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

SPIRIT OF Tali PUBLIC ,TOU.RNALS.

THE MINISTERIAL CRISIS.
(From, the Times of this day.)
The interest of the Ministerial and personal explanations
delivered last night in the House of Lords was so surpassingly
great that it threw into the shade even the momentous politi-
cal events of the hoar ; the fall of one Cabinet and the failure
of another agitated the Parliament of England less vehe-
mently than the manly defence of the Duke of Newcastle,
and the overwhelming refutation which he hurled at the head
of his late colleague and accuser. Nor is the interest in such
matters unreasonable or misplaced; we may have difficulties
to surmount, we may have omissions and miscarriages to re-
pair, but no crisis iu public affairs can be so formidable as to
induce the British Parliament to suspend an inquiry which
affects the honour of its debates, or to delay an act of justice
to one of its members. The Duke of Newcastle's explanation
was, according to all ordinary rules, irregular ; it intervened
between the two statements of Lord Aberdeen and Lord
Derby • it was a direct reply to a speech delivered in the
other house of Parliament, and it disclosed to an unusual ex-
tent the confidential transactions and correspondence of the
late Cabinet. Her Majesty had, however, been pleased to
release the Duke of Newcastle from the obligation of secrecy,
for the express purpose of making this vindication of his own
character, and, under the circumstances of the case, such an
explanation was indispensable.
If it be put to any impartial man to say, after having read
the particulars of this transaction, whether lie had rather stand
before the people of England and the judgment of history
as the Duke of Newcastle or as Lord John Russell,
not one man in a hundred would hesitate to choose the fate
of a Minister who has fallen at his post, surrounded by his
colleagues, rather than that of a politician who has terminated
his official career by flight, and sheltered that flight under a
misrepresentation. The one may have been unfortunate in
the selection of his instruments, but the other has been in-
sincere in his dealings with his friends. The Duke may have
carried his candour and disintereetedness to a fault, but that
is a fault of which Lord John Russell can never be accused.
The Duke of Newcastle has been ensuccessful in the task of
restoring order and efficiency to military and administrative
departments so rotten and faulty as ours have turned out to
be ; but no one has impugned his zealous industry in the
public, service, his generosity, or his honour. When wo took
the liberty in the autumn to advert to the prolonged absence
from town of the Court and the majority of the Ministers, it
was because we knew that the Duke of Newcastle and Lord
Clarendon were loft almost alone to bear the whole burden of
war, though it now turns out that Lord John Russell was
still evincing his profound solicitude for the success of the
army by despatching from Minto or from Scarborough a few
impracticable suggestions or querulous complaints. Lord
Derby indulged last night in one of his accustomed sallies ,
on the domestic felicity enjoyed by. such a Cabinet, and on
the effect of such disclosures as these ; but, in truth, if the
history of Lord Aberdeen's Administration be ever faithfully
recorded, it will be found that the disunion of the Cabinet
was duo to one cause only—the petty but incessant attempts
of Lord J. Russell to supplant the chief minister and to ob-
tain a position over his colleagues. Mr. Roebuck's motion
appeared to him a favourable opportunity to strike the blow
which was to restore him to the Premiership ; but the blow
was a foul ono, and, though it shattered the Cabinet, it has
inflicted a far deeper wound on Lord John Russell's fame.
The existence of the late Administration was in his eyes no
more than a period of transition, which was to restore him to
the position he had already forfeitsd, and to that object he
has sacrificed without hesitation his fidelity to his colleagues
and his duty to the country.
The facts distinctly proved last night by the Duke of New-
