The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-27 00:00:00

THE SUN,

scheme of re-organizing our system of
national defences, Lord JOHN RUSSELL has been dis-

gracefully defeated in his attempt to bring discom-
fiture upon the project of the succeeding Ministry.
His laboured orations and deliberate attacks have
ended by 165 voting on his side and 315 voting on
the side of Mr. Secretary WALPOLE—yielding the
Government a clear and triumphant majority of 150
in a House of 4801 The moral is surely apparent.
The prestige of the ex-Premier has passed away. The
glory of his influence has faded. His political power has
become paralysed. His reputation has been degraded
into byeword. And all this—directly and imme-
diately, through the form of an irresistible retalia-
tion. Lord PALMERSTON, by the decision of the
House of Commons yesterday, has wreaked a two-
fold vengeance. We make the assertion advisedly,
because, to the late Foreign Secretary, was no less
attributable the result of the recent discussion,
than was indisputably attributable the result
of the .memorable debate closed by the re-
signation of the Whig Government. But
for the course pursued by Lord PALMERSTON in
regard to the projected enactment . introduced to
the Legislature by her MAJESTY'S Home Secretary,
the Bill before Parliament could scarcely by any
chance have been saved from following in the wake
of its short-lived predecessor. Lord PALMERSTON
spoke, however, strongly in favour of the mea-
sure, and a majority of 150 was at once accorded to
the new Government. With perfect truth has it
been remarked of the Noble Viscount, the late
Foreign Secretary, that at the present junc-
ture he is the recognised arbiter of the desti-
nies of the nation. The most popular statesman in
the United Kingdom —he has only to pronounce
and his word becomes the guiding voice of the Le-
gislature. He speaks against one Militia Bill, and
the Whig Cabinet is drummed out of office in
double quick time, with a painful sense of their utter
incapacity to withstand the authority of his condem-
nation. He speaks in favour of another Militia
Bill and the Conservative Government—the Go-
vernment acknowledged by the new Prime Minister
even in his inaugural address to be in a minority in
the House of Commons—obtains not merely what is
technically called a working majority, but a majority cf
very nearly two to one, from the popular branch of
the Imperial Parliament. Lord Joliet RUSSELL little
imagined what would so very speedily be the conse-
quence of his insolent and ungrateful proceeding 'to-
wards the only really great and influential statesman
in his Administration. That consequence has already
been rendered twice manifest—first by his total defeat
when the lettder of the Government ; and, secondly,
by his still more disgraceful and ignominious discern-
fiture when the leader of the Opposition. Viscount
PALMERSTON has proved the ex-Premier to be alike
powerless in either of those capacities, as the head of
a Cabinet or as the head of a faction. The division of
yesterday is the crowning testimony of this the last
proof of the insignificance to which the political
influence of Lord JOHN RUSSELL has been reduced.
For we regard the majority of last night as
another tribute of the House of Commons
to the prestige of Viscount PALMERSTON—a tribute
based, it is true, upon the unanimous conviction that
something must be done in the way of increasing and
re-organizing the national defences—rather than as a
declaration that 315 out of the 480 assembled repre-
sentatives are in favour of the Militia Bill, the whole
Militia Bill, and nothing but the Militia Bill intro-
duced to the consideration of the Legislature by one
of the members of the Protectionist Government.
As we have all along maintained, some energetic
measures are requisite in order to shelter the coasts
of the United Kingdom against the peril of invasion.
The Duke of WELLINGTON declared the inadequacy
of the national defences according to the existing
schema of arrangements. Sir Faericts HEAD re-
iterated at greater length the warning first uttered
through the medium of the well-known letter to Sir
JOHN i3URGOYNE. The danger of our situation, in
fact, was recognised by all parties alike, with
the exception of the few eccentric gentlemen evho
are bitten by the phobia of arbitration. The late
Government, through the measure vainly in.
traduced by them, intimated as much, no less
distinctly than the present Government has
done in its turn, through the medium of
the Militia Bill laid upon the table of the House of
Commons by the Home Secretary. Insomuch was
this the conviction of Lord JOHN RUSSELL and his
Ministerial colleagues, that they advised an al-
lusion to the subject in the Speech from the
Throne delivered at the commencement of the pre-
sent session by the SOVEREIGN. Every one, indeed,
with the single exception referred to (that of the
Peace Congress gentlemen) agreed from the outset
that a movement in the proposed direction was abso-
lutely essential for the stability of the empire, or
at any rate for the welfare of the United Kingdom.
The only difficulty all along has been to decide
upon the precise measures advisable to be
adopted under existing circumstances—this diffi-
culty being, moreover, rather seriously en-
hanced by the division of parties and by the
struggles between those who were suddenly trans-
formed from a Government into an Opposition, and
from an Opposition into a Government. From the
protracted character of these struggles, we are induced
to regard the result of last night's division not so much
as an approval of the Militia Bill of Mr. WALPOLE,
as an assertion that some energetic effort
must seriously be made at length for the exten-
sion and improvement of the national defences of
the United Kingdom. Therefore, while we coincide
to a considerable extent with Mr. ROEBUCK, in con-
sidering the proposed enactment as likely to prove,
if carried into operation, eminently mischievous in its
character, we cannot view yesterday's ma-
jority in. the abstract- otherwise than highly
satisfactory. Happily, it affords us at length every
reasonable expectation that the national defences may
before long be thoroughly and effectually re-organized
in spite of every imaginable obstruction, even of such
obstructions as the one facetiously called by the
Hon. Member for East Kent, the argumentum ad
pocket. Then, but not till then, could we bear
in remembrance without emotions of anxiety
as to the future, the project formed in
1804 by that most wonderful of heroes,
at once the conqueror and the lawgiver of
Europe, the Emperor NAPOLEON, that extra-
ordinary man alluded to last night in the
House of Commons by the Honourable Repre-
sentative of Sheffield, as one " whose mind
was gigantic almost beyond the reach
of conception, the first general the world had
ever known, and commanding an army whose
exploita had never been surpassed." Then, we
repeat, we might look onward without solici-
tude as to the almost unlimited powers conferred by
a free people on the Prince Louis NAPOLEON,
I the elect first of 6,000,000 and afterwards of nearly
8,000,000 of adult citizens, speaking through the
ballot and universal suffrage—whose name was,
ncreevnettmhelaenss, mentioned last night by the same Hon.
and ehamele cur r y
(Mr.
sr. ROEBUCK) in terms of such culpable

