The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TUE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

MR. DISRAELI'S MOTION.
(From the Times of this day. )
In the name of common sense, what are we all
waiting for ? Everybody is waiting for everybody.
At a time when nobody is trusted, 'and to do
nothing is the worst policy of all, we are all wait-
ing one for another. Lord Palmerston and Mr.
Milner Gibson are waiting for the re-opening of
the Vienna Conferences. That wonderful entity,
of which nothing but place can be predicated, is
waiting for something like grace in Russia or dig-
nity in Austria, or something decisive from Sebas-
topol. At that place they have been waiting for
half a year, each side for the other to come on. To
return home, Lord Grey has been waiting for Mr.
Milner Gibson, and generally the Lcrds for the
Commons. Mr. Layard will now let his motion on
administrative reform wait for Mr. Disraeli, and
so we are in the end reduced to the last-mentioned
gentleman as the only one who at this moment is
waiting for nobody, but is pledged to a motion on
Thursday next. Lest some evil influence should
arise to put him, too, in the same mesmeric trance
as the rest, we will just remark that this attitude
of expectancy is very well in some situations ; it is
graceful in statuary ; it is proper for sentinels at
their posts ; it becomes infantry expecting a charge
of cavalry, and it is a painful necessity in the
case of a traveller at a station when the train is
overdue ; but in political affairs it is simply stagna-
tion or stupor ; it is " to rot in cold' obstruction.;"
it is to offer any inducement to the scheming and
ambitious to play off their activity against our inac-
tion ; it is to run "a waiting race," as our witty
contemporary lately expressed it, by waiting without
motion. Every man and every State may say "I
bide my time," but then it must be an active and
vigorous biding—not a passive one. The chief way i
in which great warriors and great statesmen have
compassed their ends has been by surprise. They
have come down upon the rest of the world before
it expected them. Had the neighbouring poten-
tate waited long enough, he might have been the
victim, instead of ,the author, of a coup d'etat ; but,
as it happened,- his opponents chose a waiting po-
licy. At length, however, we are promised a con-
clusion of the present waiting. Mr. Disraeli an-
nounces that he will wait no longer, and he has
accordingly given notice of the following resolution
for next Thursday :

" That this house cannot adjourn for the recess with-
out expressing its dissatisfaction with the ambiguous
language and uncertain conduct of her Majesty's Go-
vernment, in reference to the great question of peace or
war ; and that, nnder these circumstances, this house
feels it a duty to declare that it will continue to give
every support to her Majesty in the prosecution of the
war, until her Majesty shall, in conjunction with her
allies, obtain for this country a safe and honourable
peace."

