The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-06 00:00:00

sien.

Her Majesty came to town this morning about
half-past 12 o'clock, and Lord Palmerston, in
obedience to her Royal commands, immediately
afterwards had an audience with the Queen at
Buckingham Palace, which lasted some time.

There can be hardly room for doubt, if present
appearances are to be relied upon, that the noble
lord has determined to form an Administration,
and in the event of his not meeting with that
support in the Commons which the exigencies of
the time demand, he will most likely appeal to
the country, where his popularity is unquestion-
able.

It is just possiblo that something certain may
transpire ix the house this evening.

Lord PALMERSTON lA engaged in the formation
of a new Government, but his arrangements have
not as yet been completed. Business has there-
fore been again adjourned, in order to give ample
time to the Noble Lord. Grievously as the
nation is suffering from the consequences of a
Ministerial interregnum, we do net object to the
delay. It is but an act of simple justice, of
that common fair play s• dear to every true
British heart, that he should receive reasonable
time. We want a finished piece of workman-
ship—one that can bear the etringent tests to
which it will unquestionably be subjected ; and
therefore we shall not unduly press the performer,
but will cheerfully assent to every reasonable
application for indulgence.

But while we thus freely yield the necessary
time, we look forward to adequate results. We
cannot bs contented, after the loss of a week or
ten days—a matter of no trivial importance at the
present crisis—to find that there has been merely a
shuffling of the cards—a change of parts, but not
of performers—a new combination of the used-up
dramatis persome. We want the infusion of new
blood—of fresh, vigorous, and energetic vitality
into the worn-out concern. It will not do to
have the "virtuous old man," who twaddler per-
petually about "the blessings of peace," and is
always ready to receive the impending buffet, and
to forgive his persecutors, obtruded on the audi-
ence. His spurious sentimentality and palpable
incapacity alike disgust the House ; and after
having been hissed off, with singular unanimity,
in one character, he cannot be received or tole-
rated in another. Wo may add--" Woo to the
manager who shall venture to trespass on the
public by such an experiment! which, in the case
of a provincial theatre, might load to the tearing
up of the benches—in that of the Grand Drama
at Westminster, to an impeachment."
We need not say how we aro affected towards
Lord PALMERSTON. For years we have recognised
with admiration the ability and energy which he
displayed in discharge of the duties confided to his
charge. But it was in the Foreign Office that his
services were most beneficial. There his great
experience, his thorough appreciation of diplo-
matic humbug, and tact in cutting short illusory
negotiations, would have been peculiarly valuable.
His very name, as the Minister, not of Russia, of
Austria, or of Germany, but of Great Britain—.
who might in that capacity have fairly adopted the
motto, " Nemo me impune lacessit"—would alone
have proved a tower of strength, and prevented
the War. But ho was transferred to a compara-
tively minor position. In place of taking the part
for which ho was peculiarly qualified, he was
pitchferked into a place where he was not wanted.
That he made a good Home Secretary was unde-
niable. But he would have done anything well,
and there was as great a waste of power as if some
exigeant manager had required EDMUND KEAN to
fill the part of Banque.. His true position
should have been either at the head of
the Ministry •r in the War Department.
His holding any other office led to the belief that
ke had relinquished his ancient and well-known
policy—apolicy at which despotism trembled—and
that ho had been converted to Germanism, to
that very Germanism that led to his unwarrant-
able expulsion from the Government on a previous
occasion. Under such circumstances his
presence in the Cabinet did more harm than
good—inasmuch as it proved that his foreign
policy
Foreign was no longer in the ascendant,
which was testified by his absence from the
and still more by the fact that
asamember of the Ministry, albeit in a totally
different
department, he could nqt bring his
powers to bear against any erroneous proceedings,
or join in the attacks to which his colleagues
might expose themselves. Thus not only were his
exertions neutralised, but they were rendered
Ipositively mischievous

v eviniill
- But what might have saved tho country. from
first instance, eanl all
e,t hoi f annoyance,
1;e xtpheen sefi,r
not now suffice. What would have prevented
a fracture will not repair the breach. For-
merly PALMERSTON as Premier, or even as War
BUt
MinistA3r, would have saved the Coalition,

now that it has been smashed to all intents and
purposes, he cannot re-establish it. We tell him
firmly and unflinchingly that the public
will not now stand Lord ABERDEEN !—that
if that unpopular nobleman, " dear and excel-
lent" as he may be in some quarters, hold
office, it will paralyse all his exertions,
defeat all his calculations. The mere fact will
make both friends and enemies suspect a juggle.
It will not improve the estimation in which Lord
ABERDEEN is held, but it may reduce Lord PAL-.
MERSTON to a similar level—a matter which, in
the present dearth of statesmen, could only be
regarded as a national calamity of no ordinary
magnitude. It•would lead to the belief—in some
cases as bad as the certainty—that he had be-
come a disciple of the " peace-at-any-price " prin-
ciple, the fawning and obedient lacquey of
Germanism. While, therefore, we earnestly
desire his success, we do so in the anticipation
that lie will entirely emancipate himself from the
trammels of .Aberdeenism and Germanism. If,
unfortunately, the hope should Prove unfounded,
and there are sinister rumours afloat, great,
indeed, will be his fall ; his name will be-
CJILIe as obnoxious as it heretofore has been
popular, and will stink in the nostrils of the
people. We shall not, however, give up a man
in whom we had, confidence until satisfied, on in-
contestable evidence, that he is no longer worthy
of support. No vague reports shall remove the
reliance which we have unhesitatingly enter-
tained, and as candidly expressed, on every suit-
able occasion.

