The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-20 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, JULY 20, 1855.

The " light cloud has passed from the moon."
The last opportunity during the present session
for retrieving the damaged reputations of many
" honourable gentlemen" has been wantonly dis-
regarded. The safety, honour, and welfare of the
British nation has been ccnsidered of less im-
portance than the personal convenience and amuse-
ment of those who, having undertaken the dis.
charge of archous and important duties, delibe-
rately violated the trust, and consented to a dis-
creditable compromise between duty and inclina-
tion. If, after the events of the two last sessions,
any doubt could have existed as to whether the
nation was properly represented, it must have
been completely removed by the proceedings of
the week, which must have greatly exhausted the
almost universal desire for a speedy " appeal
to the country."

As to the division itself it was exactly as we
had anticipated, and the views to which we gave
expression were powerfully corroborated by what
actually occurred. There were 471, or in-
cluding the Speakers and Tellers, 476 pre-
sent at the division; of whom 182 voted
for, and 289 against, the motion—leaving
a majority of 107. There were also 42 pairs, so
that altogether 561 members are accounted
for, and there are doubtless some few of
the absentees for whom valid excuses may be
offered. There are, however, nearly 100
who should be called on to explain the causes of
their unaccountable apathy on a question of such
surpassing interest and vital importance to the
nation. We trust that the division lists may be
closely scrutinised, that every man may be called
to account for the vote he has given. But even
a wrong vote was better than no vote at all ; the
chief delinquents are those who, without adequate
cause, strove to struggle out of their responsibi-
lity. From these persons we hope- that a heavy
reckoning may be 'exacted, and that they may re-
ceive a decided proof that such conduct cannot
be practised with impunity. Those who were
altogether deterred from voting, or who
shelved the important subject for the sake
of avoiding the threatened dissolution, should
receive au early intimation of the opinions
of their constituents, and an unequivocal hint that,
as they no longer represented those opinions, the
sooner they made way for more determined and
earnest men the better. This division list should,
therefore, as we have already stated, be carefully
scanned by every independent voter--ayie, and
non-voter---throughout the United Kingdom, for
as we are told by the opponents of the ballot
they exercise a legitimate influence on the elections
in their respective localities.
The discussion last night was very different
from that of Tuesday evening. It was no longer
a petty skirmish, conducted with g( pop-guns,"
but a fierce conflict, in which the heavy
artillery participated. The Atttorney-General
spoke, as. he .always does, brilliantly and .effec-
tively, but he showed the weakness a his CS lib e

by the vituperation in which he indulged against
the high-minded, consistent, and incorruptible
member for Sheffield. It was as palpable as if
his brief had been exposed, that the instructions
were, "We have no case--abuse the plaintiff's
attorney !" What might he not have said had
his able advocacy been enlisted on the other side ?
Aa it was his mind was too logical to permit a
direct denial of the premises. He could not, in
the face of the Report, which so far as practicable
strove to shelter the Ministry, deny that there
had been just groundsfor complaint; but he argued
with considerable effect in favour of "limited liabi-
lity," and, to shield. Lord PALMERSTON and his col-
leagues, not immediately concerned in the manage-
ment of the War, from the censure that had been
decidedly merited by some of their quondam col-
leagues.
This defence—and it was decidedly the best
which circumstances admitted—was repudiated
by Lord JoHN Russzu, who, having been so re-
cently made a scapegoat by his colleagues and so
unceremoniously expelled the Cabinet, was com-
paratively indifferent to the stability of a Govern-
ment in which he had no place, and was also de-
sirous of extending the Ministerial responsibility,
so as to divide the odium which he has incurred
with the colleagues who still retain "power,
patronage, and pay." We must say that we so
far concur with the Noble Lord, although we
must admit that the arguments would have pro-
ceeded with a much better grace from any other
quarter, and without such biting acerbity and
palpable vexation. He, too, followed, in the
abuse of the plaintiff's attorney, or rather of the
faithful and efficient counsel for the People—the
manly, energetic, and indefatigable ROEBUCK.
Sir GEORGE GREY made a twaddling speech, in
which he did not give any intimation as to
whether he concurred with Lord JoHN Rus-
SELL in thinking that the Austrian terms
might be accepted. That is a subject which will
remain involved in mystery, so long as it can pos-
sibly be maintained ;_ and. ,it. is obvious that the
House of Commons will do nothing to dispel the
cloud. Lord PALMERSTON followed his colleagues
in a somewhat similar strain, though with far
greater brilliancy and effect. Like the others he
attacked Mr. ROEBUCK, rather a bad symptom, as
to the soundness of his cause.
Of the Opposition, Mr. WHITESIDE made
a vigorous and powerful onslaught on the
offenders ; and he was sustained with great effect
by Mr. DISRAELI, who reserved himself until
after Lord PALMERSTON bad spoken. Mr. BRIGHT
also made a desperate attack on Ministers. What
a pity that the Hon. Gentleman is arrayed
in drab garments, and that he is a monomaniac
on the peace question ; how vigorously he would
pound the Ministry under different circum-
stances. We must, however, be contented with
what we can. The Government has succeeded
in shirking the unpleasant topic for the present
session, but it will be long before they can recover
the home thrusts so unsparingly administered by
WHITESIDE, BRIGHT, and DISRAELI, the wounds
from which must long rankle in their sides. As
it is, but for the season, the result might have
been very different indeed,. and they would not
have had much cause to pride themselves on the
postponement of the indictment on which they
were so justly arraigned.

