The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-09 00:00:00

- Spirit of the Public Journals•

4 (Front the Daily News of this clay.)
Having failed to press the leaders of the Peelites
intothis service, certain ill-advisers of the Premier
would have him try the efficacy of temptation on
sortie of the secondary personages of that party.
The' names of Mr. Cardwell and Mr. Frederick
Peel have been tentatively put forward by the
gossips of the Government, as candidates not to be
despised for the Cabinet daces now vacant. Had
any,serious thoughts been entertained of converting
the. Colonial Department and the Post-office into
political lumber-rooms, the manner in which the
first hints of such a proposal have been received
would, we suspect, be sufficient to extinguish the
abaurd. intention. Mr. Frederick Peel and Mr.
Caldwell are types of a class of whom the fewer
we have in posts of responsibility the better.
Punctual and precise in the performance of routine
duties, they are sure to be found utterly wanting
when placed in a position where independence of
thought or promptitude and vigour of action is re-
quired. Diligent and dull, they are fit only to oc-
cupy situations where a precedent may be found in
the pigeonholes for every little matter that is to
be done. But to guide a great department of the
public service they are ixcurably wanting in all
the intellectual and moral qualities that are indis-
pensable in those who aspire to play the part of
statesmen. If it be true that, with a pardonable
excess of modesty, Lord Stanley, in declining the
Premier's recent offer, volunteered the assertion
that were he to join the Government " he could
bring to it no accession either of character or fol-
lowing," how much more truly might the same be
said of the advancement to Cabinet places of poli-
tical nonentities like Mr. Cardwell and Mr. F.
Peel ? It is not thin blue books in breeches, but
stout-hearted men, ready and willing to give a
valid reason for the faith that is in them, that the
present Administration stands in need of, and
whose adhesion it must somehow secure if it would
not speedily and irretrievably fall.
There are, we are told, some men in the Govern-
ment who ave the sense to see this matter in its
true light, and who would have Lord Palmerston
embrace fearlessly the opportunity that circum-
stances now offer to conciliate the mass of
opinion throughout the country, to which he
has hitherto shown himself too indifferent, and
whose indifference to his fate as a Minister he may
one day have to regret. The great body of
advanced Liberals of every shade and degree
viewed with undisguised astonishment and disgust
the total disregard of representative claims in the
first formation of the Government. Theysaw in the
Cabin©t nothing but a cabal, formed out of the
second-rate men of a few aristocratic circles. With
the single exception of Sir William Molesworth,
they looked in vain for any representative of their
sentiments and interests ; and, now that he is gone,
they view in the residuary members of the
Cabinet, nothing but the oldoligarchic stocks, upon
which, if branches of a very different nature can-
not be engrafted, no promise of good fruit need he
hoped for in future. In a word, the Commons
want to be represented in the Cabinet by men of
their own class, or by men who have given solid
and substantial proof that they thoroughly sym-
pathise with them. Needy peers and glib orators
of quality, who patronise some further extension of
popular rights at a period indefinitely postponed,
and'why meanwhile want to raise a little political
capital for purposes of personal jobbing, may call
themselves Whigs, and may pass for excellent po-
liticians and clubs and coteries ; but a score of
such men in a Cabinet would not win for it an
hour's popular confidence. Years of steadfast ad-
vocacy of the rights and wishes of the many, not
holiday talk in Parliament or at the hustings, can
alone secure the confidence to which we refer. It
was this'that constituted the claim of men like the
late Charles Buller and the lamented Sir W. Moles-
worth to be heard and heeded in the councils of the
state. And it is on the like account that we should
rejoice to learn that there was at length a disposi-
tion to concede their rightful place of pre-eminence
to tried servants of tho people like Mr. Charles
Villiers and Mr. Roebuck, The former, indeed,
has for some time filled the post of Judge-Advocate;
but, if report speak truly, there is now a disposition
to promote him to a sphere of Niger usefulness.
As regards Mr. Roebuck, we have heard with re-
gret (we wish we could say with surprise), that a
subordinate office incompatible with Parliament
was lately offered to him. It is superfluous to say
that it was promptly spurned, as a mere golden
gag, sought to be thrust into a mouth whose utter-
ances had often been too truthfully telling for the
convenience of an exclusive and incapable Minis-
try. But the elevation of the learned member for
Sheffield to some post of dignity and influence in
the Administration, even though it were not, in
the first instance, accompanied by the offer of a
seat in the Cabinet, would be another matter, and
would be so regarded by his constituents and nu-
merous admirers throughout the kingdom.

