The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-09 00:00:00

have been accepted, still, when defeated on that subject
in the Cabinet, he was content to carry on the war for
fear of breaking up the Whig Administration, by imi-
tating the resignation of M. Drouyn d'Lhuys.
One of the most fearful features of this startling an-
nouncement was the calmness and apparent matter of
ordinary occurrence and manner in which it was made.
The innocent girl of 10 years old, confessinc, that she
had poached out the eyes of her sehoolfellow's'doll could
not have made the disclosure with greater sang froid
than did Lord John his announcement ; and this he did
in the very spot where, twelve months ago, he had en-
acted the part of the Cato of the Russian war, declaring
" delenda est Sebastopol," and calling upon " God to de-
fend the right," which it now appears he considers the
wrong. How is such a state of things to be explained ?
Is it possible that the moral perceptions of the class to
which he belongs—that of jobbing Whig statesmen—
are so utterly blinded by wandering in crooked and
dark ways that a man of his position in the country is
incapable of perceiving the heinous—nay, almost in-
credible wickedness of aiding in carrying on a war which
costs thousands of lives a day, and of the propriety, ne-
cessity, and justice of which he is not only doubtful but
incredulous ? But Lord John goes further, for lie ab-
solutely justifies his conduct.
Now, be it observed, the noble lord does not arrive
at this monstrous conclusion by means of the astute
dialectics and casuistry of Mr. Gladstone, who is ac-
eustomed "like the formal vice, Iniquity, to moralise—
two meanings in one word," and whe has absolutely
reached a state of quasi honesty, from the incurable ob-
liquity of intellect by which he persuades himself that
chicanery is honour. No such thing ; Lord John pro-
fesses common sense ; and yet such is the moral condi-
tion to which the " total want of high principle in pub-
lic men" has conducted him.

Let us look round fora moment upon the effects pro-
duced on the public mind by the contempt which the
people are beginning unequivocally not only to feel, but
to express, both for their rulers and the Legislature.
At this present moment the mob in Hyde Park unmis-
takeably dominates over both the distrusted Parliament
and the weak and unprincipled Administration ; it de-
clares its will on Sunday, and on Monday its behests are
obeyed.

Within the week meetings—large meetings—have
been held both at Sheffield and Birmingham, calling for
the impeachment of Ministers ; and at the latter town
when an orator demanded, " Where is the great inquest
of the nation ?" he was responded to from the bottom of
the ball by a shout of " Lunch law."

At the same meeting the Primier was convicted, un-
der his own hand, not only of conniving at the existence
of an Austrian. police in this country, but of knowingly
allowing innocent men to be punished for denouncing its
agents.

We submit to our readers that such symptoms are
not to be despised, and that the only refuge from the
consequences which they portend is to be found in the
establishment of a Government composed of men on
whose firmness the people can repose confidence, on
whose truth they can rely, and whose integrity they can
respect. Let Mr. Roebuck insist on a call of the house.

(From the Morning Chronicle of this day. )

