The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-12 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, JULY 12, 1855.

Although Ministers are willing to procrastinate
the evil day, and to retain office on terms from
which any of their predecessors would have
shrunk with horror, they will not be permitted to
do so without an arduous struggle. No, the
measure of their iniquity is full to overflowing—
the public indignation is excited to the utmost
degree. It is universally felt that Lord JOHN
RUSSELL has completely forfeited the confidence
of the nation, and if his colleagues desire to retain
his co-operation, and to shield the most glaring
instance of duplicity and insincerity ever exhibited
on the part of one holding high appointments,
that they must share his fate, and make way for
others with a sounder sense of political morality,
and
more stringent notions respecting the obli-
gations and consistency of public men.

It may be very convenient for Lord PALMER-
STON to put off a decision until he knows whether
the " irresponsible Prime Minister" will suffer him
to dismiss Lord JOHN RUSSELL with as scant cere-
mony as the latter Noble Lord, when nominal
Premier, displayed towards himself when merely
a Secretary of State. But it is not for his own
honour or the interests of the country that he
should remain quiescent under a charge of so
serious a character—that he should continue to
hold office, not even on sufferance, but by paltry
and contemptible expedients to evade the delibe-
rate judgment of a majority of the House of Com-
mons, Ray, more, it is not for his own advan-
tage, nor of these among
any—who are his colleagues—if
honestly determined to refuse
their assent to an ignominious and transitory
peace ! It is more than hinted that there are
intrigues in operation that may end in his evic-
tion from the place he laboured so hard to attain,
and the substitution of the ex-plenipotentiary
who has purchased at so high a •
price the favour
of all who advocate the adoption of a
sioeußG
getic
as
inaybreecttihone
policy. Vigorous and energetic
onslaughts about to be made under the di
of Sir B. B. LYTTON and Mr. ROEBUCK, the
Cabinet is threatened with even greater danger
from within ; the treachery and defection of the
garrison is more formidable than the power of its
assailants.

If time be given Lord JOIIN RISSELL may con-
clude arrangements with the Peelites, and the
Peace-at-any-Price Party. He may thus be
enabled to step into office at the very close of the
session, and to conclude a treaty by which all our
sacrifices of men and money would be rendered

abortive, by which Russia would be allowed to
carry her nefarious plans into practical operation
without let or hindrance, and our only trustwor-
thy and faithful ally disgusted and alienated. It
is true that such a course would be highly dis-
graceful and possibly perilous to all the actors,
that it would be treacherous and deceitful in the
highest degree, and might bring well-merited
punishment on all the actors in the dark conspi-
racy. But, alas, what reliance can be placed in
the honour and integrity of the man who, after
having stated to the Austrian Minister "that his
terms ought to be, and might be accepted, and
that he would lay the case before the British
Cabinet, and would use his best exertions
to put the propositions in such a light that they
might hope for their adoption," having, as he
himself declared, " certainly performed that pro-
mise," yet delivered a speech on Mr. DISRAELI'S
motion of such a character as to induce the House
and the country to believe that he was the most
determined advocate for the vigorous prosecution
of the War until an honourable and enduring
peace had been conquered from Russia ? In
making that speech, under the peculiar circum-
stances of the case, he was guilty of wilful and
deliberate deception towards the nation. He was
" blowing hot and cold " at the same time—
fanning in public the flame of popular enthusiasm
to the utmost intensity, but, in the privacy of the
Cabinet Councils, inspiring icy doubts into the
breasts of his colleagues, and chilling their souls
by the precepts of Germanism. What, then, may be
apprehended from such a man, sustained by secret
influence of a very powerful character. The popular
representatives must be on the alert while there
is yet time—and guard their cherished Constitu-
tion from the danger in which it is placed, although
possibly not from the quarters recently indicated.
The ill-timed candour of Lord JOHN, who wan-
tonly flung this modern apple of discord into the
political arena, goes far to prove that there is
something on the tapis, respecting which early
and complete information is of vital importance.
Mr. DISRAELI has, a second time, come forward
to compel Ministers to make up their minds, and
to announce a definite and certain line of policy. He
will this evening move thatprecedence may be given
to Sir E. B. LYTTON'S want of confidence motion
for to-morrow. We do not see how that demand
can be resisted, with what face, or under what
pretence Ministers could refuse the challenge
delivered through the recognised leader of her
MAJESTY'S Opposition in the House of Commons
from one of the most renowned champions of that
body. It would have been better for Lord PAL-
MERSTON had he in the first instance complied
with a good grace, but we cannot suppose that he
has so far fallen as to refuse the defiance thus
fiercely hurled at him, and to submit patiently to
the charge of political poltroonery with which a
persistence in the ignominious course would in-
delibly brand him.

