The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-16 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1855.

This evening—the trance of the last three
weeks being removed—both Houses of Parliament
will resume their deliberations. Lord PALMER-
STON and Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT are again entitled
to resume their positions in the representative
branch of the Legislature, and to put forward
from their places in the House the explanations
and statements that are anxiously looked for, not
merely by the hereditary legislators and popular
representatives, but also by the entire people of
Great Britain.

The new Premier will indicate the policy of
his Government, more especially in all relating to
the conduct of the War. He will, of course, de-
clare his intention to push it on vigorously an
energetically ; and for the present, although feel-
ing that a trivial amount of performance would
be more beneficial than tenfold promises, the
country must be contented with the pledge. But,
at the same time, it may fairly require that such
proofs of a zealous and unflinching determination
to fulfil the solemn obligation, as may be prac-
ticable, shall not be withheld.
The first point, and one which, like the straw
thrown up to show the quarter from whence the
wind is blowing, will to a certain extent indicate
the future course to be adopted, will be the pro-
ceeding relative to the inquiry into the conduct
of the War, and the state of the British forces in
the East, demanded by the House of Commons.
It will be the duty of the Honourable and Learned
Gentleman the Member for Sheffield to propose
that committee. That he will fulfil the task fairly
and impartially we have no doubt. Mr. ROEBUCK
is not the man to evade any responsibility, or to
suffer discredit to be cast en his own unblemished
reputation, by a simulated zeal, or playing into
the hands of any man, or body of men, however
powerful. The inquiry which he conducts will
be a strict and searching investigation one
that will drag to light the secret causes of the
disasters, the humiliation we have endured. He
is no respecter of persons, but will place any
delinquency that may be discovered on the right
shoulders, and not tolerate the vicarious sacrifice
of some comparatively humble scape-goat in order
to shield more influential offenders.

If the new Government meet the Honourable
Gentleman in a fair and candid spirit, if there
be no attempt either to shirk the investigation,
or to reduce it to a mere farce by the appointmen t
of a packed Committee, whose report may be pre-
dicted without any affectation of prescience, well.
It will show that there is an honest determination
to avoid all such errors for the future, and to
carry on matters in a very different manner from
that which hitherto prevailed. The Ministerial
treatment of the intended inquiry may be re-
garded as the touchstone that will test the real
character of the Paa.mzeirroie Cabinet, and teach
the country whether its materials are of sterling
gold or of spurious ABERDEEN metal.
It has, we regret to say, been assumed by some
respectable Ministerial organs that the object of
the House, in demanding the investigation, hav-
ing been effected by the removal of the late Pre-
mier and Secretary for War, the investigation
itself should be allowed to fall to the ground.
Now, we totally dissent from this conclusion,
and, moreover, deny the premises on which
it is founded. The leading members of
the ABERDEEN Cabinet, who took part in
the discussion Lord PALMERSTON included
—declared that they considered the motion
not as aimed against one or two members only,
but against the whole Cabinet. If the terms of
the resolution could only be regarded as a Parlia-
mentary fiction—if they are to be qualified by any
other rale than the plain common-sense interpre-
tation--the matter must be carried to the full
extent, as a blow aimed at the entire Cabinet,
or at least the Peelite element therein. The
question then will be—Have the alterations in
the governing body been so great as to indicate a
complete change of policy ? This question is
easily answered. Three members have retired,
and it is said that three have been added. Lord
ABERDEEN and the Duke of NEWCASTLE, Peelites,
have been replaced by Lord CANNING and Mr.
CARDWELL—not, of course, in the same offices,
but as Cabinet Ministers. Lord PANMIIRE, a pure
Whig, has been substituted for Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, the unquestionable leader of that
party. In fact, "the balance of (party)
power," the preponderance of certain classes
of opinion, have been as jealously guarded
against in the present as in the late Coalition.
Especial care must therefore be taken to steer
the vessel of the State clear of the shoals and
quicksands on which it was all but wreaked by
the late pilot.
We shall not, however, so far wrong Lord
PALMERSTON as to attribute, prematurely, such
intentions to him—intentions, which possibly exist
only in the minds of zealous, though indiscreet,
partizans. We shall not censure him until he is
condemned out of his own mouth, and we still
fondly hope that calamity will not fall on the
country. His colleague, Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT,
in his address to the electors of South Wilts,
declared that the deplorable evils which caused
such - sufferings to our gallant fellows in
the drimea " may be, and must be, attributed to
causes that require searching investigation, in
order that the proper remedy may be applied, and
that the blame, if blame there be, should fall upon
the right shoulders ;" adding—" This inquiry it
behoves the Government to lose no time in insti-
tuting." We cannot, . after this, see how the
anticipated attempt can be made ; or sup-
pose that Lord PALMERSTON will inaugurate
his Government by so great a mistake. Until
we hear it from himself we shall not lend the
slightest credence to the rumour of the intent to
shelve the investigation, or to set at nought the
duemonasne of doef
oammmajority of 157 members of the

The glory and
linked together, that the
cavalry charge at
t lite
aisahkaime, so to speak, of the I
cannot, however unenvia.bln;
the other. The military historian, be
it may fall to narrate, for the
a.va are so inseparably
na,cito. whose lot
immortality of th© one
a and
extended to
example of future times, the chivalrous"dati?
unsurpassed devotion of the band of heroes andy
whom the charge was made, would be deemedi-
wanting in duty if he failed to designate the indi-
vidiaarwhose deplorable error it was to have
occasioned it. Silence on this point would, under
all the OiToumotanoes of the case, involve a grave