The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-26 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 26, 1855.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

THE MINISTERIAL ARRANGEMENTS.
(From the Times of this day.)
The process by which Lord Palmerston's Adminis-
tration has assumed it 4 present shape is so extremely,
singular that we hardly know in what language to de-
scribe the means employed or the object attained.
Viewed as a whole, the complicated political transac-
tions which commenced with Lord John Russell's ab-
rupt resignation of office in Lord Aberdeen's Cabinet on
the 23d of January, and end with Lord John Russell's
acceptance of a subordinate position in Lord Palmer-
ston's Cabinet on the 23d of February, are not calcu-
lated to raise the character of public men, or to command
the confidence of the country. In substance, the effect
of these changes has been to reject what former political
combinations had absorbed, and to absorb what they had
rejected—to destroy whatever had been done in the last
two years towards the reconstruction of the Liberal
pasty on a more enlarged basis, and to throw back the
highest offices in the State into the exclusive circle of
Brookes's. Lord John Russell himself, who is the
harlequin of this pantomime, passes with astonishing
alacrity through his postures and transformations—
now up, now down, at one moment everything, at
another nothing—until he ends in the grotesque com-
bination of a Minister Plenipotentiary at a Euro-
pean Congress and the Colonial Secretary at home.
It is evident that to those who regard these
questions with no eyes but those of party
the end of these perturbations has been attained
by the expulsion or withdrawal from the Ca-
binet of those elements which differed in some
degree from the pure traditions and the personal
connexiorls of the Whig families ; but we are not
satisfied that the country and the House of Commons
will be disposed to regard in so favourable a light the
results of a change of Government which has still the
air only of a successful intrigue. On general grounds,
and as far as the practical improvement of the Govern-
ment is concerned, Lord Palmerston has thus far been
fortunate, for circumstances have enabled him to over-
rule the pretensions of a rival, and to relieve the Go-
vernment from men whose reputation had suffered most
severely from the mismangement of the war. Lord John
Russell is harmless, and may even be useful upon his
return to England, in the post of Colonial Secretary ;
and, although no one will dispute the high abilities of
the four ministers who have just retired, the universal
unpopularity and suspicion which attached to their con-
duct and opiniens render their departure a matter of
small regret. Mr. Gladstone and his friends appear not
yet to have learnt the political truth that no party can
exist for any useful purpose in this country, whatever
may be the brilliant talents of its members, unless it
rests upon one of the broad distinctions of opinion
which pervade the nation, and represents some of the
great elements of public opinion.
Under these circumstances, Lord Palmerston has en-
deavoured to extract the materials of a Government
from the remains of the Whig party, with some addi-
tion of men new to the ranks of official life. The first
and most difficult office to fill of those now vacant was

the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, and in default of
Mr. Cardwell, whose exaggerated notions of party
obligation led him to follow his friend Mr. Gladstone, he
bas appointed Sir George Cornewall Lewis. Although
this gentleman has not before filled any of the higher
offices of State, he has passed with credit through seve-
ral of the subordinate departments of Government. He
was a member of the Poor Law Commission ; he has
since filled the joint Secretaryship of the Board of Con-
trol, the Under-Secretaryship of the Home Department,
and the financial Secretaryship of the Treasury. We
learn with great satisfaction that Mr. Laing, the mem-
ber for the Wick boroughs, well known as the Chairman
of the Brighton Railway, will take office, probably as
the Vice-President of the Board of Trade. Mr. Laing
is already conversant with that department of the Go-
vernment, in which he filled a subordinate situation in
early life ; and his experience in mercantile affair,, his
habits of business, and his excellent manner of Parlia-
mentary speaking on the subjects with which he is con-
versant, point him out as a very useful member of the
new Administration.
The same remark cannot be applied to Mr. Vernon
Smith, who is said to be designated for the Presidency
of the Board of Control. When the administration of
the affairs of India was reconsidered on the passing of
the India Bill of last session the salary of the President
of the Board of Control w5.,4 raised to 5,0001., in order
that the Minister for India might be on a level with the
Secretaries of State, and that the country might always
command the services of one of its principal statesmen
in that most important office. We must be allowed to
say that the nomination of Mr. Vernon Smith to this
department world be a breach of faith with Parliament
and with the public. It would have the effect of throw-
ing back the affairs of India into the bands of the Court
of Directors, for want of a Minister of energy and expe-
rience to conduct them, and it would add nothing to the
weight and consideration of the Cabinet in the House of
tioinnions or in the couniay.
vents, so far as we are at present acquainted with them,
some are creditable to the Government. Mr.Horsman pro-
ceeds to Ireland as Secretary, and Lord Carlisle is spoken
of as the new Lord-Lieutenant, in case Lord St. Ger-
mans should follow the fortunes of his Peelite colleagues.
Sir R. Peel accepts the office of Clerk of the Ordnance,
which had been declined last week by Mr. Layard, and
Lord Duncan Lortdhisofratuhke
aTrereastsiullryin;cobinut.
several
otherbecomes a
arrangements of

