The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-19 00:00:00

FRIDAY EVENING,

tirely erroneous the Noble Lord's views were with re-
spect to it.
Sir J. PAKINGTON, in reply, expressed his gratification
at listening to the statements of so many gentlemen so
well qualified to express their opinions on the very im-
portant hunject of transportation, and wi,h which there
was no perhon better acquainted than the Hon. Baronet
Sir William Molesworte. He had himself devoted much
attention, as a Member of Parliament, to the general
subject of punishments, though not, he confessed, to
transportation in particular. With respect to the report
of five convict vessels being ordered for Van D.emen,
Land. there was a mistake in this; four only were under
orders, and this, he believed, was from an inadvertence
on the part of the Noble Lord, his predecessor. He (Sir
John) had already arranged for diverting one of those
vessels in another direction, and he hoped to do so with
another. As regarded the alleged breach of faith, it
was clear he (Sir John) was not responsible on this
head. He could assure the gentlemen present that the
importance of the subject of transportation was duly
appreciated by him, and would receive his utmost
consideration. He would, however, state a few facts,
as he found them on his accession to office. Western
Australia petitioned for convicts, and the settlers
in Moreton Bey petitioned for them, and sought
separation from New South Wales, for the purpose of
receiving convicts. A. petition had been lately received
from 144 landholders in Van Diemen's Land,
praying the continuance of a modified system
of transportation. He merely stated these as facts, not
denying that there was undoubtedly a very great feeling
of opposition to the continuance of transportation. Then
he would ask whether the objection to transportation did
not rather apply to the system as it existed formerly—
to the "gang system?" As regarded at once meeting
the wishes of the gentlemen present, he thought they
would see, so recent as was his accession to office, that
it would be impossible at present to do more than assure
them that the subject should engage his early attention,
and that he was much indebted to the gentlemen present
for expressing their views respecting it,
Sir W. MOLESWORTH thanked the Right Hon. Gentle-
man on behalf of the deputation, for the courtesy of his
reception,tLw aon d of;
btbut
n
d for
vi
was et having
shipsv
nei 9g at least arrested the sailing of
upon destined for Van Diemen's
which he would
beg leave to add a very few words. Sir J. Pakington
might not be responsible
for the breach of faith commit-
ted towards the colonists, but a breach
ta therecono subject
of faith commit-
ted towards the State was the breach of faith of the Go-
vernment. The colonists knew no individuals. They
Governmenttishhadaovernment, by
pledged itself
-
tkone aw
whomsoeverpt haartt
ot huel
administered,a British raict
tehandwas responsible for its per-
formance. th the
B
The deputation then retired, favourably impressed
with the manner of their reception.

