The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-31 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 31, 1855.

SPORTING NOTES.

THE CHESTER CUP.

The forfeits for the Chester Cup were declared yester-
day. The acceptances, however, have not yet bee❑ pub-
lished, and although it was announced that they would
be issued in the Calendar to-day, yet it is probable they
will not be laid before the public until to-morrow at the
earliest. This Calendar is among the turfites waited for
with as much eagerness and anxiety as if it were a
Gazette Extraordinary. Speculation is now of course at
a stand still. The declarations, which were made in
London, have not yet been allowed to transpire ; but, its
addition t• those forfeit,. received at Chester up to Fri-
day last, my letter of advice received this morning con-
tains the following " ectatchings"
Master Toni I Lerrywheut

Amalgamation
Lough sawn

Julia
Noddy

St. Andrew

When a complete Hat of the acceptances reaches me
I will Jose no time in placing it before my readers.

THE LIVERPOOL STEEPLECHASE.
Up to twelve o'clock last night only the following
horses had been track out:—
Warwick I Oscar I The Hero
British Yeoman Sir Peter Laurie Morning Star

A FRESH MAN.

Wednesday Morning.

ettir '44
'alutttort

SUN OFFICE, Six o'clock.

PRUSSIA.

BERLIN, Jan. 28.—1 t is stated that M. von der
Pfordten has renounced his proposed mediatory
visit to this place, partly because Austria has de-
clined compromise and half-measures, and partly
because the Bavarian Chambers render the Prime
Minister's position " sour," if not hazardous. Nor
has anything occurred to indicate distinctly whe-
ther Austria will obtain a majority at the Diet,
although an impression exists that such will be the
issue, if ever German Governments can harden
their hearts to transmit decided instructions to
their envoys. . _

The following telegraphic despatch was received
this afternoon :

"TIZJESTE, Jan. 27.--Yesterday the express train
from Vienna was stopped by the snow at Addis-
berg. The Duke and Duchess of Brabant have
gone by the Lloyd steamer Australia to Egypt.
Their Highnesses intend visiting the cataracts of
the Nile, and will return by way of Palastrina and
Syria. Weekly report :—Little done in coffee on
account of the small quantity in the market ; sugar
firm ; pepper yielding ; Egyptian cotton, limited
supply, sought for ; corn dull."

TIIE MINISTERIAL CRISIS.

(From the Times of this day.)

As the House of Lords stands adjourned from Mon-
day till Thursday, in consequence of the anniversary of
the " martyrdom" of King Charles 1., and the House
of Commons only met last evening to adjourn for 48
hours, on the motion of Lord Palmerston, no informa-
tion whatever could be communicated to Parliament
yesterday respecting the Ministerial crisis which has
overthrown the Government of Lord Aberdeen. A
Cabinet Council was held at an earlier hour than usual
yesterday morning, at which, of course, all the Mini-
sters agreed to resign ; but it was not till two o'olock
that Lord Aberdeen started for Windsor, and no parti-
culars have yet reached us as to the results of his audience
with her Majesty. We are therefore without any au-
thentic intelligence on the formation of the new Admi-
nistration ; and, although the whole field of political
speculation is open to conjecture, we believe that no-
thing is at present known with certainty even by those
who are personally intxrested in the negotiations which
are about to open. It has been our fate to watch and
to survive the decline and fall of many Ministries, and
a journal which has been engaged for upwards of
seventy years in the daily discussion of public affairs
may be permitted to regard these incidents with
something of the feeling Chich a pf.thologist beA )ws
upon his patients. Golernment, like men, begin to
die when they begin to live, and every breath they
draw shortens tho duration of their being. But we
cannot recall any case of dissolution so rapid and de-
cisive as that we have just witnessed. Three months
ago the Government was in full possession of all its in-
fluence, and, had the campaign been crowned by the
speedy capture of Sebastopol without the loss of an
army, the Ministers might bave been carried to West-
minster-hall in triumph. They have now paid the penalty
of failure, and they fall under the indignant censure of
the Home of Commons. As the responsible cause of
the miscarriage of the army in the Crimea the Govern-
ment could not but fall ; but the importance of this
event is greatly increased by the perplexed condition of
parties, by the personal differences which are known to
exist in many quarters, and by the absence of a really
commanding mind, ready and able to assume the Go-
vernment of the empire.
The combinations to which the Queen may have re-
course in this emergency seem limited to three in num-
ber. Her Majesty may send for Lord Derby, with a view
to the formation of a Tory Government, which has the ad-
vantage of a. numerous and well-disciplined party in the
House of Commons, er Lord Lansdowne and Lord J. Rus-
sell may be authorised to attempt the reconstruction of
the Whig Cabinet ; or, lastly, Lord Palmerston may
endeavour to retain in the service of the country
the ablest members of the late Administration, with the
addition of some fresh adherents in the place of those
who must obviously retire. To these three combinations
we shall briefly direct our attention, for beyond them
we know of none which could sufficiently command the
confidence of the nation. The chances of a Derby Ad-
ministration may at present be summarily dismissed.
The Tery party in the House of Commons is powerful,
but it has not the majority ; a dissolution of Parliament
is not likely to improve its prospects ; and the ability
of its leaders is not such as to compensate for their want
of numerical strength and popularity. Mr. Disraeli's
last appearances in the House of Commons have indi-
cated no progress in his character as a statesman er his
skill as an orator ; and Sir J. Pakington and/Sir Bulwer
Lytton are net the knights to hang up their shields to
be challenged a l'outrance by all comers. Lord Derby
might perhaps obtain the valuable assistance of Lord
Ellenborough in the War Department, and Lord Col-
chester has been spoken of for the Admiralty ; but we
suspect this expedient will not be tried until every other
has failed, and we can place no confidence on its dura-
tion or success.