plete.
Upon the whole, we must wait till we are more accu-
rately acquainted with the cornpositioz and the views of
i
the new Administration—for such t virtually is—before
we determine the degree of confidence it may appear to
us to deserve. If the manage/pent of its affairs in Par-
liament does not show a far higher degree of judgment
and ability than Lord Palmerston has yet displayed in
the office of chief Minister and leader of the House of
Commons, and if the members who may now be intro-
duced into the Government are not better qualified than
they have yet proved to meet an emergency of extraor-
dinary difficulty both at home and abroad, we can
prognosticate no long duration for such a Cabinet.
With war, however, raging abroad, with most impor-
tant negotiations opened, and with some difficulties of
considerable magnitude at home, we hold it to be the
first duty of all who take part in public affairs to give
the best support they can to the Government of their
country. The Government may easily augment this
support a hundredfold, and convert the forbearance of
its critics into the confidence of the nation, by showing
a determination to carry the great measures of reform
which the condition of the army peremptorily requires.

(From the Daily News.)

The Government is said to be at length reconstituted.
Lord John Russell has consented to be named as Secre-
tary to the Colonies ' • Lord Elgin is to be Secretary of
the Board of Control ; Lord Stanley of Alderley is to
be President of the Board of Trade ; Lord Seymour is
to be Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster ; Lord Car-
lisle is appointed Viceroy of Ireland, with Mr. Horsman
for Secretary ; and Lord Duncan is to be a Lord of the
Treasury. This is, indeed, affecting to settle matters in
a most lordly style, and would be ludicrous if it were
not lamentable. We say lamentable, because at a crisis
of the national fate so perilous as the present we think
it deeply to be deplored that any set of men should be
found capable of so wanton and deliberate a defiance of
public opinion.
We have once more a purely Whig Administration.
After three weeks of ineffectual attempts to set the
dislocated joints of Coalition, Lord Palmerston has
abandoned the task as hopeless. Whether some more
skilful band may yet be found to perform anew that de-
licate operation, we need not here determine ; it is
enough for the present to observe, that finding the mem-
bers he most relied on had soddenly become still and Im-
moveable, the Premier has resorted in more than one
case to substitutes made of wood. We draw the widest
distinction, as we have ever done, between Whigs of
the calibre and the character of Lord John Russell, and
those who are capable of serving no\ other purpose than
that of crutches to a lame and halting policy. In com-
bating against the wrong and scandal of exclusiveness
wo have never been ourselves exclusive. So long as an
opulent and noble hereditary class exists in England, we
desire to see its members aspiring to the honours of the
State. We never wish to see statesmen of the great ex-
perience and great ability of Lord John Russell absent
from the councils of the Crown. We viewed with regret
the omission of his name from the first list of administra-
tion formed by Lord Palmerston, and we ventured to
prognosticate—what has since happened more speedily
and more signally than we could have anticipated—that
without his aid no Government would, in the present
state of affairs, be able to conduct the business of the
country. The deplorable spectacle of the last week has
abundantly vindicated our anticipations. The Whigs
have been unable, either with Aberdeenite colleagues
or without them, to guide or govern the House et Com-
mons ; and in their perplexity and panio they have ac-
tually been obliged to arrest on his journey to Vienna, by
their urgent supplications to return, the man whom a
few days since they were chuckling at the notion of
having got rid of for the session. The Minister whom
the Times denounced not a month ago as one whom his
political friends could no longer defend or associate them-
selves with, and as having been geilty of conduct "that
ought to remain a lasting ground of exclusion from the
confidence of the nation and the Crown," is already sent
for in hot haste by the very friends who bad the ineffable
folly and meanness to hear him libelled and abused,
without venturing to utter a syllable of remonstrance or
dissent, No secret was made of their delight at
having got rid of the best and ablest man amongst them ;
and the mission to Vienna was laughed at openly by
every bureaucratic blockhead as a perilous service that
would probably keep Lord John out of the House of
Commons for months to come ; and now they are only
too glad to be assured that he is likely to be back by
Easter, and to be permitted in the meantime to take
shelter under the shadow of his name. Whatever be
the result, we for our parts shall always rejoice at seeing
the conduct of a great department, like that of the Colo•
sn
ui ec sh,
menacep l
dsubceh afocunpadbe ban
almongsdts ; andthevir hiif half-a
gs,we dozen
should
heartily rejoice to see them in equally important posts.
But it is vain to try to conceal the disappointment
aa nn
nd
odiscontent
that
th
the whichGovtherne country
is trywoill receivercee aoairei
lit
ts
eho:
a be monopolised by the members of a few great