Once more is the existence of an Administration com-
promised by the untimely candour of Lord John Russell.
The noble member for London has attained an unhappy
celebrity for saying the wrong things in the wrong
places ; and certainly will not have belied his reputa-
tion by the expos 6 of Friday night. His speech on that
occasion was indeed most unfortunately timed, so far
as the credit, or perhaps the stability, of the Govern-
ment is concerned. If confessed a little earlier, and
with somewhat less manifest proof that the confession
was only made because the secret had been already de-
tected, the discordance of opinion between the late Pleni-
potentiary at Vienna and the rest of his colleagues might
not have assumed so very serious an aspect. There
would have been far less gravity in the fact, but for the
mystery in which it was so long environed.
Six weeks since the noble lord returned from Vienna,
bringing back with him no treaty of peace, but a bundle
of protocols to explain the reason why he had failed in
his attempts to conclude one. Yet neither in these pro-
tocols nor in the long speech which he felt obliged to
make on the subject in the house was the public informed
that ho did bring home, if not a peace, at all events a
proposition that, in his opinion, formed the probable
basis of pacification, and which the Cabinet of whom he
formed a member had peremptorily rejected. He thought
then, and thinks still, that the last suggestion made by
Austria contained elements that might have been deve-
loped into a "satisfactory treaty of peace."
But the Premier and his remaining colleagues pro-
nounced against the opinion of our Colonial Secretary,
for reasons which Lord John allowed to appear, when
he added, that although the treaty would prove satisfac-
tory, it was likely to be " unpopular." But though his
project of pacification was repudiated, the noble lord
not only retained the seals of office, but concealed the
fact that any differences of opinion existed between him-
self and his brother Ministers. To every hint of Cabinet
divisions the Government, by all its members and
through all its organs, returned a prompt denial, assum-
ing even the air of injured innocence when assuring the
house and the country that they were not less united
than energetic in prosecution of the war. If such secrets
ever could be kept, the session, and perhaps the war
itself, might have terminated before the nation dis-
covered that its destinies were guided by divided and
distracted councils.
Here we cannot help remarking upon the singular
Nemesis, whioh has attended every attempt at evasion
or misrepresentation an the part of the British Ministry.
Wrong with them has, indeed, never come right. In
order to excuse a culpable waste of time and langour in
their preparations, the Government constantly enlarged
upon the vast importance of enlisting the sympathies—
or, if possible, securing the co-operation—of the German
Powers. It was necessary to wait, we are told, until
the Austrian " pear had ripened." In order to give
some ostensible colour to this plea the late Vienna Con-
ferences were inaugurated, since even Lord John himself
assures us that he never hoped to educe any practical
result, in the shape of a treaty, from this pompous
and delusive gathering of diplomatists. When the
abortive close of the Conferences was undeniable, the
Ministry were obliged to keep up the delusion by exag-
gerating the promises originally made by Austria,
and accusing that country, by implication, if not in
actual terms, of treachery towards England and France.
This charge of bad faith elicited the vindicatory note of
Count Buol, who naturally dilated, as being the strongest
point in the Austrian defence, upon the fact that his own
Cabinet had actually contrived a proposition of which
