The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-07 00:00:00

TELEGRAPHIC DESPATCH

FROM

FIELD MARSH AL
LORD RAGLAN.

WAR DEPARTMENT, MAY 1., 2.45 P.m.

Lord Panmure presents his compliments to the
Editor of The Sun, and has great pleasure in trans-

mating the enclosed intelligence, which has this
day reached him from Lord Raglan :

SEBASTOPOL, 6TH MAY, 9 P.K.

The enemy assaulted the advanced trench of
our right attack, last eight, but were repulsed

promptly.

Our loss was three killed and twenty wounded.

RESIGNATION OF
M. DROUYN DE L'HUYS.

(From the Second Edition of the Morning Post.)
PARIS, MONDAY MORNING.

M. Drouyn de L'Huys has resigned office.

The Emperor has accepted his resignation.
Differences with respect to his late mission to
Vienna are said to be the•cause.

DEPARTURE OF TTIEFRENCH
AMBASSADOR FOR PARIS.
(From the Fourth. Edition of the Morning Post.)
Count Walewski left town this morning, by
express, for Paris.

His Excellency has been summoned thither

by telegraph in consequence of the Ministeria

crisis.

The days of Lord PALMF,RSTON'S jesting, at leas
as Premier, are drawing to a close ; the grew
double meeting of London merchants, on Satur
day, will soon make him look serious. He car
afford, with his temperament, to juke about ccn,
munications from Sebastopol in face of the- dee!
anxiety of the country, or about the promise,
Vienna papers, which indeed may probably prov,
to be of ludicrous insignificance in compariso.
with the cost in blood and treasure for which th,
Vienna peace was to be the compensation. Bu.
even Lord PALMERSTON can be grave when hi-
premiership is in danger ; and the meeting 01
Saturday plainly shows that it is so. There vra:
a remarkably fair spirit evinced towards indivi
duals generally who have failed, because oul
present administrative system would beat almos
any well-meaning man, but the majo
rity of the speakers commented with marker
disgust on the lenity, at such a crisis, of ouf
Prime Minister, and the meeting loudly and em
phatically responded to their remarks. It is evi-
dent that the vast body of highly respectable gen-
tlemen then assembled felt themselves insulted by
Lord PALMERSTON'S miserable attempts to b.
funny, at the expense of Members who hay,
asked the questions which the country put int,
their mouths. Lord PALMERSTON, if he wish( t
to play the droll in public, must choose another
time, or another character than that of Head of
the Government.

What, however, Was taken from Lord PALMER
STON was freely given to LAYARD.Mr.But
short time ago the light-hearted Aristocrat had ti,
fairest opportunity in the world to win himself
good position in history, ag well as in th,
nation's present esteem. He has thrown it et,
tirely away. He insulted them with his lord],
Cabinet ; he insulted them by rejecting M.
LAYARD; he insulted them by snubbing or laugh
ing at every independent member ; and he cob
summated all by coming in at the death, as h
thought, in the House of Commons attack on Mt
LAYARD. But the first great meeting of CI.
very cream of London citizens has decidedly ix-
versed the verdict of Lord PALMERSTON and hi
colonels, has consigned them to merited con-
tempt, and has given a united and hearty verdic•
in e.
your of Mr. LAYARD. That gentleman ma'
Rcrwl'°l44 take his intended course. At an almos
casual
lemon to his treatment by the House, th,
three andZmost enthusiastic. " Three time:
again durin_ ore" was fully carried out, twie,
meeting these cheers were rt_
peated, andli
e,heer
QUM; the closing "nd, after one for th
Mr. LAYARD, was another fu
le 'etas tha
roundn
s of cheering were
give seven distinc
able member. The meetinn. for the honour
all our remarks of last wec: I.IIIIY endorse,
the public opinion concerning the , a
regard t,
eeedings of the House on Friday night. 11,,PTlu
ru
Significant mistakes, but substantially right,„
the unanimous judgment of the vast assembly. /
*ill be the judgment of every meeting of English-
num.

The new Association will do its work. Th(
gentlemen chosen as a committee are not the me,
i° 41114:m1 Government to taunt them with exempb
fYing the Administrative incapacity of which thel
complain. They will set to work at once, ant'
the
their y know how to do it. They avowed that the
graced
felt country to be disgrace, themselve-
dis, and their very pecuniary interests at

stake. These are not motives which let men
go to sleep. They have raised already a large
SIMI of money, and will raise a very large one.
The Chairman announced, as a proof of the ear-
nest and sincere character of the movement, that
25 gentlemen in the room had already put down
their names for a subscription of 1001. each.
The announcement was received with loud cheering.
They will watch every appointment, and bring to
the light of day, on each occasion, the grounds
alleged or presumable. They will be, in fact, a
vigilance committee on Government appointments
and promotions, and in this way their efforts will
begin to tell at once upon our public services.
They will put themselves in connection with the
electors in every town, get meetings held, and
committees formed, and arouse all the constituen-
cies. Their facilities for doing this surpass even
t hose of Messrs. COPPOCK and BROWN, since their

commercial connexions are so numerous and in-
fluential throughout the Kingdom ; they will thus
work at once upon our present members, and stir
up the people to select men for the future who
will audit the doings of Government in
somewhat differ3nt style to what we have seen
of late. The House being counted out on people's
questions will become a hazardous game.
It is gratifying to see that the speakers and
the meeting were fully alive to the necessity of
reforming our electoral practices. It was broadly
recognised that while appointments were made for
political reasons, such as the conciliation of sup-
port at elections, the mischief was as great as
that arising from aristocratic nepotism. The
Guildhall Meeting appended a rider to the first
resolution on the necessity, for their object, of an
enlarged electoral constituency, and both meetings
expressed the strongest sense of the necessity of a
great electoral change. The predominance of
aristocrats; by title or relationship, in the Lower
House was strongly condemned, and obviously
that can only be remedied by a new and real
Reform Bill.

