The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-31 00:00:00

(Front the Daily News of this day.)

The division of last Monday night is without a
parallel in our Parliamentary annals. Former adminis-
trations have been driven from power by adverse votes
of the House of Commons ; and the majorities en some
of these occasions have been considerable. But never
was a Government, after due notice given and full debate
held, condemned for incapacity by such a verdict as that
pronounced on the Cabinet of Lord Aberdeen.
Not to go further back than the memory of most of
our readers may enable them to verify—the Whig Ad-
ministration of Lord Melbourne was displi.ced in 1841
by a majority of 91. In 1846 the Tory Administration
of Sir Robert Peel was ousted front office by a majority
of 73. But the fats of the Coalition under Lord Aber-
deen has been appropriately determined by a prepon-
derance of votes almost as great as the majorities of
1841 and 1846 put together. There is something in
this of poetic justice. The Whigs of 1841 fell victims
to the avowal of their conversian to Free Trade. The
Conservatives, in 1846, in like manner sacrificed power
when they yielded candidly to the force of similar con-
viction. Both knew what they were doing and unhesi-
tatingly incurred the honourable penalty. that was ex-
acted from them, with the proud consciousness that they
had thereby raised their character as public men higher
in the estimation of the wise and good
i than it had ever
stood before. They relinquished official rank and emolu-
ment to assume the foremost station n dignified and in-
fluential opposition ; and the surrender of executive
power was but the enhancement of legishtive influence.
But the disruption of the heterogeneous combination by
which we have been governed for the last two yearn is
marked by devotion to no great principle, and its
defeat celebrates the triumph of no great measure.
It is • the more collapse of incapacity—the mere dis-
location of an ill-contrived machine—the mere rele-
gation to their original ranks of a handful of Tory
and a handful of Whig notables, who dreamed that be-
cause they had individually agreed to coalesce, the world
in general had agreed to approve and follow them. It
is utterly absurd to treat the overwhelming majority of
157 as a mere vote of censure on the Duke of Newcastle
and Lord Aberdeen. It is something far more serious
and important. It is the deliberate and emph atio con-
demnatio, by mere than clear utolety of the Rom of

The announcement of the result of the division on Mr.
Roebuck's motion was received with dead silence, end-
ing in a loud laugh. Precisely the same effect was pro-
duced at the diplomatic congress of Vienna in 1815 by
the news of Napoleon's__ escape from Elba. Yet that
event was the precursor of a fearful sacriEce of treasure
and of life. If Nero fiddled whilst I/ ,rue was burning,
this was a more harmless occupati,n than turning out
or making and unmaking Ministries when an adminis-
trative delay of a week may prove fatal to a gallant
army, or than passing resolutions which must paralyse
action instead of quickening it. If the members of the
majority laughed like the noman augurs, they at least
manifested some self-knowledge, for wo wonder they
could loolt.each other in the face without seeing the
ridicule of their position, or feeling that they bad
been running a race of short-sighted selfishness.
Their numbers are principally owing to the very circu
Ftinee which rendered the vote superfluous. It was
perfectly understood, before the resumption of the de-
bate on 2ilondav,that the Cabinet was to be reconstructed,
in other words, broken up. Its lukewarm, place-hunting,
or time-serving supporters, therefore, naturally conceited

that the time was come for abandoning. it. Indeed, some
went further, and, encouraged by Lord John Russell's
example, seemed inclined to act towards Lord
Aberdeen and the Duke of Newcastle as bees treat a
wounded comrade, whom, after finishing by an additional
sting or two, they combine to thrust out of the hive.

Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, who, as usual,.delivered the
ablest speech on his side of the question, tried to force
history into the service of his partyin a fashion that savoured
too much of the style of reference recommended and
pursued by Vivian Grey. " Once in the last century,"
said the accomplished orator, by way of peroration,
"there was a Duke of Newcastle, who presided over
the conduct of a war, and was supported by a powerful
league of aristocratic combinations. The war wag, in-
deed, a series of blunders and disasters. I❑ vain at-