Coronets or competency—that is now very
much the question on which the future of Eng-
land depends. Hero we are in the second year of
the War still carrying on the Government with a
Cabinet and Ministry composed, for the most
part, of quite common-place men—some of
them, indeed, claiming to be men of ex-
perience, but who should rather be described
as second-hand materials all the worse for wear.
The worse, because their so-called experience con-
sists chiefly of drilling in official and party tra-
ditions, not in the acquisition of political know-
ledge or public principles. A well-seasoned Go-
vernment man—we speak irrespective of party—
is one who has learned to act with his clique, to
take general care of the interests of aristocracy,
and special care of that section of it to which he
belongs. Such men are nearly all the present
occupants of high office. Not much better or
much worse would the Opposition aristocracy be
if they turned out the others. The Earl of
DERBY would use the old cards over again, quite
as much as- the Whig or Peelite leaders. Our
Governments are, indeed, nothing but a see-saw
between two sets of men, professing, of oourse, op-
posite political principles, but with a perfect
understanding that neither side shall wander be-
yond the charmed circle.

Now, we do not want to mix up this question
with names, though we could readily give them ;
but does any one doubt that a Cabinet, perhaps
half a dozen Cabinets, might easily be formed out of
even the present House of Commons, quite equal to
the present one ? Take the list of our Ministers,
read it over to any one conversant with the
members of Parliament, and he could name as
each Lord This or Lord That was mentioned, some
one of quite equal ability and integrity ; probably
the process might be repeated several times.
Why, then, with all the shiftings and changes we
have had, are none of these men brought for-
ward ? If a public Company cashiered a Board
of Directors for bad management, and placed
their opponents in power, and if these latter did
no better, or did worse, the Shareholders would
assuredly, find out some fresh men belonging to
neither of the old Boards, till they got a Board
both honest and competent. They would never
think to mend their position by shuffling together
the two packs of cards and selecting by chance
the number required. Why cannot the House of
Commons take the same common-sense course.
A mistress frequently finds it advantageous, if
she must change a servant or two, to make a
clean sweep of the servants'.hall, and replace the
expelled batch by those who are uncontaminated
with the malpractices of their predecessors.
This, we may be told, would be revolution.
Granted—revolution amongst individuals, but
certainly not in our " glorious constitution."
The LORD CHANCELLOR must, we suppose, be a
peer ; yet, singularly enough, he is generally
the only one of the Cabinet who. gets
into it for ability, and not for belong-
ing to the aristocracy. All the other mem-
bers might be, and have been, in turn, plain
private gentlemen.
S
present generation becomeo competey h
accustomed,ll however,asthe
to Government by family and aristocratic cliques,
that it would no doubt be a greater feat than the
capture of Cronstadt to put in office a Ministry
unconnected with the families who have so long
divided the fleece, and it would certainly
be a greater wonder to the nation. W e
have only to rub the dust from our eyes, how-
ever, to see how completely we suffer ourselves to
be blinded. Two things would immediately stare
us in the face—the first, that most of the present
occupants of place would never have been there
and kept there but from their aristocratic connex-
ions ; the second, that there are scores of men
who would certainly have been tried, li
to the
had they
but been wearers of coronets, or related
wearers of these jewellers'
baubles.
One of the miserable results of this deference to
coronets instead of brains and hearts, is the non-
representative character of our representatives,
taken at least as a voting body,
and for the
more part as a debating body. Never was a
House of Commons less than now the echo of the
people's voice. It has made a set of aristocrats
its conductors, and it keeps time and tune to their
guidance. The sentiments of the nation are