The Sun.
London, England, 1852-01-05 00:00:00

THE MINISTRY.
(From the Daily News.)
The three vacant offices, of Paymaster of the Forces,
Vice-President of the Board of Trade, Lni
LTnder-
Secretary of Foreign Aff.iirs, do not in themselves
give Lord John Russell the means of strengthening
his Government. For, fill them as ho chooses, they
are at best only subordinate posts, and what his ad-
ministration wants—and the country expects—is the
accession of superior men to high office, and not
merely the filling up, however creditably, of three
inferior vacancies.

His Cabinet is even now unusually large ; and to
add another member to it in the person of the new
Paymaster of the Forces, is, to use a military phrase,
simply throwing away powder and shot. But it
is not only large, it is unwieldly. Of its sixteen
members one-half at least are—either from age or
infirmity, or from want of natural ability, or public
confidence—incumbrances on their colleagues. Such

people as Lords Minto and Broughton are useleas—
and worse than useless. Lord Cottenhani's suc-

cessor as a reformer of the law has failed, and as an
equity judge does not carry any great weight with
the profession. Session after session the Chancellor
of the Exchequer his more and more exposed his
financial incapacity, and to that defect he has lately
added commercial unpopularity. Lord Grey, despite
his great ability for office, has had less success in the
Colonial Department than even those predecessors
whom he used to criticise so mercilessly; Sir George
Grey has all the hereditary defects of his family, and
his administrative powers are now seriously impaired
by, it is feared, an incurable complaint; the Whig
Cabinet has never been much aided by the bonhommie
of Mr. Fox Manic; whilst great age has diminished
the activity of Lord Lansdowne, whose consistent
and generous liberality throughout a long and most
useful career are an honour to his order, and one of
the credits of Whisegery. His age, in the House of
Peers, may be needed to support Lord Granville's
youth; but very little persuasion would induce him
to retire to honourable repose--if by hiS retirement
the Ministry could be mended.
It is vacancies in some of these offices that are
needful to repair the weaknesses of the Russell Ca-
, binet ; and if its bead cannot realise that fact, it is in
danger of tumbling to pieces of its own weaknesses.
The Liberal party are, of course, deeply interested in
keeping it on its legs until the contents of the new
Reform Bill are opened, and if satisfactory until that
measure shall have become law. But scarcely could
a large measure of reform preserve for a lengthened
period such a Cabinet. A not inconsiderable portion
of those who now support Lord John would almost
prefer a return to the Opposition benches inthe House
of Commons rather than go on as at present voting
with a Government in which they take so little real
interest. It is indeed the opinion of not a few that a
course of opposition is almost necessary to reconsoli-
date the Liberal party itself; to infuse into it definite
and precise objects and ends ; to develop the ability
which it possesses, and to emancipate it from in-
fluences which in office have injured—if not wholly
suspended--its powers of usefulness.

The Ministerial journals tell us that by a late
retirement Lord John Russell asserted his own pre-
dominance over the Cabinet. Now that he has done
so once, he can easily find motives for repeating the
act ; he has just now ample and sufficient opportunity
of doing so; and we will do several of his colleagues
the justice of supposing that they do not require any
exercise of the Premier's authority to enable him to
choose their successors. Lords Minto and Broughton
must know and feel their own incompetence; Sir
George Grey will not persist in keeping the Rome-
office when in another position he could, more agree-
ably to himself, be far more useful to his friend Lord
John ; Lord Grey might lead the Lora without con-
tinuing to be a Secretary of State ; office cannot long
be indispensable to Mr. Fox Mania; Lord Carlise
could be more serviceable to his friends out, than in,
the Cabinet ; and if a strong hint should be necessary
to Sir Charles Wood, he has relations enough in office
to save Sir John the pain of himself giving it.
The difficulty is not, then, the men in office, but
who to replace them with. The policy of the present
Government has been such as to suppress and keep
under the ability of the really Liberal party. That
party has, even now, in Parliament, just as much
capacity and power as any other in the State ; but the
course pursued by Lord John Russell has left it idle.
Men have either preferred silence to opposition, or—
having followed the bent of their own liberal inclina-
tions, and won public esteem for their services—have
been brought into collision with a Government which
their principles naturally led them to support. And
Lord John Russell and Sir George Grey by their
personal conduct on such occasions have fomented the
discords of the party by which only they themselves
exist as Ministers. If the preservation of the Liberal
party be an object of the Premier, it is to such men
—to Liberals enjoying the public confidence—he ought
first to turn for new colleagtes. Few of them, or of
their class generally, are violent, turbulent, imprac-
ticable persons ; between them and Lord John Rus-
sell at least there ought to be no irreconcileable
differences of opinion ; they have experience of public
affairs and Parliamentary business; they are endowed
too, with constructive capacities, and—enjoying as
they do the public confidence—they have a right (if
the principle of Parliamentary government be worth
a straw) to office.
And who is it that rumour alleges Lord John
Russell is trying to substitute;for them ? Sir James
Graham and the Peelites I —persons' no doubt, of a
certain experience and ability, but far less liberal in
political opinions than the real Liberals to whom we
allude, without large and deep sympathies for the
people pr for popular measures ;nit best, cold, phleg-
matic, selfish politicians, and not one of whom would
probably be re elected should he vacate his seat by
,he acceptance of office.

