The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-03 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 3, 1855.

PREFERENCE SHARES.

..,..t4'.'litr_it V.Zblttom

THE MINISTERIAL CRISIS.

(From. the Press of this day.)

Wo have reason to believe that the Earl of Derby did
not decline to form an Administration when graciously
consulted on that subject by her Majesty. On the con-
trary, we are assured that his lordship pledged himself
that under no circumstances should her Majesty be left
without a Ministry, and that he and his friends were
perfectly prepared to form one if all efforts failed to con-
struct a strong Government, which the interests of the
country required. With this view we hear that the Earl
of Derby advised her Majesty to have recourse to several
combinations before the Queen should appeal to a party
which, though singly the most numerous in the House of
Commons, cannot command an absolute majority in
that House, and had already been defeated by the com-
bined sections.

The application by the Earl of Derby to Lord Pal-
merzton to join the intended Administration and take
the lead of the House of Commons, was one of these
combinatiew, and was an arrange:writ, we have reason
Lo believe, pressed upon the noble earl by Mr. Disraeli,
with whose praensions to that post it might seem to
conflict,

There was only one feeling in the Conservative party,
namely, to merge all individual claims fur the sake of
giving the country the advantage at this critical period
of a strong Government. There were no sacrifices
which the Conservative leaders were not prepared to
make, so long as the arrangements they led to were
consistent with personal honour and the essential pri;;-
ciples of the Conservative party.
We have understood that the application of Lord
Derby was mot fa,vonrahly received by Lord Palmers-
ton, the noble lord expressing his readiness to serve
under Lord Derby, and his sense of duty, which ought
to influence public men at this moment in rallying round
their Sovereign. His lordship, we are assured, stated,
as was anticipated, his difficulty in joining the Adminis-
tration alone, and the names of two of his friends, Mr.
Gladstone and Mr. Herbert, were mentioned as those of
persons he wished to accompany him. No obstacles
were urged to such an alliance, both these right honour.
able gentlemen having been originally, and for a long
period, members of the Conservative party. The inter-
view with Lord Palmerston was so satisfactory, and
promised to be so conclusive, that the Earl of Derby,
it appears felt himself justified in returning im-
mediately ,to the palace and informing her Majesty of
the prospect of a result anxiously desired at this critical
moment by her Majesty, viz., the formation of a strong
Conservative Government. About midnight, after a
suspicious delay of ten hours, a communication from
Lord Palmerston was received by the Earl of Derby,
closing in a very unsatisfactory manner the negotiations,
and forwarding communications from Mr. Herbert and
Mr. Gladstone in the same spirit.
Lord Lansdowne was yesterday morning summoned to
the Queen at Windsor Castle, aid had an interview with
her Majesty. The Queen and Prince Albert afterwards
came to town in a special train, together with the Noble
Marquis, who subsequently, it is stated, had interviews
with Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell.

Eight •'clock p.m.—lt is reported that Lord John
Russell has been "sent for," and is engaged in forming
a Government.

Assuming the truth of this rumour, it would seem that
a reconstruction of the Coalition is despaired of. Had
such been the intention, either Lord Palmerston or Cla-
rendon would have been called in. It is probable that
Lord John will attempt a union with those friends from
whom he separated himself in joining Lord Aberdeen.
Neither Lord Palmerston nor Mr. Gladstone are likely
in that case to take any office in a Cabinet which would
be composed of purely Whig elements.