the British plenipotentiary had expressed his individual
satisfaction, promising to support it with all the weight
of his influence at home. Thus, step by step from the
original perversion of the truth, has followed the detec
tion which now overwhelms the Government with dig
grace.

Nor can the public forget that the present is at least
the second instance in which confession and repentance,
on the part of the now Colonial Secretary, have followed,
not the commission of a fault, but its discovery ! His
sorrowful contrition or his virtuous resolves have been
manifested only to his colleagues beneath the seal of
Cabinet secrecy, until detection became inevit ible !
Then, and not before, Lord John Russell hastened
to display himself in his true colours to the world. Then
it was found, for the first time, that the noble lord was
so much better and wiser a man than his fellow Minis-
ters—that he had seen and denounced the error of their
ways, blaming them for apathy, or remonstrating against
their acts, besides generally urging them to the course
which they did not follow, and, by not following it, in-
volved the nation in terrible disrsters. Yet, while pur-
suing a career so fatal, and so contrary to his individual
judgment, the Administration never witnessed the actual
secession of their colleague, until their faults and
failures have been found out. It was thus in the last
autumn he retained his post, ostensibly an attached
and concurring partner of the Aberdeen Ministry,
until the country rang with indignation at the
consequences of their mismanagement, and Mr.
Roebuck's motion brought discovery and respon-
sibility into immediate prospect. Lord John
then resigned ; and, moreover, took care to let us know
that he had detected the ministerial blunderings, as well
as sought to displace the ministerial blunderers, months
before. And now agaiu he conceals the fact that he had
recommended a basis of pacification to his colleagues
which they had not thought proper to adopt, while he
did not think their rejection of it a cams resignationis.
If Count Buol had never written his too veracious circu-
lar, how soon woald the country have learnt that the
Plenipotentiary had returned front Vienna with the out-
lines of a treaty in his pocket, which the Secretary of
State allowed to be rejected
We regret to follow out an inference so little credit.
able to any public man. But we fear it is unquestionable,
that Lord John Russell has been too clever for his
colleagues. As the patrons of a sport nearly as honour-
able and only less exciting than the game of politics
would say, he " runs cunning." His political
" book " has been made up so adroitly as to leave him
a safe winner in every event. If Sebastopol had fallen
in November last, the Pi esident of the Council would
have shared the eclat of the triumph. As the fortress
held out in December, while the British army was suf-
fering the extremest r:gours of a winter campaign, he
retired to the back benches and claimed credit for having
long beforehand foreseen the existing calamities, and
done his best to avert them. Just now the discovery of
his plan seems to have been prematurely made through
the indiscretion pf Count Thiel and the vigilance of Mr.
Milner Gibson. But the scheme was not the less a
good scheme, although, like the Russian submarine tor-
patios, it has blown up at an improper juncture. It
was evidently designed to lie perdu for a time,
leaving Lord John to play out the part of a
War Minister so long as the war was popular ; but
if ever the people got tired or disappointed, and
anxious for peace, then to give him the title to
stand forth as a veteran pacificator, who had pro-
vided the means for a satisfactory peace long ago, if the
other members of the Cabinet would but have accepted
them.

