The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-29 00:00:00

idng ult

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 29, 1842.

Whether the House of Commons be dissolved on
the 27th of May, .or still later, it is tolerably certain
that the present Ministers of the Crown are sedu-
lously preparing themselves, in anticipation of that
appeal to the country, to submit to the consideration
of their respective constituencies the precise nature
of the policy by which they propose in their various
departments to carry on the general affairs of Govern-
ment. The implicit confidence expressed by the
supporters of the existing Cabinet in the favourable
result of the general elections, in regard to the Derby-
Disraeli Administration, may possibly, it is true, be
sincere—though at the same time there is every
probability that it is merely affected, with
a view to inspire a similar confidence in the mass of
the population. Men credulous enough to be deceived
by the hallucinations of Monopoly may be expected,
of course, to believe anything whatsoever, no matter
how glaringly extravagant its character. Yet, with
all our consciousness of the extraordinary gullibility
of the Protectionists, we cannot seriously credit that
their judgments are so far obscured as to delude them
into the idea that they are certain of numbering a
very considerable majority in the ensuing
Parliament. It is our impression, therefore, that
the reliance upon their cause expressed by the
supporters of the new Cabinet is nothing more than
assumed for the peculiar reason already specified.
Such being, we feel assured, the case, the Ministers
and subordinates will feel it more than ever encum-
bent upon them to submit to the community some
specious declaration of their views relating to the
projected tendencies of their Government. Financislls
it is scarcely possible that thsir schema of
policy can b 3 otherwise than an improvement,
the whole nation beholding with unalloyed
Satisfaction the appointment of Mr. DISRAELI as a
substitute fur Sir CHARLES WOOD as Chancellor of
the Exchequer. The intellectual mediocrity of the
Member for Halifax could not indeed but contrast
most significantly with the indisputable genius of the
Right Hon. Gentleman the representative of Buck-
inghamshire. With reference to our home system,
it cannot, however, be altogether so very probable that
the nomination of Mr. W ALPOLE to that department
in the ruom of Sir GEORGE GREY, could be deemed
satisfactory, bearing in mind, as the country neces-
sarily must do, the total inexperience of the former as
compared with the incomparable adroitness displayed
by the latter administrator. Again—it would be ri-
diculous to Leagine for a single instant that the
Earl of MALMESSURY any more than the Earl
GRAN VILLE could be considered by the people
of England as a desirable substitute for
the great statesman who during forty years
has exercised so remarkable an influence upon our
foreign relations. The capacity revealed by Lord
PALM ERSTON during the whole period of his continu-
ance in office inevitably reduces to insignificance the
very eesunary abilities of the men recent ly selected
from the aristocracy to be his successors. Hardly
less awkward is the position, as Colonial Secretary,
of Sir JOHN PA LINGTON, than that occupied
as Foreign Secretary by the Earl of MALMESSURY,
though, it must be acknowledged, for reasons of a
very different, or indeed, we might say, of an entirely
opposite description. The duties of the Foreign De-
partment have become more than ever difficult to
discharge, because of the painfully deterio-
rating allusions certain to be made, on every
available opportunity, to the weakness of
its present, and the energy of its past admi-
nistration. Whereas, the duties of the Colonial
Department have been rendered more than ever sources
of embarrassment to the Chief Secretary, from the
confusion into which the affairs of that office have
been thrown by the meddling and petulant policy of
ilarl GREY—a confusion not very likely to be re-
duced to order by the total inexperience of Sir Joins
PARINGTON as an administrator.
Considering the multiplicity of interests
which it is necessary the Colonial Secretary
should at all times bear in his recollection,
considering that those interests are scattered over our
forty colonial possessions, and considering that those
possessions are distributed so very widely over the
globe as to be extended throughout Europe, Asia,
Africa, and America, embracing, moreover, the whole
of the southern continent of Australia, together with
the principal portion of the southern archipelago of
Polynesia, it is manifest that no ordinary amount of
knowledge and no trivial familiarity with the routine
of administration are required from whosoever is en-
trusted with that department in her MAJESTY'S Go-
vernment. Yet the personage selected by the Earl
of DERBY for that singularly responsible position is
no one more able or more experienced than a very
respectable chairman of quarter sessions—Sir JOHN
PAILINGTON. Inexperienced as he is in the manage-
ment of the machinery of administration—unac-
quainted as he is with the information essential to a
Colonial Secretary, very much is expected from
him now that he has consented to take upon himself
that enormous share of toil in the national Govern-
ment. He will have to repair all the blunders com-
mitted, and to carry out whatever good enterprise
was ventured upon by his generally culpable but
sometimes sagacious predecessor. Among the for-
mer duties devolving upon the present Colonial Sec-
retary are, of course, those connected with the
shameful treatment of Sir HARRT SMITH and the
mismanagement of legislation with regard to the
"I'° and. Xafirland. Among the latter duties are
those arisingzrom the project proposed some time
to. the development of the resources
of our North referenceietn American possessions. It cannot be for-
suemitting
back in
bayraTeatodroeres thatwhen the Hon. JOSEPH
monthsthis back n
scheme England,
purpose a
tfgHooo:tt:ttehelneGoverninent of the mother country, he received
important
such encouragement in the matterfor
return
from Earl GREY
that he wagt
the
dormant peo p l e
io
nf
Atlantic with good news
nd now that the
Nova Scotia and New Baranyat,hwinieg but
k. Since then the
matter has t
those provinces : a on. FRANCIS
-- `.B hoped that
the promise of assistance given by Earl Garrshores, to
will be
confirmed by Sir J. PASINGTON, and that the benefits
Scotia
'cll extended through
and New Brunswick may be rap y
certain to result from the undertaking in Nova
other philan-
Canada and even through the Hudson's Bay terri-
tory, so that the day-dream of many
Atlantic,
thropists besides WILLIAM PATERSON may at length be
realized—the Pacific being united to the the
new worldbeing transformed into the highway
the oriental and occidental extremities of the old, and
between
additional strength and incalculable wealth being
imparted to the British Empire in the very process
of developing this beneficent enterprise, pouring into
the coffers of the state the riches yet buried in her
vast dominions.

The bullionists are at length b9ginning to feel
some degree of alarm at the unprecedented amount
of gold contained in the Bank cellars, and the large
continuous and steady augmentation which is still