castle from authentic correspondemo or competent witnesses
contradict in many important particulars the statement of
himself entirely
to demonstrate
int the
th
Lord J. Russell, and it seems incredible that such a statement
should have been made in the presence of at least half-a-
dozen persons able, on the ficerdst occasion,hi
its inaccuracy. It appears, in e first place, that
_upon
the separation of the War aid Colonial Departments
the Duke of Newcastle placed
hands of his colleagues, declaring his readiness to retain
either or neither office, and that it was by their unanimous
decision, not by his choice, that ho took the seals of the new
Department for War. It is shown that down to the Bth Oct.,
and consequently during the while of Lord John Russell's
autumnal recreations, he continued to write to the Duke—
" You have done all that could bo done, and I am sanguine of
success." On the 17th November. whoa Lord J. Russell first
urged a further change in the War Departments, the Duke
and Mr. Sidney Herbert placed tleir offices entirely at Lord
Aberdeen's disposal, and urged him to do what ho thought
best for the public service. On tie 16th of December Lord
J. Russell informed the Primo Minister that he had changed
his views and abandoned his former plan. At the Cabinet
held on Saturday, the 20th of January, three days before Par-
liament reassembled, Lord J. Russell himself brought forward
another plan for the re-organisation of the military depart-
ments, more nearly resembling the scheme of Lord Grey.
This plan was agreed to by the Duke of Newcastle and adopted
by the other members of the Government, with the exception
of ono or two insignificant details, on which Lord John had
made a blunder. Yet, to the astonishment of his colleagues,
Lord John has since asserted that ho had no reason to suppose
t o
John'sremedy
own
plan the
that the reforms which had been under consideration would
prevail, and that he was unable to assure the House of Com-
Newcastle had already announced to Lord Aberdeen his ab-
gen
solute determination to resigt office altogether, on account
hst a:(tinesa totfthhtaialt veryaairnayn emtmhe fotaes entwbe agreedellengb e tti noh g,a t nin
oda rddteh at the Duke of
of the unpopularity attached to his administration of the War
Department. Under these circumstances, the sudden an-
nouncement of Lord John's flight from the Treasury bench
excited the unfeigned amazement of all who knew the facts
of the ease, and wo must add that these facts are wholly
irreconcileable with the motives he thought proper to assign
for his resignation. The truth is, that of all the proposals
connected with the war Lord John Russell has made to his
colleagues none have been rejected, and of the objections he
has started none have been overruled. The causes whichled
him to destroy the Government at this difficult and perilous
crisis In the affairs of Europe must therefore be sought alto-
gether in his own personal ambition. Cballing the assembled
Peers of England to witness, and in the presence of all the
late Ministers of the Crown, who have personal knowledge of
all the., IsTAo,o,,itle proved to -de-
monstration that most of the allegations made in the House
of Commons by Lord John Russell on this subject are at
thetvariane...ewi,tiothn6eg n
does. not
.rdtimilnwhere;
hat the -oblo
hquo t
y aaitt.
ii
sinfted
from
hw trto
cast it. •
It has been our painful duty, in" commenting on the ac-
counts received from the army, to animadvert as forcibly as
we could on the numerous instances of mismanagement,
which have exposed our troops to dreadful hardships and
losses, lowered our military reputation abroad, and compro-
mised the sue ens of the Crimean expedition. But we have
never said one word which could be construed into a personal
imputation on the Duke of Newcastle more than on the other
members of the Government and the chiefs of the army. On
the contrary, we knew with what indefatigable energy ho has
worked while other members of the Government were not
even within reach of London ; and we could not but draw,
and have ever drawn, a favourable contrast between his
laborious zeal in the public service and their supercilious in-
difference