It would be idle at this time of day to examine the
terms of the proposition to which Lord John Russell
gave his adherence. Whether actually unsafe, as Lord
Palmerston declares, or merely " unpopular" for the
moment, according to the belief of the British Envoy,
the scheme has been finally repudiated. The proposal is
negatived, and there's an end of it. The question now
pending is, not how the Palmerston Government came
to select such a Plenipotentiary, but how they can re-
tain such a Colleague ? Here is a comrade who does not
stick by the ship, but shows a recurring propensity to
skulk into some boat towing astern, with a knife always
ready to " cut the painter" in case of disaster. The services
of such a comrade in working the vessel can be but slight,
while the spectacle of his timidity and precautions
either upon friends or enemies can be little satisfac-
tory. All the world knows the reason why it has been
found unsafe to leave Lord John Russell out of any
Liberal Administration. But, as the proverb says,
"Gold may be bought too dear." Far as the session

has advanced, it may not close before Lord Palmerston
has made the discovery that too high a price has been
paid even for the high alliances and strong ruinforce-
ments—social, official, and parliamentary—brought to
his Administration by the House of Bedford.

(From the Morning Advertiser of this day.)
The public were astonished on Saturday morning by
the extraordinary revelations made, on the previous
evening, respecting the narrow escape which this coun-
try has had of being sold bodily to Russia. And, to
make the matter worse, the man who, but for a fortunate
accident, would have thus deliberately handed us over to
Russia, bound hand and foot, was one who bears the
name of an Englishman. But, as if that aggravation were
not sufficient, that Englishman—if Englishman he ought
to be called--was none other than a member of the pre-
sent Cabinet. We shall be told, with bated breath on the
part of the public, when the announcement is made, that
the force of aggravation could no further go. That would
be a mistake. Not only is it possible that there might
be even a deeper aggravation, but there is a deeper ag-
gravation. The man who thus did all that in him lay to
make Great Britain a dependency of Russia was one who
bears the name of Russell ! The noble Secretary for the
Colonies is the man—he who, of all the men in the Ca-
binet or the Commons, was the one to whom the country
looked up with the greatest confidence as the most tho-
roughly anti-Russian in his feelings and purposes. It
was Lord John Russell, it will be remembered, who de-
nounced the Emperor Nicholas as the wanton disturber
of the peace of Europe—as a man whose avarice, ambi-
tion, and criminal plans of aggression could not be spoken
of in terms sufficiently strong, and who was the most
profligate and most perfidious potentate whom modern
times had produced. It was Lord John who, amidst the
deafening acclamations of the House of Commons, pro-
claimed, in the hearing of the whole civilisel world, that
there could be no real security for the peace of Europe
until Sebastopol, which was described as a standing menace
alike to the independence of Turkey, and the general
tranquillity—had been razed to its foundations. No won-
der then that the House of Commons was utterly con-
founded, and no marvel that the country is astonished,
on finding that, on Friday evening, this same Lord J.
Russell had acquiesced in the sinister suggestions of Aus-
tria, to accept terms of peace which would have conceded
to Russia much more than she had ever asked, and which
would have enabled her, in a very brief period, to ac-
quire that universal empire which has long been noto-
riously the darling object of her ambition.
The Times took credit to itself on Saturday for hav-
ing, a fortnight ago, directed attention to the fact, that
there was a peace party in the Cabinet, Our contem-
porary is entitled to the credit he claims. But we also
have a right to put in our claim. And it is a more im-
portant one than that of the Times. Not only did we,
as our readers will remember, warn the country, six
weeks ago, that there was a peace party in the Cabinet,
but we also stated that Lord John Russell was the
leader of that party, and that intrigues were going on
within the walls of the Council Chamber, with the
knowledge and concurrence of influential parties with-
out its walls, to expel Lord Palmerston from the Pre-
miership, and to appoint Lord John Russell in his stead.
We repeat this statement now. And perhaps the
mere statement will suffice to explain why Lord John
did not resign when his proceedings at Vienna, which
would have sacrificed the honour and interests of his
country, were not indorsed by the Cabinet. Lord John
still clings to the belief that he will, ere long, be the
Premier. Our authority for this statement is of the
most undoubted kind. And, what is more, an oppor-
tunity is eagerly looked for in one very influential quar-
ter for tripping up Lord Palmerston, and reinstating
Lord John in the Premiership This, we repeat, is the
real secret of Lord John's non-reignation of his seat,
on the repudiation of his Vienna proceedings.
'We have given Lord Palmerston many hard blows
since his accession to the Premiership, and we have
many more in store for him, should circumstances re-
quire them. But they have been, and will be, the
wounds of a friend. They have been given with the
view of bringing him up to the mark. But it is right
the nation should reflect, while duly alive to the faults
of Lord Palmerston, on the position the country would
have been in at the present hour had the intrigue to
put Lord John Russell in the room of Lord Palmerston
been successful. It is as plain as any proposition in
"Euclid," that bad Lord John Russell been at the head
of the Government a few weeks ago, an ignominious
and ruinous peace would have been made with the Czar.
England, as well as Turkey, would have already been, in
elect, at the feet and mercy of Russia, while in a very few
years we should all have been the admitted vassals of
the Northern Autocrat.

But we regret to say that Lord John Russell, in act-
ing as he did at Vienna, did so not only with the know-
ledge, but, if report speaks truth, in accordance with
the counsels of that Germanic influence which we have
often had to expose and denounce in the columns of this
journal. That influence, we say it with sorrow, per-
vades and controls the whole of our foreign as well as
much of our domestic policy. 'We could, were we at
liberty to do so, unfold a series of tales in connection
with this influence behind the Throne and without the
wails of the Cabinet which would at once astonish and
alarm the inhabitants of these realms. But we may not
make those revelations, which we are in a position to
do, just now. Events, however, may, and probably
will ere long, render it an imperative duty to speak
more plainly than it would be expedient for us to do at
present.

SPORTING NOTES.

RETROSPECTIVE.

