The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-19 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER, 19, 1855.

Spirit or the Public Journals.

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APPOINTMENT OF MR. LABOUCHEn AS
COLONIAL SECRETARY.
( From the Times of this day.)
The British public has borne the want of a
Colonial Secretary so long, and with such equa-
nimity, as to suggest a suspicion that they have
forgotten the vacancy, not to say the colonies,
altogether. However, we still possess some fifty
colonies, or thereabouts, and they are still governed
through that Colonial-office which till lately was so
widely feared and so little loved. This department,
unhappily vacated by the death of Sir William
Molesworth, after being refused, as our readers
know, by Lord Stanley, and after being also re-
fused by Mr. Sidney Herbert, has been off sred to
Mr. Labouchere, and accepted by him. That the
name of this gentleman should have been men-
tioned from the first day of the vacancy, and that
the office should, nevertheless, have been offered
meanwhile to at least two other statesmen in
opposition to the Government and to one another,
is a fact that speaks for itself. Notwithstanding
all that is said about liberality, fusion, compre-
hension, and all other large ideas, when the
moment arrives they generally give way to the
actual force of political connexion, or "party,"
as we suppose it must be called. Lord Palmerston
has fallen back on a trustworthy and competent
man, who will transact the business of his depart-
ment with regularity, and perhaps with despatch.
There cannot be very much to do in it, or at least
there is not much that requires the anxious con-
sideration .of tLe. chief, if we are to judge from the
way in which the office has been knocked about for
the last twelvemonth. Mr. Labouchere, wo think,
is the fifth secretary within that brief period, nay,
virtually the sixth, as Sir George Grey held the
reins for Lord John Russell while he was at
Vienna. As there has been no very loud com-
plaint as yet from the persons most interested in
the colonies, none at least so loud as when one
energetic mind was concentrated for several years
on the government of the colonies, it may fairly be
concluded that a respectable man of business will
answer the purpose. We don't now attempt to go-
vern the colonies in the old sense of the word. We
allow them to govern themselves, and it is only
within a very limited range that there can arise
any discrepancy between colonial and imperial
legislation. The discrepancy, when it occurs,
is commonly a case for lawyers, not for states-
men. Even on the very important question of
colonial constitutions the only object is to find
what really best suits the wishes and the wants
of the colonists themselves, as we no longer aim to
force upon them the model of the British Constitu-
tion, or any theoretical plan.
But though the colonies no longer want a master
mind, or an inventive genius, or a splendid admi-
nistrator, or a Heaven-sent lawgiver, perhaps it
will be said that Lord Palmerston wants a little
more Ministerial eloquence in the Commons. How
is it that all the clever fellows—all the men who
can make speeches—are on the other side, or, to
speak more correctly, on the other sides, of the
House ? We think the question is one for the
clover fellows themselves to answer. So far as
Government is concerned, there happens to be no
great call for eloquence just now. The only thing
the nation cares about is the war, which is a matter
not of rhetoric, or of exposition, but of fighting,
backed, of course, by a good administration at
home. The nation does not want hounding on to
a war which it has undertaken itself with the ut-
most good will, and which it is prepared to carry
on with the greatest perseverance. The Minis-
terial defence is to come, not from the Trea-
sury bench, but from the seat of war, in the
laconic style of the electric telegraph. It is
true there is an immense power of eloquence in the
house unretained, and therefore probably on the
other side. There are a score or two good speakers
of one party or another, who will either have to
say nothing, or something unpleasant, and who
will probably prefer the latter alternative. 'But,
besides that some of these gentlemen will knock off
one another, tlieir very multitude stands in their
way. The conditions of the House of Commons
only allow of a certain amount of rhetorical oppo-
sition. There were in Sebastopol 6,000 guns, with
a proportionate quantity of powder, shot, and shell,
and no lack of men, and yet the laws of time and
,pace permitted only a certain quantity to be