Every arrival from fresh__....
Australia affords addi-
tional
and most substantial evidence of the miracu-
lous produce of the Australian diggings. Accounts
are transmitted from
persons of character and
pstation that
unexceptionable w ould appear
p o
r efs; incredible,but they if naorte sup-
ported
sus-
tained
about gold, to the value of nearly
15 arlyone million ster-
the past month, or
ling, which has reached us
due
is in the coots©
of transmission,
worth of
on, and daily ex-
pected. About a fortnight since w
out that no less than 378,0001pointed
bullion bad come to hand within the preceding
week.
Since that time we received to the value of 100,0001.
more, per the Hero ; and last week the Briliant
which sailed from Port Philip on the 21st of January,'
brought no less than two tons and a half of the pre-
cious metal, estimated at 217 000/ , ~ while we are
told that the Statesman and Aberfoyle were to start
by the Ist of February, bringing 80,000 ounces
more, worth nearly 300,0001. It is also stated that
new diggings had been discovered at the Muddy
Creek and the Henne River, promising as brilliant
returns as the most productive spots that had 'nevi.
ously been discovered. It is almost unnecessary to
say that every person of sufficient physical powers to
bear the fatigues of the diggings was rushing to the
auriferous localities, totally disregarding his ordinary
pursuits. Many motley groups might have been Been,