Great mlstakos have been committed in the choice of tho
men selected to carry on this war, both at home and abroad ;
and the Government has been justly blamed for not reorgan-
ising the administration of the army, embodying the militia,
forming a reserve, and proceeding to place our military esta-
blishments at once upon a full war footing. But on all these
points Lord John Russell must be content to share the cen-
sure which his colleagues have incurred, and it is because
these evils and omissions were not more promptly remedied
that the task became impracticable. The Duke of Newcastle
has
which broke down ; and no Minister will succeed in guiding
failed,coun butthis
tlyto terminationtithewgasloritho.uessys"laBmuch as the Minister
of a successful war
until the military establishments have been thoroughly re-
formed. We think, thereforo, that the Duke of Newcastle
overstates the accusations which are or can be preferred
against himself ; and we are confident that no man will read
his manly and becoming defence without sympathy and re-
spect.

(From the Daily Nev,, of this day.)
The instinctive love and veneration with which Englishmen
cling to their Sovereign was much weakened during the reigns
, by the knowledge that the
these monarchs influenced
them
ortmshnentaTolahlimirkidantegansdi
anFntodhuorditrhi
soiGhdtoei
ionorgogs of
Georges
Ministers. The Monarch of
them het lowers himself to the rankto
be above personal pre-
pa
of
srseees
ssitnant
se
Bi like
indulging England, u
o
of a subject. Ho ceases to be Icing of a people, and becomes
merely the leader of a party. For the Sovereign
to indulge
i: ou sttib
to
endeavour
e peMinisters,s
no to
animosities le sp
r t d
eo
e ne
t-
al
of certain parts' leaders, and
personal piques, in a matter of such vital importance to the
legitimate Sta State as thaeustehloer selection ofF rasubject
hisre
grade the Crown in the eyes of the people, and weaken its
the Sovereign as sympathising
withsmin
mingling in their cabals, is little
short of treason; inasmuch as it mayplace the
possiblyl
Crown in antaganistic relations to the
Our readers will perceive at oncloilea.t these remarks
have been suggested by the indecent and unmanly attempt
made yesterday by the Times to represent the Queen as
mixed up with, and taking an active part in, the personal
squabbles and recriminations arising out of the present
Ministerial crisis.' " Tho Queen herself," says the Times, "is
known to have expressed to Lord John Russell her sense of
conduct so much at variance with the common principles of
concur
in
notulbdta thenpi
opinion,
truth and honesty." We believe this statement to be un-
true. The unscrupulous character of the Times is so univer-
sallygreat majority of the
people
They will not
believe that their Queen can have so far forgotten what she
owes to herself and her country, as to stoop to write a scold-
ing
letter to an ex-Minister, oa the strength of ex parte
known,
of En England we h
have n o
willstatements made by the colleagues with whom ho had quar-
relled, without stopping to hear his version of the story.
The audacity of the falsehood is almost
beyond conception.
Tho people will judge of the concha of Lord John Rueselland
his late colleagues for themselves, upon the evidence laid
before them; they cannot help doing so if they would. It is
possible—it is almost certain—thst they will decide in favour
of Lord John. The hot haste of the
aintall to throw the
Queen's name into the scale against him shows how much it
fears that the popular verdict gill be in his favour. This
being the case, it is clear that, in order to subserve their own
party purposes, the managers and inspirers of the Times have
not scrupled to, expose their Sovereign to the risk of incur-
ring popular odium, without any fault on her part. Such
conduct is traitorous towards a cueen—is base and dastardly
in men towards a woman.
There is, however, this advantage to be gained from the
indecent and unmanly outrage offered to the Queen in the
Times. It shows to what lengths the aristocratic factions
who strive to monopolise the high offices of state—to oonvert
the houses of Parliament into political 1,
" where the
tables at which tho clerks sit are rouse et noir tables, and
Ministerial appointments the stakes—and their tools in the
press will go in order to traduce and vilify a political rival.
If they display their malignity and mendacity thus shame-
lessly in public, to what extent will they not indulge them in
the obscure shades of clandestine intrigue ? If the public
could for a moment believe that the Queen had written such
a letter as the Times describes, they would say, it is because
his late colleagues have been so eager to pro-occupy the Royal
mind with impressions unfavourable to Lord John Russell, in
order to prevent his having an unprejudiced hearing from his
Royal Mistress. This would corroborate the suspicious which
have gone abroad that the Conservative section of the late
Coalition have kept themselves aloof from their Liberal col-
leagues as an organised faction in the Cabinet, and have
laboured assiduously and unscrupulously to enlist the Court
on their side by every art of sycophancy and misrepresenta-
tion. It would serve as an additional motive to the indepen-
dent and intelligent classes to make their voice heard through
that hedge which usurping and selfish aristocratic factions
have interposed between the Crown and tho peoplo.
Ono thing is certain ; and it is here stated not for the in-
formation of the Soverign, who, there can-be no doubt, has
been grossly belied by the Tines, but for the information of
all paltry, courtly intriguers, who imagine that the people
will servilely model their opinions of any statesman upon
those attributed to the Throne. The people now judge of
1n1,1,‘; -wen I.y thir actions, and not ''ubtuit" to have cut-
and-dry judgments proscribed to them by authority. If the
people have reason to believe of any statesman that he is wise,
h9uoeti And patrietics they will roller upVA their TOStriQll.

