The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-14 00:00:00

RE,S'IGNATION OF LORD JOHN RUSSELL.

(Prom, the T

Yesterdayafternoon Lord John

. of the House of Cam TTIODS by a tardy I'o-
- As constitutional propriety required t tile
resignation should be accepted by the Queen before it was
announced to the house, and her Majesty happened to be
at Osborne, the evening sitting passed, oddly enough,
without any allusion to an event, as we must consider it,
of European importance. It is said that his lordship was
still hesitating between the numerous conflicting consider-
ations that presented themselves, and had even accepted
with all seriousness the invitation of his colleagues to re-
main where he was, when a very remarkable incident de-
lermined, or rather compelled, a contrary decision. The
members of the Government in the House. of Commons
not included in the Cabinet, represented by Mr. Bouverie,
are reported to have informed him that they were not pre-
pared to vote against Sir Bulwer Lytton's motion. This
removed all doubt as to the result of the impending divi-
sion, and, as Lord John could no longer hope to save him-
self, even at the cost of the whole of his colleagues, he
wisely preferred to do with something like grace what he
would otherwise have had to do with no grace at all. The
Cabinet must feel relieved of a very unmanageable burden.
No doubt, in Lord John Russell it has lost great abilities
and personal influence, and no doubt ho is not pleasant
either as au antagonist or as a rival ; but his continuance
in the Cabinet had become impossible. A Minister whom
Russia could claim as a sympathiser, Austria as a plenipo-
tentiary, the Peace party as an advocate, the seceded Minis-
ters as one of their own opinions, and every Parliamentary
foe as a probable auxiliary, was absolutely incompatible
with the safety of Government. Lord Palmerston had,
indeed, requested him to take no notice of the "much
ado about nothing" that bad been got up, and to stay in ;
but, when the Premier had tolerated him so many weeks,
in the face of M. Drouyn de l'Huys' retirement under the
same circumstances, ho had no alternative but to hold the
same language still, and, in common phrase, to "stand by
Lord John." But, though Lord Palmerston might be pre-
pared to consult his consistency at the expense of power,
the occasion was not one that depended on the interchange
of courtesies. The public and their representatives would
not stand the incredible absurdity of a war conducted by
ministers, one of whom thought it might have been avoided
but for the obstinacy of the rest. War with a neighbour-
ing nation was bad enough, and could not be helped, but
a fundamental difference about the war in the Cabinet it-
self was a gratuitous aggravation, and could be helped. So
the British public has spoken in no uncertain tones ; the
House of Commons has expressed itself as plainly as it
could do; and Lord John has given way to the storm, and
retired.
What is now become of Sir Bulwer Lytton', motion—
how those members of the Cabinet are to be dealt with
who are said to agree with Lord John—and who is to fill
up the vacancy, are questions of great moment just now.
It is more important to assign a true value to this event,
and there we cannot be far wrong. Most interesting is it
to trace the growing intensity of the popular feeling, and
its increasing impatience of anything like disloyalty in the
quarrel with Russia. It was the people who forced
Lord Aberdeen into the war, -which he won]. I have been
glad to spend the remainder of his clays in putting off
by every means in his power. It was the people who
joined as one man to overthrow the Government, when
enormous blunders and negl-cts seemed to betray an
indolent and ibefficient administration. It was the stern
aspect of the people, and its resolute determination
that
the sufferings and the deaths of so many thousands should
not be in vain, which infused into our negotiations, in
