The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-07 00:00:00

TELEGRAPHIC DESPATCH

FROM

FIELD MARSHAL
LORD RAGLAN.

WAR DEPARTMENT, MAY 7, 2.45 P.M.

Lord Panmure presents his compliments to the
Editor of The Sun, and has great pleasure in trans-

mitting the enclosed intelligence, which has this
day reached him from Lord Raglan :

SEBASTOPOL, 6TH MAY, 9 P.M.

The enemy assaulted the advanced trench of
our right attack, last night, but were repulsed

promptly.

Our loss was three killed and twenty wounded.

RESIGNATION OF
M. DROUYN DE L'HUYS.

(Front Lite Second Edition of the Morning Post.)
PARIS, MONDAY MORNING.
M. Drouyn de L'Huys has resigned office.
The Emperor has accepted his resignation.
Differences with respect to his late mission to
*Vienna are said to be the cause.

DEPARTURE OF THE F REN CFI
AMBASSADOR FOR PARIS.
(From the Fourth. Edition, of the Morning Post.)
Count Walewski left town this morning, by

express, for Paris.
His Excellency has been summoned thither

by telegraph in consequence of the Ministeria.

crisis.

The days of Lord PALMERSTON'S j.sting, at least
as Premier, are drawing to a close ; the great
double meeting of London merchants, on Satur-
day, will soon make him look serious. He can
afford, with his temperament, to joke about com-
munications from Sebastopol in face of the deep
anxiety of the country, or about the promised
Vienna papers, which indeed may probably prove
to be of ludicrous insignificance in comparison
with the cost in blood and treasure for which the
Vienna peace was to be the compensation. But
even Lord ,PALIIERSTON can be grave when his
premiership is in danger ; and the meeting of
Saturday plainly shows that it is so. There was
a remarkably fair spirit evinced towards indivi-
duals generally who have failed, because our
present administrative system would beat almost
any well-meaning man, but the majo-
rity of the speakers commented with marked
disgust on the lenity, at such a crisis, of our
Prime Minister, and the meeting loudly and em-
phatically responded to their remarks. It is evi-
dent that the vast body of highly respectable gen-
tlemen then assembled felt themselves insulted by
Lord PALMERSTON'S miserable attempts to be
funny, at the expense of Members who have
asked the questions which the country put into
their mouths. Lord PALMERSTON, if he wishes
to play the, droll in public, must choose another
time, or another character than that of Head of
the Government.

What, however, was taken from Lord PALMER-
STON was freely giveia to Mr. LAYARD. But a
short time ago the light-hearted Aristocrat had the
fairest opportunity in the world to win himself a
good position in history, as well as in the
nation's present esteem. He has thrown it en-
tirely away. He insulted them with his lordly
Cabinet ; he insulted them by rejecting Mr.
LAYARD; he insulted them by snubbing or laugh-
ing at every independent member ; and he con-
summated all by coming in at the death, as he
thought, in the House of Commons attack on Mr.
LAY,4ID. But the first great meeting of the
very cream of London citizens has decidedly re-
versed the verdict of Lord PALMERSTON and his
631e4te 11 els, has consigned them to merited con-
mDts and has given a united and hearty verdict
in
fwve_ur of Mr. LAYARD. That gentleman may
'l'37f 1001(117 take
his intended course. At an almost
Casual au .
cheering w, won
to his treatment by the House, the
three and one most
„enthusiastic. " Three times
mew" fully carried out, twice
again during the
peated, and at theting these
cheers were re-
the w
p after one for the
QuzEN the closing e
another for
Mr. LAYARD. Not less than
lst e honour-
r f unth
rounds of cheering were gives. seven distinct
y endorsed
able member. The meeting mo
all our remarks of last week in
to
the public opinion concerning the shameful pro_
n
ceedings of the House on Friday night.
ic.-
In-
significant mistakes, but substantially right," was
the unanimous judgment of the vast assembly. It
will be the judgment of every meeting of English.
men,

The new Association will do its work. The
gentlemea chosen as a committee are not the men
to allow Government to taunt them with exempli-
--,,t .
yuig the Administrative incapacity of which they
They will set to work at once, and
.64
4-°w howd° They avowed that they
/felt their country to be *graced, themselves
disgraced, and et ix very Pecuniary intonate at

stake. These [are not motives which let men
go to sleep. They have raised already a large
sum of money, and will raise a very large one.
The Chairman announced, as a proof of the ear-
nest and sincere character of the movement, that
25 gentlemen in the room had already put down
their names for a subscription of 1001. each.
The announcement was received with loud cheering.
They will watch every appointment, and bring to
the light of day, on each occasion, the grounds
alleged or presumable. They will be, in fact, a
vigilance committee on Government appointments
and promotions, and in this way their efforts will
begin to tell at once upon our public services.
They will put themselves in connection with the
electors in every town, get meetings held, and
committees formed, and arouse all the constituen-
Icies. Their facilities for doing this surpass even
those of Messrs. COPPOCK and BROWN, since their

commercial connexions are so numerous and in-
fluential throughout the Kingdom ; they will thus
work at once upon our present members, and stir
up the people to select men for the future who
will audit the doings of Government in
somewhat different style to what we have seen
of late. The House being counted out on people's
questions will become a hazardous game.