brought to bear on us even in a twelve months'
siege. Thus it is probable that the army of
talkers with which Lord Palmerston is threatened
next session will find itself seriously embarrassed
for want of a suitable area. It will get " clubbed"
like an ill-handled regiment, or the greater part
will have to be laid up in arsenal for future occa-
sions. Then, the best talking in the world re-
luires something like a good case. Last session
Mr. Gladstone blazed away against the continu-
ance of the war, but the only results were that be
nearly expended his own character and damaged
his friends, who would now give a good deal that
his speeches were forgotten. So long as the war is
conducted with spirit, and.,no minor 000siderathon
is allowed to stand in the way, such gentlemen
will have nothing to talk about. War is work for
the hands. As for negotiation the time has gone by,
or is not yet come. We have negotiated on an
equality, and failed. The next negotiation must
be on a disparity, when one side lies at the mercy
of the other. It is vain to expect that next year.
The offer of the place to Mr. Sidney Herbert was
a compliment to that gentleman's supposed patriot-
ism and admitted talents. There are those who
argue that if an offer is rejected it ought never to
have been made. We don't think so. It may be
wise as well as generous to express a friendly senti•
ment, even at the expense of what the world may
failure. But till the advance is made the
failure cannot be known, and in politics it is gene-
rally best to clear away doubts as to the position
of those we have to deal with. Mr. Sidney
Herbert probably felt that, had he accepted
office, he would have had either to repudiate
his pacific professions of last session or to ex-
pose the whole Cabinet to the suspicion of in-
sincerity. Ho will, no doubt, give his explana-
tion in duo place and time, but the country is
quite as well satisfied it should be as itis.' The
4‘ Peelites" had only two ideas—peace and eco-
nomy, and they must undergo much more change
than they give evidence of yet before they will be
prepared for war and its expenditure. Under their
management we opened fire on Sebastopol last year
without au adequate siege-train, and with only am-
munition for a third-class fortress, and, as they
have since defended that management warmly and
deliberately, they cannot be doomed to have re-
pented of their errors. It is true that the Colonial
Secretary has now nothing to do with the war, but
there has been such a thing as a peace party ia the
Cabinet, and the very suspicion ought to be avoided
in the present state of affairs. Mr. Gladstone's
peace speeches of last session were translated and
circulated in Germany and Russia, to the immense i
encouragement of the Russian party, who, however,
so , far from sharing his pacific intentions, only
thought it superfluous to ask peace of a nation that
would soon make humble suit for itself. What
would now be thought if the Cabinet included a
Minister so closely associated with Mr. Gladstone
as Mr. Sidney Herbert usually has been ? But
even the most entire and conscientious changes of
opinion require opportunity for ascertaining and
expressing themselves. Next session Mr. Sid-
ney Herbert and his friends will find themselves
called on to declare themselves as to the conduct
of the war. Messrs. Cobden, Bright, Disraeli, and
others will be sure to provide such occasions, when
it will be quite open to .the "Peelite" statesmen
to say whether they think the nation is in the
right ; or whether, in their opinion, we aro simply
fighting Mike savages or wild boasts for victory,
glory, territory, or revenge. We are not ourselves
much addicted to flatter the people, as a very cur-
sory retrospect of popular questions will show. On
several points we have steadily opposed the public
clamour, and earned a very respectable amount of
opprobrium in consequence ; but when a cause is
good, when it is the fulfilment of old pledges, the
defence of the weak and resistance to the aggressor
—when it has been only undertaken after exhaust-
ing every expedient for peace—when it is carried
on by the sacrifice of the country's best blood and
utmost material resources, and when we have had,
so far, substantial, if not very glorious success, we
will not tamely endure to see a generous national
enthusiasm coolly criticised or indecently lam-
pooned, as if it were only the outbreak of some
immoral or unreasoning instinct, and shall con-
tinue to view with distrust the statesmen who
have so regarded the mighty efforts of a generous
people, or have not cared to clear themselves of
the suspicion.