spite of the chief negotiator, an unwonted firmness and
dignity. Accordingly, it is the people who have dismissed
Lord John, for the present, to that retirement where he
may, if he pleases, still split himself into doubts, and di-
vide his precarious sympathies between England and Rus-
sia. In fact, the British people, for all that Mr. Cobden
says to the contrary, are resolved to go on with this war;
to persevere, in spite of losses, disgraces, and even appa-
rently irretrievable disaster. The war may have to stand
that greatest, and severest, and truest of all tests—the
ordeal of failure. Success is no test. It gilds a bad cause
as much as it recommends a good one. Knaves and tyrants
may prosper and give thanks. To suffer the loss of friends,
to pay largely out of the pocket, to bid farewell to private
wealth and national prosperity, to smile on disaster and
welcome poverty, all for the sake of a good cause, makes
that cause sacred, honourable, and heroic. These are the
things that bring us back to the nobility of ancient days.
We cannot command success ; but England is satisfied that
her cause is good, and she will persevere all the more that
she has to do so through many obstacles and in much dis-
couragement. What cause so good as to have escaped
those trials?
This is the natural feeling of the people, and it is a per-
fectly right one. A very slight reflection will serve to
show that, if there is any subject in the whole sphere of
human action on which there ought to be no doubt or de-
mur, it is the awful business of war. A Government may
or may not be very cordial or unanimous on a question
of reform in institutions that have lasted for centuries
unreformed, or on a question of railways, or other
material improvements ; almost any question, indeed, of
mere secular import may be left open for the variety and
fallibility of human judgment; but in war we are assuming
as we needs must assume, the tremendous prerogative of
Heaven—the assertion of justice by the sword. The man
who takes the responsibility of sending fleets and armies
to kill, to barn, to waste and destroy; to spread ruin
among millions, to sow the seeds of endless resentments,
to stop the progress of civilisation, and drive the human
race back again to the desert, ought to be very certain,
very hearty, in his hideous work. To do all this doubt-
ingly, with a perpetually intrusive misgiving that; after
all, there was no need for it, and that we are responsible
for these horrors, implies a singular indifference to huma-
nity, justice, and truth. That nature of the work de-
mands the rmest determination and most unyielding de-
cision, and that hesitation and doubt are sure to be Written
in blood and tears, is only a proof of the infinite moral
gravity of the task, and the necessity of a thoroughly re-
solved mind. M. Droun de Lhuys evidently saw this. Had
he felt negotiation exhausted and the war unavoidable, he
might have continued to assist with his counsels. Had he
been a soldier, he would have been bound by the oath of
military obedience, and there would have been enough
warrant for his conscience and an end of dubitation; but,
as it was, he was at liberty to doubt, and did doubt; so
he resigned, and now neither stains his hands with war
nor infects the war with infirmity of resolution. Lord J.
Russell had not the same fineness of apprehension and
gravity of action. He seems to have thought he might take
a voluntary and prominent part in wholesale destruction
of his species, even at the time when he was de-
cidedly of opinion that it was all unnecessary. This is to
play with the sword and throw firebrands in sport. The
British public feels as the French Minister felt on the
matter, and they have now compered the English Minister
to follow his example. We could wish that the lesson had
not been necessary, but, at all events, we have reason to be
proud of a public opinion that can promptly and decisively
arrest the vacillation and supply the shortcomings of our
rulers,