We can understand almost any excuses for wait-
ing,
but that now offered to Parliament is not of a.
nature to allay the .general impatience. What are
we to expect from Vienna that we did not expect
before, and in which we have not been disap-
pointed ? Of these Coriferences nothing remains
but the name of Vienna. On the departure of the
Western Plenipotentiaries the genius loci stood
alone in all its vacillation. We consulted the
oracle, and if it did not altogether Philippise it did
its best to leave us in a state of uncertainty. But,
besides the place, and besides those barren prefer- 'N
ences which Austria always shows for abstraCt
truth and justice what loophple did the confer-
ences leave for that re-opening we are askyd to
wait for I Has Russia shown the smallest, in-
clination to abandon her preponderance in the
Black Sea under any conditions whatever ? Has
she encouraged us to believe that this point
is still open ? Doubtless she holds it always
open to herself to make what proposition she
thinks fit ; and we, it appears, hold the same. It
is a power which Russia.uot only has, but claims,
and makes her own use of. Who will venture to
suggest the next proposition that she will offer
through the friendly interposition of Austria ? But
the shadowy Conference that is supposed to be still
hovering over the place of its deliberations is not
the only argument of patience offered to us. There
is the wisdom, the firmness, the tact, the self-
respect, and all the diplomatic virtues of Lord
John Russell and his colleagues. Not only is the
Conference open, but in the contingency—the only
contingency—of an absurd and insulting propo-
sition there is not the least chance of its being ac-
cepted by the British Government. So not only
is it possible that no offer may be made, but it is
also certain that it will be rejected. The Con-
ference will no sooner open than it will be shut,
and both the opening and the shutting are reasons
why we should do nothing. This style of reason-
ing is very suitable to a Conference that has no
longer any existence except as an historical fact ;
but even that fact we are not permitted to receive
in its
original simplicity, for we are told to con-
sider not only what we know about it, but also
what we do not know, inasmuch as the published
record does not tell us all, and cannot possibly do
full justice to Lord John Russell's firmness, wis-
dom, and other virtues.
We must have better assurances than the possible
propositions of Russia and the unrecorded achieve-
ments of our Plenipotentiary that England is not
to be compromised in a hollow and disgraceful
peace. Far better declare the Vienna Conerence
ended, and have done with it for the present, than
keep the nation under a fearful suspicion that its
honour is in peril and the guardianship thereof in
incompetent hands. Hitherto the only overtures
that have proceeded from Russia have been illu-
sory, frivolous, and even insulting ; nor have we
the least reason to expect more from her while
our army of 200,000 men are kept out of Se-
bastopol.

(Font the Morning Chronicle of this day.)

Such an insult to the public, as was implied by
the proceedings with respect to Mr. Milner Gib-
son's motion, could not be expected to pass without
Tomment and resistance, even in an Assembly .so
olitically enfeebled as the present House of Com-
mots. Mr. Disraeli rightly assumed that he merely
anticipated the feeling of the house, when he re-
ferred to the extraordinary events of the previous
' evening. Nor was it in the Lower House alone
that astonishment was expressed. The tone of
Lord Lyndhurst, when he put his question to Earl
Grey as to whether that noble lord intended to
persist with his promised motion on Friday, was
not to be mistaken. The veteran gladiator of the
Tory party took no pains to disguise the sarcastic
spirit in which lie exposed the new pretences of the
Government with regard to the exhumed Vienna
negotiations.

The House of Commons received the remon-
strances of the Leader of the Opposition with un-
wonted sympathy. Thus does " the whirligig of
Time bring round his revenges." The collapse of
Lord Palmerston's exaggerated reputation opens a
prospect of popularity and power to the Party
which refused to serve under him as a chief, and
which he was above joining as au ally. With his
felicitous choice of phrase, Mr. Disraeli described
the language of the Government as equivocal on
Monday night, and their demeanour as discourag-
ing. He might have used stronger terms, and yet
not have exceeded the truth ; and he can scarcely
be suspected of the courteous hypocrisy com-
mon to Parliamentary protestations, when be de-
clared that he shrunk from the responsibility of
allowing the further excision of the working time
of Parliament demanded by Lord Palmerston, un-
less some means were taken to "reanimate the
National Heart." Yes, in this expression the Tory
chid has, with graceful truthfulness, described the
state of public feeling. Die people of England
are in an unwonted condition of mind—a some-
thing between despondency and disgust—at the
manner in which the interests and the dignity of
the nation are being trifled with by this Adminis-
tration. At no period of our recent history has
the " heart" of the nation presented such a phase
of feeling; because at no time has there been,
period of menaced disaster, such an utter
want during a
of confidence in the ruling powers.

(From the Morning Herald of this day.)

