The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-22 00:00:00

ag

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1852,

Every iling is sub rosa, or rather "under a
cloud," in regard to the new Ministerial arrange-
ments. The obscurity of the rumours upon the
subject now in circulation would appear to augur
unfavourably for the combination under the Earl
of ABERDEEN as the Leader of a Whig-and-Peelite
Government. This can scarcely be matter of sur-
prise under the circumstances. It cannot be
enigmatical to any single dispassionate observer,
that the chiefs of the late Opposition should find
a very formidable variety of difficulties in the
way of a grand official amalgamation. Take a
few very apparent illustrations. Upon the reli-
gious questions, for example, how can the Right
Hon. Baronet the member for Carlisle, who chi-
valrously came forward in 1850, almost single-
handed, in defence of the principles of toleration
as applied to the Roman Catholics of the United
Kingdom—how can he, of all men, coalesce with
the Noble Lord the Representative of the City of
London, the author of the morally-detonating
epistle to the Bishop of DURHAM—the do-
cument that flashed up into the Ecclesias-
tical Titles Bill, and lit a flame of fanatical
enthusiasm that spread rapidly throughout the
community, and the warmth of which can-
not yet be said to have wholly died out among
the more zealous classes of the population. How
upon subjects of religious import, how therefore
upon matters aCecting Ireland, or Education, or
even some of our Colonies, can Sir JAMES GRAHAM
join hand and glove with Lord JOHN RUSSELL.
One or the other must yield. There must be a
concession upon these topics, and a rather
considerable concession too, from either Lord
JonN, or Sir JAMES—from either the assailant or
the defender of those who talk of the suffragans
of the Cardinal Archbishop of WESTMINSTER.
Which of the two is about to " knuckle down"
to his opponent ? Can the ex-PREMIER, after
blowing hot, blow cold, like the man in the Grecian
Apologue ? Can the ex-Hosin SECRETARY, after
blowing cold, blow hot with a like facility ? How
is it to be ? Or, is the country to have upon this ,
vital question—a compromise ? Why, a compro-
-111. 1-43 upon such a question would be little else than
Irrede
iemably disgraceful. Then let us consider
I
possible to have blended together—
Lord
J°ll
-w RUSSELL'S expansive sympathy for the
rights of
bentocraev and Mr. GLADSTONE'S stub-
inexorable devotion for what he conceives to be the
iv
es and duties of Conservatism ?
Again, it must not be overlooked that for five
years Lord Job disti
with the foreign nctly associated hi s.Cabinet
forei Plic hey of Lord PALMERSTON—a
y gn
dia
metrically the the reverse of that
previously maintained by
Earl of ABERDEEN.
thin Under Lor d
eman de hd ABERDEEN we
were conceding every-
g to ts of other Governments—we
were laying traps for ourselves. in regard to Oregon
Boundaries, and opening pitfalls to be comfortabl
tumb!ed into at leisure afterwards in referen Y
Spanish Marriages. Under. Lora
pAtlimit:oro
on the contrary, we were maintaining Our dignity
abroad, at the same time that tranquillity was
preserved by us in our relations with other States
and this, too, in the midst of the storms, and
panics, and disasters, and convulsions of a series
of tremendous revolutions. Recollect, we
repeat, that the RussELL Ministry was
for five years pledged to the wise, the bold, and
the patriotic policy of Lord PALMEESTON! And
yet here is Lord JOHN, the Leader of that Ca-
binet, the former colleague of Lord P
ALMERSTON,
talking of taking office under my Lord ABERDEEN
—under the very Administrator whose ideas of
diplomacy are the direct antithesis to those enter-
tamed by the noble Viscount the Member for
Tiverton—under, in fact, the very Minister against
whose foreign policy the Noble Lorcl the Member for