The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-23 00:00:00

ments than the man who had just been cashiered
for inefficiency in another department. It is by
no means improbable that Lord PALMERSTON
may, after hearing the explanations of the se-
ceders, come out with a complete programme, and
produce competent successors for the evanescent
Ministers. The name of Mr. CARDWELL has
been mentioned for the Financial Department.
But, considering the antecedents of the Right
Hon. Gentleman, that he was the close personal
friend as well as the literary executor of the
founder of the party of which he is himself so
prominent a member, and that although his pre-
tensions were to a certain extent slighted by his
colleagues, we cannot conceive that he would now
abandon them, although they did not insist on his
obtaining a seat in the ABE/WENN Cabinet. Now,
however great his talents, and we are by no means
disposed to underrate them, would it be beneficial
for Lord PALMERSTON to retain them ? Having,
fortunately, escaped from the Peelite connection,
he should not retain any of the leaven in his Go-
vernment. We trust that he may avoid that
danger during the present crisis.
There are plenty of good men, albeit not
branded with the Peelite or the aristocratic mark.
Mr. BAINES is one. And Lord ELGIN has worked
his way on fairly and honourably ; and, as we
have frequently stated, we do not object to a man
because he is a Lord, if he possess the qualifica-
tions requisite ; but we do protest against the
Peerage being considered as all that is necessary.
We shall, however, await the lifting of the curtain
before we finally decide on the merits of the new
combinations.

We would earnestly invite public attention to
the letter of a respected correspondent, who writes
under the title of " A Liberal ‘Derbyite,' " and
which will be found in another part of this day's
impression. It is, indeed, worthy of calm and
deliberate perusal, and we only trust that those
in authority will, even at the eleventh hour, be
induced to profit by its admirable suggestions.
We have already, on many occasions, given
free expression to the opinion that pro-
motions in the army should depend on
merit rather than on money, rank, or interest ;
and heartily do we rejoice to find that our views
are now generally_ recognised, and that we have
enlisted so powerful an auxiliary on our side,
whose arguments must convince every disinte-
rested and unprejudiced person.
One of the first steps of the new Government,
or any succeeding one that may be formed, must
be to reform the military administration— to
cleanse the Augean stables of the Horse Guards.
We believe that it is to the erroneous system in
operation in that department that the unfortunate
mischances and' calamities which have caused such
dismay to the nation may chiefly be attributed.
We would not taboo rank or fortune, or consider
either as an obstacle to a man's rising to eminence
in any branch of the service. On the contrary,
they would be looked on as reconanaendations ;
and, simply, because the person possessing
one, or both, must possess great ardour
and enthusiasm to encounter the toils and
difficulties that ought to be incidental to
the position. But they ought not to be the curly
things sought after.. Unassisted ability, when
clearly displayed, should be permitted to rise.
We should oftener hear of the Sergeant Sur,
LivAris, and men of that calibre, who had
proved their efficiency in the field, than of
the Lord Toms, or Honourable JACKS, or
the sons of the Millocrats or Moneyocracy. The
system hitherto in operation has been shaken to
the very core. Let wise and comprehensive
measures of reform, such as those referred to
by " A Liberal Derbyite,' " be adopted while
there is yet time. If much longer neglected
much more may be required. The promotion of
a fair proportion of deserving non-commissioned
officers would a short time since have sufficed
Now, as we recently stated, the " whole system of
purchase totters to its fall." We would not exclude
the aristocracy ; on the contrary, we would
hold out every fair inducement for their
co. operation—but they, in common with all
others, must submit to the most stringent
tests, and honestly earn by good conduct
the distinction to which they aspire. Mili-
tary reform is that which is most urgently
required at the present moment, and the nation
will not be satisfied with any save a large and
comprehensive measure.