Many instances unknown before to the public
were given of the unpardonable manner in which
the most important offices were trifled with. One
made public for the first time by Mr. LINDSAY,
M.P., deserves, however, special notice. Lord
PALMERSTON alleged that commercial men of high
standing would not leave their counting-houses
to serve the public, sacrificing it may be a lucra-
tive business for a salary of uncertain tenure.
The answer would seem to be—Make the heads
of working departments immovablelfrom political
causes, and appoint them for capacity only. Mr.
LINDSAY, however, stated that six months ago,
having found that the transport service was in
the utmost confusion, the very books so kept that
nothing was known of the shipping, destination,
and arrival of the cargoes, and this kind of business
being that in which having spent his life, he could
without arrogance claim full practical knowledge,
lie offered to Sir JAMES GRAHAM to come for one
whole week to the Admiralty, and to get their
affairs into such order that goods should be duly
shipped, consigned, and delivered, and that fully
one million of the two which have been wasted
should be saved. Will it be believed that he
heard no more of his noble offer ? It shared even
more contemptuous fate than Mr. Coupes offer
to teach the roasting of coffee ! The result was
our money wantonly wasted—and some thousands
soldiers perishing for want of supplies !

Well, London has commenced the movement to
put a stop to such disgraceful, such cruel delin-
quencies as these. It is as befitting that the City,
which is the seat of Government, should com-
mence a reform of this kind, as for Manchester to
commence the Anti-Corn-Law' agitation. As Lon-
lon helped Manchester then, so let Manchester
;1(4 London now. Even the COBDESS and
BRIGHTS, unless they shamefully neglect their
;ountry, will join this movement. We cannot,
iowever, doubt that it will be responded to by
the whole nation.

On Friday evening Lord PA LMERSTON deliberately
dated to the House of Commons that " tho Go-
vernment would entirely violate their duty if they
Mated that all hopes of accommodation were at au
,nd." It is right that both Houses of Parlia-
nent should be forthwith informed of the grounds
in which such hopes are entertained, in order
hat their opinions may be expressed on the
nature of the contemplated arrangements, before
-he nation is irrevocably committed to terms which
:annot possibly produce an honourable or a per-
nanent peace. We now know the propositions
hat have been peremptorily, and, we may add,
:ontumeliously rejected by Russia. We know
;hat they had been nominally approved of by
tustria, and there is but too much reason to
relieve that the extraordinary " moderation" or
"timidity" on the part of the Western
Powers, which they so clearly manifested, was
iccasioned by ehe sinister influence of the Ger-
nanic Members of the Conference. The French
And English Plenipotentiaries certainly went to
:he full length of their tether in bringing forward
uch feeble and attenuated suggestions, which, if
adopted to the very letter, would bring the War
to a most " lame and impotent conclusion," totally
inadequate to the enormous expenditure of men
and money on the part of the defenders of right and
.he conservators of order throughout the civilised
vorld. It is something little short of a miracle
-hat we have escaped from the disgrace and injury
if such an arrangement. Russia has recklessly
•efused the too lenient terms tendered for accept-
ance. By so doing she bas forfeited all claim to
uture indulgence ; and if Austria has the slightest
-egard for herplighted faith she would, immediately
in Russia's rejection of either of the alternatives
offered with her sanction, have entered into the
dterior arrangements contemplated by the Treaty
if the 2d December.

But she has not done so? She still keeps up
:he farce of negotiations. We are told that
" there still exist at Vienna the elements of a
conference ;" that the Taeetings were merely
adjourned, without any specific
time being ap-
_vinted for their renewal ; were, in fact, sus_
;)ended, without being entirely broken off! "The
-lements of a Conference" forsooth ! And this
is the way in which the British honour is disre-
;arded, and the British interests frittered away !
The matter is to be shelved for an indefinite
period, in order partly that Austria may be
Allowed to wriggle out of the performance of her
4olemn obligations, and partly that if success
should crown the efforts of our gallant troops in
the Crimea—if Sebastopol should fall before their
irresistible onslaught—.l loop-hole may be re-
tained for the esoipa of Russia : that the Allies
should be bound by the offers they had so lately
made, and which had not been formally with-
lrawn.

It is, indeed, a deplorable state of affairs, when
!veil. the most complete victory con'al scarcely be
received with unmitigated satisfaction, when
.he achieveme
!used bynts of the sword would be neutra,-
the
Pen, and what had been acquired by
the effusion of blood. would be lost by the shed-
1-,li on dis ling of ink.
gusts Already the very name of negoti:,l-
i -the people. They are heartily sick
,f the View less palaver, of the bootless and un-
ineaning pr otocols—the sole results of some six
weeks' diViomatie labours. The lines of Byron