The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-19 00:00:00

L IONDON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1855.

AI Id so Lord ABERDEEN is to have the vacant
Blue Riband ! The " dear and excellent" States-
man— -" the friend of forty years' standing " of
the En speror NICHOLAS, is to receive the highest
honour in the power of his SOVEREIGN to bestow
—an h ononr coveted not only by the most dis-
tinguish ed subjects of the British Crown, but
even by ► independent Sovereigns. The services
must, in deed, have been highly meritorious that
require o r can even be recognised by so great an
aeknowle, igment. The arbiter who has had to
decide on , the conflicting claims—whose task has
been more ► onerous and more invidious than that
of PARIS, inasmuch as the candidates were far
more num, wow and the pretensions more nearly
balanced— must have been deeply impressed with
the responsibility of the duty—must have shud-
dered when n delivering his award. Although
divesting h imself of every personal and selfish
feeling, an( I determined, to the best of his
ability, to I.( 'commend " the most worthy" to the
favour of his SOVEREIGN, he must have hesitated
when choosin g Lord ABERDEEN as tha one whom
her MAJESTY should select from the mass of those
who have des( awed well of their country ! The
choice, howev( has been made !—the invidious
task has been ( ,xecuted ! For good or for evil,
GEORGE HAMII TON, Earl of ABERDEEN, has been
nominated the new Knight of the Garter, and is
with all convent ent speed to receive the insignia
of the illustrious I order.
Who, then, w, ?is the arbiter to decide on this
interesting topic ? Who was the impartial and
high-minded judt Te on whom devolved the grave
l responsibility of a dection ? " The QUEEN can do
no wrong." That is a constitutional maxim to
which we yield a I 'eady and unhesitating assent.
Her MAJESTY receiN 'es the advice of her Ministers,
or rather of the Minister who presides over the
Cabinet, and is justl, y responsible for its decisions
She has been influet Iced by her Prime Minister,
who virtually nomin: ttes the successful aspirant,
and renders himself 1 iable to any objections that
may be put forward . This Prime Minister is
GEORGE HAMILTON, Ea xl of ABERDEEN !—and with
extraordinary disinter( Istedness he has nominated
GEORGE HAMILTON, I larl of ABERDEEN, to the
coveted distinction. He had previously held
many honours, without looking to those which he
derived from the "accident of birth." The
Peerage tells us that he i s also a " Knight of the
Thistle," Lord-Lieutenai tt and Sheriff Principal
of the County of Aberdee. a, Ranger of Greenwich
Park, Chancellor of Kin, es College, Aberdeen,
President of the British Institute, &c., &a. One
might have supposed that these distinctions might
have satisfied the most ambitious man. But not
so ! Lord ABERDEEN migh t exclaim that—
" His great revenge had at mach for them all ;"

aye, and for something more, for the " LG." is
henceforward to be added'. to the list, the
enviable title which Lord ABItaDICRN has conferred
on Lord ABERDEEN (!) to the exclusion of many
really meritorious men, who had high claims to
the distinction.

There will, however, be more impartial judges
by whom the title of the Noblo Earl to the hon-
our will be strictly scrutinised'. There will be
men who are ready to investigate the services
evidenced by so high a reward. Is it by his
conduct since he has occupied the position of
First Lord of the Treasury ? By involving
the country in an expensive and sanguinary
war which a slight exhibitio4 of determi-
nation in the first instance might have
averted, or for the grievous mismanagement
which has occurred since its commencement ? For
these he might have earned honours from his
" dear" friend NlCHOLAS—honours that no doubt
are still in store, and which, no doubt, will be
duly accorded when the " Peace at any price, or
on any conditions," for which he has been labour-
ing, has been patched up. We shall not eavy
him their possession, although we moat complain
of the strange selection of the new Knight of the
Garter, under the advice of the Preml:er.
It may be said that the shaft has been drawn
from another quiver !—that the " modesty" of
Lord ABERDEEN has been spared the trial of pro-
posing himself—that, in fact, the selection is
ascribable to another and a less constitutional in-
fluence ! We trust, however, that this pew phase
of " Germanism" may still be wanting, that the
country may have less reason to regret the nomi-
nation than is yet known. Although Loth ABER-
JAEN should—if he had any sense of shame—
blush at the appointment, it would still be only
disgraceful to the individual, whereas the alterna-
tive is one that would be deeply felt throughout
the length and breadth of the land !

There is but ono fair solution of the problem ?
—one mode in which the nomination would be re-
ceived with pleasure in place of sheer disgust.
Men when retiring from office frequently rweiyo
some mark of respect, some honour from their
most gracious Mistress " to break the fall," to re-
concile them to the mortification. If this b, the
true cause of the selection, we shall at once re-
ceive it joyously, and shall rapturously hail.the
accession of GEORGE HAMILTON, Earl of ArEß-
deen, to the ancient order—not for the honour
he confers on it, but because of his retirement ;
and the appointment of another Prime Minister
would be a blessing for which no price would Ile
too great—not even the annihilation of the Garter
itself, and
the object oftil such
i earneststi n g uis heig b
onmp
etluitie ri band, once o
n.

I
The Leeds meeting Rill a report of it reaches
European reputation
Petersburg. do oB
Eg good
a s eßaTerlinr
Berlin,
earned,
sooneraainldd
Vienna the better. Mr. e
justly, such a
especially
yt
haomiosnngas-t
the middle classes of Europe
turally supposed to be the representative of the
same classes here. Ho is so beyond doubt on moss
commercial questions, and truly sorry should we
be to lose him from the House of Commons, we
can afford to put up with his crotchets on foreign
policy for the sake of his great economical value.
The Leeds meeting, however, will rectify all the
injury his name might do abroad. It will prove
to all the bourgeoisie of Europe that the manufac-
turers and traders of this country demand the
"prosecution of the War with the utmost rigour
until a fair and honourable peace is ob.
tamed." With hardly a dissentient voice, in
one of .the first manufacturing towns of the
kingdom, after a long speech from its favourite
county representative, and on tlie
pasmotien:t'lhi as
principal supportersi the vast toasting