The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-27 00:00:00

AILWAY

LONDON, ; FRIDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 27, 1852.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
- TlM:S.—Though the gentlemen of the Anti-Corn-
Law League who essenabled the other clay at Manchester
'have wisely determined to wait for an actual declaration
of war, some of them show a nervous anxiety to pro-
voke Lord Derby to that fztal and unnecessary step.
The worthy chairmar, whose solid speeches have so
often given his bearers a kcer.es relish tor "the una-
dorned eloquence" of the next speaker, will evidently
bo grievously disappointed if .to-inorrow's post does not
bring him the news of Lord Derby's political suicide.
" The head of the new Government," he says, is
pledged to the restoration of protection; it is not a
question with him of to-day or yesterday, nor will it be
a question of to-morrow, till it is disposed of. With
him it is the sole object, and almost the perpetual aim
of his party, in desiring to renew the Conservative
element in the Government—to restore protec-
tion." So says Mr. George Wilson. Now, there is
rather more surplusage hero than one usually finds
in the language of business-like or serious men;
and reiteration, we all of us know, is often a weak form
of exaggeration. Is it really true that Lord Derby
stands at this moment committed to drive at protection
in that blind and determined fashion hero described?
Were it so, we should not have
Lordship, for wo should certainlythink it little 1 '
as (ind-
uces to hits! as to the country to flatter him with the
hope of a single week's power. But what is the proof,
a word to say to his
the sole proof, on which Mr. G. Wilson ventures this
strong and alarming estimate of Lord Derby's intentions?
The proof is such that tho estimate fulls to the ground
the moment we hear it. "He did not know if gentlemen
had read attentiuely his statement at the opening of the
present Parliament, but he (Mr. G. Wilson) perceived,
on reference to, that statement, that ho was as distinctly
pledged as ho could be—or as any man not in an official
position could be—to the restoration of the corn-laws."
Mr. G. Wilson then proceeded, with most laudable
fairness, to quote, in extenso, nearly all that Lord
Derby said the first night of the session on the sub-
jfeecrtitofis quite n
protection. This
to d
iswenwill not quote over again,
se.
All that Lord Derby
said on that occasion, whether in his speech, or when
cross-questioned by Lord Yarborough, strong as it was,
and explicit as it was, only
amounted to a decided
opinion in favour of protection, and a desire to see it
restored. . His opinion, he said, had undergone no alter-
ation. But is any man committed to any given course
of action by the mere expression
of his opinions and
wishes? There aro very few statesmen, if any, who
have not often given utterance to opinions and aspire-
ythdisolanndotodf rfernenie thought being able to carry
ought, and in a itniotnesaewtiheinc.h
Itnhe
Le-
gislature the atmosphere of which is as free as that of
the public platform or the private hearth, every man is
permitted to express his opinion without entailing the
responsibility of a pledge. If we once begin to ostracise
men of their opinions, we shall lose not only valuable
men, but, what is more, that freedom of speech which is the
breath of tree States, and which enables us to know whom
we have to deal with. We allow a man to hold and to
avow eu abstract opinion in favour of the exclusive pre-
tensions of the Church of England or the Church of
Rome—in favour of any point of the Charter—in favour
of democratic institutions, or any other possible or im-
possible change, so long as he is content to shape his
dt to
rs thet a
nd demands
actual measures to the circumstances of the times and
go at all beyond a strong ex-
pression of opinion. Nor is this any new remark of ours,
for in our observations on his speech we said—
dtrembling
auctioneer with
responsibility.to describe the But we
exact terms of the bid in this instance. If the Protec-
tionists have commissioned the Earl of Derby for this
office, we must beg to inform them that, though ho has
" The Earl of Derby in fact is bidding for power, and
Lord of
Derby
tehrebypetoop" We did not ourselves un-
derstand
very moderation of his tone betokens a man already
ihlli
on
fi apt eorl ii at
political
a l p
roperty
gratified the ears of a polite assembly, and won the
praises of his rivals, he has not done the business
with which he was charged. He has not told the
House of Lords what lie is prepared to do, and
whether ho is immediately prepared to do anything at
ell for the good of the agriculturists. All that he asks
for his own followers is, leave to doubt, whether, after a
few years, it may not perhaps be advisable to levy a duty
of es. or 4s. a quarter on foreign wheat. This possible,
problematic paulo post futurum expedient is the most solid
and appreciable item in' his budget, or rather the only
ono—the solitary crumb of hope left at the bottom of
his political wallet."