The attention of sporting men was fully employed last
week without being fatigued. Northern turfites assisted
at the celebration of the meeting at merry Carlisle, whilst
Southern turfites and those of the Midland counties
found pleasant employment at Newmarket and on the
banks of the Severn at Worcester. The incidents which
marked the respective gatherings were in certain in-
stances prospectively important. Old Rataplan won the
Cumberland Plate by a "fluke," for Couretnay was
stopped at the very moment when the race
seemed literally " all over but shouting." It
appears that Withington, who was riding him, mistook
a telegraph post for the winning post, and fancying he
bad won, easily pulled up ; Prince, however, at once
perceived his error, and bringing old Rataplan up along.
side of him beat him by a head. Courtenay was, in fact,
doomed to misfortune, for on the succeeding day, in the
race for the Lottery Stakes, when he looked "all over
the winner," ho struck into the heels of Blarney at the
last turn, and came heavily to the ground.
If the supply of sport at head-quarters was scanty, yet
amidst the fine sunny atmosphere, and under the shade
of the plantation trees, the proceedings were pleasant
and enjoyable. In my communication, dated Tuesday
night, I briefly referred to the running for the July
Stakes, and the general characteristic of the gathering.
On Wednesd ►y evening book-makers with few excep-
tions left Newmarket for 'Worcester, and the Chester-
field therefore was decided before only a thin attendance
of turfites. The defeat of Bird-in-Hand excited no sur-
prise, for the fact of his being dead amiss was notori-
ous. Still odds were laid on him at starting. Flya,way's

success was a slice of luck which her owner deserved

The winner was, it may be remembered, put up by
auction a few weeks ago at Tattersall's, but did not
obtain a purchaser.

The zeal of the Worcester Race Committee and the

jealous care which they evince to sustain the popularity
of their meeting, deserve to be acknowledged in terms of
commendation. Not a detail of management is neglected
which can add to the accommodation of the public, and
every expedient is adopted which can render th© attrac..

tions of the gathering strong and enduring. Although
the fields were not numerically important, yet the racin g
was remarkably interesting. Isaac Day and the " vicar"
were in full force, winning the Trial Handicap and
the National Pe•union Handicap with Octavia, and the
Selling Stakes and the Ladies' Plate with Hothorpe.
Domino won the Worcester Stakes after a sharp " set
to" with Herald by a head, and this performance caused
his stable companion Goorkah to be talked about in
connection with the Liverpool Cup. The Madresfield
Stakes only requires comment from the circumstance of a
•` pretty pot" on Parain being most unaccountably
upset, and from the fact of the objection which
was subsequently made to the winner. Vine
came in first,, but being somewhat ambiguously
described as " out of a half-bred mare," Mr. Bell, the
owner of the second horse, claimed the stakes. In the
teeth of this objection, however, Vine was put up by
auction and sold for 100 guineas. The chairman of the
committee refused to entertain the objection, because one
of the rules of the meeting stated that all objections
should be made in writing before 11 o'clock on the morn-
ing of the race. A rule so impracticable, and attended
with so many obvious inconveniences, will, I trust, be
abolished for the future. Mr. Bell delivered a written
protest against the stakes being paid to the owner of
Vine.

The Cardsharper and Whitelock affair is not yet
settled. By the owner of the former it is agreed that
the referee called in had no power to decide the dispute,
and that he was, too, totally ignorant of the laws and
practice of horse•racing. The matter will be brought
before another tribunal, but, from facts which have come
to my knowledge, I have no hesitation in stating that
the ultimate verdict will be given in favour of White-
, lock. Mr. Mather has made himself very popular at
Newcastle by the charitable purpose to which he turned
his success. He presented to the Clerk of the Course
1001., a moiety of which was to be given to the re,
fund, and the remainder to be distributed amongst the
institutions for the sick and destitute in the town.
Speculation on coming events has been marked by
two or three significant changes. For the Goodwood
Stakes, Surgeon General has been in brisk demand,
whilst Epaminondas has also received marledsupporf,;
For the Liverpool Cop "steady,"
despite Pheasant is again steady,
despite the rumours which were circulated, and which
had, I believe, no foundation in truth, to the effect that
he was lame, Bianca had an upward tendency, and
Seducer is in high favour.
I shall reserve my remarks on the Liverpool Meeting
until to-tucrrow.
July 9,

A FRESH NAN.