The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-09 00:00:00

T.FIE WAATHER.—Sunr OTTICE. Feb. 9.

LINIIMONSTEN, IN THE SLUE.
36—highest since noon yesterday.
31—!owest this morning and during the night.
33 —this day, at noon.
BAROMETER went down to 29'74 ; now up to 29'97.
WIND, E.—Rather fresh and gusty, with cold, dull
weather. It snowed all day yesterday, and up to a late
hour. The cold was intense.

4
ev-,11)
(L I)
, .
• " •

LONDON, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1855.

Several interesting explanations were last night
given in reference to proceedings during the late
Ministerial crisis. Lord GRANVILLE, who has
resumed the position of President of the Council,
which he had vacated in deference to Lord JOIIN
RUSSELL, is, it appears, to bo the leader in the
Upper House—a matter respecting which he
spoke with commendable modesty, and in terms
calculated to produce a very favourable impres-
sion on the House and country. We have long
appreciated the talent and business habits of the
Noble Lord, but we confess that, considering his
youth, it would have appeared more suitable if
the important duty had devolved on Lord Cris-
iturrnow, whose position, as Foreign Secretary,
would seem to indicate him as the legitimate
leader, when the Premier sits in the other branch
of the Legislature. The arrangements, however,
which depend in a great degree on personal feel-
ing, and cannot affect the strength or effi-
ciency of the Government, are matters which
may be fairly left in the hands of the
different members of the Cabinet to settle
among themselves, and with which the public are
scarcely called on to interfere. It might be that
the numerous and onerous duties of the Foreign
Secretary were such as to render him unwilling
to assume the leadership in the Lords, and that
it was for that reason the new President of the
Council was to a certain extent elevated to the
chief position in the hereditary branch of the
Legislature. His exposition of the intended
Ministerial policy is practically the same as that
put forward by the ABERDEEN Government, so far
as internal affairs are concerned ; while with re-
ference to the War he declares that " Lord PAL-
MERSTON and his colleagues mean to take every
measure in their power to carry it on with all
possible vigour and energy until that day, and
not a day later, when a just and honourable peace,
comprehending both the interests of Europe and
the honour of this country, shall be attained."
Similar professions were also made by the late
Government ; and we have seen how wide was the
difference between the promise and performance.
We have, however, greater faith in the vigour and
energy of Lord PALMERSTON than of Lord ABER-
DEEN, and greater confidence as to what may be
considered " a just and honourable peace, com-
prehending both the interests of Europe and the
honour of this country," by the present than the
late PREMIER. The words may be the same, but
they are to be interpreted by a very different
standard.

The most interesting explanation, however,
was that given by Lord DERBY, in clear, distinct,
and unequivocal terms. The Noble Lord dis-
played a soundness of judgment and disinterested
patriotism that must materially add to the high
estimation in which ho is held by the nation, and
which leads to the hope that the obstacles which
prevented a union of parties, and the formation
of a really strong Government may not prove in-
surmountable on some future occasion. The sub-
stantial difference that existed between the
Derbyite and Liberal parties was removed by the
total and unqualified abandonment of Protection.
We have shown that in legal, fiscal, financial, and
monetary reforms the former are just as likely to
assent to large and comprehensive measures
as the latter—indeed, in one respect, that
of a more equitable adjustment of the In-
come Tax, we might confidently anticipate it
from Mr. DISRAELI, while it is proved to be
hopeless so long as Mr. GLADSTONE remains
at the head of the Financial Department.
The Parliamentary Reform so urgently demanded
would, we are convinced, be more likely to be
carried, and be better worth obtaining, for it
would include " the Ballot," with the Whigs in
Opposition rather than in office. In the one
case it might be again, as it has already been,
shelved ; while, on the other, it would he pressed
forward with the utmost force. The country
would not have obtained the repeal of the ob-
noxious, Corn Laws so speedily or satisfactorily
had the Whigs remained in office, and not seen
the propriety of becoming converts is order to
win their way back to the Treasury Benches.
Although Lord DERBY might have reasonably
hoped for greater forbearance, under the existing
circumstances of the country, than had previously
been displayed, he was unquestionably right in
seeking to obtain the aid of Lord PA.LMERSTON,
whose services were unanimously desired by the
country ; and, also, in offering to accept with
him some of his late colleagues, although we con-
fess Mr. GLADSTONE is not ono of the parties
whom we should desire to see selected, as it
would be fatal to the hope of an equitable adjust-
ment of the Income-tax difficulty. It was quite
clear that he would also have willingly received
Lords CLARENDON and LANSDOWNE. So that
Lord PALMERSTON might, had he pleased, have
carried with him from his late colleagues a large
proportion of the new Cabinet. Satisfactory
arrangements might have been greatly facilitated
by the disinterested conduct of Mr. DISRAELI,
who at once waived his own powerful claims, so
that he might not stand in the way of the union
so greatly to be desired. This conduct will no
doubt lee duly appreciated, and, when the pro-
per time arrives, may produce important results.
The obstacle to the arrangement, which would
have been so beneficial to the country, arose from
some who are now in office. In obtaining the as-
surance of the co-operation of Lord ELLENROROUGH
and Sir EDWARD EIILWEIt LYTTON, the Noble
Lord materially strengthened the Government.
One mistake he seems to have committed. He did not
propose to place Lord PALrannsro24- at the head of
the War Department. That, however, was the
position for which he was peculiarly qualified,
and for which he was indicated by the general •
Wish of the country, to which he was elected
almost
by acclamation. It was the error
that
proved fatal to the restoration of Lord
sihWle,ealv
and we
apEcolualYitioton v
se
ar
y,
thatthat
seen,venture toeh w
it will not long be doferred. Every personal
feeling should be sacrificed •in order to insure a
really powerful Government, 01le not existing from
hand to mouth ; and, as Lord DERRY gra-
phically depicted, " compelled to cut down this
measure, and to pare di that, and to consider with
regard to each measure not what was for the real wel-
fare of the country,
but what would conciliate some
half-dozen there—to regard
half-dozen men here, or
as a great triumph of Parliamentary skill and
Ministerial strength to scramble through the
to boast of hal--
session of Parliament, and