(From the Morning Herald of this. day.)

The Colonial Office is, we believe, no longer va-
cant. After a month of indecision on the part of
the Minister, and of expectancy on that of the pub-
lic—at a crisis, moreover, of singular importance—
Lord Palmerston has at length found some one to
condescend to manage the affairs of our colonial
empire, and his choice has fallen upon the Right

Hon. Henry Labouchere. What that gentleman's
qualifications for the office whose functions he has
undertaken to discharge may be, we, in common,
we suspect, with the political world at large, are
somewhat at a loss to conjecture. Mr. Labou-
chere was Under Secretary for the Colonies for
some five months during Lord Melbourne's Admi-
nistration, Chief S cretary for Ireland for one
year during the last Whig Ministry, and subse-
quently, for a short period, President of the
Board of Trade. In none of these offices has
he given proof of anything beyond the most
ordinary capacity—the faintest indication of any
of the qualities of a statesman, or of those in-
dividual resources without which no man should
pretend to a place in the councils of the Sovereign.
When the Premier offered the Colonial seals to
Lord Stanley, lie selected a man of acknowledged
ability, and for his years of singularly extensive
knowledge of colonial affairs. Lord Stanley de-
clined to accept office in a disunited and unpopular
Administration. The truth is, we sincerely be-
lieve, as we have already intimated, that the pre-
sent Cabinet is so nicely balanced upon the ques-
tion of war, that the filling up of the vacant office
had become a matter for serious deliberation. Sir
William Molesworth is gone, and whatever his faults
as a politician may have been, it is said a leaning
to Russia was not amongst them. His successor,
if he has any fixed opinions on the great question
of the age, does not sympathise, at all events, with
the views of the late member for Southwark. Mr.
Labouchere will not, we dare say, trouble the coun-
cils in which he is henceforth to take part by any
determined or manly course for the honour of Eng-
land. He will be temperate and conciliating, and
will not disturb roughly the harmony of Downing-
street.

But will any man of common sense say that Mr,

Labouchere i; the person who should- be placed
just now in charge of the Colonial affairs of this
great country? There is, especially in our North
American colonies, extensive discontent—discon-
tent, moreover, amongst that portion of the popu-
lation hitherto best and most unalterably affected
to the British Crown. The Protestant party in the
dependencies to which we refer feel that they are
overborne by a Romish influence—a Romish tyranny
we should rather say—which has of late become
utterly insupportable. It is felt that the weight
and authority of the Colonial-office is used to
perpetuate this system, and to disgust and oppress
the Protestants of our colonies wherever the
opportunity serves. When the Under-Secre-
taryship was last filled up we denounced the
appointment of Mr. John Ball as disgrace-
ful to the character of any British Ministry,
and fraught with the worst consequences to our
colonial interests. We have not been mis-
taken in our anticipations—the reign of the priest
has commenced in right earnest in Canada, in
Nova Scotia, in Newfoundland—at the Cape, and
even in Australia—a state of things which, if not
terminated, will eventuate in anarchy, civil war,
and the disruption of our most valued dependencies.
Is a feeble temporising Whig like Mr. Labouchere
the man to terminate or control such a state of
things, and to crush the evil tendencies and malign
efforts of his scheming subordinate. We think
not. Lord Palmerston has taken Mr. Labouchere
as a sort of non pis aller—a political necessity; but
this is not the time, we can assure him, to trifle
either with his own position, or with the temper of
the British people.

(Front the Morning Advertiser of this day.)
We refrained from contradicting the assertions
.of a contemporary that this vacant office would be
offered to Mr. Frederick Peel, who would be suc-
ceeded as under-Secretary in the War Department
by Mr. Layard, M.P., because, although pro-
bably not intended as such, they were merely
regarded as d pretention in every well-informed
circle. It was impossible to regard in any other
aspect the policy of entrusting one of the most
arduous and responsible offices under the Crown to
a cold and stately young man, who would wish to
usurp that which his father would dis claim for his
offspring as a reward for his own great and im-
mortal services to the country. Mr. Layard, who
has done more than any man to destroy the aris-
tocratical exclusiveness of the existing military,
regime by exposing its fearful results in the mis-
management and disorganisation of the a army,
would be the last man to whom the present Go-
vernment would offer the Under-Secretaryship of
the War Department.
As we were the first to state, we believe the Duke
of Newcastle from motives which aro creditable to
his Grace, will not accept the office which has been
offered to him ; and consequently we may assume
that it will be at once conferred on one who is con-
nected with many aristocratic families—who has
long coveted it—and who had been fixed upon as
the successor to the late Sir W. Molesworth before
the formal compliment was paid to the Duke of
Newcasi,le of offering him the seals of the depart-
ment. We allude to the Right Hon. Henry La-
bouchere, M.P., brother-in-law to the Duchess of
Sutherland and of the E Id of Carlisle, whose lady
is the niece of the Dukes of Devonshire and of
Sutherland, sister of the Duchess of Argyll, and
first cousin to the Earl of Granville. So that hero
we have another Ministerial addition to " The
Families." That " interest" has again as3erted its
power.

