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

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ally correct, statement of Mr. Gladstone, on Mon4glt- raat-lane%;
which, perhaps, it was unwise in Lord John ar b-
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Bred to pass for the moment unexposed), the Tintait
accused the noble lord of having used equiVoiegtiou
in his recent statement regarding the War DepartmentlNnd
the Duke of Newcastle was ill-advised enough to insinuate
that on more than one point Lord John had misstated the
facts of his own conduct and language regarding him. We
frankly own that were such charges capable of proof we
should not only join unreservedly in pitying the luckless ex-
Minister of War, but we should unhesitatingly acknowledge
that Lord John was not the man we have long been accus-
tomed to take him for. Whatever may be deemed his faults,
the noble member for the City of London has never been
suspected of insincerity or meanness. The reproach of many .
among his Whig followers has often been that he was im-
prudently out-spoken ; that ho was apt to offend the preju-
dices of lukewarm supporters by his unconscious keenness of
phrase ; and that his chief defect as a party leader was that
he was not versed in the histrionic arts that enable some of
his competitors to seem all things to all men. And this may be a
defieiency and a want in cliques and clubs, and coalitions of
really incongruous elements. To the people it is and will ever
be his best recommendation. They believe that he is in ear-
nest, and even where they think him wrong, the people
respect and trust him. But what is this we hear—that the
veteran leader of the Liberal party in the House of Commons
has suddenly turned liar and coward, and that in order to
escape the consequences of his own too great forbearance to-
wards a colleague, who had no particular claim on his per-
sonal consideration, he has had the folly and- wickedness to
make a fraudulent statement of facts, recorded iu writing, to
the,House of Commons

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The accusation is almost too absurd to merit detailed refu-
tation. But, as the impenetrable dulness of the Duke of
Newcastle, and the unrelenting antipathy of the contemporary
to whom we above alluded, have driven us to notice the
matter, we will fearlessly say that, if the whole truth be told,
the miserable insinuations of duplicity and equivocation will
vanish like the morning mist, and utterly disappear. The
charges of equivocation are threefold. Lord John, when
speaking of the original nomination of the Duke to
the War Department, happened to use the expiession,
" I yielded ,to kis commendable ambition" to have
the post of most difficulty and distinction ; although,
as he added, he thought it should have been offered
to Lord Palmerston. " This cannot be true," exclaims :his
ungrateful grace, " for nobody ever proposed such, a compe-
titor in the Cabinet ; and I made a Sourish of professing to be
content with either Colonies or War, or with neither, if ,the
public interest, in Lord Aberdeen's opinion, required it."
Why, what does this prove, except that when the public
voice last May was calling aloud that Lord Palmerston ought
to be new War Minister, the imperturbable conceit of the
Peelite Premier in expectancy never heard the national
shout ? and that because Lord John refrained from urging
in the Cabinet his comparative inexperience and inferiority
in every point of view to Lord Palmerston—therefore he
must really approve the fond and unfortunate pre-
, ferenco shown for him by Lord Aberdeen Y Lord
John could not have " yielded," because he nei-
ther insisted beforehand that the duke would fail,
nor tried to realise his foreboding by embarrass-
ing or thwarting him. By the Duke of Newcastle's own sui-
cidal confession, last night, the ex-President of the Council
acted cordially with him while they were in consultation re-
specting the war ; and, when at a distance from town during
the autumn, he wrote to him in a friendly tone, pointing out
what he thought errors and suggesting remedies. These
instances we are told were few ; and when the attempt to
apply them proved in one particular case impossible at the
, moment, Lord John wrote, frankly admitting that the ob-
stacles were insurmountable, but generously adding, " You
have done all that could be done." Will our readers believe
when we tell them that these words constitute the second
count in the indictment for mendacity, equivocation, and
fraud I

" Why did Lord John Russell suppress the fact that on the
Bth of October he addressed to me words of commendation f"
In other words, his Grace would have the world believe that
the expression was used in a general and comprehensive,
not in a special- and limited sense ; and ho gives the
extract so shorn of context as to render the meaning
ambiguous. And this is the candid man who has been
made a victim by the wily and perfidious Whig leader ! But
the crown and climax of all is that which the dexterous mas-
ter of Oxonian dialectics first called attention to.
When Lord John Russell found that no storm of national
indignation could make the Prime Minister understand that a
now Secretary for War was required, and when he despaired
of mending matters in any other way, he suggested various
changes iu the department. He had suggested, some months
previously, a consolidation of the Secretarystip for War-and
the Secretaryship at War into one office. He had done so by
the advice of a nobleman who had himself filled the latter
office, and on whose practical judgment ho relied. This in-
dividual subsequently changed his opinion, and satisfied
Lord John that what he had originally recommended had
better not be attempted. Meanwhile, the disasters of
the Crimea began to convince even the Duke of New-
castle that some great change was desirable. In a moment
of penitence, of panic, it occurred to Lord Aberdeen to recur
to the, old suggestion for the consolidation of the two Secro-
taryships, and Lord John was asked did he wish to revive the
proposition. He replied that he did not, and stated his
reasons. " Therefore we were entitled," says Mr. Gladstone,
" to believe that all idea of any important change in the War
Department was a defunct proposition 1" Was ever sophistry
like this ? Because Lord John changes his mind on a ques-
tion of tape, the ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer coolly ignores
the fact that a change of hands and heads was urged by Lord
John—when the misfortunes of Balaklava, were beginnin-
and never revoked or withdrawn. We do not hesitate to
declare that this will turn out to be the case; and that the
fact will so appear the instant Lord John has an opportunity
of replying to the cavillings and. quibblings to which his words
have been subjected. Too forbearing we have before said we
think he was ; and a precious recompense he has received.