ing met few and insignificant defeats." We
should not then any longer have " a Ministry on
sufferance ;" and those will deserve well of their
country who exert themselves to produce a con-
summation so devoutly to be wished for as a
really strong and united Government.

Horrible and heartrending as the aeeeunts of
the sufferings and the mortality of our troops in
the Crimea have been, there was still one gleam
of consolation left for the distressed and much-
enduring public. If the military staff wrapped
themselves up in a cold, haughty, and selfish ex-
clusiveness, and manifested ne care nor anxiety
for any one or anything but themselves and
their chief, whose ears, forsooth, must, in their
opinion, be protected, at any cost, from the dis-
sonant wails of the wounded and dying ; if some
of the medical officers, taking their cue from head-
quarters, went over their wards and made their
arranger eats as though having anatomised the
human heart, and examined the living fibres of
the brain with microscopic accuracy, they had
found the one stone and the other as insensible to
pain as spun glass; if the Commissariat, learned
in traditional misdoings, gave no indications of
being possessed of bowels of compassion, still,
there wag this comfort left the poor public—that,
crammed as the Pandora's box had been with
evil, one good thing would assuredly be found at
the bottom, and that good thing the consolations
of religion from the hearts and lips of her ap-
pointed ministers. Wearied and unspiritual lay-
men might, in the contemplation of their own
misery, become indifferent to the sufferings of
their comrades and friends ; but the ordained
ministers of a religion of mercy—they, by no
possibility, could fail in the discharge of their
important duties—their good offices could not, by
the remotest chance, be wanting. Miserable dupe
of a publio that you are, how, it would seem, you
have been deceived !

If our readers will turn to our latest edition of
Wednesday they will see an extract from a letter
by a correspondent of the Times at Scutari, and
dated the Ist of the present month. From this
it would appear that the Melbourne, the first of
four steamers regularly fitted up and supplied
with the proper appliances of an hospital ship,
left the Golden Horn on the preceding Thursday
with a freight of sick and wounded men, under
the medical charge of Dr. RUTHERFORD, an able
and conscientious officer, and his assistants. Now,
as every one at all conversant with surgical mat-
ters must know amplitude in a surgery is a deside-
ratum of great importance, and duly recogniaing
this fact, Admiral BOXER very properly directed
the largest cabin in the ship—a transport-ship,
be it remembered—the " largest cabin," conse-
quently suggesting no notion of chilliness by its
size—to be used as a surgery. Could the- reader
have conceived it possible that any one with the
feelings of a man could dream even of disturbing
an arrangement like this—much less a clergyman,
still less the senior Chaplain of her MAJESTY'S
forces in the East ? And yet, if we aro to believe
the Times correspondent, the most monstrous
conception of the. three would have proved the
most correct. That most apostolical of divines—
who ought either to have been a prebend or a
bishop—in the plenitude of his personal benevo-
lence, cast (we are informed) an envious eye on
this best of cabins. Dearly beloved by himself
in the LORD, what to him was the physical wel-
fare of the wounded heroes whose souls only were
committed to his pastoral superintendence ? What
rocked he tedious and imperfect operations, and
needlessly prolonged suffering Better that
many should be miserable than that a dignified
divine should fttti of Inyilrious ease. He took,
we are told, possession of the cabin ; and -who.
Dr. RUTHERFORD quietly represented to him the
uses to which it was to he applied—with a silly
arrogance it would not be easy to parallel, this
prince of chaplains declared himself quite ready
to take upon himself the responsibility of retain-
ing "my cabin until my arrival at Balaklava,
feeling quite sure that the Commander of the
Forces will not consider my conduct wrong in up-
holding my position as Principal Chaplain of her
Majesty's Forces." And as if this was not enough,
he goes on to say, " You are perfectly at liberty
to make any arrangenients for the comfort of the
sick, but that you (!) and an assistant-surgeon (! !)
should wish to remove me from my present cabin
is, I conceive, not only highly wrong, but espe-
eially so as directed towards me, a clergyman."
Another moreeau still remains : "I have the
honour to consider your manner highly unbecom-
ing, and shall not fail to report it to Lord RAG-
LAN." Shades of the Apostles ! surely you never
heard or read of anything like this ! What we
wish to say by way of comment on this affair will

admit of much conciseness. "Ex uno disces
omnes." If this be a sample of our clerical staff
in the East—and the Rev. Gentleman is " Prin-
cipal Chaplain "—GOD help our poor wounded
soldiers ! There will be little spiritual consola-
tion for them ! What was that poor priest that
laid down his life to give the wounded succour
Whatever he was he was not Principal Chaplain
of her MAJESTY'S Forces in the East.