Lord Croderich will not, it is said, have Sir James
Graham for Ripon again ; and Dr. M'Neile declares
no one shall sit for Liverpool who will not take the
"No Popery" pledge. So that the chances are that
the two foremost Peelites would, if they joined the
Government, be without seats in the House of Com-
mons. A pretty spectacle this would be by way of
strengthening a Ministry.
Parliamentary government under the Russell Ad-
ministration has not had fair play. A professedly
Liberal Government has not had the full confidence
of the Liberal party ; and Lord John has extorted
from it, by his own past personal services—a support
for some of his colleagues which, being insincere, has
had a tendency to demoralise the party and to split it
up into sections. And now when an opportunity—
and a necessity too—for improving the Cabinet arises,
his organs are instructed to depreciate the ability of
the Liberal party ; and—still requiring and insisting
on its support—urge him to send for men of no party,
often-changed opinions, and little principle, to come
to his rescue. 'this, we say, is scarcely Parliamen-
tary government.:

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY NEWS,
Sir,—Rumour says that amongst those whom Lord
John Russell is inclined to enlist are the Duke of
Newcastle, Lord Wodehouse, Mr. Cardwell, and Sir
James Graham—the Board of Control being offered
to the first, the Foreign Under-SccretaryshiP
to the
second, and the Paymastership of the Forces to the
third—Sir James Graham taking the Home Secre-
taryship, to be vacated for him by its present holder.
At a Cabinet Council on Thursday next, it is under-
stood that the day will be fixed for assembling Par-
liament for the dispatch of business ; and at that
Council it is also said Lord Jobn Russell will
acquaint his colleagues with his proposed steps for
strengthening his Ministry. It is doubtless thought
politic not to announce too soon the names
of those
who are really about to join the Ministry,
lest the
re-
election of such as may be in the HOUSO of Commons
should be imperilled by too early notice to intending
opponents.
Before Thursday the Minister la
s ould surely well
consider his intended steps.
Does Lord John Russell think that calling into
place two or three aristocratic p ites—one of them
at least a man who has eer
no h
c aracter for political
sincerity—does be think, I
to meet the difficulty of his Position ? He will be
say, that this is the way
most wofully mistaken
.f
Lord Palmerston are, it 1 he does. The friends of
is alleged, determined to have
a talk about the recent retirement—even though that
Noble Lord himself should show his acquiescence in
the arrangement b
likely to be by an intended silence. There is
dispatches, andtroublesome discussion about Sardinian
sympathies with Louis Bonaparte,
and discussions also in which the names of the late
Pore' Ign Secretary,our Ambassador•
. in Paris, and Sir
H. Bulwer may arise. To meet Ministerial squabbles
with a hand, th
and partisan jealousies high
e Prime
Minister should l sure y prepare himself by resting his
tenure of power upon a broad popular basis. He
should have the people, and the people's sympathy,
at his back. He can never hope for this, if in his
hour of weakness he leans on such unpopular and
unsatisfactory political weathercocks as Sir J. Gra-
ham. The Premier's own popularity is not so vast
that he can whitewash others of their sins from his
own superabundance of wealth in that way. And in
his allies he must seek strength, not weakness ; poli-
tical worth, not mere oratorical dexterity. Those
who desire the stability of the Russell Ministry will
I look anxiously for the decision of Thursday.
Yours, &c. AN ENGLISHMAN.
,rt

EMILY SANDFORD.—A letter from a respectable
resident at Adelaide, in that country, inserted in the Wor-
cester Herald, says, I think you would like to know a little
about Emily Sandford. We often see her ; we do not live
very far from her; she seems a very interesting woman;
she is married to a German, and has one child four months
old ;• and the child, of whom Rush was the father, is a sweet
little creature; they do well and seem very happy. She has
bought houses with the money that was collected for her.
SERIOUS ILLNYSS OF THE EARL 01' BROWNLoiy.--
We regret to learn that the Earl of Brcwnlow is lying in an
exceedingly precarious state at Belton House, near Gran-
tham, and that but faint hopes are entertained for his Lord-
ultigukto remern