The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-10 00:00:00

" I think that if I had left office under the circum-
stances I have mentioned, I should not have been
acting in consistency with what I have repeatedly
declared as a rule to guide my conduct—l mean
that in the end, and as a last resort, the question
whether the propositions should be received or
not, was for the two Governments to determine,
and not for a Plenipotentiary ;" but surely Lord
John had laid down his functions as Ambassador
on his return, and had resumed his seat in the
Cabinet as a Secretary of State. The Conference
at which Count Buol made his last proposal was
held on the 4th of June, Lord John Russell had
returned in May. It was the substance of that
proposal to which he had assented, and which he
exerted himself on his return to press upon the
Government. What may have passed at those
Cabikiet meetings at which the Austrian proposals
were debated and finally rejected we shall never
know ; this much is certain,—the French Emperor
bad resolved upon their prompt rejection ; the
Cabinet knew his determination, and we can un-
derstand the effect of that knowledge on their
divided councils.
The unexpected disclosure for which we are in-
debted to Lord John Russell has come upon the
country in an hour, as it seems to us, of extreme
peril. Like the flash of lightning that reveals to
the traveller the precipice towards which he was
advancing in the thick darkness, the announce-
ment and confession of Friday night open up, as if
by accident, to the perception of the nation the
real danger of its position. For ourselves, we i:ave
watched the Cabinet of Lord Palmerston with even
more suspicion than that of Lord Aberdeen, inas-
much as it was guided by a more dexterous, and,
therefore, a more dangerous chief. We have not
watched, nor, we trust, warned in vain. The po•
sition of the British army in the Crimea, for want
of men and the means of transport, is, perhaps, the
best comment upon the truth of our reiterated re-
marks. The country understands why it is that it
has never yet been asked by the Government to put
forth its strength—and that is, because neither this
Government nor its miserable predecessor ever de-
sired to prosecute the war in earnest—because
their councils were ever divided, and never vigor-
ous. Here is the prolific source of all our disasters
and of all our shame—confessed, pointed out by
one of the party themselves, who has, for the
second time within the last eight months, turned
approver, and each time with increasing loss of re-
putation. Lord John Russell, as a last resource,
appears to have accepted the leadership of the
peace party—he will, perhaps, break up the Go-
vernment of which he is a member, but he mistakes
the people of England if he imagines they will
tolerate a Peace Administration. We accept Lord
Palmerston's estimate of the language and prin-
ciples of the opposition on the great question of
the age—they have had too sorrowful an experi-
ence of a vacillating and hesitating policy not to
cling to the belief that, if we are to come out of
this death grapple in which we are engaged with
life, it must be by a display of indomitable energy
and unconquerable vigour.