The Sun.
London, England, 1852-08-14 00:00:00

in the auguries of a comprehensive revision
of our present system of taxation. The question now
is—Will Ministers themselves evince a complete cog-
nizance of the responsibility of their position, of the
necessity for an onward policy, and of the golden
value of the opportunity now afforded them for the
consolidation of a strong Government ? Will their
desultory ideas in favour of the advantages accruing
from reform be concentrated into a scheme capable
of commanding the sympathies of the Reformers ?
Free Trade they know cannot be abolished.
They know equally well that an obdurate
continuance in the blundering arrangements
which have long been matters of detes-
tation, is beyond the force of the compact and ener-
getic Government. What therefore remains to be
done by them under the circumstances ? It remains
for them to—advance. In acting thus their leaders
would be guilty of no inconsistency. In acting
otherwise they would, indeed, render themselves
liable to fall under the charge of tergiversation.
Would it be inconsistency for the Earl of DERBY to
place himself in the van of the great popular
march of improvement—would it not rather be
gross and shameless tergiversation for him to act
differently, after the glory secured to the name of
SraeiLey during the first and greatest struggle for
reform in the lower House of Parliament ? We
await, then, with sanguine expectation the disclosure
f th
programme,
duringo the course ofn the assembling of
the
ene Ministerial
cmewHouseof
the ensuing October. We await the revelation of
the policy about to be adventured upon by the Derby
Cabinet with only greater confidence, moreover,
from the recollection that it will continue to be led,
in the popular branch of the Legislature, by a man
of the people as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
It must not be forgotten during the crisis of the
present emergency that patience and candour are the
two great requisites for the conscientious members
of the Opposition. Forbearance was the civic virtue
demanded at their hands immediately upon the first
formation of the DERBY Government—a forbearance
amounting at times to the h •
eight of magnanimity.
At present—the last session of the Parliament of
1847 having closed, and the first session of the Parlia-
ment of 1852 being on the very eve of its commence-
ment—the qualities looked for in the more patriotic
section of the Opposition are those, we repeat, of
patience and of candour. This patience can be taxed
only for a brief while longer, and then the candour of
those Reformers who are not mere partizans will be
summoned into active operation. Remember, it was
observed the other day by one of the most illus-
trious reformers of the age, as he is also one of the
most distinguished of living statesmen—Sir JAMES
GRAHAM—that he for one would not consent to pro-
nounce j udgment upon the Derby Cabinet until
the Derby Cabinet had had a hearing. That hear-
ing it has not yet obtained. That hearing it could
not, in fact, by any reasonable possibility have ob-
tained until after the appeal bad been made to the
country—when the Earl of DERBY as Prime Minister
might be enabled to submit his deliberated policy to
the scrutiny of the newly-elected Legislature. Here,
therefore, we recognise something like substantial
promise of a Ministerial revelation. Hitherto in their
hopes of such the people of the United
Kingdom have been subjected to very griev-
ous disappointment. The fulfilment of the
wishes of the community, we may therefore so
far count upon, that we may venture to announce as
forthcoming the long-delayed and anxiously-awaited
disclosure of the views of the Government. Confi-
dent 'in the weakness of rival parties, let Ministers
become confident also in the popularity of their own
principles. They may, if they so will it. Assurance
of the former is recognisable in the' very head and
front of the offending " of Lord Jonrr RUSSELL.
Assurance of the latter may be discovered in the
" antecedents" of the principal members of the Go-
vernment.

The six hundred and fifty-four " Honourable
Gentlemen" who represent, in Parliament, the coun-
ties and boroughs of the United Kingdom, may ex-
pect to be called into action (or the int)* )f action)
in October. At that time, it is understood, the har-
vest having been all got in—and it is a source of
national congratulation that a full and plenteous har-
vest it will be, so that a continuity of cheap bread
" appears looming in the distance"—and the winged
inhabitants of the moors and mountains having been
very considerably thinned, " the collective wisdom"
of the nation will assemble for the dispatch of busi-
ness. No doubt a great deal is to be done. In the
uew Parliament we are to have Lord DERRY and his
colleagues saying and doing a little more than they
said and did in the last session. The actual tug of
war will then really commence ;—the public wiil
then be able to perceive, it is to be hoped, how for
Oppo,ition profession agrees with Ministerial practice.