Among other observations to the same purport we also
observed, that " there was scarcely a hit in the speech
which might not have been interchanged is the moat
amicable spirit betwcen the members of the Government
themselves, and certainly none that should preclude the
hope of Lord Derby's own ultimate co-operation." Of
coarse we may even now bo mistaken, but that was our
impression at the time, before there was any immediate
expectation of a Ministerial crisis. That impression of
the speech wo see no reason to alter; and if it be true,
Lord Derby is at this moment quite at liberty to post-
Pone the question of free trade altogether till the
people aro evidently sick of it—a time which his
Lordship may think very near, but which we
think about as remote a contingency as the ap-
proach of a comet or any other purely speculative
event. Mr. G. Wilson does not, indeed, state the case
against Lord Derby without anyqualification. He only
says that his Lordship is as distinctly pledged " as any
man not in an official position could be." That is con-
siderate ; but he might have carried his consideration
somewhat further. A man not in an official position
could have pledged himself very much more, or rather
he could have pledged himself, which Lord Derby did
not on this occasion. had his Lordship moved a reso-
lution, and divided the House on the Corn-laws, or
some other kindred question, and so stept into power
—or had he announced what he meant to do in the event
of his accession to power, either of those courses would
have been a pledge which it would have been necessary
to redeem. But in fact there is nothing of the sort in
this instance. Lord Derby, on the commencement of
the session, merely said that his opinion was unchanged,
in vigorous but not very serious language. We doubted,
and we must be permitted still to doubt, whether he
was not " cajoling" his more boisterous and trouble-
some followers, though quite understood by his morn
sensible and intelligent allies. He did not say, "I will
do," or "I would do," or commit himself to any course
of action which the People did not demand of him.
Cannot a man out of office do much more than
this? And have not men out of office done mach more
very lately? Mr. G. Wilson, then, should have carried
his qualification much further. The words he quoted
pledged Lord Derby to nothin2 but te, speak the truth,
le
nut to immediate action.
eetti vy
stated his abstract
opinion, and having taken nothing b it, done nothing,
u
obtained nothing, ho stood
wholly unpledged. Had
he simply said that he thought the Church of England
had a claim to every ma" n .. i
C.in -2Uty this island, and that
the day would come when all
inch would flock to its
bosom, ho would not have been thereby bound to pro-
pose a law against dissent or a re-imposition of the 'rest
and Corporation Acts. He .-.0 has eenee into office, not in
consequence of any thing he has said this session, or
anything he has said at all, bat simply because, one
Government having resigned, he happens to be the only
man who can form another. or course vie find ourselves
considerably abused for elating thee,
in this simple and
natural light. We are trimmin' it is said---we are singing
ai d palinode—We are wort-114;D ithe rising sun—we are
undermining the obligation of pledges—we are asking a
fair trial for confessed Political c:factors. But we
are acting only in the interest of truth, common
sense, and our country. evia
at can be the possible ad-
vantage of trying to entangle a large party, oeuvre-
hending a majority of the eJuutry gentlemen, and many
most useful and excellent
men, in one net of error, and
putting on them a perpetual brand of political disability?
If the people of England are to go on at this rate,
blasting every party in succession and tying to every
man's neck all the foolish things, all Ines, all the hasty things,
all the exaggerated things, and all the merely senti-
mental or casual things, he
- - may have dropped in the
whole of his career, and
then call thepledges—
let them look to it, for they will not only damage, they
will utterly ruin their country. Here we are with four
distinct parties in the
Legislature, neither of them at all
approaching to a majority in the lower House.
Our only chance of
these four parties should
good
government is that
ld think less of ' their
differences and more of their common points; and
that instead of representing four schools of
abstract opinion they should meet on the common
ground of practical improvetnont. As this is really the
only chance for the nation, we cannot respect the zeal of
those who amuse themselves by baiting and badgering
every enthusiastic or_ loquacious. politician to stick to
everything he has said or done, however, he may wish
to forget it. To us it
seems much of
apiece
with the
schoolboy trick of trying to persuade two inoffensive lads
that they are each other's enemies, and must fieht it out.