(From the Timas of this day.)
On the two seas which wash her coast Russia
has neighbours at whose expense she wishes to
push her empire until it reaches the shores of a
more open ocean. Happily for the world, the keys
of the Baltic are held by nations which, if weak
in population and wealth, are still of the hardy
northern stock of Europe—proud of their history,
tenacious of their rights, and anxious only for an
opportunity to withstand the Power which has
formerly wounded and still threatens them. In a
geographical sense only do the Scandinavian penin-
sulas correspond to Roumelia and. Anatolia, but
this similarity of position and the advantages it
plainly offers have from the beginning of the war
drawn the attention and sympathies of the West
to the two nations of Sweden and Denmark. There
is reason to believe that the Swedish people espe-
cially reciprocate any feeling which is inspired by
the aggression of St. Petersburg. Causes are, in-
deed, not wanting which should instil a most ear-
nest dislike and fear. Not half a century has
elapsed since the great province of Finland, with
its capacious harbours and seafaring population,
was wrested from the feeble hand of last Gus-
tavus. Men still living can remember Ehrensward,
the last Swedish Governor of S weaborg, and his
treachery. Since those days Russia, without haste,
but without pause, always vigilant, never rash,
has advanced in the path of conquest. She has
notyet struck the blow, but she has taken means
that
whenever it should fall her victim should be
.
powerless for resistance Bomarsund
washer
was a
ad-
vanced post ; what it year since we know ;
what time would have made it we may well
guess. But another and more covert scheme has
the
been conceived for speedyuestof Sweden Proper
possession of an
Atlantic port. The non
the Czar knew must be leftg to time and his suc-
cessors ; but within his own day he
mighttla see a
Russian navy slowly rising
on the Ant i
in
s eha -
board. The plan of the Czar is well related
letter from "A Norwegian," which we publisnhtt to-
day. day. Russia has no port from which she can pass.an
at once into the ocean except Archangel, but
advance westward through the most northern part
of Norway would give her fine harbours, open
during the greater part of the year, and place her
at once in the position of an Atlantic Power. For
the course of intrigue and aggression by which this
end was to be obtained we refer our readers to the
letter itself. That the habits of migratory tribes in
the wastes of the extreme North have been made a
pretext for interference by the Russian monarch is
a sufficient proof that the religious zeal which
kiniles the flame in the South was a policy rather
than a principle. It is almost a caricature on the
events with whisk we are acquainted to find the
Crossing of the frontier of Finland by the Norwe- '
gian Laps made a cause of warlike preparation
• against the whole realm of King Oscar.
As there can be no doubt of the sympathy of
Sweden for the allies and their cause, it remains to
determine how these common views and aspirations
can be developed into action. Now, one thing is
clear,—that to draw such a State into war without
the firm purpose of carrying on the contest until
the enemy be disabled for revenge, would be gross
political immorality. Sweden by herself is weak,
but she can supplyeoes the allies with much that they
want,—ports to the enemy's shores, supplies
and shelter for
troops during an eight months'
winter, a large army of h
of craft fitted for the navigation of t hose shallow seas.
fatal
With We d
blow at Russian her assistance
m .strike a speedy and
Pewe
out her all that we do ustri
1n
pa_.t.ly, North,—with-
rrake of the nature
of a foray ; we may destroy, but
cannot establish ;
we may lame the enemy for a time, but
Ifcannot
cripple him for futurity. Sweden, therefore,
do her part, and give us all we ask, it must
the understanding that she shall be protected
against all eventualities. If we seek this alliance
and obtain it, there can be no more talk of
having done enough, of military honour being
Patisfted, and peace being now only a question
for diplomatists. We shall have deepened the
character of the struggle, and from limitation
passed on to repression. It is, therefore, with no
blindness to the consequences that we regard this
momentous compact. If the nation be in earnest
—if
on o
the prosecution . .
and at any
sacrifice
' be the determination, and not
once for all, of the English people--if an overthrow,
European enemy be their real
them end and aim, then let seek the alliance which
will give them strength b for
effort. a great and successful

General Canrobert is at Stockholm, and his oh-
jeCt is, it is said, to draw closer the bonds which
unite Sweden to the 'Western Powers. There can
t be little doubt that his mission extends to the in-
vitation to an active alliance. So far, therefore, as