From the time when Lord JOHN RUSSELL "upset the
coach," by driving it against Lord PALMERSTON'S
amendment on the Militia Bill, we have said—Let
the new Ministry have fair play and a fair trial. The
character of the country was involved in this. It
was by no chicanery, by no intrigue that the Earl of
DERBY came into office in February. Why Lord
JOHN RUSSELL should have thrown up the Govern-
ment has not been satisfactorily explained to this
hour. Almost as inexplicable is the fact of his hav-
ing recommended the QUEEN to call upon Lord
DERBY to form a Cabinet, instead of Sir JAMES
GRAHAM; for, up to that time, the Noble Earl was
certainly anything but in favour of Progress, while
the Honourable Baronet was the man, of all others,
whom the public recognised as a Movement
leader. We never could understand why
Lord JOHN, not allowed (as he said) to carry pro-
grass measures, should have recommended the QUEEN
to consult, as his successor, the man likely—at the
time--to resist progress, instead of him determined to
advance it. Had Sir JAMES GRAHAM formed a Go-
vernment, including the real Liberals in Parliament,
nobody doubts that it would have been one of the
strongest that ever ruled the country. Now, and at
all future times, the question will be—Why did Lord
JOHN RUSSELL recommend a Protectionist instead of
a Liberal successor ? Could there have been a faint
hope that the finesse of 1851 would have been repeated,
ir
and that the RUSSELL-GREY-ELLIOT Ministry
would have been replaced ? That was possible, with
Lord D5Rn
as Premier, impossible with Sir JAMES
Posthurnz
GRAHAM at the head of the Government. Our posterity,
kalf a certturylahence, perusing Lord Jo. iset RPUSSELL‘y':
unte.ileoirs of his Own Administration
c(abroetftlueld
anxiety
not
tthat time, from an amiable and
lier disclosures) mao set the Thames on fire, by ear-
they learn, perhaps, the motives of
ex-Paznarares
darness,
peutie.inoduct: we can only guess at
"Shadows, clouds, (sad
them—it is a
'" Ynx'and
rest upon it."
From February, When Lord DER.BY was "called
in," until the close of the session,
vernment existed rather upon July, the Go-
It was confessedly a Ministry of sufferance_i than power.
zi ergenc—,
y and
appealed, in that capacity, to the justice
of its Parr
gene-
rosity, the honour Parliamentary , the
opponents.
was nobly responded to. 13
The appeal 3' common eon..
sent, the majority of those opponents not only did not
resist, but actually, lent their aid to help the new
e difficulties of its position. Th
Ministry through th
ere
never was an instance, as far as our Parliamentary
history records, in which factious p e positton was so
entirely set aside. The result was that, in finance,
Mr. DISRAELI was allowed to bring forward and
easily carry the Budget which Sir CHARLES WOOD
bad prepared, and (to say nothing of minor enact-
ments) the new Government were permitted to ma-
ture and pass the measures for legal reform which, at
the opening of the session, had been promised by
the RUSSELL Cabinet- The common-weal was borne
in mind by all parties in the last session,
and the character of the country has been
highly raised by tho
forbearance
solicited by
one party and gracefully granted by
the other.
The Session closed. A general election followed.
Some
striking changes took place.
Many of the late
Ministers did not obtain re-election. The
chiefs of
the Peelite section were " nowhere "
blood ha -*
Much new
B been infused into the L '
whether it be egislature—
good blood remains to be seen. The
Ministry have 1
had such
gained by the elections—but
they
have
not
pendent. Wehre
jos.e uch a gain as renders them hide.
at this. Lord DERBY, w a
sweeping majority
at his back, might Eussellizeith and
which daily over the reform
is .called for; in his
present condition, he must be a prompt,
,-. rational, and
nerptic Reformer, or he
must fall. Between