tativee supporting him and his policy, er,n though the
greatest person in the realm should unfortunately be prepos-
sessed against him. George 111. was long allowed to exclude
Fox from power because he hated him; George IV. was long
allowed to deny Canning his deserved positioi , because he
hated him; but, oven in times when the power of the people
was less, these eminently obstinate monarchs wre at last com-
pelled to receive as ministers the men they disliked, Now that
the people knew their rights better, and are in a bitter condition
to assert them, the exclusion of a sagacious and; atriotic states.
man from office, in deference to the personal feelings of the
monarch, would not bo tolerated for an instant This is tfitid
not in behalf of Lord John Russell, or any alter individual,
but as a truth of universal application, which Court butter-
flies, and intriguers hackneyed in the ways of office, will do
well to lay to heart.

(From the Morning Herald of this day.)
Once more an obstacle is interposed to prevent the people
of England from obtaining what they have shown their full
determination to obtain—namely, a strong and united Ad-
ministration—united in its determination to carry on the
war against the domination of Russia, and strong in the all
but unanimous support of the British people.
This obstacle has been interposed at a moment critical be-
yond all former precedent—critical to the safety of the state
—critical to the honour of the nation, and, above all, critical
to the salvation of our army now perishing upon the frozen
heights of Sebastopol. This obstacle it is necessary that the
nation should be aware has been interposed, if not by, at
least for the benefit of, a portion of that degraded faction
which the unparalleled and overwhelming majority of one
hundred and fifty seven has already driven with obloquy from
the councils of the Queen.

It was bad enough that Lord Derby felt himself coerced
by the emergency of the crisis to seek the aid of ono who
has for two long years been the coadjutor, if not the
councillor, of the men whose terrible crimes have occa-
sioned the present condition of the empire. We can well
conceive, however, that Lord Derby made vast allowances
for the position in which the individual to whom we allude
was placed, seeing the vital emergency which required the
speedy—nay, the instant--formation of a Ministry able and
willing to save the remnant of our troops, to restore the
honour of England in the eyes of the world, and to rescue the
Sovereign from the fearful situation of appearingto her people
as attempting to rescue a Ministry upon which the country
has now placed its brand and its seal of reprobation.

Such wo conceive to have been the motives which induced
Lord Derby to require the assistance of a man to whom many
of his followers felt strong repugnance and valid objections ;
but what are we to think of the conduct of the individual to
whom such an opportunity had been afforded of exhibiting
the highest patriotism, if he dared to turn it to the purpose
of giving obstruction to the endeavours which an invincible
sense of duty alone could have induced Lord Derby to make,
by dragging again into the councils of our Queen persons
who within a ♦ery few days have been specially ejected
from them by the overpowering force of public opinion I
Nay, if we have heard aright, this individual absolutely
wished to condition for placing at the head of the War ad-
ministration a nobleman more obnoxious as an administrator
to both soldiers and officers than any other person who holds
a seat in the Legislature.

The facts to which we have referred are so currently and
confidently asserted that we feel ourselves bound to comment
upon them, although we still hope that no Englishman could
so far forget his duty to his country, his Sovereign, and the
army, for such a purpose to interrupt arrangements absolutely
necessary to the welfare of all three.
There is no use in concealing names. The nobleman, whom
rumour asserts to have acted as we described, is Lord Pal-
merston. The individuals belonging to the Peelite section
whom be is said to have wished to attach to himself for the
purpose of—disguise it as he might, such was the fact—
weakening Lord Derby's Administration were Mr. Gladstone
and Mr. Sidney Herbert ; whilst another, whom we cannot
suppose our readers have not already recognised from our de-
scription, is the conciliating, the practicable, and success-
ful administrator, Earl Grey, who, in the Home-office as a
subordinate, in the War and the Colonial Departments where
he was dominant, accumulated an unparalleled amount of
mismangement and actual disaster upon every transaction
in which it was his fortuno to be engaged.
Wo will not affront the Earl of Derby by the supposition
that ho for ono moment could have hesitated about the ac-
ceptance of such propositions, involving, as they did, insult
to the memory of our sacrificed soldiers —insult to the people
who had declared their abhorrence of those who had offered
up the holocaust—and insult to the Sovereign whose earnest
wish to acquire the aid of a firm and popular Administration
has been threatened for the moment by a heartless and pro-
fligate intrigue.
_ . _