Poland is at last before the House of Lords ;
what is better, its claims to be considered the
corner-stone of a permanent peace were not only
first asserted, but afterwards attacked and de-
fended. The country had already begun to speak
in uniform language ; no persons outside Parlia-
ment who have felt interest enough to meet for
discussing the War, its results and objects, having
had two opinions on the question of liberating
Poland. No doubt genuine philanthropy—sym-
pathy with the oppressed against the oppressor—
has been a powerful motive with public meetings.
And why should it not be ? Are these best senti-
ments of a people to have no share in determining
their political judgments? The noble instinct
which perceives in the present War the hour of
atonement for long years of passive injury to
Poland is a safe and trustworthy guide, if, in-
deed, our moral instincts are to be trusted at all.
Englishmen all feel that their aristocracy sold
them, as well as Poland, at the Congress of Vienna,
when it allowed Russia to take Poland into the
embrace of its deadly paws, preparatory to te+arinz
and swallowing it is 1830 ; and never since has
the name of the country been mentioned without
a pang by untitled Englishmen. But now, when
Russia has outraged all Europe, through reliance
on her mastery of Poland, we turn and look upon
each other, exclaiming, "We are verily guilty
concerning our brother." We passively let our
brother nation go into the most cruel bondage—
we now pay for it in millions of money and thou-
sands of precious lives. Our better feelings, how-
ever, are not all. We affirm, without fear of
contradiction, that every Englishman not .bitten
with the COBDEN, or ABERDEEN, or COBURG peace
mania, sees the folly of hoping for a peace worth
having if Russia be left mistress of Warsaw, and
of the powerful fortresses by which she has made
the line of the -Vistula the terror of Europe—of
Prussia and Austria especially. Such a peace
would be an armed one, costing as much as a
war—a peace during which Russia would avail
herself of all the mechanical skill of civi-
lised Europe, and all the avarice of its money
dealers, to open war ten years hence with ten-
fold means of destruction. The emancipation
of Poland, in the well-founded judgment of
Englishmen, would
gave us an incalculable expen-
diture of money
and life a few years hence.
The Earl of RAienowcy is,
his
to the thanks of therefore, entitled
country for speaking out
plainly the: views of the Commons of England in
Elazzatono;
the House of Lords. Lord
led the way by indicating, in a ou had
Powerful speech
how advantageously the feelings of
nationality
in Asia might be turned against Russia.
pointed out that we ought to consider India as
as the COBVEGS and
intensted in a war which,

ABERDUNISTS would conduct it, must issue in
making our Asiatic neighbour Persia a depen-
dency of Russia ; that, on the contrary, we might
now hare some 30,000 Persian troops officered
by the British, and of the best quality as soldiers;
that we could easily send them first-rate artil-
lery, to the number of 48 guns, from India ; and
that Georgia and Circassia would be our imme-
diate allies, and would shake off completely the
Russian yoke. Thus far, in avowed concurrence
with Mr. LAYARD, the Lord who could speak
best on India and Asia. Lord HARROWBY fol-
lowed, and asserted, in like manner, the neces-
sity of enlisting in the same cause the national
feeling of Poland—we should rather say of giving
it vent, for it is ready to burst forth could
it but find a safe ♦ent. Earl GRIT made us
thankful that he kept out of the Cabinet by
" scouting imaginary plans for the regeneration
of Poland," and actually exhibited, we must
call it such perversity and ignorance, as to talk
of the impossibility of any regeneration which
did not hegin from within. Better tell the vic-
tim of a false verdict in Newgate not to beg the
removal of his fetters, but to emancipate him-
self by his internal longings for liberty. To tell
a country—dis-educated by a savage CZAR, over-
ridden by his soldiers, and lying within the gun-
shot of mighty fortresses erected by its wasted
resources-4o tell it to begin its own regeneration
is the most cruel of insults.

The reply of Lord Hlnzownv sums up, in
one felicitous sentence, the view of the country
at large. This War, he remarked, is "an act of
far-sighted self-defence." That is just the idea
which began the War on the part of England. We
ceLL•.;ulj prorntn mPrAly to defend Trtrirpy.
Much less did we think of immediate self-defence ;
it might have been a half or a whole generation
before Russia would have nude Constantinople
another Sebastopol, or we have had much to fear
from her. "It was a war of policy, of which the
=ill object was to prevent Russia attaining a
preponderance in the affairs of Enrope. Could
this object be attained by merely expelling her
from the Principalities, humiliated, but xot weak-
ened I What substantial guarantee could we
have against Russia except in a substantial alter-
ation of her territorial alteration ? " Let Lord
JOIN RUSSELL and his chief, Lord PALMERSTON,
ponder these questions. If Russia thinks the
Allies are really intending to hoist the Polish
flag, she will, we verily believe, conclude peace,
even if she have to sacrifice the Black Sea, with-
out further struggle ; and we are confident Lords
PALMERSTON and RUSSELL would clul;ch at the
bargain. Russia, however, knows that Lord
JOHN wishes to leave her all her territories ; she
knows that he will refuse the aid, as Lord LIAR-
ROWDY stated, "of seventeen millions of men, the
most warlike in Europe," she will not, therefore,
make peace, and events may drift us to Polish
and European emancipation just as they drifted
the poor PJELITBS into the War itself.

