The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-26 00:00:00

(Front Ike Morning Herald of this day.)

Lord John Russell has accepted the seals of a Secre-
tary of State. We are to have once more an exclusively
Whig Ministry. Matters have reverted, as far as mi-
nisterial arrangements are concerned, pretty much to the
state of things existing prior to Lord Palsnerston's ex-
pulsion by Lord John Russell in December, 1851, with
the exception that Lord Palmerston and Lord John Rus-
sell have changed places ; Lord Palmerston is the head
of the Cabinet, and Lord John Russell the subordinate
Secretary of State.
Strange, indeed, if this were to be the only result of
all the shifting scenes of the drama which has been en-
acted throughout the last tkree years. In the beginning
of December, 1851, a Whig Cabinet ruled the councils
of England, with Lord John Russell as its chief. In that
month the country was startled by the announcement
that one of the most able and,_popular members .t the
Cabinet had been dismissed. Lord .iohn Russell, as
Premier, haughtily dispensed with the services of his
to tear Vo The VAlriire °NV?:S roeineci:■ h"iril. :td.
By the Queen's special commands Lord John Russell
told him that he must cease to be a Minister of the
Crown. The words of the letter of dismissal were couched
in the authoritative terms of an almost conteraptuons re-
primand, and Lord Palmerston was driven from the
Cabinet of the Q.een.

Three years from the date of that strange story have
scarcely passed, when we see again the same Ministry in
office. But the dismissed and reprimanded statesman is
now its chief, and the Prime Minister, who so gravely
and haughtily rebuked him, is now content and proud
to take his place below him. Have all the changes and
chances of these three years been only arranged to settle
the dispute between the two Whig chieftains and give a
personal triumph to Lord Palmerston. It seems as if
their only result had been to reverse and avenge that
contemptuous dismissal of December 1851.
Whatever is to be the phase of the future, it is cer-
tain that at this moment our ministerial arrangements
have reverted to the point from which they started by
the dismissal of Lord Palmerston in December,
.1.851.
We have what is termed by a strange misnomer a pure
Whig Administration, and the family party of the
" great houses" once more try their hand at managing
the affairs of this great nation.

.-Let us, however, for a moment turn our attention to
another section of politicians who have managed to play
no inconsiderable part in this strange cycle of events.
The remnant of the Cabinet of Sir Robert Peel must
now look on the result with some feelings of mortifica-
tion when they see that they have been only used as a
temporary convenience while the differences of the Whig
party were in process of adjustment. In 1850 they
joined the Conservatives
a Lordt iy
Palmerston,es i n an
attempt
in mnhthhe
foreignrelation to Greece appeared likely to damage the in-
in
teres ts of the country. Succeeding in the House of
Lords, that effort failed in the Commons, but the debate
in which Lord Palmerston triumphed over his opponents
peolCicoynosef
will long be memorable for the tone of severity in which
Sir Robert Peel himself and his followers condemned the
The very next day closed, by a melancholy accident,
policy of the present Premier.
tfohreeic"aureer of Sir Robert Peel. From the hour of his
death, the little band of factionists that have assumed his
name as their watchword, appeared to b. guided by but
one principle of action, and that was to exclude by all
from power. With this
and by their object they supported, r support maintained
Ministry of Lord John Russell, whose
in office the
foreign policy they had so vehemently denounced. Sir
James Graham sat, it is true, en the back benches of the
Opposition, but he sat there, as his late secretary told
means the Conservative party
him—

Minis-
" A sweet little cherub sits smiling aloft
To keep watch o'er the life of poor Jack."
Notwithstanding their opposition on the one solitary
pc leeesii ai
tsetgi ctahlatn
s Titles
ab Bill, it was the gene-
ral eel the Whig
try to live on through the session of 1851.
meassuuprpeoorft the
of t hEec
When that Ministry fell, Lord Derby, as the chief of
the Conservative party, was called to take the reins of
power. We need not go over the discreditable details of
the conspiracy by which he was driven from office. In
that conspiracy the Peelite faction bore the chief part.
It was entirely by their means, by the personal agency
of the Duke of Newcastle, that there was brought to the
conspiracy ihe aid of that Popish contingent which
finally decided the conflict. With the fall of Lord Derby's
Administration the Peelites had achieved their great ob-
ject. They had avenged upon their old friends the
never-forgiven defeat of 1846. They had driven from
office the party with whom they had been so long allied,
and they had inflicted a heavy blow upon the principles
which some of them had all their lives supported. But
they thought they had done inore—they stipulated for
a share of the spoil—they, without followers and
without influence, insisted on dividing with the
once great Whig party the Cabinet offices ; nay, still
more, they nominated a Premier—they seized for
their little faction the most proruinet departments
of administration. and if they were content to abandan
all their Conservative traditions in their home policy,
and do the work of undermining the old institutions of
England, they revenged themselves for it by forcing on
their colleagues a blind acquiescence in their despotic
and absolutist policy in our foreign relations.
Such has been the position of the Peelites for the last
two years. The political history of Englied recorded
no such instance of successful intrigue. men whose
whole lives had been a war upen everything liberal were
placed at the head of affairs by the representatives of
those who claim a monopoly of liberal opinions. Lord
Aberdeen, the very impersonation of absolutist opinions,
was installed as the champion of liberty. The author
of "The Church in its Relations to the State" was re-
garded as the advocate of the extreme opinions of Radi-
cal Reformers ; and at the head of the Liberal party, as
they call themselves, Lord John Russell was made
subordinate to the faction of Lord Aberdeen,
But the day of retribution has come. With
" wounded feelings," to use the phrase of Sir James
Graham, with mortified sensibilities and bitterly disap-
pointed ambitions, successive batches of this little party
have been driven from office. They have been used as
the instruments to enable the Whig Cabinet to be re-
constructed ; and not only this, they see the man whose
policy they most hate advanced as the result of all their
intrigues to the foremost place in the councils of the
nation, and they have the satisfaction of reflecting that
their presence in the councils of their Sovereign is only