The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-02 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

DAY—Morn 13 min.aft. 7—Evening 5 I min. aft. 7
T )-MORROW—Morn.3B min.aft. B—Evening 21min. aft. 9

THE WEATHER.-SIIN OFFICE, NOV. 2.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.

45 - highest sinco noon yesterday.
39 —'.owest this mording and during the night.
44 —this day at noon.
BAROMETER, 29'82—still rising.
:'TNT—N. to N.N.E.—Light, with dull, cloudy, cold
weather.

f

)nu,

LONDON, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1855.

Elsewhere we publish in oer impression of this
evening the record of a rather significant incident
which transpired only yesterday, upon the occa-
sion of an educational meeting held at the little
market town of Fakenham down in Norfolkshire.
It will be observed that this incident was nothine
loss than the reading by the Chairman (the hog-''
curable representative for the borough of Tam-
worth) of a very mysterious communication
addressed to Sir W. JoNEs, Bart., by the
Noble Lord the member for Lynn Regis. The
circumstance out of which the epistle itself may
be said to have emerged can no doubt be readily
enough explained and appreciated—namely, the
disappointment of Lord STANLEY in consequence
of his unavoidable absence from an assemblage, to
the originators of which, ii; appears, he had pre-
viously prorni,,,ed whatever advantages might ac-
crue from his personal attendanc3. That, to be
sere, is a matter, so to speak, of every
day recurrence. Every one is liable, at
ail times, to these kind of unforeseen and
wholly fortuitous disappointments. It is
scarcely, therefore, in the simple announce..
rnent, made by Lord STANLEY, of his incapacity
to fulfil his engagement to the promoters of the
cause of education in Fakenham and its neigl.
bourhood, that we can find reason for conjecture,
or subject for bewilderment. It is rather in the
enigmatic manner in which the Noble Lord con-
veys to the meeting, through its Chairman, his
scrupulous anxiety to evade, if possible, the ne-
cessity of anything like particularity in the
wording of his explanation. So solicitous is the
Noble Member for Lynn Regis that the cause of
his absence last evening from Fakenham should
be overlooked, that the mystery of his*" letter"
results only in the awaking of the very liveliest
curiosity, not in Fakenham alone, but throughout
the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.
'Young though he is, his remarkable abilities have
already rendered him so truly a man of
mark among his contemporaries that the
heir to the House of Derby must needs
already pay the penalty of personal distinction
and political eminence. It is because of the
largeness of the promise afforded by the career of
Lord STANLEY during the seven years which have
elapsed since the date of his entrance into the
House of Commons in the December of 1848--
that the glimmering prospect discernable through
this problematic epistle of his possible assumption
of the responsibilities of office under the Premier-
ship of Lord PALMERSTON, becomes at once, on
the first whisper of it, a matter of very consider-
able interest to the great mass of his fellow-coun-
trymen. During the lapse of these seven momen-
tous years the Noble Lord may be regarded as
having more than creditably served the full term
of his political apprenticeship. Anticipations
might not unreasonably be formed, consequently,
as to the chance of his ulterior advancement to
Lieber posts than that modest one occupied by
him during the brief but memorable nine months
in 1852, when his father grasped the helm of
the State, and carried the good ship Britannia
from 1851 to 1853—from the culmination of the
star of the 40 years' peace iu the glories of the
Great Internatroffal Exhibition, almost to the
earliest apparition of that cloud (at first no bigger
than a man's band) on the extreme verge of the
eastern horizon,
that cloud destined so soon to ex-
pst of war, overshadowing the
pand into a teroPe
world with its gloom, and shaking Europe with its

sudden concussion.
Since the period when Lord STANLEY honour-
of the duties devolving
ably acquitted himself
upon him as Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs
while the Earl of MALMESBURY continued at the
head of that important department, the former
has occupied no obTcure position among the more
liberal members of her MAJESTY'S Opposition.
Already when ranked in the official phalanx of
the DERBY-DISRAELI Administration he was recog-
nised as anything rathor than a mere partisan,
although himself the heir of the Noble Earl then
Prime Minister of England. He was known, for
instance, to be earnestly favourable to the admis-
sion of Jews int) Parliament. He was known to
be an energetic, supporter of the Principle upon