Of course there are people who think
they hove an in-
terest in the ruin of every party in its turn; but they I
must bo looking to some other form of government than
that we live under. We scene opening whatever for the
nation, except that every statesman
and ever party
should have the greatest possible f dohl.)e of action,
room for repentance, encouragement to co •
nversion and
oblivion of errors, that can be allowed consistently' with
the maintenance of political morality ofd
good faith.
DAILY NEWS._When the Earl Derby was last
charged with the formation of a Ministry, he evinced
some retention of his early principles,
and of those opi-
nions which actuated him even after his separation from
the Whigs. All remember how, even when a declared
Tory, he objected to the sending such a man as Lord
Londonderry to the Court of St. Peteraburgh. In the
same spirit, when Lord Derby was framing his Cabinet
last year, he is known to have selected Sir Stratford
Canning to be Minister for Foreign . Aff,te_s
u' We now
find the inexperienced Lord Mahnesbary appointed to
that post. This may either arise from its not being
worth while to remove an ambassador. from an important
thel
position, in order to take
placen ainistry of a few
months' or weeks' duration;
.other reason may be
the desire to conciliate Russiaeynot appointing to the
Foreign-office Sir Stratford Canning,n who is known to
have acted on many occasions
..., _
en as a deter
mined anta-
gonist to that power. Lord 's:la mesbury is considered,
and with justice, afar
more proper man toconciliate
We doubt
Russia, and oven Austria.however, the
reconciliation. Therie
possibility of their reconc.
it is impossibleis no Alien
Act at present in force; it
Minister the Home
Minister or the Foreign can gratify the
of Vienna with respect
desires and pretensions
.to If Kossuth
Hun-
garian and Italian refugees. should return
• continue
hither to talk, and IMazzini to lecture, there is
they can be coerced or silenced.
no British law whereby
admits, that
And, indeed, the Tunes itself
ticular. r that excited the resentment and
English Sinister
rzenberg, hat
hostility of Prince Schwa . . _ . that it is the.
country itself—
England, and I'
1 s habits, and its way le
and
thinking, that are odious intolerable to the Aus-
to
triune. We have the misfortune.bo a constitutional
the liberties of association and the
people, and to enjoy
prets. Louis For these qualities Napoleon dreads and
Prince Schwitrzenborg dote& wi• But how is this tv be

iemedied? What can Lord Malmesbury do in the busi-
bess but make lame excuses for what he may not ad-
mire, but cannot prevent? I❑ the dispatch recently
published of Prince SchwarzEnborg to Lord Granville,

ft is plainly said that if the British-Government does not
reek° use of all the legal means in their power to render
Innoxious the Austrian refugees, the Austrian Go-
Vernment will torment and persecute English travellers
the Austrian dominions. This pleasant threat has
reference, no doubt, to the expscted return of Kossuth to
this country. If
you do not gag Kossuth, threatens Prince
p. eh venrznnberg, we will molest and imprison all the cu-
rious and commercial English who venture into Bohemia,
ivisit Vienna, or go to see pictures or gondolas at Ve-
sice. The Times proposes a ready remedy for this,
!which is, that Englishmen should stay at home; if they
elo go abroad, that they omit Austria and the Venetian
thenae n
~hopevi teh
dathere's
ot
nota
think gthotiotd.rtionhie om
John eßuliln,g when a
young or territories from their route, consoling themselves with
make it his business or his policy
,ral Austrian Minister may rise to power, who may not
to persecute English-
men." -
linbled-,
E h
will be much inclined to take this hint, or respect this in-
terdiction. They will venture to Venice or to Carlsbad,
and they will prefer the Trieste route, by which theY
escape quarantine, to any other. Besides, if Schwarzenberg
succeeds in deterring Englishmen from going amongst
his subjects, Louis Napoleon will try the same, and then
we shall be fairly expelled from the continent and be
banished not merely from the remote Vienna, but the
neighbouring Palais Royal. Boulogne will become for-
bidden ground. And Englishmen will be condemned
to the peine forte et dure of spending their money at
home. We doubt much our countrymen's submission
to such severity as this. We should coon have associa-
tions for opening the continent, and instead of putting
down Kossuth and Louis Blanc by such means, they
would became the most popular men in England—and
not ail the Malmesburys in Downing-street could quell
them. Russia, however, is not so personal or so full of
pique as Austria. And Lord Derby may hope that by
means of that Russian alliance what he once repudiated
and despised, he may secure England, and all that
England holds dear on this side the Rhine. But Russia
abhors Constitutional Governments, and is resolved to
tolerate them no more. It has set up the antagonist
principle of legitimacy and divine right, and evidently
