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

(Prom tilt Morning Post of this day.)

The House of Commons, by a majority so large and
unusual as one hundred and fifty-seven, has appointed a
committee of inquiry upon the conduct of the war and
the state of the army engaged in the campaign in the
East. In the usual course of business the next stage in
the proceedings would be the nomination of members to
be charged with its prosecution. That would be the first
and immediate step which routine would suggest on the
re-assembling of the house to-day. 'Will it, or ought it,
to be taken! Whether it ought, depends upon the
answer which that majority of the house who gave its
voice with the ayes would truly return to the question,
whether that vote was bone fide intended to involve an
inquiry in the form, and under the conditions, apparent
on the face of the motion : whether it will, depends upon
Parliamentary chances, which we may consider when we
have satisfactorily answered the first question which
we have proposed for solution. Upon that point we feel
no hesitation. We feel no difficulty in at once reply.
ing in the negative ; and we refer with entire confidence
to the speeches delivered by men of all parties in support
of the ♦iew which we take of the intention and of the
feeling of the house. There is, in point of fact, no doubt
that the resolution appointing a committee of inquiry,
whatever might have been the individual idea of Mr.
Roebuck, was regarded by the entire remainder of those
who took part in the discussion, and the division, by the
minority as well as the majority, simply and exclusively,
as a vote of censure upon the late Government, nomin-
ally upon that Government as a whole, but directed
truly and• practically, personally and exceptionally,
against Lord Aberdeen and the Duke of Newcastle.
The motion has answered its real purpose. We may
say the whole of its real purpose. In obedience to the
spirit of the resolution, which was the result of its affir-
mation, those two Ministers have been removed from
the councils of the Crown, and the Cabinet, in the direc-
tion of which they have so palpaby failed, has been re-
modellede--Lord Panmure replacing the one, and Lord
Palmerston the other. There remains, .therefore, no
purpose to pursue, and no object to seek, the attainment
of which could, as far as we can see, be in any degree
assisted by carrying the resolution of the house to
any farther conclusion, unless, indeed, Parliament and
the country are dissatisfied in limine with the Cabinet
which Lord Palmerston has framed, and desire, by a
♦ote of anticipatory censure, as it were, to stop them
before they can so -much no put their feet over the
threshold of the departments of Government. Wo
cannot believe that the house will -commit itself in the
face of the country by as act so egregious and so un-
reasonable, or that it will, as a body, take upon itself
the responsibility of stopping hastily and peremptorily
the progress of that high and important policy which the
now Government has so promptly and decidedly ini-
tiated, and of standing in the way of the completion of
the measures so vigorously adopted for giving it imme-
diate action and instant effect. We do not believe that
the House of Commons will be so unwise, so inconsi-
derote, or so regardless of the groat interests which
would be jeopardised by any further interruption in the
government of the country at this critical moment ; al-
though, bearing in mind the feeling that was exhibited,
and the language that was used, during the existence of

the °(' difficulty" which ensued upon the resignation of
Lord Aberdeen, we shall not be surprised if an -attempt
is made by a portion of the Majority who affirmed Mr.
Roebucic's motion to induce upon the house an impres-
sion that they are committed to the immediate pursuit
of the inquiry, and that they are bound by the vote
which they have recorded to fit up and set to work,
without a moment's delay, the unmanageable and slowly.
revolving machinery of a committee.