With all convenient speed our Ministers wi
now get rid of their catechisers. ROEBUCK and
LA YARD, DISRAELI and MILNER GIBSON, and
all the troublers of ISRAEL will be dismissed to
their tents. The Press alone will be left as the
guardians of the people's interests, and the super-
visor of its servants. How much they need such
a supervisor the Crimean revelations of last
winter, denied at first by the guilty, but after-
wards ratified by a Parliamentary Committee, are
proof sufficient. A foreigner once expressing to
an English Judge his surprise at the small num-
ber of persons present in our courts of justice,
" Sir," was the reply "we sit in all the daily
papers." We suppose our Ministers will make the
same reply when we insist on the mischief of pro-
roguing Parliament. We want, however, the
assistance of counsel to enable us to report in the
most efficient manner the conduct of our Ministers.
The Press can put no questions by giving a few
days' notice ; or if it does, it can get no answer.
Custom, etiquette, and for aught we care to dis-
' pute, the circumstances of a constitutional country
and a free Press, quite forbid the descent of her
MAJESTY'S servants into the arena where all others
contend. It is reserved for despotic Governments
to have the Government journal which can speak
with State authority. We, on the contrary, can hear
nothing as authentic from the Government unless
it has come to us by the Parliamentary channel.
A somewhat arctic zone this of ours in the poli-
tical sense ; for six months we enjoy such light
in Governmental matters as continental states
never know, and for the next six months we are
plunged into darkness unknown in the countries
of the 21foniteur or the Invalids Russe. Perhaps
some of our readers will be inclined to stretch our
illustration, and to tell us that our boasted free
Press is, meanwhile, no better than the unsteady
and misleading light of the twilight, the moon,
and the aurora borealis. If so, there is no help
for it ; we must give the best light we can.
Before we part, then, with our Ministerial
catechisers we insist that they ought to demand
explicit declarations from Government on several
points. It may not appear to be the greatest of
them, but we just now place among the first the
Danubian Principalities. Our readers are aware
that there are fresh rumours of sacrificing these
misused countries to the odious rule of Austria.
She in return is to give up a portion of Lom-
bardy to Sardinia, and Turkey is to be recom-
pensed by the Crimea. We hope, in the name of
all justice to the nations, that there is no truth
whatever in the rumour. Except in regard to
the Tartars in the Crimea, who are known to pre-
fer the Turkish rule, all the other arrangements
are purely arbitrary, and ignore entirely the
rights of the inhabitants of the countries them-
selves. Probably Lombardy, or the " por-
tion " of it, might prefer the Government of
the country which sheltered its exiles to
the lying Government which sequestered
their estates, but they have an indefeasible
right, which centuries of HAPSBURG brutality can
never destroy, to choose their own Government—
they might prefer incorporation with Sardinia, or
they might not ; but it is not for us to repeat
the villanous policy of 1815, and to give away
people as if they were but toys for one despot to
present to another till all were contented. But
as to the Principalities, it would be a crime as
bad as the partition of Poland to make a present
of them to Austria. They would weep tears of
blood, quietly disposed as theyare, at the thought
of coming under the heel of the Most cruel and
perfidious dynasty which disgraces a continental
throne. A dynasty utterly insensible to the
nobility of Hungarian or Lombard patriotism,
Which has indeed but one single aim—to repress
every aspiration for liberty, civil or religious, and
to subject all to the discipline of bureaus and to
the darkest superstitions of Popery.
We have no right thus .to sacrifice these pro-
vinces. They must infinitely prefer their nominal
connection with the Turkish empire, and their real
independence under their own Hospodars. They
have, if they be delivered from Russian interfer-
ence and the Danubian trade be thrown fully open,
every prospect of speedily becoming wealthy and
flourishing. They will be for a long time to come
one of the granaries of Western Europe, and will
form a growingly noble addition to the political
status of the Turkish empire. The purpose for
which Austria wants them is obvious enough ;they
would not only give her a better hold on the na-
vigation of the Danube, but they would enclose
Hungary and Transylvania in her domains still
more completely, and isolate still more those
countries of freemen from the world without.
The most revolting consideration of all would be
that this ignis fatuus of our statesmen, dancing
after which they have thrown away time, blood,
and mon—
ey-, should gain for her nefarious purposes
such a splendid addition to her territory. That
she should have. not only drone nothing to earn an
acknowledgment,
but that she should have libe-
rated Russian troops from
the Danube for the
Battle of Ipiterman, and at this Very moment sec