The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-06 00:00:00

we have felt it our duty to render to Lord Palmcreton,
•on the capture of Sebastopol, that mood of praise which,
.wheti er agreeable or not to certain of our cbrteenporaries,
or whether consistent or not with our former views of his
character, ie unquestionably his due.. We are reminded
and with much truth—thet We objected to Lord Pal-
merston's treatment of Spain and with reference to Don
Pacifico • and we are told, therefore, it is the height of
inconsistency to give him credit for the firmness which ho
has shown during recent negotiations, though it Las nn-
doubtedlv led to the late brilliant success of the allied
arms. N-ow, if consistency is to be found in always blam-
ing the same person, whether he deserve blame or no, or
praising the seine person with similar pertinacity, oar
conduct curies the proof of inconsistency on the face of it ;
but if, as we rather apprehend, consistency is adherence to
truth, and not to persons, we may have been perfectly
right in censuring Lord Pahnersten s Spanish and Greek
policy, and in pra'sing his conduct with regard to the
war ; and there is no reason to suppose that our censure
was occasmned, as these wiseacres assert, by any difficul-
ties in obtaining foreign information—difficulties of which
the readers of the Times are not, we flatter ourselves,
very sensible, the little to be gleaned in Downing-street
being as nothing compared to the flood of light thrown on
passing events by our foreign correspondents—or our
praise occasioned by the brighter prospects which seem to
dawn on Lord Palmerston's Government. To enter into
irritating correspondence with the Spanish Government,
and thus to expose this country to the insult of a suspen•
sion of diplomatic relations with such a power as Spain,
appeared to us an unwise and useless abuse of power,
and in those opinions we see nothing to retract. To put
in motion the mighty fleet of England against such a po-
tentate as the King of Greece for the sake of enforcing
fictitious and exaggerated claims, trumped up by our du-
bious fellow-subject Don Pacifico, appeared to us unwor-
thy of the man and the occasion ; and here, also, we are
not disposed to recant. Neither do we deny that we have
felt it necessary, from time to time, to make remarks
on the tendency of Lord Palmerston to encourage
what has been well called the jargon of na-
tionalities, and to foster movements which, when
the critical time arrived, he was not prepared
to support by any stronger weapons than the expression of
unavailing sympathy. But what has all this to do with
the conduct of Lord Palmerston in the present war? For
its commencement he is not, so far as the public know, one
whit more answerable than Mr. Gladstone, Sir J. Graham,
Mr. Herbert, or any of those who have lately edified us by
panegyrics on Russia, and under-estimates of our power
and prospects; but, once engaged, how different has been
hie_conduct, and how much reason has this country to
rejoice that in her extreme need she has found a Minister
worthy of the crisis and of her own unshaken and un-
swerving resolution l One by one those who began the
war by their vacillation mismanaged it by their incapa-
city, and deserted it at its most critical moment, shrank
from his side, and left him to struggle with such support
as remained to him against the consequences of errors
which he had not committed, studiously aggravated, and
increased by the speeches of their authors, who, cowed
out of the resolstioo they had previously shown, were the
loudest in denouncing their ownpolicy, and the most strenu-
ous in counteracting their own measures. It is but bare
justice to say that at this period the couutry needed a man,
and that it found in Lord Palmerston the man it needed.
He adhered to the positiou he hail taken up with unshrink-
nig firmness, and devoted himself to the discharge of his
duties and the support of his Ministry with au energy and
industry which at his period of life were truly heroic and
worthy et all praise and honour. By his untiring dili•
gence, by never leaving the house, and being always ready
and on the spot for every emergency, he preserved his
Governmant from those reverses which, under the more
lukewarm and careless leadership of Lord J. Russell, per-
petually befell the far stronger Administration of Lord
Aberdeen, and, as the reward of this great physical and
mental effort, he conchtled the session with a Government
effectually consolidated and restored in character.
These things may he clisegrecable to certain of our con-
temporaries, who habitually prostitute their pens to the
purposes of faction or animosity. They may even come
from us with something of the air of a constrained and
unwelcome admission ; but they are the simple truth, and,
as the truth most worthy to be spoken, both by us and by
all who respect truth for its own sake, we have little reason
to be ashamed of the impulse which prompts us to do fair
and noble justice to an ancient adversary, or wish for that
consistency which would teach us to withhold well-merited
praise because we have at other times felt it our duty to
express equally well-merited censure. We sincerely be-
lieve that it will he found that our success is due very
much to the general conviction that the power which its
circulation places in the hands of individuals is not wil-
fully abused, and that the public receive from us, together
with the best intelligence we can collect, the fairest and
most honest comments which we are able to make. Nothing
else could account for our undoubted influence among per-
sons of every phase and shadow of opinion, and nothing
else could maintain for a single weak the position to which
the favour of the public has raised us. It is our wish, as
it is our duty, to rise above personal and party feeling,
and, so far as the infirmities of human nature permit, to
present to our readers every day a fair and impartial chro-
nicle of the times in which they live. It is not for us to
say how far we attain this object, but we are quite certain
that we should attain it no better by sacrificing our
honest convictions to personal animosities, to party
predilections, to an unmanly dread of the charge of
inconsistency, or a childish desire of the appearance
of infallibility. In a word, we are Journalists, not
Popes. On the long and checkered career of Lord
Palmerston history of a more deliberate and philosophic
character than we pretend to write will pronounce its ver-
dict; but that verdict will not bo as our contemporaries
would have it —roemeasured praise or undiscriminating
blame. Such consistency befits neither the philosophical
historian nor the honest journalist. Censure there will
doubtless be on a policy often vigorous and patriotic, but
also often irritating and dangerous—on a jealousy of France
which endangered the peace of the world in 1840, and a
restless desire to anticipate Russia in the East which in-
volved us in the Affghan insurrection in 1841. But history
will not fail also to record that, while England was plunged
in domestic faction, and parties were exclusively occupied
with religions differences or economical heresies, there was
one meet who faith fully and honestly watched over the des-
tinies of the empire s, who, while others were sunk in sloth
or blinded by mean iness and subserviency, saw through the
masked designs of the Imperial robber, and sought by every
means in his power, in season and out of season, to coun-
teract them, until at last the opportunity came, and while
others fainted and shrank back, he accomplished the object
of his life—the humiliation of Russia, and the deliverance
of Europe from the swoop of that greedy vulture whose
outstretched wings had so long darkened the sky over her
Isead.