Mr. Labouchere is one of the most virtuous, but
at the same time one of the most timid and irre-
solute members of the House of Commons. His
timidity on many occasions had formerly been so
marked that sonic of his own colleagues attributed
it to imbecility. But if single-mindedness and
honesty sufficed to constitute the statesman capable
of administering the executive affairs of 50 colonial
sovereignties, Mr. Labouchere would be unobjec-
tionable.

The son of a French refugee in Holland, by the
sister of a successful American, he entered public
life as a man of actual opulence and enormous ex-
pectations. He visited the United States along
with the present Earl of Darby, Mr. J. Evelyn
Denison, and Lord Skeltnersdale, whose daughter
in the following year, 1825, Lord Darby married.
Mr. Labouchere was highly complimented on his
" maiden speech" in the House of Commons by the
late Sir James Mackintosh. He was a Lord of
the Admiralty from 1832 to 1834, when he re-
signed on the dismissal by William IV. of the
Melbourne Ministry. On the return of Lord Mel-
bourne to power in 1835, he became Vice-Presi-
*dent of the Board of Trade and Master of the
Mint. In 1838 Mr. Labouchere, with Sir Arthur
Aston and Mr. M‘Gregor, the present member for
Glasgow, were the commissioners who proceeded.
to France for the purpose of negotiating a com-
mercial treaty with that country, and on the suc-
cess of which great hOpes wore entertained for the
future amity and mutual interests of the two
nations. Tho mission, however, terminated unsuc-
cessfully in consequence of the duplicity
Philippe, who, with his Minister, M. Thiers, pre-
ferred sacrificing the national interests to their own
personal considerations. Mr. M'Gregor's report
presented to Parliament was conclusive on the
subject. of Louis

About the same time, in consequence of some
difficulties at the Colonial-office, Mr. Labouchere
undertook the inferior office of Under Secretary,
the duties of which he discharged with industry and
satisfaction. On the appointment of 11/1;. Thornton
to the Governor-Generalship of Canada, in 1839,
`Gegor,
lr
Mr. Labouchere became President of the Board of
Trade, in which office, assisted by _Mr- A.
as secretary, he continued until the resignation of
the Melbourne Ministry, in 1841.
On the formation of the Family Compact Gover-
nment, in 1846, Mr. Labouchere was appointed to
the office of Secretary of State for Ireland, and
subsequently, on the removal of Lord Clarendon,
who was President, to be Lord-Lieutenant of Ire-
land, to the Presidentship of the Board of Trade.
Since the advent of the Derby Government he has
seldom appeared in public, and has rarely spoken
in the House of Commons.
In society Mr. Labouchere is considered cold
and diffident. He is, however, distinguished for a
quality which all respectable men must honour.
We have heard those who have mingled much in
the society of diplomatists and statesmen declare
their-belief, that in most instances the leading am-
bition of such individuals is to be—expert liars!
The most unsophisticated are probably well aware
that falsehood is one of the most active and impor-
tant agents in political science and government ;
but few have any conception of the terrible extent
to which political society is demoralised by this
degrading and disgusting attribute. In striking
contrast to many public men Mr. Labouchere is
noted for an innate love of truth ; and those
who know him best believe that no conceivable
temptation would induce him to compromise
his veracity. On one occasion lie refused to
accept a sum of 18,0001. or 20,0001., the esti-
mated damage to his estate of Highlands, in
Essex, by the intersection of the Eastern Counties
Railway, on the ground that he did not himself
consider the railway did the least injury to his pro-
perty. His timidity, no doubt, arises from the
over-anxious zeal of an honest head and mind ;

but the want of that Roman quality, decision, is
one of the gravest objections to a statesman. From
the fear of possibly doing that which is wrong, he
is afraid boldly to do that which is right. In the
history of Colonial Government there are many ex-
amples to warn a Minister against the dangers of
procrastination or irresolution. Greater evils may
arise from anxious hesitation than from the prompt
decision of instinctive judgment.