their retainers, and nominees. With the exception of
four or five individuals, the Cabinet, as now re-con-
structed, consists entirely of persons wholly destitute
of the mental vigour or personal weight that we have a
right to look for under any circumstances, but more
especially in the present critical state of affairs.
It is said that Sir George C. Lewis, whose recent
speech against the policy of the present war we took
'occasion to comment on, has been offered the Chancellor-
ship of the Exchequer. There is certainly nothing like
an effective contrast ; and in this instance the friends of
Mr. Gladstone will assuredly have no right to complain.
The critics of the outgoing Minister have been accus-
tomed to taunt him with gradually modifying his opi-
nions in a liberal sense. The severest censor will be
unable to find any similar cause of accusation against
the right hon. baronet. Re too, indeed, has gradually
drifted from the professions of his youth ; but it has
been from those of Radicalism towards those of Conserva-
tism. At one time he was all for the Ballot ; at another,
for the overthrow of the Irish Church ; but of late he
has become a proselyte to more aristocratic opinions—he
votes against any change in ecclesiastical monopoly, and
against any curb being put upon the power of landlord
intimidation at elections. Sir George Lewis has for
some time been editor of the Edinburgh Review ; and we
must say, that if his administration of the Exchequer be
not more brilliant than his conduct of that venerable
periodical, his hearers in a committee of Ways and
Means will have dull work of it. Some hesitation, we
understand, has been expressed, however, by the re-
cently elected member for Radnorshire about accepting
the post vacated by Mr. Gladstone. Eighteen millions
of extra expenditure to be made up somehow in the next
budget is certainly no peculiar temptation ' • and though
we fear we shall never agree with the right honourable
baronet as a politician, we own We shall think better of
his common sense If he declines the task for which he is
apparently so unfit.
Some minor shifting& and piomotions will, it is said,
take place. The gravity of Sir James-Graham is to be
replaced at the Admiralty by the levity of Sir Charles
Wood. Mr. Wilson is to be advanced to the Vice-
Presidency of the Board of Trade, and his place at the
Treasury will probably be filled by Mr. Frederick Peel,
provided ne Lord can be got to accept the appointment.
A. second vacancy among the Secretaries of the Treasury
having been created by the retirement of Lord Alfred
Hervey, it is variously conjectured that Lord Edward
Howard, Lord Milton, oe Lord Grosvenor, will be in-
duced to accept that position. Mr. Layard, it has been
said, was not indisposed to become Under Secretary of
War, the inducement probably being that he would
have represented the department in the House of Com-
mons, his chief being in the Peers. But we believe we
are not incorrect in stating that for this very reason the
Cabinet of Lords (as the new Administration is likely to
be called) deemed the suggestion inadmissible when
made by one of their number. They had no objection to
Mr. Layard being consigned to silence and forgetfulness
in the Colonial-office, the head of which was to be in the
House of Commons ; but this generous and flattering
proposal Mr. Layard is said to have refused. Bat after
what has been don. respecting the principal appoint.
ments, it were idle to doubt the spirit in which the sub-
ordinate offices will be filled up.