There is surely hops for merit now. The hon.
member for Printing-house-square tells us that
he has served his official apprenticeship, that for
that reason only he quits the Ministry, and that
he is now qualified for higher office. At the same
time, in language very similar to some of the
best leaders in the great six-ounce journal, he
denounces the system of selling commissions
and making Government appointments by favour,
insisting, in the most unqualified terms, on
adopting merit as the only rule of promo-
tion.. Let merit, therefore, be up and eager.
Ministers have too plainly seen what came
of withholding rations from " Our own Cor-
LesPontillt," to venture on withholding higher
office from our own member. The member who can
speak to a full House of Commons in the evenin2,,
and to all the kingdom in the morning, must be
promoted for his merit. Woe to the Administra-
tion which neglects him.

We heartily welcome Mr. LowE's open advo-
cacy of the great question adverted to. The very
time is come to settle it. The nation is quite
prepared, if need be, to refund to all who have
purchased commissions what is fairly due to them ;
but it demands the instant application of the oppo-
site principle as the sine qua non of military sal-
vation. Most justly did Mr. Lowß affirm that
"the cankerworm which has caused the failure of
this campaign, and which pervades every depart-
ment of the civil and military service, is the ♦ice
of public patronage. Merit is not promoted ; the
only thing considered is personal connexion and
favour." The Emperor of RUSSIa looks only to
the fitness of his servants, and cashiers and
punishes the highest servants, without mercy.
Our statesmen " look rather to their own profits,
or to that of their friends, or to Parliamentary
influence, than to the interests of the people. It
is of no use talking of any kind of reform till you
get this altered." We believe this Kidderminster
oration, in so much of which we heartily concur,
will do great service. It is the testimony of one
of our ablest men, who has just come from behind
official scenes, who has had more practical oppor-
tunities of knowing than most of us—who can
forcibly- tell by pen and speech what he knows—.
and his voice must be heard. May he prove as
independent as he professes himself to be.
The present War will be a saving worth all it
has cost us if we only achieve the domestic victory
of expelling mere aristocracy and wealth from the
public service, and throwing it open to the able
and deserving. The failure of the present plan
has been complete and ruinous. The nation is
exasperated ; the cause cannot be concealed. The
accursed pride of birth and wealth combined has
shut out from military rank not only the plebeian
talent which could hare saved our army, but even
the proved capacity and the experience of the offi-
cers of our Indian army 1 The public indigna-
tion kindled by the fatal consequences is intense ;
and our Ministers must sacrifice to it the whole
array of proved incapables, or they themselves will
be sacrificed. Let them not fancy that a Lord
DERBY or Lord Anybody cax save the system.
The people and the Crimea have doomed it. They
will tolerate no Ministry which procrastinates this
first duty,

THE MINISTERIAL CRISIS.

Nothing has 'yet been definitively settled with
respect to supplying the vacancies created by the
secession of Sir J. Graham, Mr. Gladstone, and
Mr. Sidney Herbert from the Ministry.
The names mostly spoken of this morning at
the clubs were the Earl of Elgin and the Earl of
Carlisle for the Colonial-office, Mr. Cardwell for
the Exchequer, and Sir F. T. Baring for the Ad-
miralty.

The names of Lord Seymour and Sir C. Wood,
were also mentioned, but the first three appear to

be the favourites.

If anything definite should transpire during the
latter part of the day we shall publish it in our

[ate edition.

ARRIVAL OF THE PACIFIC.

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)
LIVERPOOL, FRIDAY NOON.

The steamer Pacific is just telegraphed as
having arrived in the Mersey. The outward mail
its detained,