policy. Aooordingly a Despatch was written by
Lord ELLENBOROUGH on the 18th, and dated on
the 19th, of the month, re•ennnciating the views
he had expressed in his former missive. This
Despatch was not sent off till the 26th of the month.
On the same day that Government received the draft
Proclamation of Lord CANNING, a private letter
from the GOVERNOR-GININALtObb. VERNON SMITH
reached London. Mr. BETH was at that time ab-
sent from town, but he returned en the 17th of the

month—one day before Lord Sumenottotton's Des-
patch was written, two days before it was dated,
nine days before it was sent off. Lord CANNING'S
letter was addressed to Mr. VERreme SMITH under
the impression that that individual was still President
of the Board of Control. Among other extraordinary
revelations that were made in the course of the in-
vestigation of Mr. BET E'S case was the anwarrant-
able extent to which the most important business of
the Board of Control under Mr. VERNON Sierra was
conducted by conversations, notes, and letters, con-
ventionally called private. In this " private " letter
from Lord CANNING was an intimation that the Go-
VIRNOtt-GENEZAL bad transmitted by that mail a
copy of his draft Proclamation ; that he had been
anxious to transmit explanations along with it ; but
that he had for the present been hindered by pres-
sure of business. This intimation was evidently
made, not to the private Mend of Lord CANNING,
but to the President of the Board of Control. It
was the duty of Mr. VERNON SMITH, seeing he had
seeped to be President, to transmit the letter to the
noble lord who had become President. However
jauntily Mr. VERNON SISTER may now deny his sense
of such an obligation, it is evident that he did then
feel, and that even now be still feels it. He alleges
that Lord ELLENBOROVOH received discourteously a
previous

by Mr. SMITH of a letter
from Lord ELPHIIIeTOIO. No discourtesy on the
part of Lord ELuntsonounn an exonerate Mr.
SMITH from the discharge of a duty which he owed
to the State, not to Lord ELLENBOROUGH ; but the
mere allegation of the untenable excuse proves Mr.
Stunt's consciousness that it was needed. Nor

is this all. Mr. SMITH told the House of
Commove last night, that he consulted Lord PAL-
XIMSTON as to whether he ought to keep back from
Lord ELLINBONAIIGH Lord Cenitnta's letter. Lord

Rtucuanron, he says, advised, oratleast sanctioned,
the keeping the letter secret. Lord Pimitsitcron,
therefore, is particeps criminis. True it is by no
means certain that Lord ELLENBOROUOR'S Despatch

world have been kept back even if he had been put
in possession of Lord CANNTwo's letter. But it is
possible that it might in that cue have been de-
tained, and Lord B.LLENBONOUGH is entitled to the
benefit of the doubt. On the other hand, Lord
ELLENSOROUGH'S friends may allege that, knowing
his Lordship's precipitancy, the letter was concealed
from him in the hope that he might, in his ignorance of
Lord CANNING'S intention to offer explanations, send
a Despatch upon the terms of which a vote of oensure
might be founded—that, in short, Lord ELLENSO-
ROUGH hu fallen into a trap set for him by Lord PAL-
MERSTON and Mr. VERNON SMITH. We do not affirm
that this is the case, but the ex-Ministers will find it
rather difficult to rebut the suspicion. At all events
the circumstanoes of the ease clearly impart to a

motion for a vote of censure on Lord ELLENBOBOLIGH
and his late colleagues, on account of an act to
which the parties who have sanctioned and will be
benefited by the vote have been acoessaries, an une-
quivocally factions character ; and all who support
Mr. CsanwaLL's Resolutions will necessarily ex-
pose themselves to the charge of taking part in a
factions move.

Now we are not going to use big words about
utter and final loss of confidence. We leave it to
others to ostracise for one, or even several
isolated arta, any Statesman whose general coniuct
entitles him to be considered a Liberal. There is
scarcely a liberal Statesman alive in whose favour the
Liberal party have not, at one time or other, found
it necessary to pan an Act of Amnesty. Lord PAL-
MERSTON has had repeated Acts of Amnesty for his
complicity in the scandalously oppressive proceed_

inp of the SIDWOUTH-CASTLZREAOR Government,
and for many subsequent escapades. Lord JOHN
RUSSELL has had an Act of Amnesty for his
" finality " declaration. Sir JAMES GRAHAM has had
an Act of Amnesty for his letter-opening practices.
All the Tory Peelites have been embraced in a gene-
ral Act of Amnesty for their original sin of Toryism.
And no doubt, in the event of some public men, Of
whom better things might have been hoped, taking
part in Mr. CARDWELL'S glaringly factious move,
an Aot of Amnesty for this offence will hereafter be
pared in their favour by the unanimous consent of
the Liberals. But when the mists shall have
peened away which the heat of party strife
ham raised to dim for the present the clear-
sightedness of their consciences, their recollections
of participation in such a vote will be the reveree
of agreeable ; and every Liberal member of Parlia-
ment who is self-possessed enough to see the move-
ment in its true light will do well, by drawing back
from it, to save himself from future refret and self-
reproach. He need not be deterred by remonstrances
about disservice done to the liberal canoe ; no good
came was ever really served by resort to unworthy
means.

WE do not wonder at those who are saying that
the present hour is one of the gravest that has oc-
curred in the political history of the existing gene-
Mien. It is certainly scarcely possible to conceive
a graver. We do not wonder at those who regard
the future with more despondency than they did
daring the distress of 1842, or the Irish famine, or
the darkest days of our Crimean story, or the com-
mercial raises of 1847 and 1867. We do not wonder
at them 1 for the evils and disgraces with which we
have now to deal are of a more essential cha-
racter—lie deeper—portend more fatal issues-
But while we cannot wonder at the despon-
dency, we do not as yet share it. We trust to
the people of England to set matters right. We
have reached a point of disorder at which there
is no hope bat in a Riling back expressly on
the national virtue and wisdom. We we no reason
to distrust that vireos and that wisdoms, which have
never yet been found wanting at the turning points
of our political lib. The only question in our minds
is whether the citizens generally are aware of the
difficulty and discredit in which the entire govern-
ing power of the country is involved, and of the ne-
cessity of the intervention of the national mind and