The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC 301/RNALS,

PECTATOR.-It needs little political wit to dis-
cover that the Ministry is shsking, and not muet
political arithmetic. There is no need to count
head S, east shoat deteptite of all Conserva-
tive amusements, or even to Vath th 6 dtift of the
local constituencies, for the House of Comthona is
in that temper which always presages a change, It
is as fretful and nervous as a man who knows he

Mint quarrel with his colleagues, and is making up
his mind how to ciiiEniehte tlte disagreeable task.
Under those circumstances be is tisuailfy- Cficr rolite

to his true antagonists, as though hoping by some
lucky chance to avoid the approaching contention,
and relieves his inward annoyance by snubbing his
wife, disappointing his chiltlnm snd roaring at his
dependents. The majority of the ilotgo of Com-
mons is just in that stage, secretly angry with the
Ministry, at least irritated with the Cabinet, but
still unv7illing to break with it, and venting its
spleen upon everybody whom it thinks decently
safe to attack. It is fretted inwardly with the
management of the greatest affairs, but as yet it
has not attacked any one of the great departments.
Lord Palmerston is never heard without apparent
deference, and Lord Clarence Paget carries his esti-
mates with a rapidity which is almost a triumph,
the War Office has been let off without a division,
and even Sir Gorge Grey has not boon accused of
vacillation more than twice in one night. There

is a nervous reluctance to vote whenever a vote may
prove important, and the way in which Tories slip
out before a division mast be a daily heartbreak
to Colonel Taylor. But watch the house when it
can fume without producing the inevitable colli-
sion. See how it springs at any member of the
Ministry who has laid himself open to attack,
how it welcomes a personal charge, how hungry it
is for occasions which may justify the throwing of
eggs, how loth it is to let any plausible quarrel drop!
The sharp snub administered to Mr. Lowe only
whetted the appetite of the majority, and the last
days of the witting before Easter wore almost one
continued "row." Crowds don't pelt their favourites
or their favourites' friends, and all this stone-throw-
ing indicates the internal unpopularity of the Cabi-
net. The " ugly rush" may be deferred, but the mob
is in the temper to make it, and when it is made, no
constable's baton will avail to defend the hustings.