deems that no other bulwark can brave the tide of revo-
lution. Louis Napoleon has not won Russian favour,
because Russia sees the Bonaparte throne based upon
force alone, and not upon any principle that could re•
cover the respect of the people, or retain that of the
army. The restoration of the Bourbons, the older first,
is the reigning idea at St. Petersburgh. And it is pos-
sible but that a restoration of Belgium to Holland should
make part of the same scheme. As to the choice, pre-
dilections, or resistance of the people, rulers now know
how that can be overcome, and they regret having ever
acted on the belief that it could not be overcome. To
restore the status of 1815, in the west of Europe, is
then the dominant idea, with which Louis Napoleon
is to be half menaced—half gulled. Wilt the Tories be
a party to it ? or has Lord Malmesbury spectacles of
sufficiently magnifying power to have discerned the
small and hidden symptoms of these great changes and
coming dangers? The veteran of foreign diplomacy
will, however, soon give the first lesson to the new
statesmen of Downing-street, and make them believe
that adhesion to the new Holy Alliance is the only mode
of saving England from war and invasion, and a junc-
tion of all Europe against her. We have no doubt that
the Times will then discover that England was in ex-
treme danger, and that the only safety for England lies
in a renewal of the Alien Bill, the proscription of refu-
gees, full satisfaction to be given to Austrian and Rus-
sian police. If with these conciliating measures Swit-
zerland and Piedmont be abandoned to the dictation or
occupation
of Austria and France—if England suffers
all these things, then Lord Derby, and Schwarzenherg
and Nesselrode, will welcome Englishmen as fellows of
the right sort, whom no police need meddle with, but
who are ready to act as police for the gagging and fet-
tering of Europe, if required. How far the Tories are
likely to fulfil these hopes and prospects time will telL
The names of the new Ministry certainly give no war-
rant of their acting as honourable and patriotic English-
men should expect.
HERALD.—When the Greek!, after the battle of
Marathon, would have awarded theiprize to the man who
had deserved most of his country, to decide among the
numerous claimants, and arrive at the most satisfactory
conclusion, they hit on the following expedient. To
every deputy they gave two votes, and, on examining
the result of the poll, it was found that every man gave
tho first vote for himself, and the second for 'Chemise
tocles; and thus truth prevailed when selfishness no
longer stood in the way. Not unlike the claims of The-
mistocles is the position of the present Protectionist
Ministry in relation to the other political parties in the
State. Judge of the claims of each of these separately
to that prize which the present Administration
has received, and they will tell you that they
alone are competent to the task of government, and
that they alone fully understand the wishes of the
nation and are prepared to carry them into effect. The
young Peel party, if we may trust their organ, are the
exclusive possessors of intellectual statesmanehip—they
are the bright comet on the political horizon, but with-
out its:tail. They look forward to the time when an in-
tellectual Ministry shall displace what they modestly
call the present race of incapables—the Whigs are
drivellers; the Reformers, ignorant and unmannerly ;
the Protectionists, behind the age. It will never be
well with the world until mankind open their eyes to
those blessings in store for them, which they have
hitherto overlooked in a most unaccountable manner—
until they ferret out from their modest retreat this
knot of philosophers, who are ready to put the nation
to rights in a trice, with the same case as they would solve
a syllogism. Tho Reformers, on the other hand, regard the
Peelites with unmeasured contempt; they look on them
as a spurious brcod, a cross, .a hybrid between Whim
and Tories, with the faults of both, and the excellences
of neither. If they do not express that contempt, it is
because they feel that this party has no ability to do
mischief, and therefore they cam not about its inclina-
tions. Of the opinions they entertain of the Whigs, we
gave copious proofs iu our impression of Wednesday.
At the late meetings in Finebury and Marylebono,
amendments were moved on the original resolutions, not
in order to soften the asperity of their language towards
the defunct Cabinet, but to aggravate it tenfold. The
Whigs had " haunted the councils of the country"—
they were " wantieg in political integrity"—" the Rse
form Bill was an idle mockery and a delusion"—" Lord
John had deceived the people for six years, and done no-
thing for them"—these were some of the flowers of Liberal
rhetoric with which the speakers perfumed the memory of
the late Whig Administration. But they havequite as mo-
dest an assurance in their own merits and capabilities as the
young Peelites have in theirs. Mr. Bright has no mis-
givings about the First Lordship of the Treasury; Mr.
