The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-24 00:00:00

TUESDAY

adopt on general questionte.h;ebut their known and avowed
cannot Lord b© unfair
policy with reference to
of union either as a party ormaaosta vital of our domestic
interests—the policy which constitutes their only bond
which must ever receive our
the appointment of his colleagues. Government—is
to
ojudge
a 24 onei .
most uncompromising ,
oppo-
sition. And surely it
1 nister by his acts; and Derby's first act has been
presents himself as ready ues. A party leader who
Crown and the country
may reasonably be
undertake the vacant Go-
vernmentaireesentable and creditable list
expected to offer to the
have adopted a suggestion of coadjutors. But the Premier almost seems to
new
we threw out yester-
day, that the offices at
modernsome Sp
timeseei
assigned
of the highest disposal might as well be
names are curiously
employ-
ments in the State are
s to partisans scarcely
known in public Iff©, and
score
eached to departments to
of the more conspicu-
ouswhich they possessal unfitness. The weakest
Administration of
and brilliant if the names of
would appear powerful
its members were placed in
juxta-pointion with those of the new Protectionist Go-
vernment. Sir Edward su
preside in the Court of Chancery will unquestionably
the new Government is fortunate eery with high credit; and
vices of so great a lawyer. Asin securing the ser-
doubt, be lost for all purposes the
present year will, no
of legislation, there will,
perhaps bo no opportunity of
ascertaining how far the
new Chancellor will be disposed
in the law which; haveto promote those im-
provementsmended ; but there is too much reason to fear that he
so long been de-
will not prove himself a
law
reformer. In distributing
the chief administrative offices, Lord Derby has not n
been equally fortunate. The
Mr. Henley, and Mr. Hennes, names of Mr. Walpole,
a
will excite the smallest portion of perhaps those which
criticism or surprise.
Yet the appointment, as Secretary
able barrister still new to the u 0 of State, of a respect-
occupying no very prominent place use of Commons, and
would, on any other occasion, have in that assembly,
heen regarded as
Pin-
dicating
a strange deficiency of i
Henley will no doubt dischargewith political support. Mr.
t
the ordinary duties of the Board of
ability
Board of Control
of Trade; and Mr.
Herries might have vegetated at
the
as respectably as his predecessor and
contemporary, but
for the approaching terminationthe Company's
Charter. It is extraordinary that oford Derby should
,
have placed the only colleagu©
whose peculiar merit
consists in his knowledge of official m utine, in a depart-
ment where there is at present an es
original ability, combined with stateP demand for
secial
pheanlik e foresight.
We are far from recommending Mr. Israeli as the offi-
cial legislator for the East; but if he had
the new Charter
been entrusted
with the task of devising and negotiating
or its substitute, he would at least have been
been likely to
produce something newer and more ingenious then the
traditions in which alone Mr. "Terries will be likely to
seek the solution of the momentous
the auestions before
him. When we look at the rest of Cabinet we are
lost in wonder. With one remarkableexception,
new Ministers are only conspicuous for the mediocrity
the
mediocrity
of their talents and pretensions. Lord el 1
a mesbury, it
seems, is to direct our foreign affairs; but when our
countrymen abroad are asked who is the
successor of
Palmerston, they will find it difficult to give an answer.
The more inveterate readers of newspapers
re-
member that a Peer bearing that title hasbeen may
some-
what prominent in his eagerness to find occasions
occupying the House of Lords with vehementfor
Protec-
tionist speeches. Lord Malmesbury's only
with foreign affairs arises through his ancestor, connexion
who, at
the end of the last century, was an able Ambassador, and,
in the beginning of the present, a zealous sharer
party intrigues of the time. If the now Foreign le the
Minister
possesses either diplomatic knowledge or statesmanlike
ability, ho must have displayed them in private
conver-
sation with Lord Derby—to the world at large he is
utterly unknown ; but ho will have an imme-
diate opportunity of displaying his qualifications
for the office which he has obtained, when
sits down to answer that strange, unjustifiable, and
e
insulting dispatch of Prince Schwarzenberg
which
R e published yesterday. There is one great depart-
ment of Government in which, at this moment, cirum-
stances and the public voice peculiarly demand theepesence of a statesman. The errors of many years, addedr
to -
the intrinsic difficulty of the questions at issue, have
rendered the task of the Colonial Minister singularly
arduous. Mere attention to details and routine
a
dexte-
rity sink into insignificance when future empires are
requiring organization, and when the relations between
the mother-country and her dependencies of every kind
are daily becoming more complicated. It is at such a
i
crisis has that Lord Derby h selected, to administer the
off
a rs of a large portion of the world, one Sir John Pa-
kington, Chairman of the Worcestershire Quarter Ses-
sions. •
It is needless to comment on such a choice. An
active and useful country gentleman, totally unversed in
official duties, is called from the management of county
busines to extent his protecting care over fifty different
cot mmunities, scattered over every region of the globe.
It may be answered that the new Colonial Secretary
takesan interest in the West Indies, and has even given
notice of
a motion for resisting the further reduction of
the Sugar duties. Wo have not forgotten the circum-
stance, nor will either the friends or the opponents c
f free trade allow the Government to forget it. To quote
the obscure names which fill up the list
would be tedious
and almost superfious. After the Malmeaburys and
, Pakiegtonethe nominations to minor offices might seem
respectable;' though the promotion of Major Beresford,
from histhe natural post as whipper-in to
administra-
tion
of the War-office, is a new demand on public tole-
ration. Lord John Manners
, too, an accomplished and
popular young nobleman, may perform the duties of his
department as well as I: ord Seymour, but he will add
nothing to the general efficiency of the Cabinet. There
seems any candidate no particular reason why has been
selected
for any office, so equal are they in political in-
significance—
" Forternqe Cyan, u i f ortenique Cloanthum."