We conclUde by asserting, that without the aid of any one
, of the individuals we have alluded to, Lord Derby has the
most ample means within his grasp of forming an Adminis-
tration powerful, able, united, and capable of commanding
thoroughly the aid of a sufficient number of members to
set faction at defiance, even in the present House of Com-
mons, relying, as he may do, upon the undoubted fact,
that, if driven to a dissolution, he will receive the hearty sup-
port of the nation in carrying on the people's war.
On this great truth, however, the person whose duty it
may be finally to form an Administration may rely—the taint
of Peelism in his Cabinet will be fatal to it. With regard to
Lord Palmerston, we warn him, that while tho original con-
struction -of the Coalition was disgraceful to the individuals
who formed, and degrading to the -nation that brooked
it, even for a time, the attempt to re-construct it by dove-
tailing and patching together the rottenest portion of the
now happily shattered mosaic, will bring down upon his head
the wrath of an aroused people. And to Lord Derby we may
say, that admitting for ono moment the absurd supposition
that he could clasp the hands rod with the blood of our
army, and take the Peelites to his councils, he would by that
mere act utterly destroy the party which is still proud to
hail him as their chief, but of whom tho great majority will
never, under any circumstances, degrade themselves by sit-
ting on the same benches with Mr. Gladstone and his accom-
plices.