And now once more the urgent question presses for
solution—How is the Government of the country to be
carried on ? Mutiny bills, and votes on account in com-
mittee of supply, may be passed sub silentio. But the
annual business of legislation is not yet begun ; and
there would seem to be no disposition on any side to be-
gin it. The conviction appears uppermost in every re-
flecting mind that, unless there be some reasonable pro-
spect of our obtaining a Gevernment capable of carrying
measures through Parliament, it were waste of time and
labour to set about the ordinary work of a session in
laborious earnest.

Whether the House of Commons will show any dis-
position to go through the force of make-believe legisla-
tion, by way of keening in countenance the sham of ad-
ministration, a few days will probably show.

to be traced in national disaster, and in the origin of a
war which will make the memory of an Aberdeen
Administration hateful, while England remembers the
calamities it has provoked.
The Peelite party has now 'dwindled to three or four
Sir Janies Graham, Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Sidney Her-
bert are its leaders in the Commons. Their followers
are Mr. Cardwell, Mr. Robert Lowe, aria, perhaps, Mr.
Goulburn. Sir J. Young has fled to the lonian Islands,
and even Mr. Frederick Peel is content to hide himself
in any post to which it may please the humour or suit
the convenience of Lord Palmerston to toss him. This
is the result of want of honesty of purpose or steadiness
of principles. To this are reduced the men, who just
ten years ago were among the leaders of the strongest
Administration that England since the days of Pitt had
seen. Their phalanx has melted away like one of our
regiments before Sebastopol, and when on Friday even-
ing the ghastly remnant of what was once the Peelite
party stalked to their places at the head of the Radicals,
where, Radical journals tell us, they were significantly
welcomed by Mr. Bright ! ! they must themselves have
felt, that, bitter as was the lesson, it bad its use if they
taught others by their example, that men will be used
because they are clever, but will be respected only when
they are true to some principle and steady to some
faith.

So endeth the history of the followers of Sir Robert
Peel. -

LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S MISSION TO
VIENNA.
(From the Morning Chronicle of this day.)

The diplomatic mission entrusted to the able hands
of Lord John Russell will speedily enter into its second
stage. The repeated interviews which the noble lord
has bad both with his Imperial Majesty and Monsieur
Drouyn de Lhuys have, doubtless, conducted to a per-
fect understanding of the terms on which the Govern-
mints of Great Britain and France are content to treat
for peace. At the same time, the British Envoy will
have decided with the French Minister of Foreign Af-
fairs on the means best adapted to arrive at a perfect un-
derstanding with Prussia. At Berlin, Lord John Rus-
sell will, doubtless, encounter a cordial personal reception
on the part of the Crown and the Government ; but that
any satisfactory result will attend his conferences with
the Prussian Monarch, or with M. de Manteuffel, we
aro less sanguine. We are forbidden by the vacillating
policy of the Cabinet of Berlin from indulging in any
hopes of the sincere co-operation of Prussia with the
Western Powers. The utmost that we are led to expect
from the attitude of Prussian diplomatists perchance,
a separate treaty, which the Cabinet of Berlin will con-
tract with the Western Powers, wherein the strict neu-
trality of Prussia will be defined, and the present favour-
able issue of merchandise restricted. Should Lord John
Russell succeed in impressing on the Prussian Govern-
ment a due sense of its duties as one of the first Powers
of Europe, he will have accomplished a task which sill
alike prove of incalculable importance to the Allies and
will have consolidated his reputation as a statesman.

Within a fortnight the Congress of Vienna will have
probably commenced its deliberations, and then will be
decided the portentous questions of peace or war—of a
satisfactory solution of the Eastern question, or a Con-
tinental coalition against the aggressive pvlicy of the
Czar. We have never anticipated any other result of
the Vienna Conferences than diplomatic failure, which
will, however, be followed, we believe, by the firm
attitude of the more important members of the Ger-
manic Confederation, and a warlike decision on the part
of Austria.