This Ministry has to go, and it is a little curious to
trace the causes which have undermined its hold
over the house. The Ministry will, we believe, fall
for too many causes combine against it. Earl
Russell's European policy has annoyed the country
nearly as much as his American policy has satisfied
it, and Englishmen, even when humiliation is una-
voidable, never endure it patiently, Evenif peace
is maintained, still, as a London 'verse-maker is
now singing, Few on earth are the nations who
never will be slaves," and the country sees with
pained discontent that one of the few is, in spite of
Earl Russell, getting its throat slowly cut. After
men have been talked into argumentative coma
about Schleswig-Holstein, the fact remains that one
of the three Protestant States left on earth is being
dismembered, ann that, the English Cabinet has not
prevented it, and anybody who fancies that English-
men in their hearts like that does not undeistand
his countrymen. Then the Liberals have been in
power with a rare and short interval for 17 years,
and have accumulated upon them the mass of indi-
vidual, clique, and sectional hatreds which slowlyr
accrete round every free government. The Tories
suffer too from their long opposition, for they
have now such a mass of people about them
who have been hurgering for years, that the
cake wiil be too small, mad they will be driven
to job audaciously; but then that is all in
the future. The inevitable hatreds are further
increased by special personal animosities. I hat
curious vein of hauteur, not to say insolence, which
underlies Lord Palmerston's boubommie,and has
twice helped to defeat him, crops out in his special
subordinates, and of his immediate " mad," Mr.
Lowe, M.r. F. Peel, Mr. Cowper, Sir R. Peel,
Mr. Layard, not ono concdiates and section
of the
nd
house to the Administration. A whole ptZtY
despises Sir George Grey, a whole section frets at
Mr. Gladstonesa determined will, and except Lord
Palmerston himself, and sometimes Lord C. Paget,
there is not a Minister who can soothe the house
out of a fit of irritation. All that, of course, tells
very little upon the nation—which is not pinched
by anybody except by Mr. Lowe, and does not even
know that Mr. Gladstone has no following, and
that Sir C. Wood's ability is obscured by a Stuart-
like capacity for irritating everybody about him.
But it does tell very heavily in the house, and when
a Ministry only lives by drawing over votes from
the opposite side, and carries economical votes by
a majority of one, the house becomes as
important as the constituencies. Finally the
Ministry suffers bitterly from the want of zeal in
its supporter?. Except the Annuities Bill, what
have they begun, or proposed to begin, or promised
that if permitted they will consider how to begin of
which the Liberal rank and file care to see the end ?
Simply nothing at all, and though students may
perceive the vast difference between them and their
opponents, and the majority of constituencies may
be languidly willing to see them hold power till the
lull is over, still the mass of voters cannot be excited
into enthusiastic voting for nothing at all, and when
parties are pretty equal and enthusiasm ie dead the
attack has all the advantage of its momentum. An
appeal to the country will not, under such circum-
stances, modify matters much, and unless Mr.
Disraeli delights his enemies by an Uitiamontane
speech, or Lord Derby proclaims the moral duty of
always following Napoleon's lead, oe some wholly
unexpected incident occurs in foreign politics, it is
hard to see what is to keep the assailants from
carrying the fortress.
SATURDAY REVIEW.—The nation heard with
heartfelt satisfaction, a short time ago, that there
was a probability that the Sovereign, who has been
so long, for all practical purposes, withdrawn from
her subjects, would soon return to them again. The
public reception which her Majesty accorded to the
deputations of certain municipal bodies who ap-
proached her for the purpose of presenting addresses
of congratulation upon the birth of a Prince, seemed
to confirm this hope. But later incidents would
appear to show that it was premature. The con-
tinued delegation to t hePrince and Princess of Wales
of those duties which hitherto have always been
fulfilled, when possible, by a Sovereign—and that,
too, at a juncture which to the Princess must be one
of terrible anxiety—indicates that the Queen's long
retirement has not yet come to a close ; and, indeed,
arrangements have been formally announced within
the last few days which are obviously incompatible
with the residence of her Majesty in London during
any part of the present season. Rumours are even
in circulation that she will never hold her Court in
her capital again. Such a resolution, if it exists, is
a matter of grave political moment and may well
cause serious uneasiness. It is upon her Majesty's
Ministers, however, the responsibility must rest.
Cut off by her rank from unrestrained intercourse
with any section of society in this country, the
Queen cannot know what people are thinking or
saying in the busy world outside. She does not
enjoy the opportunities which fall to the lot of most
of us, knowing that the disposal and the duties of
life are eegarded by others from a point of view very
different from that to which our own feelings or cir-
cumstances might incline us. But this want her
Ministers should supply. It is their duty to speak
to their Mistress with loyal frankness, and to ten.
der advice which her whole past life assures us
would not be disregarded ; for a sovereign who has
in so many ways made the Court of England
synonymous with all that is of good report can only
need to be told of an unfulfilled duty. If the course
of events indicates that that frankness has not been
displayed, her Majesty's advisers are incurring the
heaviest responsibility which cou:d possibly fall
upon them. Seclusion is one of the few luxuries in
which Royal parsonages may not indulge. The
power which is derived :from affection or from
loyalty needs a life of almost unintermitted pub-
licity to sustain it. Human affections will not fasten
upon abstractions, and a Sovereign, however be-
loved, too long shut up from the public eve, may
become too much of an abstract idea. In England,
moreover, there is another reason which would
powerfully contribute to impair the influence of a
Sovereign who lived in perpetual retirement. In
this country, all classes, from the Prime Minister
down to the poorest petty juryman, do a great deal
of what is, practically, gratuitous labour for the
benefit of the State. The general consciousness of
self-sacrifice which is the result of this national
habit produces a very exacting popular opinion on
the subject of public duty. People usually fix the
merit which they expect in others at a point several
degrees higher in the moral scale than that which
satisfies their personal sense of obligation ; and if
their own standard is tolerably high, the standard
which they impose upon others rises in proportion.
Just as the most unsparing ascetics are also the most
pitiless persecutors, so a nation of which all the
more important classes are accustomed to
make many sacrifices in doing their public
duties hears with regret of sentiments
or feelings, amiable in themselves, which are
regarded as demanding the postponement of social
or official obligations. A tradesman who will take
no part in the charities of his borough, a country
gentleman who ignores his local duties, a large pro-
prietor who spends his time in Paris instead of
looking after his estates, are tried by a measure very
different from that which would be applied to them
in:any other country. Both from the classes below
them and the class to which they belong they in-
cur, if not disapprobation, something at least of
waning confidence. Kings and Queens are not
exempt from the same kind of criticism. The chief
duty of English Sovereigns, even in times when
they directed the policy of the country more openly