(Prom, the Daily News of this day.)
Is Austria a friendly power Y We published on
Friday a letter from a Prussian correspondent, in
which it is stated that—" Within the last month
more than 100,000 cwt, of sulphur have been for-
warded from Austria to Russian Poland, and every
day about 600 cwt.s of this article continue to ar-
rive, packed partly in chests 2nd partly in casks."
The Prussian frontier authorities having refused to
forward this contraband of war, it is now removed
from the northern railway at the last station within
the Austrian territory and forwarded to Cracow in
carts. Austria professes to be neutral in the war
now in progress ; Austria professes to lean more to
the Western Powers than-to Russia ; and yet Aus-
tria supplies Russia with munitions of war to an
extent that shocks the feelings of Prussian autho-
rities—not over-sensitive on this point.
Is Austria a friendly power? Letters from Bucha-
rest state that a foreign officer in the British ser-
vice, sent to that place by our Government to buy
horses and carts for the army, and bearing letters
of credit to the English Consul and the native au-
thorities, has been arrested by the Austrians. He
is said to have had his English uniform stripped
off, and an Austrian military great coaegiven him
in lieu of it. The plea advanced in justification of
this insult is that Colonel Thier (the gentleman in
question) is a deserter from the Austrian service.
He appears to have been a political exile, a
Hungarian by birth, who had served in the Aus-
trian army, but passed over to the Piedmontese in
1849. If the story be true, a Hungarian political
exile has been seized by the Austrians on a neutral
territory, for they possess no civil jurisdiction in the
Principalities, which are still regarded as part of
the Ottoman empire. The asylum granted by the
Sultan to Kossuth and other Hungarian exiles—in
granting which he was supported by the English
Government—has been ♦iolated in the person of
Colonel Thier; and the temptation to this outrage
appears to have been the opportunity it afforded
Count Coronini of insulting England by stripping
the English uniform from the back of his prisoner.
Is Austria a friendly power ? Every possible ob-
struction and insult is systematically offered to the
English Consul in Wallachia, in the discharge of
his official duties, by the Austrians. Nor is this
all. Mr. Colquhoun having incurred the hatred of
the Austrian military authorities in Wallachil,
and of their wretched tool (the c i-dev ant Russian
tool) Prince Stirbey, by his firm and judicious
assertion of the rights of England and her ally the
Sultan, the most unscrupulous devices are resorted
to, with a view to injure his character. Attempts
have even been made to bribe English journals to
lend themselves to these nefarious attacks upon Mr
Colquhoun.

Yet the English Government, so prompt to drive
matters to extremities in a dispute with republican
America, tamely puts up with all the insults and
injuries heaped upon it by despotic Austria.
The truth is that the permission given to Aus-
tria to occupy the Principalities with her armies is
the worst fault that has been committed by the
French and English Governments during the war.
We protested against that occupation before the
crime was consummated. We proved from history
that Austria had repeatedly attempted to wrest the
Principalities from the Porte, and annex them to
her own empire. We allowed that,in the war which
was terminated by the peace of Giurgevo:---in the
negotiation of which Sir Robert Murray Keith
acted as the British Plenipotentiary—the Porte
was enabled to retain the Principalities solely by
the mutual jealousy which rendered its two assail-
ants, Russia and Austria, each unwilling to see the
coveted prize in the hands of the other. We showed
how Austria was now taking advantage of the po-
sition of Russia to obtain for itself these Principali-
ties to gain which Russia had risked so much.
Time has proved that we were right. Austria is
usurping sovereign authority in the Principalities ;
Austria is compelling the Principalities to nourish
a portion of her army, to the maintenance of which
her own beggared exchequer is inadequate ; Aus-
tria is preparing to colonise Wallachia and Molda-
via with her German subjects ; Austria has got
hold of the Principalities, and laughs to scorn
every representation of the Allies that they are
part of the Ottoman empire.
Can the Allies, or will they, insist upon the eva-
cuation of the Principalities by the Austrian army
of occupation ? It never was, or could be, of the
slightest use there. Its continuance is a standing
outrage upon humanity, and a violation of the
great principle of international law, to assert which
the Allies took up arn.s against Russia.