which there is voted an annual grant to the Col-
lege of Maynooth. He was known to be a reso-
lute advocate of the exemption of Dissenters from
Church Rates. This was no mere party man, no
mere narrow-minded champion, through thick and
thin, of Conservatism and nothing but Conserva-
tism. Lord STANLEY was known to entertain
liberal opinions such as those we have here enu-
merated, even at the very time of his occupying
the position of Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs
in the ranks of the Earl of DERBY'S Government.
Since then the Noble Lord the member for Lynn
Regis has allowed his views to expand and ripen
upon many subjects of great public import in the
comparatively calm and sunny leisure of Opposi-
tion. He occupies, for example, though still very
young, a foremost post among the more eminent
labourers in the great cause of National Educa-
tion. And it is in regard to Lord STANLEY as a
promoter of the interests of popular improvement,
as an avowed enemy of religious disabilities, as
an earnest friend of religious toleration, as an
open foe to the levying of Church Rates
upon Nonconformists —in other words, as a
Liberal Conservative or a Conservative Liberal,
—designate politicians of this particular genus as
you please—that rumours are now rife as to the
ehances of his accession to power under the Pre-
miership of Viscount PALMERSTON.
In the mysterious missive to which we have
already more than once referred, the Member for
Lynn Regis observes, in reference to his compul
sory absence last evening from the meeting held
set Fakenham—" The reason of that absence I
cannot at this moment fully explain"—adding,
' I will do so when permitted, and in the mean
time I must beg you to believe in my assurance
that it is of a nature to leave me no option
whatever as to coming or staying." And further
—" I go down to Knowsley to-night" [Oct. 31]
—remarking to his correspondent in conclusion,
" I telegraphed to you within half an hour of
being made acquainted with the circumstances
which changed my plans." All which, we take it,
is sufficiently significant. So significant, indeed,
that the Chairman of the Fakenham gathering,
Captain TOWNSHEND, M.P. for the borough of
Tamwortla, ventured to suspect, after reading the
letter aloud to the meeting, that there was some
" State occasion" for the Noble Lord's non-
appearance. The Times itself becoming so
explicit in parenthesis, when announcing tlio
incident to its readers this morning, as to de
Clare in so many words—" [We believe it is not
impossible that Lord STANLEY may become a
member of the present Government] "—a declara-
tion of some import as coming from a sort of
demi-semi-official organ of the present Cabinet, one
that acknowledged only the other day that it de-
rives some few secrets, everynow and then, from a
"little bird" straying at odd moments, with a
garrulous beak and an erratic wing into the urban
seclusion of Printing-house-square. It is an im-
pression not by any means restricted to that one
locality—this impression that the Noble Lord
the member for Lynn Regis " may " " not im-
possibly " " become a member of the present.
Government." Remembering his ability, the
liberality of very many of his priu-
oiples, his undoubted popularity, and his
youthful but already extended reputation,
we hope and believe that these rumours have
beneath them something like a stable foundation.

The lamented death of Sir WILLIAM MOLESWOR TIE
has left a grievous vacancy in the Colonial Da-
partment. Besides which there is, virtually,
another hiatus of some magnitude in that occu-
pied by the Pastmaster-General, a position held
now for some time past merely pro tempore by
Viscount CA/sTNIWC3-a statesman nominated, as we
all know, long since by the Leadenhall-street:magni-
ficos, as the successor of the Marquis of DALHOUSIE,
as the ruler of the British Empirein Hindostan. The
Cabinet has from the first sadly wanted an infusion
of fresh blood—that want is now more than ever
imperative. The PALMERSTON Administration has
been oppressed from the outset, by the not easily
ponderable weight of its uniform and stolid medi-
ocrities. Now that Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTII
has passed from amongst us in the very fullness
of his powers, now that Viscount CANNING sug-
gests another vacancy by the approach of the
time of his departure for Calcutta—the necessity
for important changes in the Ministry becomes
more urgently than ever thrust upon the patriot-
ism and sagacity of Lord PALMERSTON. Let u 3
cherish a hope that the residue of the
Whigs may, at length, be cast aside,
that the tail of the Family Party may at last fol-
low its head to the limbo of the back benches,
that the political monster born of Incapacity and
Nepotism may thus in the end be ignominiously
extruded from the labyrinths of Administrative
Government—and its place occupied by true Libe-
rality and genuine Statesmanship impartially se-
lected, no matter whence. The realisation, in
short, of the day-dream of every right-minded
patriot—not through a nefarious Coalition like
that of old between the Shelburnites and the
Rockinghamites, or later on between the Aber-
deenites and the Russellites, but rather through
the nomination of the right men to the right
places under the influence of a fusion of parties
effected by no unprincipled compact, but by a
natural and patriotic amalgamation.

The full particulars of the capture of Kinbourn
are now before us, and they not merely confirm
the first vivid impression of that brilliant per-
formance, but place in a more striking light the
extraordinary skill and judgment displayed in
all the arrangements for the important operation,
and the great efficiency and zeal with which the
orders of the Commanders were carried into prac-
tical execution by officers and men. England
may well exclaim that "every man had faithfully
discharged his duty." And the result was not
the less acceptable because it was achieved with
comparatively trivial loss on theal partalways
chary of
of the
Allies. A good commander is y
the lives of those for whose welfare and safety he
It is a sacred trust which should
is responsible.
not be lightly tampered with. He will know
when there is a necessity for extraordinary risks,
and will not hesitate to face dangers in which
1 officers and men alike participate. But true
courage is very different from a reckless incirf-
ferenca to the destruction of human life. The
most unflinching bravery is invariably associated
with the utmost humanity.
All the arrangements were
perfect, and we
freely and willingly render to all engaged, from
the Admiral and General to the humblest sailor
or soldier, the thanks and gratitude which they
' have so well deserved. But we will also confess
that the glad tidings have only whetted our appe-
tites for other exploits of a similar character.
The capture of Kinbourn, the evacuation, and
voluntary destruction of the Forts at Otchakoff,
are chiefly valuable as a means to what should be
the great end and object of the expedition, the
Iseizure of Nicolaieff and Kherson, and the vast stores
and materials accumulated in these most important
towns. It would complete the humiliation of
Russia, and give the AUTOCRAT additional reason
to deplore the ambitious and grasping infatuation
which created the difficulty, and the ridiculous
arrogance which induced him to reject the too