On the success of Lord John Russell's negotiations
with the Cabinet of Berlin will depend the appearance
or non-representation of Prussia in the approaching con-
ferences. And also on that Cabinet will lay the respon-
sibility of a general war, or the merit of having contri-
buted to a lasting peace. By maintaining a firm attitude
Prussia will necessarily impress upon the Emperor the
dangers which a continuation of hostilities would me-
nace him with ; whilst on the contrary, by persevering
in its present feeble and discreditable policy, the Cabinet
of Berlin would strengthen the obstinacy and presump-
tion of the Czar. Time will prove the amount of sin-
cerity with which the Emperor was inspired when he em-
powered Prince Gortschakoff to open the conferences of
peace ; and we shall speedily be enabled to observe, by
the attitude assumed by the latter diplomatist and his
wily coadjutor, M. de Titoff, of the precise intentions of
the Czar. Then, also, shall we be relieved from the
weight of hesitation and doubt which at this moment
depresses the energies of Europe. The position will be
then clearly defined, and in case of the approaching
Conferences concluding in failure, nothing will remain
to the Western Powers but to prosecute the war with
vigour, and by every means that their power and influ-
ence may admit.
The manifesto recently issued. by the Emperor of Rus-
sia to his people has not tended to modify our recorded
opinion •with respect to his sincerity on the point of
peace. At the same time, the measure it announces—to
wit, the mobilisation of the militia of the empire—must

be considered not only as an unmeaning threat—a pure
nravauo—nut also err...
the step in question has been considered as a warlike
demonstration in face of the decision of the Diet ; and
in Austria it has been accepted as an act approaching to
hostility. In a militant point of view, the measure of
calling into service the Russian militia cannot be consi-
dered in the fearful light which evidently it had been in-
tended to produce. Not only is the major part of the
Russian population capaMe of bearing arms already im-
pressed into the Imperial armies ; but the said militia,
composed as it would be, of a disorganised mob, would
most likely prove to be an incumbrance rather than a
valuable auxiliary. If we are not informed how these
unfortunate peasants and citizens are to be disciplined
or rendered effective in the field, yet, we learn, from a
Russian source, the manner in which they will be armed
and dressed. Tkeir uniform will be that of their fathers
in 1812—a grey litefka, or frock cent, a cap of the same
stuff and colour, with a cross in front, bearing the in-
scription, " For faith and fatherland." High Russian
boots will complete their costume. Instead of bearing
pikes, like their fathers in the memorable campaign of
Napoleon, they will be armed with muskets, and will be
exercised therewith.

This Russian militia does not then, we confess, inspire
us with any great degree of dread. To organise any
body of magnitude will require not only time but money,
and fathers of families are not likely to be seized with
that martial ardour which the inscriptions on their caps
would lead a superficial observer to fear. The military
annals of this militia do not in the least tend to increase
our terrors, for in the campaigns of 1812 its especial
functions were either to conduct prisoners into the
interior of the country, or to hang upon the retreat-
ing force, and to fall with superior numbers upon
desultory bodies of the enemy. In the present con-
flict such auxiliaries would be less than useless.
The demand for provisions, and not the desire of
peace, has resulted in the recall from the Austrian
frontier of the troops concentrated over the king-
dom of Poland ; and in such a position, when the ser-
vices of the Imperial Guard are thus neutralised, the
inefficiency of the disorganised militia will be still more
evident.

It has never been our aim to depreciate the military
strength of the Russian empire. We willingly admit
that in warlike times a despotic State can claim advan-
tages over those commanded by a constitutional Go-
vernment ; but at the same time the individual courage,
the military instinct possessed by the soldiers of Eng-
land and France, have proved themselves so superior
over the tried legions of the Czar, that we are tempted
to confide in them without fear of the result.

The latest intelligence communicates to us a repulse
of an attack directed by the enemy against the Turkish
army concentrated at Eupatoria. Although we do not
believe the attack in question to have merited the im-
portance with which popular desire has invested it, yet
we are rejoiced to find that our Ottoman Ally has been
enabled to driva hack a first assault. The declaration

of war pronounced by the Czar against Sardinia, owing
to the peculiar position of the two countries, is deprived
of any peculiar importance, and is merely the natural
result of the alliance contracted by the Cabinet of Turin
with the 'Western Powers. That the diplomatic mission
of Lord John Russell may be crowned with results
equally favourable to Great Britain as that of the co-
operation of Sardinia, is our sincere wish ; and by con-
quering the hostile tendency of Prussia, and consolidat-
in the active alliance of Austria, the ex-President of
the Council will have rendered greater service to the
country and to Europe, than has been fated to be ac-
complished by many diplomatist■ of well-tried value and
experience.