The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-23 00:00:00

easiest and most decisive victory from the me-
, meat that Lord Palmerston casually placed him-
. self at their head ; and his position as teller. of
• the votes on the division of Friday night connects his
[ name with those of men loug opposed to his own. From
such a casual service to a nearer connexion the transi-
tion is neither long nor impracticable, and though dis-
claimed
effected hereafter. Upon the future course of events we
do not speculate here, but the lesson of the past is already,
' legible and distinct. Lord John Russell's Administra-
tion has come to an end from causes which were clearly
,ascertained beforehand; and which might, in our judg-
ment, have been counteracted or suspended; for it is not
[ the principles of the late Government. which have lost
their weight and ascendancy in the country, but, with
.two or three exceptions, the men who composed it.
Those principles'will doubtless continuo to moderate the 1
policy even of their opponents, and will ultimately bring
back to power a party more worthy to represent them ;
for wo hope that party will not be framed on the narrow
and exclusive basis of Whig traditions, but that it will
embrace and consolidate in Opposition the most active
anal inteliiei•nt political servants of the country.
1
CHRONICLE.—Lord Derby has had. an audience of
her Majesty, and has undertelsen the formatiee of a Cs,-
hinet. This will occeeien no surprise,
EI, it has long timn
evident that some new Ministerial combination must he ;
eff.eted. The similarity which at first sight appears to ;
exist b,,t,ween the prf‘arnt Mini,,terial resignation and the
crisis of 1851. is oniy buprtieial and casual. 0., bo.h
occasions Lora John li.assell threw up office suddenly,
after a defear,.in a thin House, on a point of stcondery
importance. On both oeetiiions. also, the mannPr of re-
cae
hsiigsnoabtojitoncntt hi7ltdopiZatteno:lifcaitphmaetiexPurir,loridte.fr. piqueiertintby ,an
an
sdt yearpreparations,
i manage-
ment
was
and to satisfy the Crown, the country, and the mal-
content adherents of his own party that no other
combination than the old Wh ;g league could, at the
moment, conduct the Administration. The scheme so
far succeeded that it led to the recall of the ex-Minis-
ters, and to the exposure of Lord Derby's intrinsic
weakness; but it failed altogether in rallying the Liberal
majority of the House of Commons round their former
leader. The second resignation might be thought
equally insincere, if the causes which led to it bad been
less obvious and substantial than they are. A return to
office, at the present moment, would not shelter Lord
Grey from censure; nor would it make the new scheme
for enfranchising rotten boroughs popular or tenable.
There was an evident convenience in resigning on a
point which few have troubled themselves to understand,
and in which no important principle was involved; and
a falling Ministry seldom waits for defeat on a vital
question. There can be little doubt that the withdrawal
of Lord John Russell from office is, for the present, defi-
nite and final. Under the circumstances, general appre-
hension at once pointed to Lord Derby as his successor;
and although some may have thought that a Go-
vernment imight have been formed from the ample
elements presented by the various sections of the Liberal
party, there has been a prevalent disposition to acquiesce
in the postponement of that inevitable event. The Pro-
tectionists and their organs are naturally expressing the
exultation which they partially feel, and the confidence
which they would willingly assume. Even their oppo-
nents are for the most part inclined to accept the result
for the sake of the remoter consequences with which it
is fraught; for they know that, however undesirable
and dangerous, it can only be temporary, whilst they
anticipate from it such a cordial union of the whole
Liberal party as will ensure the formation, at no dis-
tant date, of a strong, progressive, and efficient Govern-
ment. With the errors of weakness and selfishness
which have brought matters to their present crisis it
were at present useless to deaL Their causes and
their effects may both be summed up in the pro-
position that the Government has been thoroughly
and ruinously weak. Yet it is to be replaced by
an Administration which must be weaker still, and
which the country only accepts because there is not the
smallest danger of its perm.nenee. Both in Parliament
and out of it Lord Derby will be weaker than any pre-
vious Minister of the present generation. Since his
public confession, this time last year, of inability to form
a Cabinet, what additional strength has he acquired?
Half a dozen votes may have accrued to his cause as the
result of isolated elections—to be set off against a
twolvemonth'a additional experience of the triumphant
success of that -free-trade policy which he is irrevocably
pledged to reverse. 'Even agricultural distress, themain
resource of the Protectionist party, has already almost
disappeared. The importations of foreign corn have
diminished, and prices have advanced; barley and oats
bring remunerating prices; the cattle fairs are cleared
before mid-day; and, above all, the lapse of time has
enabled farmers to adjust their arrangements to the
change of circumstances, and has carried them almost
beyond the state of transition. There is now more
dissatisfaction among landowners than among te-
nants; and even where it is strongest, it is no
longer unmingled with hope. At the most, the cry of
distress would have been useless when it only expressed
an unreasoning desire for an unjust and impracticable
mode of relief; but, whatever force it might have given
to those who undertook to be its organs, that force was
at its maximum when Lord Derby acknowledged his in-
capacity to form an Administration which could main-
tain itself. Nor are the personal resources of the party
increased. Last year the want of official experience
among its more prominent members was, as their leader
declared, fatal to his prospects; and the same difficulty
exists at this moment—and at least to the same extent—
although Lord Derby may at least be willing to over-
look it. The Premier of the new Government is a
powerful speaker, experienced in office, but singularly
deficient in businesslike capacity, whilst he has ben re-
markable, throughout his career, neither for discretion
nor for success. The law offices may be filled by
creditable occupants; but it is scarcely too much to say
that the remaining and more important offices might as
well be distributed at once pretty much at
random. Yet, however, Lord Derby may di!"