venerable junta
POLITICAL FORBEARANCE.
The majority of mankind think the right of private
judgment either wholly inapplicable to political ques-
tions, or only to be called into exerciee as a last resource.
Of course, there is a species of what may be almost
faith on a
of
ur mind or
oc
thisc.r ls
present animal
n distinguishedi
respectable clique, whether it be that o Russell, or that
of Derby, or that of Cobden, or that of some other
haennd one wakes poli-
tician leading or seeking a party. It is pleasant to have
maclrciosimsfcoarnt pin his 711);Cym(' the
one's work set one, to eat,
and healthy proportions, and, up, to
bo told what to do. It saves a world of anxiety to tall
into lino, and to know that one's conduct will be guided,
explained, and, if necessary, defended, by competent
authority. When the guise of loyalty is thrown over
this mental subserviency, the satisfaction and the it.
lusion are complete. It is very true that they who
drink,w
resign the pains of independence may occasionally
be disturbed with a disagreeable presentiment. They
may find themselves approaching a rock, a shoal,
or an abyss, without seeinghow they are to
'
escape ; and the alarms of those who don t think
for themselves are not allays imaginary. As they
say, however, that brute creatures cannot suffer any_
thing like human anguish because their anticipations
are momentary, faint, and without the sense of respon-
sibility, we presume that the sufferings of a thorough
partisan must be tempered to hie moderate capacity of
endurance. Bat all this time we are expatiating on a
happiness which can never be ours. Though we can
admire our acknowledged statesmen' of whatever school,
and even our great polnical chiefs, yet we can never
'eel it our vocation to-adhere without reserve to tiny one
Government, however feeble, however intractabl©, or
perverse. The British people does not; neither do we.
Much is duo to a meritorious party, but still more is
due to tho country, and there must and do arise occa-
sions when a blind affection to party is little less than
an abnegation of patriotism. Should matters come to
that pass that no one party will suffer for one day the
ascendancy of another, even under the humblest and
safest conditions, it is evident that we are far on our
road, if not to anarchy and ruin, at least to serious neg-
lects and disasters. If public opinion and its organs are
worth anything in this country, and if they have any
province at all, it surely is for them to inculcate such a
mutual forbearance of parties as shall at least avert a
disruption of society and a consequent shipwreck of the
State.
Such is the position of affairs, such the danger, and
such we conceive to be eur duty at this juncture. As
long as the Russell Administration was possible, we
gave it our support; and, were it possible to-morrow,
we should spare no pains to restore it. Could its
strength be renewed by new men or new measures, with
the hope of something more than a temporary relief or
an illusive popularity, we should, as we have done be-
fore, do all in our power to give it a fresh term of ex-
istence. But painful and repeated experience leaves no
doubt that it answers uo good purpose whatever—not
even a factious purpose—to attempt the resuscitation of
an effete Cabinet. You may as easily make an old men
young again as impart a second youth to a Government
which has exhausted its strength, its opportunities, its
friendships, its measures, its ideas, its prestige without,
and its resources within. The iufusion of new blood
and the substitution of new limbs are metaphors which
only express too aptly the utter impossibility of those
fancied remedies. We can never conceive it our duty
to give impracticable and useless advice, after the
manner of the doctor who thinks only of his bill or his
fee. Other. may, if they please, roll bread into pills, or
label vials of coloured water with cabalistic terms, but
we really cannot afford to practise delusions which time
must discover. We cannot honestly recommend the
British public to go back to the old thing. We cannot
tell them that what was dead last month will be alive
next; or that the palsied Tithonus will enter at our
summons a Ilyperien nr n Hyacinth. Ae little can ',7e
connive at the supposition that the great forms of this
majestic Constitution, including the venerable palladium
of Royalty, are to be invoked for the establishment of a
new Administration, merely as a dodge for the imme-
diate reestablishment of the old one on a safer footing.
We might excuse tricks upon party, for, as our new
rulers have not been very nice in their warfare upon
others, they deserve little favour in return; but we must
protest against tricks on the Constitution and on the
Crown.
But lot us not be mistaken. Forbehrance, fair play,
toleration, are one thing; confidence, sympathy, enthu-
siasm, are another. It is true that we are not going to
show the new Ministers the door
have been invited to enter. It is true that we do not
think statesmen should disgrace themselves, the House
of Commons run mad, the worst arts of faction be re-
sorted to, and the country recommended to think of re-
volution, merely, simply, and solely for the ridiculous
purpose of dragging in again the clique which only the
other day went out of its own accord. But in saying
that we have said nearly all. We cannot think the po-
sition of the new Government either very honourable, or
very triumphant, or oven simple and clear. We cannot
regard with confidence either their power or their in-
tentions. We can hardly trust them for having any
definite policy. Still less do we think that they have
the promise of that stability which, on the vulgarest
considerations, we all of us require in a Government.
In the first place, there is nothing very honourable in
an appeal to thelorbearanee, whe.ther that forbearance
be to the Minister or the country. That forbearance is
to be exercised not only to the weakness, but still more
to the character, of the party. We are to bear meekly
for a Lesson with a party which is not only beholden to
our forbearance, but is also in the position of a great
political offender. Having for severed years obstinately
refused its adhesion to a greet, beneficent, arid irrever-
sible act—having pursued the illustrious author of that
act with insatiable malignity, and having for all that
period excluded from power its own boasted Conserva-
tive principles merely to punish the man, it has no
claims to our respect. We have to swallow not only the
Government but our own feelings, and we have to swal-
low them voluntarily, for the sake of the common weal.
And when we ask what the Government is to do for all
this, or aro rather what we hope and expect it
to do, the estimate of its digni'y falls still lower.
It is to perform a great propiatory and peni-
tential act. It has to renounce that Protection for
which, with some abatement latterly, it has been so
long struggling. It has to recant a selfish and invete-
rate error. It, has to set the country free, not from the
fear of Protection, but from the nuisance of a stupid and
factious class opposition. That this is a substantial benefit
worth some forbearance, and some violence to our na-
tural and honourable feelings, we do not at all question,
and, as a pledge of the future, we hail with satisfaction
Lord Derby's utter abandonment of the Navigation
Laws last Monday evening. But all this winding -up of
controversies, this confession of error, this allaying of
prejudices, this surrender of long-contested positions, is
more " humble and useful" than dignified; and, when it
is done, adds but little in the nature of positive merits
to the claims of the party; for to pardon a penitent is
one thing—to admit him into our confidence is another.
The forbearance which we have inculcated, and which
we desire to observe, is wholly irrespective of our opi-
nions us to the power, or even the intentions, of the Go-
vernment. Both its power and its intentions are limited
by the nature of its origin, and tlae very terms of its ex-
istence. The pledges from which Lord Derby and his
gradually emancipating themselves,
colleagues have been
evidently.fc to be entirely
relieved, are by no now
_theblt obstacle Cl) then.
power. Besides the pledges ( leaders, there are the
prejudices, the passions, and the supposed interests of
the followers—thing' , • ch more substantial and obsti-
expressions,
nate than any mere s, however distinct and
_ _
solemn. A large and powerful interest has been flat-
tered, coaxed, Exasperated these many years into an
extravagant conceit of its natural rights and its r
1
po-
litical injuries; it has been taught to rely on its
own superior intelligence, and to istrust every states-
man who ventured to address it in the language of rea-
son and common sense, or to put it on a level with other
interests. It now remains to be seen whether the agri-
culturists will readily conform to the more moderate tone
and the more sensible standard of political right adopted
by their Conservative chiefs. After a six years secession
from the commonwealth, Call they cagily return to the