We do not regret the failure of Lord Derby's attempt
to construct a Government by union with Lord Pal-
merston. That attempt was dictated by a sense of
public duty, and was made in compliance with the wish
of a considerable number of Conservative members of
the Legislature. Through the refusal of Lord
Palmerston the formation of that great neces-
sity of the time, a strong Government, is, we fear,
wholly impracticable. We do not understand the mor-
tification which this abortive result must occasion to
the party which acknowledge Lord Derby as their
leader. But it is only right that the extent of his failure
should be defined. He has failed to effect a junction
with Lord Palmerston—nothing more ; and a failure on
this ground is infinitely more consolatory to us than if
it had arisen from dissensions or jealousies among his
own party, or from the inordinate pretensions of any
members of it. While that party remains united and
true to itself, we shall never despair of the security of
our constitutional system, or of its inherent power to
eventually overcome all obstacles which may exist to
the formation of a firm and truly national Govern-
ment. But should that party, from any circumstances
whatever—from the weakness or selfishness of indi-
viduals, or from any such dereliction of principle as re-
cent times have presented us with too many examples
of—bet broken up, we shall regard the future course of
events with the gravest apprehension. Tho Conserva-
tive party of late years, though it has had little part in
directing the actual administration of affairs, has had
great influence en preventing crude changes, and in
checking that systematic corruption of which so many
diegracefel examples have lately been made public.
Were this party to be dissolved, its salutary con-
trolling power would be lost, and with the
utter wreck of all political principle, and the
' disruption of all party ties, Parliamentary con-
tests would sink into vulgar strife for place, and the
Legislature would lose the respect of the people and the
moral authority which now attaches to its decisions.
When Lord Aberdeen placed the resignation of him-
self and colleagues in the hands of the Queen, her Ma-
jesty had simply tocon-ider whether she should call to
her councils a represent dive of the majority of 305,
which overthrew the, late Minister, or a representative
of the minority of 14S, which supported it. As a con-
stitutional Sovereign, the course to be pursued :vs..; too
plain to be mistaken, aurl, misatisfact o-y as the result has
proved, sse heartily rejoice that this course was taken by
the Queen, as it tivill srrve to dispel a conception which
has lately gone abroad, that there was an influence at
Court adverse to the formation of a truly independent
Ministry. In sending for Lord Derby, the Queen
walked in the straight, broad path of the Constitution,
and fulfilled, we will venture to say, the hopes and ex-
pectations of a great majority of her people.
In the Peers, Lord Derby could have had no expecta-
tion that he would meet with serious, or at all events
with inconvenient, hostility. His decision must
have been regulated by the fact that his party was
in a minority in the Commons, and that it was liable to
be outvoted unless ho could increase its strength by the
adhesion of some statesman with a considerable personal
following. For our own part, we should have viewed
the presence of Lord Palmerston and his friends in a
Derby Cabinet with great distrust. We are not insen-
sible to the weight of experience which must attach to
an Administrative Parliamentary career of forty
years, in the course of which his lordship has filled
many offices, and joined Ministers of every shade
of political opinion ; but we should have thought it
very questionable whether his lordship's peculiar
talents and experience, even when added to
the votes of his friends, would have made amends for
the uneasiness with which this fusion must have been
regarded, and the division which it might have intro-
duced into the Cabinet. Lord Palmereton'is proceedings
in connection with the late Government have not tended
to raise his character. No intelligible explanation has
ever been given of his sudden retirement from the Aber-
deen Cabinet a year ago, and his equally sudden return
to it. We have witnessed him for some months past a
constant defender of all the acts of that Ministry. He
was satisfied with its construction and measures up to
the period of its dissolution. In a word, we think that
Lord Derby's Government would have been essentially
stronger without Lord Palmerston and his friends than
with them ; for the real strength of a Government
at the present crisis would depend much more on
the unity of its councils and the complete confi-
dence felt by its members in each other than on
individual reputations, or on calculations of the few votes
they can command.
Undoubtedly the Derby party is in a considerable
minority in the House of Commons ; and while a chance
remains that a Government can be constricted likely to
command the support of the majority, opposite as the
elements of which it is composed may be, and widely
as its objects aid opinions may differ, his lordship acts
wisely in declining to assume the powers of Governreest.
A minority can only conduct the business of the country
by the forbeara.nce of its opponents, or of that class known
as independent members ; and the result of the ex-
periment of 1552 shows how little that forbear-
' ance can be relied on, with the House ef Com-
mans constituted as it is at present. Should it
be found that no other Administration is possi-
ble, the Legislature would be bound to refrain
from any active opposition to it, and it would be in
position to carry whatever measures it deemed essential
for rescuing the country from its difficulties, ancic
it
isarriyng
it triumphantly through the contest in which
engaged.
In the temporary failure of Lord Derby to effect !etch
an arrangement as would insure the ministry he might
form a majority in the Commons, we see no ground for
discouragement. The Conservative party remains
nnitei, and in this union consists its virtue and its
strength. If it suffers itself on any pretence to be
divided, its power is gone, and the only solid security
left us for the honest, legitimate, and effective working of
our constitutional system will be lost. The party must
by this time perceive its deficiencies. It has not ap-
pealed to the country with sufficient boldness, nor
been nearly so active as it ought to have been in
organising its forces and hi testing the opinion of con-
stituencies. It is lot true that " the battle of the
constitution is to be fought in the registration
courts," though the registration demands much more
attention than the party has given to it ; but it is true
that the battle is to be fought on the hustings. The con-
test in the Legislature conies too late ; votes, not rea-
sons, then bear sway. With forty or fifty more sup-
porters in the Commune, Lord Derby's task would have
been an easy one, and if his party really hopes to bear an
active part in the Government of the nat'on, it must
shake off its lethargy, ask itself how it is that for so
many years past it has been playing a loiing game, and
resolve to devote itself heartily to the work of increasing
by every constitutional means, its influence in the coun-
try, and its strength in the Legislature. Public spirit is
the first, the second, the third requisite necessary to
convert what, at worst, is just now but a check into a
certain victory. The present policy of the party is,
strict reserve OR the political combinations which may
be attempted, and the disinterested support of measures
by whatever men proposed, which aro necessary to
rescue the army from the miserable state in which it
is
Plunged, and restore the country to the high position:
t
ought to hold as a great European Power, and, iiplte
of ell that may said to the contrary,
„ great military*
nation,"