tribute his patronage, he cannot avoid the
unwelcome prominence of an ally whom he has openly
distrusted and slighted. No conventional arrangement
can prevent Mr. Disraeli from leading the party in the
House of Commons. Indiscreet as he may be thought
and utterly insincere as may be, his sympathy with the
prejudices of the party to which ho has attached himself,
he alone among the Protectionists possesses abilities be-
yond the humblest mediocrity; and the House, though
remarkably tolerant of commonplace in the common
rank and file, still requires in its chiefs some trace of
superior intellect. Some " large-acred" squires may
possibly be disguised for a time as Ministers; but no
magic can transform into Parliamentary leaders. Yet a
Treasury Bench constituted of little better materials will
have to face an Opposition including every orator
but one, and, without an exception, every states-
man and every man of business in the House. So
feeble a staff could not conduct a Parliamentary cam-
paign, even with the aid of such a majority as that
which Lord Althorp wielded after the Reform Bill.
And what are Lord Derby's forces? A moderately
large minority in the Lower House, and a useless ma-
jority in the Upper. Before a dissolution can take place
he must probably undergo more than one damaging de-
feat. Questions will be raised for the purpose of bringing
his policy to a test, and of forcing him either to avow,
or publicly to renounce, the intentions which his sup-
porters attribute to him. With a now election before
his eyes, he has obviously no alternative but to adopt the
bolder, the more consistent, and the more dangerous
course. He has often trifled with Protection, and en-
deavoured to escape from it, but he can appeal to the
hustings on no other ground. In fact, to abandon Pro-
tection, to shelve it, or to treat it as a secondary question
which may be postponed for the convenience of
Party,
would be to acknowledge that his whole course
since 1846 had been one sustained, continuous, of action
deception—that he has been virtually co-operating,
weak and in the meanest spirit of faction, with a
into confusion, and to make all useful
inca-
pable Government, to throw the business of the
le gcountryia
impossible—and that he
upon the prejudices, an
on Lord Derby's
of his own followers. Any attempt the only
part to palter with this question—the
par
scheated systematically h
question
which gives him the slightest claim to office—would, at
once stigmatise his past conduct as a stupendous ' orga-
nized hypocrisy," and mark his future career as au
enormous living lie. Yet on this point, as he well
knows, the mind of the nation is finally made up.
To
say that free trade must be maintained were but a feeble
expression of the firm conviction and the unalterable
determination of the country. It millustnoteven be
now.with which the
ren-
dered an open- question,etongoalrerrdetxtdpioownsed to a moment's un-
is as incapable of
is unable to retractcarrying out
Ac e
dr un-
certainty. ii
depend on the uni-
versal s :I:It:9 t.raorprtisociTnohameoplwiPdstbellslaibisve
it
them without incurring political infamy. or modify
per-
haps, sufficiently remembered that, in the
It is not,
advance and development of co mm -
ercial policy
meantime, all
will be at
a stand-still. We have long been
or nothing done, bat" it will ben accustomed to see little
to have even a promise or ho a step downward not
pe
are the prospects of a of improvement. Such
Government which the country
may deem endurable because it carries in itself the
seeds of speedy and final extinction, and because, after
a brief, though, we ,
it must leave the ground
a stormy and baneful existence,
and united Liberal _. clear for a strong, powerfutol,
A,olmistration. It is not for us _
point out an egress from the labyrinth of conventional
necessities in whichthe
nation has for the moment lost
itself. But in the meanwhile we must labour to secure
whatever public
advanta e incidentally be derived
from an untoward g may
The
combination of circumstances.
first result to be attained is, that all friends of political
and commercial progress must " close their ranks." The
country demands a strong Government, composed of all
its leading statesmen, and there can be no doubt that,
after some waste of - time, and perhaps some for-
midable agitation, the national desire will at last
be realised. We will only add that in the improbable
event of Lord Derby's eventually declining to assume
the responsibilities of office, we earnestly hope that none
of the leading supporters of Free-trade will refuse the
Crown that assistance which may be required of them.
There may be difficulties and party embarrassments in
abundance; but it would plainly be their duty to try,
and ample materials exist at this moment for the forma-
tion of a Liberal Administration which would command
the confidence of the country. It is by no means certa:a
that the experiment would fail, even for the moment;
and even failure after a gallant struggle would infallibly
prove the harbinger of future success.
DAILY NEW S.—Lord Derby has been sent for by
the Queen to form a Protectionist Administration. A
Cabinet of any other character it is not in his power to
form, nor would it bo in his will. No man of political
mark or station who is sincerely attached to free-trade
principles could with honour accept confidential office
under his Lordship. The man who brae with his col-
leagues iu the Government of 1846, because he could
not conscientiously surrender the tax on bread, and who
after a five years' expe . the 'working of free
oce lof -
trade, told her Majesty in February, 1851, that if ap-
pointed Prime Minister he would endeavour to impose a