The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-13 00:00:00

motion." This was simply a repetition of the
taunt to Mr. LAYARD "to find a day for him-
self." There was no proposition to surrender a
Government day for the virtual impeachment of
" offer no impediment,"
Ministers. They would
but they supplied no facility. Perhaps they
thought that the paltry quibbling of Lord JOHN
RussELL, unworthy of an Old Bailey pettifogger,
might have allayed the storm of indignation, and
induced the House to wait patiently for the
next regular supply day—viz., the 20th instant.
In this respect they " reckoned without their
host." The Right Honourable Gentleman the
Member for Bucks seized on the weak point, and
left them not a leg to stand on. He showed that
the long-delayed papers—the latest whereof was
dated the 19th June, and all practicably bearing
on the question, more than two months old—could
but -little affect the issue before the House and
the country. They might, in fact, add to the
guilt, but they could not exonerate the ex-Pleni-
potentiary from the grave charges of which he
has been convicted on his own confession. They
might bring others into the scrape, but they could
not acquit the chief culprit, whose whining con-
fession and promise to be a better boy for the
future only aggravates his offence.
Lord PALMERSTON, then, was compelled to
strike, with a faint attempt at jocularity. He
exhibited the feeling of some criminals who have
jested even en route to the scaffold. He attempted
a joke about the Right Honourable Gentleman
having made " much ado about nothing," but the
sickly attempt at wit was peculiarly infelicitous.
It laid him open to the blow so vigorously admi-
nistered by Sir E. B. LYTTON as to " Much Ado
about Nothing " coming immediately after " the
Comedy of Errors ;" and but for the serious
consequences to the nation these would
be a comedy highly ridiculous. There was the
figuring of the twin Dromios in the first instance,
where there was a distinction without a difference,
and no perceptible mark by which the people
could distinguish the one from the other. There
was, indeed, the Comedy of Errors fully per-
sonated, not merely at Vienna, but in England.
But what was the " Much Ado about Nothing" by
which it was succeeded ? It was the story of
a deceitful traitor, who, by the most infamous
fraud, succeeded in hood•winking the nation, and
bringing discredit on a person of irreproachable
character. He was instigated by a false Prince,
who fled from the consequences of his detected
treachery, detected through the inconside-
rate babbling of his weak-minded tool. Had
Lord PALMERSTON reflected he would hardly
have exposed himself to the retort respecting
" the Comedy of Errors," or the plot of " Much
Ado about Nothing."

As to Lord Jon RUSSELL'S attempted expla-
nations they are perfectly futile. Like a clerk
detected in plundering his too-indulgent masters,
he offers, if forgiven, to lead an exemplary
life for the future, and to make up the full
amount of his ill-gotten gains. "It has been
inferred and supposed," says the Noble Lord,
" that because, at the end of April and
beginning of May, I thought those propositions
might have been assented to, that I think now
those propositions may form the foundation of
peace. Such an opinion would be totally erro-
neous." He then declares that, retaining his
opinion as to what might have been done, he be-
lieves that " nothing but a vigorous pro-
secution of the War will obtain terms on
which peace can be concluded." Why,
what paltry equivocation is here what
barefaced duplicity. On Friday last, after as-
serting that " the Austrian plan of counterpoise
might be a mode of concluding the War with
honour to the Allied Powers, and that it would
give, if not the certainty, a very fair prospect of
peace," he emphatically added—" Sir, I have not
changed that opinion 1" But now he comes for-
ward with his whining and vaguo generalities
about " the vigorous prosecution of the
War alone obtaining terms on which peace can
be concluded." He thus renders himself no less
detestable, but far more contemptible than before.
No disinterested man cau be taken in by the spe-
cious sophistry—nothing can revive the confi-
dence so badly forfeited. The reputation of
Lord Jourr RUSSELL as a public man, and
we only deal with him in that capa-
city, is irretrievably damaged. Nothing can
replace him on the pinnacle from which he has
wilfully cast himself, or resuscitate political vita-
lity in him who has deliberately committed politi-

cal suicide. We shall only add, that Monday is
the day fixed for the contest, and that "England
expects that every man that day will do his
duty !"

Mr. FOLLETT certainly made the best of his
brief on Friday night, as counsel for Church
Rates. We are glad he did, for, after all, what
do his arguments amount to ? The one on which
he relied for impression, which he worked out in
detail, which he raked up all his quotations from
'Hansard" to prove, was neithermore nor lest than
the notorious fact that the more active Dissenters
desire not only to abolish Church Rates, but all
State interference with religion, whether in the
shape of pay, patronage, or control. Who doubts
it ? The Voluntaries have been no secret associ-
ation of late years, and it cannot be denied that
the Anti-Corn-law and Free-trade discussions have
disposed the minds of thousands to regard State
protection in religion much as they have come to
regard protection for agriculture and commerce.
Itis
0f of no use to ignore the fact, the parallel may
exist or not ; but it is undeniable that vast num-
berspersons who would have scouted Volun-
tariisra in religion a few years ago now look upon
tithrwowa
with- reluctance. The splendid success of
agriculture and trade on their own re-
sources has generated a conviction of the inutility
of artificial support, and the power of spontaneous
effort, which few of us formerly held so strongly
a.slltve do now. Nye used to turn from the
Voluntaries as dreamers. None of us do that
now. We allow our antagonist to be a
real pourer, and even Lord JoiiN in his
last haughty attack on Lord STANLEY in the de-
bate on Church Rates, was compelled to own
Voluntaryism to be an opinion which, though not
his, had yet its unquestionable status.

We learn, therefore, from the elaboration of
Mr. FOLLETT, what all with open eyes knew so
well before, that there is a large, active, and
growing party who think that religion can go
alone—who also think (would that bishops and
clergy did not (10,111 they could to prove them right)
that a State sup'. )orted Church is a political nui-
sance—that it sta ads in the way of every liberal
measure, from fre e sepulture for our dead to free-
dam of marriage ' pith those whom GOD and nature
Point us to as hest fitted oftentimes to supply
their plaee---
that it even grudges men the liberty
to meet together more than twenty at a time to
worship
Got .1 Volunt 'es are likely to be nume-
rous while bishoi )3
the yo
showthemselves
tosucht
ii e la): ceinocui:
ultimate object .of legislators. Well
,hut what is the pertinence of the
meet which proposes that Sir W. CLAY'S Bill be
committed this day three months ? Why, that if
you give them ~an inch they will take an ell. The
stereotyped defe nce of every abuse ! When that