It is gratifying to see that the speakers and
the meeting were fully alive to the necessity of
reforming our electoral practices. It was broadly
recognised that while. appointments were made for
political reasons, such as the conciliation of sup-
port at elections, the mischief was as great as
that arising from aristocratic nepotism. The
Guildhall Meeting appended a rider to the first
resolution on the necessity, for their object, of an
enlarged electoral constituency, and both meetings
expressed the strongest sense of the necessity of a
great electoral change. The predominance of
aristocrats, by title or relationship, in the Lower
House was strongly condemned, and obviously
that can only be remedied by a new and real
Reform Bill.

Many instances unknown before to the public
were given of the unpardonable manner in which
the most important offices were trifled with. One
made public for the first time by Mr. LINDSAY,
M.P., deserves, however, special notice. Lord
PALMERSTON alleged that commercial men of high
standing would not leave their counting-houses
to serve the public, sacrificing it may be a lucra-
tive business for a salary of uncertain tenure.
The answer would seem to be—Make the heads
of working departments immovable:from political
causes, and appoint them for capacity only. Mr.
LINDSAY, however, stated that six months ago,
having found that the transport service was in
the utmost confusion, the very books so kept that
nothing was known of the shipping, destination,
and arrival of the cargoes, and this kind of business
being that in which having spent his life, he could
without arrogance claim full practical knowledge,
he offered to Sir JAMES GRAHAM to come for one
whole week to the Admiralty, and to get their
affairs into such order that goods should be duly
shipped, consigned, and delivered, and that fully
one million of the two which have been wasted
should be saved. Will it be believed that he
heard no more of bis noble offer ? It shared even
a more contemptuous fate than Mr. CoLLIN's offer
to teach the roasting of coffee ! The result was
our money wantonly wasted—and some thousands
of soldiers perishing for want of supplies !
Well, London has commenced the moyement to
put a stop to such disgraceful, such cruel delin-
quencies as these. It is as beating that the City,
which is the seat of Government, should com-
mence a reform of this kind, as for Manchester to
commence the Anti-Corn-Law agitation. As Lon-
don helped Manchester then, so let Manchester
help London now. Even the COBDENS and
BRIGHTS, unless they shamefully neglect their
country, will join this movement. We cannot,
however, doubt that it will be responded to by
the whole nation.

On Friday evening Lord PALMERSTON deliberately
stated to the House of Commons that "the Go-
vernment would entirely violate their duty if they
stated that all hopes of accommodation were at au
end." It is right that both Houses of Parlia-
ment should be forthwith informed of the grounds
on which such hopes are entertained, in order
that their opinions may be expressed on the
nature of the contemplated arrangements, before
the nation is irrevocably committed to terms -which
cannot possibly produce an honourable or a per-
manent peace. We now know the propositions
that have been peremptorily, and, we may add,
contumeliously rejected by Russia. We know
that they had been nominally approved of by
Austria, and there is but too much reason to
believe that the extraordinary " moderation" or
"timidity" on the part of the Western
Powers, which they so clearly manifested, was
occasioned by the sinister influence of the Ger-
manic Members of the Conference. The French
and English Plenipotentiaries certainly went to
the full length of their tether in bringing forward
such feeble and attenuated suggestions, which, if
adopted to the very letter, would bring the War
to a most " lame and impotent conclusion," totally
inadequate to the enormous expenditure of men
and money on the part of the defenders of right and
the conservators of order throughout the civilised
world. It is something little short of a miracle
that we have escaped from the disgrace and injury
of such an arrangement. Russia has recklessly
refused the too lenient terms tendered for accept-
ance. By so doing she has forfeited all claim to
future indulgence ; and if Austria has the slightest
regard for her plighted faith she would, immediately
on Russia's rejection of either of the alternatives
offered with her sanction, have entered into the
ulterior arrangements contemplated by the Treaty
of the 2d December.

But she has not done so ? She still keeps up
the farce of negotiations. Wo are told that
" there still exist at Vienna the elements of a
Conference ;" that the meetings were merely
adjourned, without any specific time being ap-
pointed for their renewal ; were, in fact, sus-
pended, without being entirely broken off ! "The
elements of a Conference" forsooth ! And this
is the way in which the British honour is disre-
garded, and the British interests frittered away !
The matter is to be shelved for an indefinite
period, in order partly that Austria may be
allowed to wriggle out of the performance of her
solemn obligations, and partly that if success
should crown the efforts of our gallant troops in
the Crimea—if Sebastopol should fall before their
irresistible onslaught—a loop-hole may be re-
tained for the escape of Russia : that the Allies
should be bound by the offers they had so lately
made, and which had not been farmally with-
draw,.

It is, indeed, a deplorable state of affairs, when
even the most complete victory could scarcely be
received With unmitigated satisfaction, when
the achievements of the sword would bep neutra-
lised by the pen, and
what had been acquired by
the effusion of blood would be lost by the shed-
ding of ink. Already the e
very name of negotia-
of the Viennese palaver, of
tion disgusts the people. They ars heartily sick
th bootless and un-
meaning protocols—the sole results of some six
weeks' diplomatic' labours, The lines of Byron