.leci~i

(Front the Daily News of this day.)
Lord John Russell has resigned. The public may pos-
sibly learn the fact with feelings of surprise : they will
learn the cause with sentiments of mingled astonishment
and disgust.
When we noticed yesterday the ill-concealed efforts
that were making by a certain section of those who have
heretofore been reckoned amongst the frienls and followers
of Lord John, to induce him to retire on the eve of the
coming struggle, confessedly in the hope that they might
thereby propitiate their assailants and save themselves
from party humiliation at his expense, we intimated our
disbelief in the success of a manoeuvre at once so miserable
and so mean: We collie' net persuade ourselves that,
under the peculiar circumstances of the case, and with the
warningmemorable afforded by the events' of January
last, the noble lord would voluntarily quit hil post under
fire. Nor has the event falsified our anticipations as far
as he is concerned. Lord John cannot, in point of fact, be
said to have manifested on the present occasion any anxiety
to shirk the responsibility which he had incurred. He in
truth hugged himself in the belief that he had made a dex-
terous and successful coup; and, utterly unconscious of
the obloquy he had drawn upon himself, fancied that he
could reconcile the discrepancies and prevarications of the
last two months. At all events he was ready to stand
the brunt of the threatened assault and to abide the con-
sequences. Not so the men by whom he has been sur-
rounded. Scared at the sound of the rising storm of popular
indignation, andEsolicitous only for the retention of power,
men who six weeks ago were ready to acquiesce without
hesitation in the proposal of compromise with ;i ussia sug-
gested by Count Buol, have not been ashamed to join in
forcing Lord John to tender his resignation to the head of
the Government. Through every rank and grade of the
party efforts have been made to further this design. The
pride of the Secretary for the Colonies having been stung
into making the offer we have mentioned, resort was had
to the respectable and high-spirited device of a round
robin addressed to Lord Palmerston, urging him to accept
the resignation. This document was actually hawked
about the precincts and passages of the House of Commons
for signature during the sitting of the house yesterday,
and while the two noble lords continued to occupy their
usual seats, side by aide, upon the Treasury bench. We
are unwilling to state how many names of men calling
themselves Whigs were appended to it ; but we believe we
may venture to say that the rebukes which its authors en-
countered from the manly, and independent members who
refused to act a part fit only for sailors in a mutiny on
ship-board, served to convince them that their clumsy de-
vice is one too shameless even for the present House of
Commons. But the lengths and the depths to which Mi-
nisters and their creatures are ready to go to • elude trial
and condemnation are too plainly indicated by the uie of
means such as that we have referred to.
What is to be said or thought of themen who, having in
the Cabinet assented to the proposalrecoinmended by Lord
John, and who having in Parliament assented to his sudden
repudiation of that proposition, are now ready to lend
their aid in hustling him out of office, in the hope that when
he is gone th, y will be suffered to remain there ? So long
as they believed it possible to patch up a peace by agreeing
to Austrian terms of accommodation, these worthies saw
in the terms advocated by Lord John nothing that was
not politic and approvable. When these terms got wind
prematurely, and national feeling began to menace all who
adopted them with condign censure, these men were eager
to concur with the ex-plenipotentiary in his hollow and
insincere repudiaticn of all diplomatic action and bis ap-
peal to the warlike spirit of the country. The delusion
thus practised upon Parliament, with their concurrence,
and amid their exulting cheers, is exposed by the despatch
of Count Buol; and what happens ? Are these men
ashamed ? Do they propose to resign? Do they attempt
to throw the blame on the Secretary for the Colonies?
Nothing of the sort; they continue indifferent and un-
affected by the exposure, until a question is asked, after an
an interval of three weeks, that elicits a full avowal of the
facts, and subsequently provokes a motion for a vote of
want of confidence. And then these craven colleagues of
a too reckless _Minister, cabal together with their under-
lings in office to throw him overboard, in order to appease
the storm. Had these men one spark of manly feeling,
their duty was to have thrown up their offices, either
when the Austrian proposal for peace was overruled or
when they heard Lord John mislead the House of Com-
mons into the belief that the Cabinet were united on the
necessity of prosecuting the war. They did neither, be-
cause they were ready to become abettors of both the be-
tral of the country's honour and the shabby disavowal of it.
They obtained by their duplicity a party majority, which they
persuaded themselves would render them secure for the rest
of the session ; and now, when the consequences of the trans-
action are with retributive justice about to fall on their
heads, they try to cheat their fate by making one man
a scapegoat.

And finally, what shall be said of Lord Palmerston, if it
be true, as we are informed, that he has advised the Queen
to accept Lord John's resignation, in order that ho and the
rest of the Cabinet may aye a chance of retaining their
places ? Times are strangely altered since 1850. Lord
Palmerston was then a, Secretary of State against whose
official conduct a motion of censure was aimed. Lord Joh,i
Russell was then Prime Minister. Then, as sow, there

was• not wanting timid and time-serving counsellers ready
to urge that the assailed secretary should be sacrificed,
and p,rty interests thereby conserved. But Lord Ji,!in
was at least true to his yoke-fellow in office, whatever he
might be to his own pinciples. Ho determined to stand

.e<tnu

prore.i. The positions of Lord. Palmerston and Lord John
lttusell are now reversed. The noble member for London
is now the secretary assailed, and the noble member for
Tiverton is now Premier. We have no pity for Lord John,
but we have infinite contempt for his treacherous allies
in office. We have no notion of "crimes being punished
by other crimes and greater criminals." Lord Palmerston
cannot escape from the consequences of personal and poli-
tical complicity in the misdemeanours of Lord John Rus-
sell ; but be can still further damage a shattered reputa-
tion by trying to sever the defence of himself and his con-
federates from that of one who a few years since behaved
so differently towards him. We have been told that
" there is, honour among thieves ;" it is more than can be
said of our living Whig statesmen.