" R weticus expectat drum deflackt amnia." While
our gallant troops are enduring the most fearful
nriva,tions before Sebastopnl, WA *rci w3;th-qs ft
home for the formation of a strong and united
Administration ! Just at the moment when there i
is the greatest necessity for vigorous and energetic
action, is the paralysis produced by the Ministe-
rial crisis, and the coquetting of public men, who
are the more intent on playing out their
own paltry games, or feeding their own
vanity, although at the expense of a heca-
tomb of human sacrifices per diem . a heca-
tomb chosen from the best and bravest of our
brethren ! Everything, however, must yield to
etiquette or "red-tapism." That is the " MoLoca"
whose insatiable demands must bo so fearfully
supplied, whose sanguiiary appetite must be ap-
peased at so awful a cost. Better that men should
starve in the neighbourhood of plenty—that they
should endure all the pangs of TANTALUS than that
a single official regulation should be abrogated, or
even modified. What avails it that there are
ample stores at Balaklava, if, from the absence of
printed requisitions, they cannot, or rather toil/
not, be supplied ? What is the use of abundance
of warm clothing if the half-naked soldiers sink
under the inclemency of the weather, because an
intermediate link between the ample supply and
the urgent demand is wanting? Nor will it fill the
empty stomach to know that there are unlimited
supplies of wholesome and palatable food at a
short distance. The pettiness of the obstacle, the
paltry nature of the impediment, only adds to the
vexation of those who are perishing for want in
sight of plenty.

Why, then, should there be this littleness of
disposition amongst those whom the country has
been accustomed to regard as its leading states-
men ? Why should personal vanity be suffered
to intrude itself where it is so strangely out
of place—when the nation is making so many
sacrifices—when every man throughout the length
and breadth of the land. is fairly setting his
shoulder to the wheel, or at least bearing
a fair proportion of the onerous burdens
which Mr. GALDSTONE'S financial policy have
imposed on him ? Why should those who
have produced the crisis be the only ones to hold
aloof, or to refuse their aid to get rid of the dead
lock in which the State machine is now fixed ?
If ever there was a time when the notion of
GEORGE 111., that he would go down to Charing-
cross, and press the first twelve men he
met into his service, to form an Admi-
nistration, could be realised, it is the
present moment. Every indulgence will
be afforded to those who show themselves really
in earnest. It is only apathy and insouciance that
will be censured. Let, then, all who aspire to the
character of statesmen remember this great fact;
and, also, that the estimation in which they will
hereafter be held will mainly depend on their pre-
sent conduct. Let them then brave any torrent-
-face any difficulty, rather than stand idly by
and see such precious time wasted in useless specu-
lation, while the current of events glides on un-
changed and unaltered.

Of the many striking instances of credulity on
the part of well-to-do classes of the community,
few, if any, have surpassed in fully that exhibited
by the owners of sugar estates in our West India
colonies. Every day's experience must have told
them that, in all commercial operations, the per-
sonal superintendence of the principal over was,
and must continue to be, one of the most essential
elements of permanent success. That even where
the deputy is energetic, and his seal and integrity
unquestionable, he cannot feel an interest equal to
that of the owner in the thrifty management of
the property confided to him ; and that even if
he does, it is out of his power to inspire, as a
proprietor assuredly eau, a corresponding feeling
in others. And yet, apparently in utter ignorance
or obliviousness of so commonplace a fact, the
great body of West India proprietors were con-
ten t to entrust the cultivation of their estates to
agents whose faces they often had never
seen, and of whose real character they knew
little or nothing. The use of their colonial
property was to supply them with a yearly
income, and so long as their agents se-
cured them that, it was a matter of indifference
how many stripes on the shoulders of QUASHRE
went to an acre of sugar cane, or on what sort
of foundations the prosperity of their plantations
was based. It was the age of slavery and pro-
tection.

It is far from our intention to attribute to
them more folly or a darker culpability than they
deserved. Nobody would believe us were we
idiotic enough to insinuate that they were indif-
ferent as to the continuance of that apparent pros-
perity to which they owed so many of the little
comforts and elegances of life, or wore britally
reckless of the sufferings of the negro, whose
labour was necessary to insure the despatch of
the remittances of their agents. The fact is,
they thought very little, if at all, about
either of these matters. It was rather a
feather in a man's cap to be known as
a West India proprietor ; and the country squire,
who was so, had au equal satisfaction in the addi-
tion from this source to his income. Ho could
hunt with any man, drive as hard terms with his
tenants as most landlords, and bag as much game
at as little cost as any of them. What had he to
do with the future ? What prophetic band was
there to trace before the retina of the squire-
archal eye, or that of the luxurious resident
planter, the terrible words—Abolition of Slavery
and Free Trade !
The links and manacles of the slave fell off his