Commons, of the attempt to govern by a coalition of
nobles and fine gentlemen, regardless of party ties and
political sympathy. Adding to the 305 who actually on
Monday night voted " want of confidence" in Ministers,
the 27 members who paired in favour of the motion, and
the tellers on tile division, we have a total of 334, being
more than an absolute majority of the entire house. But
this is not all. To these are to be added a list of 89,
headed by Lord John Russell, who have hitherto been
reckoned among the supporters of Government, and
who, upon this occasion, declined as one man to defend
or sustain them. As the dejected and deserted officials
trooped slowly back to their places on the Treasury
Bench after the division, well might one fair spectator
who looked on at the strange scene exclaim, " Where,
where are our friends ?"
Nor does the force or weight of this memorable
verdict become less, when we examine more closely
the elements of which the Ministerial • minority was
composed. It can hardly fail to be observed that
among that numerically miserable section of the house
ninny consented to be reckoned from a sentiment
(perhaps overstrained) of personal honour. Almost
every man of the Whig party who had held distinguished
uflice in the Administration of Lord John Russell, and
who had been excluded from power by the terms of the
Aberdeen compromise, generously voted with Ministers.
Among others may be mentioned the names of Sir F.
Baring, Lord Seymour, and Mr. Labouchere ; while
several of the Tory opposition, like Mr. T. Baring, Gene-
ral Peel, and others, flung a lad, vote in charity to the
destitute Treasury whippers-in. It, has been said indeed
that the ingenious speech of Mr. Gladstone had efrect,id
sort of rally among the routed followers of the Coali-
. . . .

tion ; and left without an answer as it was, we can con-
ceive it possible that some few stupid or shuffling poli-
ticians may have been influenced thereby. But we are
much mistaken if the constituencies of these easily-
persuaded gentlemen will discover in the dexterous eva-
sions of the right hon. gentleman any sufficient reasons
for doubting that the army before Sebastopol has been
cruelly neglected, and the interests of the country la-
mentably compromised. Mr. Gladstone's plea that a
committee of inquiry must proceed to call witnesses from
the French camp, because, forsooth, the expedition has
been undertaken jointly, is an exquisite specimen of po-
lemical special pleading. What we have to do with is the
maladministration of our own Commissariat—not an in-
vidious comparison between it and the French. The com-
mittee will have to inquire into specific charges of negli-
gence and omission on the part of the War-office and ofLord
Raglan's staff of nephews at Balaklava. There need be
no waste of time in superfluous or invidious compari-
sons with the superior military administration of our
Allies ; for guilt or innocence has never, we believe,
been held to depend on comparative proof, but on facts
and circumstanees that are brought home to the door of
those who are inculpated. Mr. Roebuck, we doubt not,
will acquiesce in such instructions to the committee
being moved for in the house as will clearly limit the
scope of its investigations within practical bounds. The
hon. member for Sheffield is an old hand at devising
and directing inquiries of a delicate and difficult kind
before a tribunal similar to that which is now about to
be constituted. In 1842, if our memory serves us, a
select committee was moved for by him, to inquire into
secret and illicit compromises of election petitions,
against which were raised the same vague and menacing
objections of the unprecedented and unmanageable na-
ture of the proceeding. But the public voice sustained
Mr. Roebuck against the cavils of the culprits and
their abettors ; the committee was appointed, and the
whole tissue of iniquity was in due time laid bare.
And public feeling sustains the honourable member
now in his honest effort to obtain justice and retri-
bution for our wronged and ruined army. We dis-
card, as utterly unworthy and indefensible, the reck-
less suggestion of Mr. Layard that the motion of in-
quiry having been used as a weapon to despatch a
decrepid administration, it ought now to be laid aside
and the order of the committee discharged. We quite agree
with Mr. Gladstone that the country will not under-
stand such fast and loose play as this ; and low as our
estimate may be of the tone and temper of the present
Reuse of Commons, we cannot believe that a course so
manifestly liable to the reproach of faction and levity
will ever be adopted.
Before taking leave of the debate and the division of
Monday night, we may be permitted to observe that the
attack made by Mr. Gladstone on the conduct of Lord
John Russell wholly fails to convince us of any sinister
or selfish act on his part. The statements of Mr. Glad-
stone may be true, but they manifestly do not contain
the whole troth. The President of the Council was per-
haps amongst the earliest to perceive the consequences
of leaving the War Department in incompetent hands ;
but it is rather too much to argue that because the echo
of his warning voice in November became gradually
drowned in the rising clamour of the whole nation
against his inapt but impenetrable colleague, the demand
fur his removal deserves to be called a " defunct proposi-
tion." Lord John may have erred on the side of excessive
forbearance because he abstained, whenever the Cabinet
met, from crying "Hark ! " to the surging and swelling
tide of popular indignation ; but assuredly he may be
pardoned for having taken for granted that even the
Duke of Newcastle and his friends could hardly have re-
mained to the last insensiblo to the unanimity of their
condemnation, or the justice and wisdom of the warning
which he had given.