,einPts were made to patch up that luckless Ministry—

in vain some drops of healthfUl blood were infused into
its feeble and decrepit constitution. The people at last
became aroused, indignant, irresistible. They applied
one remedy. That remedy is now before ourselves.
They dismissed their Government, and saved their
army." Never was there a more unlucky parallel, if we
may believe Lord Mahon and Mr. Massey, the last and
best historians of the period. The Duke of Devonshire's
Ministry, which succeeded the ono of which Sir E.
Bulwer Lytton speaks, speedily broke to pieces. It
was found impossible to get on without the Duke
of Newcastle, and it was under his grace's premiership
that the "great Commoner" ran the most brilliant part
of his career as War Minister. " The final arrange-
ments," says Mr. Massey, "were easily made through
the dignified agency of Lord Mansfield and Lord Hard-
wicke. The duke (of Newcastle) was reinstated at the
head of the Government. . . All real power was
centred in the hands of Pitt, and now his great genius
had, for the first time, ample scope both in the oppor-
tunity and means of action." No one knows better than
Sir E. Bulwer Lytton that, beyond the name, there is
not the smallest similarity between the late Secretary of
War and his collateral ancestor. There is a river in
Monmouth, and there is a river in Macedon. We
cannot help suspecting that so -thoughtful and cul-
tivated an observer of passing events must have
agreed in his heart with Mr. Gladstone, when he
appealed from Philip drunk to Philip sober—from
the prejudiced or interested clamours of the Opposition
benches to the calm judgment of the house twelve months
hence ; or with Lord Palmerston, when the noble vis-
count emphatically said, " With regard to the Duke of
Newcastle, I must in justice say that I think public
opinion has done him great injustice. I am sure the day
will come when a more correct and a juster estimate will
be formed of the abilities and devotion of that noble
duke to the service of his country." Can any one en-
dowed with understanding, with imagination, or with
heart, read the Duke of Newcastle's despatches, and
then talk slightingly of the writer I
To our minds the concentrated essence of Mr. Roe-
buck's charge suggests the conclusive justification
of the War-office. We mean, when he said, " You
have sent an army to the East in numbers
and efficieacy such as never before left these
shores, an army likewise unequalled in its equipments ;
but that army is nerishing for want of food, whilst,
upon the shores of the pert of Balaklava there are rot-
ting stores of every possible description sufficient to pro-
vide for the wants of two such armies." What is this
but saying, in so many different words, "You have done
well all that depended on you personally, or that you
could have superintended by any stretch of vigilance ?"
All the more comprehensive or plausible charges against
that duke resolve themselves into this---that he should have
refused to concur with the French Government in order-
ing or sunctioning the expedition to the Crimea, and
he should have recalled Lord Raglan on the first
rumour of the alleged sufferings of his army. The
motion of which Lord Lydhurst has given notice, whe-
ther so intended or not, is an implied censure of the
strongest kind on Napoleon 111., and a justification of
les amides avis which provoked the memorable sarcasm
of our Imperial ally. What we really want to elicit
the truth, is a little more plain, downright speaking,
like Mr. Bernal Osborne's.
Rife as the debate was with historical allusion, the
most felicitous piece of improvised narration was supplied
by Mr.Glaistone, when, after asking what sort of epitaph
would have been written over the remains of the Minis-
try if they had shrunk from meeting the threatened
impeachment, he sketched the following Here lie
the dishonoured ashes of a Ministry which found Eng-
land at peace and left her at war—which which was con-
tent to take the emoluments of office and wield the
sceptre of power so long as no one had courage to ques-
tion its oxiAtonco. oaw a storm gathering over

MANCHESTER, Jan. 30. —The defeat of the Ministry
by so large a majority last night was learnt here this
morning with a feeling approaching to consternation.
It was thought not unlikely they would be in a mino-
rity, but so large a majority against them was never
contemplated. The effect on the market has not been
so great, however, a 3 might be expected. Business was
already at a low ebb, and it would have required a
heavy blow indeed to damage it much. The cloth-mar-
ket has undoubtedly been very flat, and the complaints
of manufacturers mire general, most of them inclining to
the opinion Oat with the present rate of over-prodso-
tion prices can only be maintained, and a better tone
established in the market, by a resort to short time.
The cloths in best demand, though all are much ne-
glected, are domestics (f it which the present is usually
oi:e of the best seasons of the year), longcloths, T-clothe,
and low printers. Longcloths are, however, produced
in excess of the demand, and prices are not so well sus-
timed in these as in other fabrics.
The yarn-market has been less depressed than that
for cloth, and in some quarters a moderato business is
reported, without change of price.
Messrs. Slagg and Co. report of the cloth market :
" The accounts to hand on Saturday last from India of
the depressed state and gloomy prospects of the markets
for Manchester goods have caused buyers for that quarter
to keep aloof from the market, and it is only at a con-
siderable reduction on our quotations that they can be
induced to operate. In other respects there is little
change to notice in our market. The Greeks still con-
tinue to buy longcloths, T-cloths, and low printers, and
prices are well maintained ; and, except as regards India
goods, there is generally a more cheerful feeling in the
market, without any actual increase of business."
Messrs. G. Fraser, Son, and Co. say—
" There is an inanimate market, but little buslness
doing. Without any very marked alteration in prices,
the tendency is in favour of the buyer."