(From the Morning Post of this day.)
The public will learn without surprise that the Earl of
Derby has declined to form an Administration, and that
Lord Lansdowne has been summoned to Windsor. It may
therefore be safely surmised that the overwhelming force of
public opinion has carried the day, and that a Ministry will
at once be formed, of which Lord Palmerston's name will ho
the guarantee to the nation. In this result the country at
large will sincerely rejoice, whilst our Allies and oar enemies
will look upon ft as the Certain indication of a most vigorous
and thoroughly English policy. Such an issue was distinctly
'foreseen by all persons practically acquainted with public
Some. indeed, were surprised that the leader of the
country party should have been sent for by her Majesty ; but
a reference to the division list of Monday night will showthat
it was the largo preponderance of the Derby party that gave
such exceeding weight and breadth to the censure
beneath which the Aberdeen Ministry fell to the
ground. Lord Lansdowne and Lord Palmerston—the
only other names that have been canvassed as likely
to have been sent for—lay under a technical though
not real disability, because they were members of the con-
demned Cabinet. However strongly, therefore, her Majesty
might feel that probabilities wore against Lord Derby's suc-
cess, there existed the strangest grounds why the chance,
such as it was, should be accorded to him and his followers.
He has tried his best and failed. This result materially sim-
plifies the crisis. It leaves the large body of the Conserva-
tives at liberty to accord an independent support to the in-
coming Ministry. They will feel that no injustice has been
done to their leader or themselves, that they have had their
turn, but have not been strong enough to take it, and that,
consequently, any attempt to impede the success of the
nister who may be able to form a Cabinet would be factious,
undignified, and unpatriotic.
The presumptive evidence has all along been against Lord
Derby's success. His own party was not strong enough, either
in numbers or official ability. He must either have brought
in his old colleagues, many of whom have already been tried
and found wanting, and whose presence would have sunk his
ship in the very first storm that might blow over the often-
troubled waters of the Haus° of Commons ; or ho must have
enlisted a long line of recruits—raw men, as far as office Is
concerned, which would have been a still worse alternative.
The only Ministry that can or ought to stand at this moment
is ono that is obviously and demonstrably capable in the oyes
of the country. It must be incontestably strong in those
particulars, at the least—in its Head ;in its War Minister ;
in its Foreign Secretary ; and in its Chancellor of the Exche-
quer :to which we may add this sine qua non—it must com-
mand the cordial confidence of our Allies. The material of
such a Ministry is was impossible for Lord Derby to find in
the ranks .of his own party. His only chance lay in a coali-
tion. With the co-operation of certain known and tried men
he might hate succeeded. The names of Palmerston, Claren-
don, and Gladstone would have saved his Ministry.
But we do not want a three-legged Cabinet which stands upon
the redeeming qualities of a few undeniable mon. We want
a Ministry that in all its parts—head, body, and members— ,
is ODO, coherent and co-operative—that stands upon its own
merits, and needs not to quote the pre-eminent qualifications
of one portion as a sot-off against the obvious incapability of
the other. A Government so constituted might last for a
while, but it must eventually fall as a whole before some
violent opposition, provoked by the shortcomings of parti-
cular portions. The mischief of such falls is, that the
innocent go down with the guilty, tbo competent with
the incompetent, and the country becomes deprived of the
services of her great men through the incapacity of her
lesser ones. A coalition of able mon, differing in many
particulars from one another but consenting to act together
with cordial unanimity for the obvious good of the country,
has a priori everything patriotic to recommend it. A coali-
tion between capables and incapables must be short-lived.
; Yet that was the only kind of coalition Lord Derby could
have concocted, and, unhappily for him, the incapacity would
.have been almost entirely amongst his own friends. He
could not, therefore, hope to succeed, however patriotically
he might have been disposed to waive all personal questions
and private feelings, and, uniting with those from whom
he is often dissociated, to devote his unflagging industry
and brilliant powers to the public service. But he did
right to try, and it is more his misfortune than his fault
that he has not succeeded. But his failure is no misfor-
tune to the country. Better a thousand times that he, or
any other Statesman, should fail in forming an Adminis-
tration, than, having formed one, to fail some short time
hence in carrying his measures. We have already said, and
we repeat it, that the Cabinet now to bo formed must be
formed with a view to an existence at the least conterminous
with the war, so far as anything human can be so made. It
must see its way clearly through the intricacies of the present
perplexities, right forward to their disentanglement, to the
strengthening of what has been proved to be weak, to the ad-
justment of what has been proved to be disorganised, and to
the surmounting of those obstacles which have stood in the
way of the success of its predecessors.
Let us hope that a Palmerston Administration may, in
accordance with prophetic public feeling, achieve all this.
There's much virtue in a name, for it presents to the mind the
long chain of antecedents which illustrate its owner ; and how-
ever sincere in his desires for peace the excellent Earl of
Aberdeen, however patriotic and experienced Lord Derby,
there is in that one word Palmerston a magic influence with
which none can compare, and which speaks, in its world-widefame, of the most glorious days of British foreign policy,
which revives the memories of William Pitt and George
Canning, and which is identified in Persia, on the Caucasus,:.at Alexandria, at Athens, or at Constantinople, a
Petersburg, Vienna, or Berlin, in America, in France, or in
England, with the highest principles of liberalt prgis.ues '
and
constitutional liberty, and, above all, hhe
du einfluence
of England, and the prodigious interestswi of her vast empire.

(Prom the Morning Chronicle of this day.)
Lord Derby has acted wisely and patriotically. On finding
that he could not form such a Government as he conscien-
tiously deemed equal to the emergency, he at once abandoned
the task with which her Majesty had entrusted him. It now
remains to be seen whether Lord Lansdowne or Lord Palmer-
ston will meet with a more favourable reception from our
leading and tried statesmen. We only know of one who,
from position or influence, can or will throw any impediment
in their way, and this wo deeply regret for many reasons.
Public morality has fallen to so low an ebb, and so many
political reputations have been wrecked of late years, that
Lord John Russell's last escapade, independently of its more
direct effects on our foreign and domestic relations, may be
regarded as a natioiial. misfortune. Ile roust hate acted
under some extraordinary hallucination, or he could hardly
have failed to anticipatB the judgment which would be passed
upon ouch conduct, oveli without the Pad oY Ple correspond•