Last night Mr. Disraeli gave notice that to-mor-
row he will move the following resolution :
"That this house cannot adjourn without expressing
its.dissatibfaction with the ambiguous language and un-
certain conduct of her Majesty's Government in refer-
ence to the great question of peace, or war ; and that,
under these circumstances, this house feels it a duty to
declare, that it will continue to give every support to
her Majesty in the prosecution of the war, until her Ma-
jesty shall, in conjunction with her allies, obtain for this
country a safe and honourable peace."
This resolution affirms boldly the imperative ne-
cessity of prosecuting the war with the concentrated
energy of the country, as the only means of securing
a peace without a national compromise—and it as
distinctly asserts that further trifling on the part of
the Government with that momentous question, on
sfeorwthhobea tolerated.
which rest the hopes and the fears of this country,
cannot, must not be permitted, and that no further
evasion
Majesty
by
etnhcoe dvise her
The absolute necessity for this determined
has long been evident, but of late . course
itself on the house in a manner not it has forced
The insolent ruse played off on M
to be resisted.
manifest pursuance of an arrangementonday night, in
Government and the leaders between the
the audacious attempt of the Peace p t ar y—
' to mien
England, and to supptess discussion silence the Commons of
ques-
tion in which England' 8 greatness; power, and
political existence are bound up—the supercilious
indifference to the opinions iscussion on that
of the people's repre-
sentatives—all these are indications of a disposition

on the part of her Majesty's Ministers to hold their
course with high-handed disregard to the authority
of Parliament, and to press despotically.on freedom
of debate. That disposition the Commons are, We
trust, in no mood to endure, any more than they
are to rest satisfied with that " ambiguous lan-
guage" and "uncertain eon d uct" which have already
cost us so dear, and threaten to make shipwreck of
the fortunes and to ruin the reputation of England.
The forbearance of the opposition has obviously
reached that point at which,
if persisted in, it
degenerates into weakness. When by .a course of
vigorous policy this war might have, been averted
during the ill-omened session of 1853, the House of
Commons kept silence, the Opposition were content
to refrain from demanding information as to the
current of negotiations, in the too generous belief
that those negotiations might eventuate in a pacific,
yet honourable, solution of the Eastern difficulty.

PEACE OR WAR. : •
(Front the Times of this day.)
The most desponding peacemonger will. not
assert that our condition has as yet become so
miserable and so hopeless that we have not still
in our own hands, under terms more or less igno-
minious, the,alternative of Peace or Wall. Nothing
has happened so materially to alter the state of
things which existed a month ago at Vienna that
we need despair of finding pardon and reconcilia-
tion from the Emperor and Autocrat of all the
Russias, if we approach him in a becoming
spirit,
,and bow before his throne with due and decorous
umility. The conditions may, indeed, be a little
grievous, the treatment not altogether what we
have been used to, but we do really believe that if
we are content to abandon Turkey to her fate by
surrendering those very
sa f a e„uards to which Rus-
sia has admitted her to be entitled —if we would
leave the Euxth a
e '
troops from before seßbausstosiapnol lalkeea,viwngithbderhaiwndousur.
the railway and. electric tele'graph, as agreeable
souvenirs of our presence
androfi
profitable trophies of
more durable and morethan'
arches and monumental obelisks,
--the Czar, though
justly incensed at our contt •
ptriumphalou r defeat
imacy, will' not turn a
deaf ear to our penitence. We have, then, a choice
between maxi wail war, and it is also tolerably
evi-
dent that the exercise of that choke is of th
t
momentous importance. Neither the advocatm°s
es of
peace nor the advocates of war can deny this, and
on the present occasion we appeal to both of them.
If we continue to carry on war when we ought to
make peace we are responsible for the blood that
we needlessly shed, forthesocial affections on which
we trample, for the domestic ties which we tear
asunder, for the happiness which we mar, and the
miseries we. create. If, on the other hand, we
make peace when duty and honour urge us alike
to the continuance of war, we are basely betraying
the intvrests of a noble cause, unworthily deserting
faithful and valiant allies, giving fresh strength to
the overbearing oppressor, weakening the hands of
all who struggle for right, justice, and freedom, and
inviting that injury to ourselves which we shall
have failed to avert from those whom we undertook
to protect.