MARKET NEWS.-(THIS DAY.)

COrVENT GARDE/T.

There was a good business doing in to•day's market, as
follows

FRUIT.—Pine appl es, English, 3s to Gs per lb; colonial
do., is to 3s each ; het-house grapes, is 6d to 4s Od per lb ;
foreign ditto, Od to Os ; melons, is Od to 2s 6d each;
peaches, is 6d to as ; nectarines, is Gd to 4s per dozen ;
apples, is Od to Bs; Od per half sieve; pears, is Od to
' 3s per half sieve ; Orleans plums and green gages is to 2s
per punnet; apricots, is Gd to 530 d per doz.; common plums,
5s O.i to 'Zs Od per sieve ; cherries, Od to Od per pound;
lemons, 4s to 8g Od par 100 ; oranges, 8s to 11s per 100; fil-
berts, 6s to Os per doz. lbs ; cobnuts, Os to Os ; almonds,
Os to Os per lb. ; vvaLunts, Gd to 10d per 100; figs, is Od
to Os ea per doz. ; strawberries, Od to Od per pottle ; goose-
berries, is Gd to 2s cDcl per half sieve ; currants, 3s Od to
4s Od per half seis e ; raspberries, 2d. to 6d per pottle.
VEGETABLEe.— -White cabbages, 6d to is 3d per dozen;
rod ditto, Os to ss; fid per dozen ; French beans, is 3d
to Os Od per half sie va ; brocoli, Od per bund. ; potatoes, 40s
to 90s per ton ; veg:ebable marrow, 4d to is per dos. ; peas,
3s to 5s Od per bust net ; broad beans, is Od to is 9d per half
sieve ; turnips, 2d to 4d per bunch ; carrots, 4d to 6(1 per
bunch ; cucumbers, Os 3d to Os 6d each ; garlic, 6cl to
Os 8d per pound ; spinach, is Od to 2s Od per sieve;
old onions, Os to Os par bushel ; new ditto, Os oa to 4s per
doz. buaches ; leeks, 2s ad to 4s per doz. bunches ; shallots,
4d to tid ; horse-raddish, 2s Od to 4s Od per bundle ; parsley,
2d to 3d per bunch ; celery, is Od to is 3d per
bunch ; endive, Is 3d to 2s 3cl per score ; beet, is Od to 2s
per doz. ; parsnips, Os 6d to is Od per dozen ; small
salad, 2d to 3LI per punnet ; mushrooms, is 3d to is 9d per
pottlo ; artichckes, 5s to 6s per doz. ; cabbage lettuces,
is to is 6d per, score ; sorrel, Gd to is per half sieve;
radishes, is to Ls 3d per dozen hands ; tomatoes, is to is
Gd per punnet ; chihies, is to is 6d per 100; Brussels
sprouts, is Od to 2s O‘d per half sieve; capsicums, 2s to 4s
per 100; walnutfic pickling, 6d to is per 100; cauliflowers,
4s to Gs per doz.