Hume of his fitness for the Chancellorship of the Ex-
chequer; Sir Benjamin Hall's rubicund ambition would
not blush under the honour of the Home Secretaryship;
nor would Mr. Cobden feel strange (however the country
might) in a seat at the Board of Control. They feel no
hesitation about the justice of their own claims, or to
whom the prize should be awarded. To whom else, in-
deed, except to those who know what trade is, by a feel-
ing experience of its workings and mysteries—who
know what money is, by having passed their lives in its
acquirement—whose years have not been spent among
men of birth and education, in the atmosphere and
among the traditions of statesmen, but in the actual
hard work of the mill and the factory, and to
whom the cabalistic letters s. d. are " the be-all
and the end•ah" of this sublunary world.
Verily, if the conceit of Pythagoras was a just one,
that all difficulties in heaven above or in the earth
below were resolvable by numbers, if it be possible to
cipher away all political complexities, if the essence of
wisdom is comprehended within the calf-skin Cocker,
Messrs. Cobden and Bright are the only helmsmen fit
for the State. Why will not the nation have them?
The third and the last party are the Whigs, now mute
from their last defeat; but whose evening organ at last
puts in a tacit claiM to the gratitude and regard of the
nation, on the ground of their long experience in office,
their silent and successful progress. In theie respects
undoubtedly the late Administration has claims above
all others—it may well gain the first vote for itself; the
second for the present Ministry. If long continuance bo
a claim to respect and a privilege for place, in God's
name lot them have the full use of that claim, in common
with all abuses which have only the merit of long stand-
ing to shelter them. But if length of years bring honour,
they also bring incapacity with them; and if this be all
that their successors want, it is a fault that time will
easily mend. Just as each of these parties look upon
their own claims as supreme, from some fancied merit
I eculiar to themselves, for the same reason do they
throw out the most incompatible accusations against
the present Ministry. One party reproaches it with
in-
capacity and intellectual interiority; another thinks
it
too clever and too brilliant, but nut composed of men of
figures; another regards it as too young, and inexpe-
rienee in the ways of office; a fourth are always
ex-
claimingtoo that the last Ministry was too old and
hackneyed. Different winds blow all at the same time
For the
from different points of the political compass.
days men have
last six years, and within the last few . e have
been calling out for new blood in the Cabinet; n
titarye been
been complaining that no young, statesmenr
d mere ur-
brought forward, and none were more lou
havoenevr blood
gent in the cry than the Poelite organ. We
a number of
.we have a new infusion in the Ministry—
d now
ht forward—an
young statesmen have been broug
more experienced
what is the cry? "We want older andn
an older set
statesmen." Impose on the Datiocon
sistent organ
of men, and then the sam,,ewe
want younger
will veer round and cry, has been raised
men." A general exclamation
that there were no men o
f genius or originality in
one invariable red-tapeisna,
the Ministry—nothing but
precedents and records.
unable to travel beyond its ownhtp into the present Ad-
A scat Raman has been broug
bitterest enemies cannot refuse
ministration to whom his .
t end genius, and yet the same
the praise of great talhent
brilliant parts and acuteness
authority exclaims, t a
llor of the Exchequer. Who
are unfitted for a Cblincets mere malice, and tho r t
does not see that allot his d
spirit? No knot us
of
a narrow and sisal an hold
such a shifting Protean; he would discover motes in the
crystal with
a magnifying
examine the
sunbeam, or
flaws. Such are
to discover the _ the amiable
glass
of disappointed selfishness. Provo to
occupations
aspereers of the
this and other
of present Adminis-
formed of men
tration that it is
and
tried ability and
known integrity,
hcy will require that it should
include men of genius. Prove that such is the case, and
they will say that they want men of experience. Point
to te'
names of Stanley, Wellington, bugden, and liar-
t d they will assert
dinge, an f
vv they want young men. Pro-
duce the names o a pole, Manners, and young Stan-
ley, and they will still have another shift—they require
men of figures. Produce the names of Herrins and of
Henley, and they will want something else. Their
fastidiousness is like that of Benedict, the bachelor, and
arises pretty much from the same cause. " Till all graces
bo la ono woman, ono woman shall no; come to my grace.