But this option of peace or war, so unspeakably
important, so entirely left to its decision, the na-
tion does not exercise for itself nor even delegate to
its Parliament ; the option resides in the Cabinet
of the day. It is in their power, without the vote
of the House of Commons, without recourse to any
'authority but their own, to conclude for and on
behalf of this country any peace they please, and to
pledge the national good faith to whatever condi-
tions they may approve. We will not stop to in-
quire whether this enormous power be necessary
or not, and whetherinipeachment and the penalties
it implies are a sufficient remedy for its abuse.
This power our Ministers undoubtedly possess, and
may be at this very moment called upon to em-
ploy-. What security have we that they will em- ,
ploy it in a manner suitable to the honour of the
nation, and agreeable to the wishes and interests
of the people t The answer which would naturally
be given.to this question is obvious enough. Peace
and war are matters of such transcendant import-
ance, the results that flow from them of such per-
manent and pervading interest, that, in time of
war, all other questions, compared with.them, sink
into absolute insignifiance. On these questions, at
least, the men who take office together must be
agreed ; they ought to form the dividing line of
party, and to supersede all merely local or personal
differences, however important in quiet times such
differences may seem to be. Men who differ on
peace and war can have no community of feeling
on that which most highly concerns the welfare of
the State. It must be therefore that the Cabinet
to which we intrust the management of this ques-
tion has given security to the public for their opi-
nions on these points, and is in perfect unison with
the nation and the House,of Commons.

No one can deny that this is a reasonaVe
answer and yet how widely does it vary from the
fact ! In the very bosom of the Government Peace
and War are at this very moment an open question.
It is understood that the zeinority,-434;.Inpriae41-of

men considerable from their position and their ta-
lents, is in favour of war, while the remainder, less
individually distinguished, but more numerous,
decidedly incline to peace. In other words, Peace
or War is in the present Cabinet an open question.
It ranks with the Ballot, the abolition of Church
Rates, and at few other matters of secondary im-
portance, on which the members of the same Go-
vernment and of the same Cabinet may agree to
differ without exposing the public interests to any
injury so great a, would be occasioned by their
political separation.
We have stated the case as impartially as we can,
and we now put it with all possible earnestness and
seriousness to our readers, whatever their opinions
on these momentous questions, whether they think
such a state of things ought to continue—whether
they think that in the midst of the war in which
we are engaged, by theside of the allies with whom
we are ranged, in prospect of the discontent within
and the danger from without, Peace Sand War
ought any longer to remain an open question in the
Cabinet ? Can any one suggest a question more fit
to regulate the relative positions of parties to the
right or left of the Speaker's chair ? What are Re-
form Bills, or Education Bills, questions of com-
merce or police, of toleration or persecution—what
are all the ordinary topics of domestic legisla-
tion compared with this single question—ls
your voice for Peace or- War? As soon as there
comes to be a difference of opinion on the
subject it seems necessarily to follow that on
that difference of opinion there must be a
distribution of parties, unless the parties of
the English House of Commons are to be 'like
those of the ancient Byzantine amphitheatre, dis-
tinguished by their colours instead of their opinions.
But, if this question of peace or war must neces-
sarily occasion, as soon as it has arisen, a redistri-
bution of parties, it must also, for the very same
reason, render the position of a Cabinet in which
it is allowed to be an open question.untenable and
absurd. Let the House of Commons clearly and
distinctly pronounce its opinion 'on the subject,
and when it has done so let that portion of the
Ministry whose views are not in harmony with
those of the house retire and make way for men
who represent the feeling both of the house and of
the nation. We have sacrificed many things that
we might have a homogeneous Cabinet, and the re-
sult is, that in the present Ministry, with far less
talent than the last, we have secured no greater
harmony of opinion. We shall rejoice at anyt. tug
which puts an end to so alarming a state of tngse,
and regard the vote of Thursday next asa we
torn
creditable and is fast becoming dangerous.
escape from a situation which has lon„o. been