The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-11 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 11, 1864.

We live in a busy time ; so busy :that we are
apt sometimes to grow impatient of matters
the momentary excitement of which has passed
away—nay, sometimes, to neglect duties that
have ceased to press upon our immediate at-
tention. We have half-finished undertak-
ings the interest of which has been already
superseded by newer and more absorbing themes.
Time moves so fast nowadays ; events crowd so
thickly one upon another, that we lose our hold
upon them almost before they have passed from
before our eyes, Each brings with it such a fund
of fresh and stirring incident that the story of
yesterday is already a half-forgotten tale, its in.
tercet lost, its moral pointless, its places and
purposes thrown neglectfully aside.
It is not so very long ago since tidings came to
us across the sea of one of the most terrible catas-
trophes of modern times. All England thrilled with
horror and indignation, The spirit of the nation
was aroused. Every nerve was strained ; the whole
strength of the country was put forth, and the rebel-
lion which had drenched some of our fairest pro-
vinces in blood, and threatened at one moment
to wrest from Great Britain the empire of the
East, was crushed with a vigour and determination
that left us tenfold more powerful there than we were
before. Then came the question of our future policy.
The shock of imminent danger had awakened us to a
sense of insecurity, and had aroused the most care-
less to a sense of the immediate necessity for prompt
and effective measures of precaution. For once an
Indian debate became a thing of interest to the
House of Commons and to the country at large. The
whole theory and practice of Indian policy was
eagerly and minutely scrutinised. Legislation,
sharp, vigorous, and comprehensive, followed with
a rapidity that approached closely to revolution.
The entire system of government was less revised
than swept away. The grand old Company that
for so many glorious years had ruled the destinies of
a continent fivefold greater than England herself,
vanished suddenly from the scene, and an empire
changed hands with hardly more of ceremony than
might accompany the transfer of an estate. Then
came reaction. The Indian mutiny had not more
effectively obliterated the memory of the Crimean
war than it in turn became eclipsed by the rapid
incidents of Italian revolution. Italy passed from
the scene, and America and Poland divided the
fleeting interest of the world. Now, even these are
yielding to a newer and more absorbing topic. The
Polish correspondents of English newspapers are
recalled ; American telegrams give place to more
exciting news from Denmark, and the great melo-
drama still hurries breathlessly on from ocean to
ocean, from sensation to sensation, each in its turn
forgotten almost before the prompter's whistle has
ceased to sound.

This should not be. The affairs of a great nation
are no mere matter of passing interest to be flung
aside from our consideration for every thrilling
novelty that may arise. Thu legislation that in-
valves at once the power of our country and the wel-
fare of millions of our fellowmen is a task of deep
and serious responsibility, and must be executed
faithfully and thoroughly to the end. For good or
for evil, we have done much for India, but the work
is not yet complete. It were far better not to have
begun the work at all than to leave it half undone.
There is great danger that it may be so, and we
cannot too strongly point out the evil
that must come. An opportunity will
now be given of showing how far
we are really led away by the excitement of the
hour ; how far we are prepared to follow up sted-
fastly and carefully the course we have begun.
To-morrow evening will bring before the House of
Commons a question of the utmost importance in
Indian affairs, affecting most clearly the interests
of the men on whose combined effectiveness and
devotion our hold upon that splendid empire must
practically depend. We trust that no carelessness
or impatience may prevent the House from giving
it that full and anxious attention it so thoroughly
deserves.

Amid the strife and turmoil of Parliamentary
and Ministerial careers, there sometimes occur
periods of calm and quiescence when all goes merry
as a marriage bell. Mr. CARDWELL, in his recent
appearance at Oxford, has lighted on one of these
halcyon points; all seems to have been couleur de
rose, and the clouds and storms were put far away
out of sight. The right hon. gentleman certainly
made the most of his opportunity, and made a calm,
sensible, and temperate speech, which afforded great
satisfaction to his hearers. So far all was right ; the
member was returned, the Minister installed in his
position in the Cabinet and the House, and beyond
all this did there not work anything in the back
ground, and were there no momentous topics
omitted in the discourse which made it appear on
the whole like the play " Hamlet" with the part of
Hamlet omitted. Some things are as conspicuous
for their absence as their presence, and among this
class we may rank the omissions in the speech at
Oxford. This is a critical juncture for a member
of the Cabinet to meet his constituents; but although
this is the first time that Mr. CARDWELL has ap-
peared in that capacity, he exhibited a skill and
dexterity in evading all awkward and inconvenient
subjects that would have done honour to a veteran
statesman long practised on the stage of publio life
and well versed is the minutia, of official careers.
He had some reason for his complacency and self-
reliance, however, in the fact that this is the fourth
time in five years that he had enjoyed the advan-
tages of a "cordial an() undisputed return." This
unanimity speaks well for the electors, and redounds
to the credit of the subject of their choice. The
course of Mr. CARDWELL'S career has been marked
by a judicious reticence and a uniform equanimity
that have offended none and propitiated all.
Apart from the jealousies of place, and the struggle
for power, there are always found plenty to recog-
nise and appreciate such qualities, and the recently
elected member foe Oxford comes in for a share of
their approval. The allusion to the state of our
finances was a very adroit subject upon which to
dilate and descant ; it is about the only satisfactory
one in the whole range of ministerial machinations.
Putting his best topic first enabled Mr. CARDWELL
to make a flourishing effect, and thus take his
audience by surprise, as it were. It was straining
a point, however, to infer from this that the posi-
tion of the country was better in many material
respects. The gratulations as to the present free-
dom from Crimean impositions comes strangely,
after so long a period, more especially when the
present Chancellor of the Exchequer has been in
office for the greater part of the period referred tor

* Our Military Administration, Past and Present, con-
sidered in a Letter to the Premier. By W. 0, Thud
EditioP, stamped.