ence which was road by the Duke of Newcastle last evening,
and of his Grace's lucid statement and conclusive vindication.
Lord John Russell's most zealous advocates now admit that
he must be content to do penance for a period. The only
mode of recovering, in some degree, tho esteem and confi-
dence of his friends, would be for him to repudiate at
once all notion of an immediate return to office, avow an
intention to give a cordial support to the best Govern-
ment that can be formed on a Liberal or Liberal-Con-
servative basis, and honestly exert his influence with
his remaining followers to do the same. Mr. Stafford has
flung his Admiralty peccadilloes into the back ground
by his mission of charity to Scutari, and by his touch-
' ing and simple narrative of what he did and saw?- Lord John
Russell would do well to imitate his example ; attl it would
be for the public service if he could persuade Mr. Disraeli to
pair off with him for the remainder of the session and go too.
The main obstacle to the satisfactory solution of the Minis-
terial problem would be thus removed ; and a stable Admin-
istration might be constructed with comparative ease. The
sooner the arrangements are completed, and the fewer the
changes, the better ; for an infinity of mischief might ensue
from a prolongation of the crisis, or from the delay and con-
fusion that might result from the shifting of posts, or from
the introduction of a number of new hands. At the same
time, occasion might be taken to rectify some errors that
were committed, and some injustice that was unwittingly
done, in the formation of Lord Aberdeen's Government. Thus
Sir William Molesworth should be removed to an office in
which his profound knowledge and admirably-trained mind
could be turned to account ; and Mr. Charles Villiers' claims,
as the enlightened champion of free-trade principles, Should
be more suitably recognised than by continuing him in the
post of Judge Advocate.
Others (Mr. Henry Fitzroy and Lord Riche, for example)
accepted places in Lord Aberdeen's Ministry confessedly
inferior to their well-founded pretensions, but it is one
obvious advantage of a coalition Government that the in-
ferior offices are filled by a higher class of men than in a
pure Whig or pure Tory one. Indeed this is the very cir-
cumstance that excites the ire of disappointed aspirants like
Mr. Rich. " There will be a terrible outcry," wrote Wind-
ham, in reference to a projected broad-bottom Ministry,
" amongst the smaller fry on both sides. When two large
bodies come together, the insects on the surface must be
crushed." Malcontents of this description received a tole-
rably broad hint from Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, who was loudly
cheered when he thus pointedly replied to Lord John Rus-
sell :—" The noble lord the member for London, on Friday
last attempted, not triumphantly, to vindicate the Whigs
from the charge of being an exclusive party that required
all power for itself ; and he found a solitary instance for the
refutation of that charge in the magnanimity with which the
Whigs had consented to that division of power which his de-
sertion now recants and condemns. But, in plain words,
his vindication only amounts to this, that where the Whigs
could not get all the Tower, they reluctantly consented to
accept half."
What with Liberal-Conservative and Liberal claimants, the
Whigs Proper must henceforth content themselves with such
a share of power, great or small, as they can command by
their talents and their public services ; nor will they have
any reason to complain of being put upon short allowance,
so long as they are represented by so many eminently distin-
guished and tried friends of civil and religious liberty. But
it is utterly impossible; we repeat, for any durable Ministry to
be constructed, except on a coalition basis; and there is no
fear that one of Lord Lansdowne's or Lord Palmerston's
making will be open to the same objection as the last. It is
preposterous to accuse Lord Aberdeen of weakness because he
could not, by a mere exercise of volition, compel unanimity
between statesmen of co-equal authority, two of whom had
claims on the Premiership ; and before Lord Palmerston can
be exposed to the same trial, his Cabinet must include both
Lord John Russell and Lord Aberdeen.
That a Liberal-Conservative Government under Lord
Palmerston, with Lord Grey as Secretary of War, and Mr.
Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer, would receive the
support of the House of Commons, we entertain no doubt
whatever. The division on Mr. Roebuck's motion was merely
the echo of the senseless popular outcry against Lord Aber-
deen and the Duke of Newcastle, and, so far as the Liberal
portion of the majority are concerned, it may be considered
as a declaration in favour of the noble Viscount. If, how-
ever, this House of Commons, which was elected under Lord
Derby's auspices and through W.B.'s instrumentality, should
prove factious or unmanageable, a dissolution is the obvious
remedy ; and a bold appeal to the constituencies would effec-
tually prevent either Lord John Russell, Mr. Disraeli, or Mr.
Bright, from upsetting or embarrassing a Ministry honestly
bent on the vigorous prosecution of the war for the attainment
of an honourable peace.