Yet Gyas and esloanthus were, it may be presume& the
most eminent among the followers of Anew. It might
have been thought that
even
distributed the seals of office Lord Derby might have
claimants of higher pre-
tensions. We know not why'
to
the Duke of Northumber-
land goes to the Admiraltman of great wealth, who Served y,
except that he is a noble-
navy. If Lord Eglinsou served thirty years ago in the
because he is a goesfashionabl to Ireland, it can only be
self in his youth .by gte• nobleman, who amused him-
Hardwick° is Postmaster-g a tournament; and Lord
has been ordinarily (moral, because any nobleman
old Scotch official is considered equal to that office. An
modest candidate for preferment, to have encouraged a
any man had ability to er—ents by assuring him that
which he had interest to performobtain. If the duties of any office
prosper in the unpractised in- If the different depart-
mentshave undertaken to eouldwactised hands of those who
veteran jobber will be irrefuet them, the doctrine of the
for the ordinary rank and fileragahlY confirmed. So much
is to be said of the leader of the Cabinet. But what
House of Commons? It of the late Opposition in the
had the incredible rashness seems that Lord Derby has
cellor of the Exchto make Mr. Disraeli Chan-
cellor
so equer.
me teas de slurely it might have been
possible to fin
than the finances of the country as a subject for such an
experiment. Mr. Disraeli
rest to be allowed on conside_-mg
In the rate of into-
balances in the Bank and Exchequer-billsthe state
or watching the
changes, will be as much in his
of the Foreign Ex-
composing a romance _,on the element as gr. Herries
Hume indicting a o Wondrous e Asian mystery, or Mr.
no discredit to him that he
Tale of Alroy." It is
to study a subject which has never even professed
the natural bent of his genius; but
entirely foreign to
Lord Derby in trusting the public
but the recklessness of
colleagu® is only one degree
finances to so unfit a
Disraeli's own audacity in ° more culpable than Mr.
task. Nor is this all. Not undertakingt so uncongenial a
only is the Chancellor of the
Exchequer entirely unacquaintedbut he has irrevocably
with the technical di-
fficulties of his departmentpledged himself to at least two great fiscal revolutions.
He has undertaken to provide
the farmers with cheap
capital by increasieg the land
-tax, and shift thebur
of local taxation, in a great
t° avoid some attempt to
degree, to the public Trea-
sury. It will be impossible
redeem, at any rate, the morn recent of these pledges;
and it is easy to see that any
the Government which he resuch attempt would involve
tricable difficulties. The pail:T=9oas in the most inex-
tricable
to sugar, and the Malinesiii;gt°n claims for Protec-
admission of untaxed core 'lra' diatribes against the
gotten, in comparison will; will be easily for-
posed on the Chancellor of _ the obligation im-
posed millions to the annual the Exchequer to add
But it is useless to dwell harge en the taxpayer.
tration of the blunders whicoiril, have
individual illus-
the formation of the new G overlain "eavn been made in
be the inseparable characteristic e-ft. Feebleness must
which, by the first law of its ben? an Administration
doctrines and a policy that enlightened is
identified with
manship has irrevocably disowned. The practical states-
" a fair trial" will, in all probability, Title advocates oe
time the impossibility of success, and have Seen by this
tone. For otirselves,i,we repeat that we ° changed their
givn a fair trial to the new Cabinet on shall be ready to
cept that on which—assuming that they questions ex-
cept
and dishonest—there is really nothing
not utterly
but, unfortunately, that one question i; the
to try;
condition of their entire political and official
fundamental
On the whole it is evident that the de- 1641 existence.
Lord Derby will find in conducting taelfficulties which
country with such coadjutors will be most
business of the
but the strength and durability of that nst formidable;
and permanent Government which must, at
date, be formed, will, perhaps, be increased, at no distant
trast which it will present to the obscure by the con-
fill the list of to-day. Even the change t° names which
progressive policy will scarcely be more heti) a liberal wash
progressive than the consciousness of having for
to the
ministered by tried and capable hands. g its affairs ad-
ADVERTISER.—Some idea may be formed
estimation in which the Whig Ministry were
of the
that unerring criterion of public opinion white held, by
eh is to be
found in Capelezentrt. The funds yesterday at the Stock
Exchange were quoted the same as on the day before the
downfall of the Russell Cabinet; and even o he
after the Ministerial resignation, all the iraprean. the day
on those very sensitive things called Consols, 31
was " made
of an eighth, which, translated into plain
English,
a fall
treats a fall of half-a-crowc. It would not be
possible
to furnish a more conclusive proof of the eery l
which the "Expelled" Ministry occupied in the public
0 public
mind, than is afforded by the fact in question. We
venture to say that there is no instance on record in
which the fends were so slightly affected b
y the ejection
or resignation of a Ministry; for the breaking- up „
Cabinet, however limited may have beau its -of a
popularity,
has, on all former occasions, caused a fall
in considerable
in Consols, provided, as in this case, it was not
what events might occur before another stable aeTtain
1 istry
had been formed. Go where you will, you hear no ex-
pression of regret at the fall of the Russell Cabinet.
No one utters a sigh, nor sheds a tear, over the grave
and
the departed Government. They lived unres ceve of
they have died unlamented. If a wish could li),e tall ?d,
to life no one would be found—no one, we mean, not
pecuniarily interested—to express that wish. They
have perished without a real disinterested i •
riend on
earth. They have fallen into the tomb with
out any one