(From tice Mornilt9, Post of Otis day.)
While waiting for the supplementary details
which will complete for us the picture of the late
battle on the banks of the Ingour (nature having
everywhere imposed for the moment upon the
Allied armies a suspension of large offensive opera-
tions), it will not be lost time to glance more closely
at this last exploit in Abasia, and to consider the
results to which that victory will probably load ;
for we may, without temerity, accept it as at once
the augury and the introduction of greater events.
It is significant that, although the Russians could
not muster, to arrest the march of Omer Pacha, a
force at all equal in numbers either to their own
task or to the advancing columns, they neverthe-
less made the most strenuous exertions to resist
those, relying on an advantageous position be-
hind a river, and upon entrenchments defended
by artillery. Nor was the enemy's numerical
inferiority the only evidence of his deficient pre-
paration or his failing strength to make good
in this region the overweening directions of the '
Czar. A part of the array which disputed
Omer Pacha's progress consisted of the Georgian
militia. The anxiety which could risk a conflict
under such circumstances shows the vital import-
ance attached by the Russian chiefs to the main,
tenance of that frontier line, while the issue pro-
claims the growing exhaustion of the requisite
means.
The Ingour,
which is a rather rapid, but narrow
stream, flowing out of the Caucasus from east to
west, and emptying itself into the Euxine by
Anaklia, could not, of course, have been itself the
barrier on which the 12 or 14,000 Russians relied
for the arrest of Omer Pacha's troops. We hear
of no great difference, at the scone of combat, in
the height of the opposing banks ; the stream,
besides, was fordable, the Turks crossing it in four
places (with their fire-arms aloft, and the water up
to the shoulder), in the very teeth of a powerful
fire• This operation must have required but a
few minutes—and, as the battle lasted five hours,
the main stress of it was evidently on the
Russian side of the little river. Some slight
discrepancy about the exact losses, respectively,
of the victors and the vanquished, exists be-
tween Lord Stratford do Redcliffe's despatch and
that of the Ottoman Government ; and it is even
probable that we have not yet anything like the
tale of what the enemy at least suffered ; for it
appears that Omer Pacha, was enabled to give pur-
suit, always a more calamitous transaction to the
beaten than their overthrow in the actual conflict.
So much at least is quite clear, that not only a
signal victory has been achieved, but that the
conduct of the British officers present in the en-
gagement was, in the most conspicuous degree,
admirable and heroic. Although the Russian
soldier defends an elaborate fortification with ex-;
traordivary stubbornness, his attitude behind
hasty and less perfect field-works is another mat-
ter. In all likelihood, the artificial defences be-
hind the Ingour (not to speak of the natural
protection of formidable convex heights), were
not of a nature to be compared with those which
English and French battalions partly stormed and
partly turned behind the Alma ; and, no doubt,
in the degree of strength, the two positions were
very different ; but the character of them is
one—a stream in front, then intrenchments, lined
with hand-fire, and crowned with batteries. It is
the favourite situation of our present opponents ;
but the advance against it is generally the only
serious difficulty. If the assailants once penetrate
beyond the line of cannon, the Russians aro not
usually successful in recovering by the bayonet
what they could not preserVe by artillery. The
repeated rallies made by the self-same Turkish
troops in the recapture, from successive columnst of
assailants, of the Tahmasb Tabia Redopuh
Kars, could have been effected by theu r
only with so many relays of distinct and
h 1 c been
ha separate
reinforcements, supposing that positions ss,anats
reversed. Still less could the Russians ave re-
newed with one and the same small body of men
the numberless charges of our Guards at Inkermanf
ever fresh bat-
against an interminable series o
4 talions.

It will have been observed by our readers that