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

everybody knows that it is useless to ask why so
I little remains of that china dinner service, aed a change
lof Ministers equally cuts the thread of official responsi-
bility. , A single fortnight of Lord Derby would de-
stroy the identity of the past and any future Russell
Administration, as the return to of of the very
same men would whitewash the blackest political
insolvency. Lathe flows over twenty, embryo debates.
Except, perhaps, for a philosophic censor, like Sir Wil-
liam Molesworth, whose criticisms attach equally to the
Colonial-office past, present, and future, operations of
attack and defence are now equally obsolete. The
scene is changed, the actors are in new parts; it is a 'new
drama that is about to be performed. So, bidding good-
by to the past, we may now task, what will Lord Derby
do?' Of course, there is a good deal which he may
safely, leave alone. It is not to be expected that he
should take up Lord John's Reform Bill, or that he
should have one of his own in his pocket. He has
right to at least a year's law on that subject. As the
Committee on the locome-tax has not oven reported, he
may ;reasonably be allowed a year more of the In
come-tux. Law reform will probably be as safe in
the hands of Sir Edward Sugden as in those
to which it has been hitherto committed. As
for the Cape troubles, though Lord Derby
himself is by no means blameless of them, he will pro-
pose the necessary change of policy more gracefully
than Lord Grey. Oa a review of all the questions as
yet before Parliament there is only one which thrsatees
any immediate difficulty to a Derby Administration,
and that is the very difficulty which has brought him
into power. Should Louis Napoleon give further proof
of a dangerous ambition, that would compel on the
country a more available description of force than Lord
J. Russell has ventured to propose, and would therefore
justify Friday's vote. In the absence of that Deus ex
machine, Lord Derby will have to devise some measure
which will reconcile conflicting opinions, and, in the
spirit of Lord Palmerston's amendment, will probably
have to start rather from the idea of a general than a
local militia. Should his plan present no very sub-
stantial difference from the confessedly hybrid measure
of the late Ministers, they will be bound to give it
that general and patriotic support which they ex-
pected themselves from their usual opponents;
and we can hardly suppose that any difference on mere
working details will be allowed to interfere with a great
measure of national defence. On this point, therefore,
though the difficulty is specific and immediate, we do
not see why it should be insuperable. Unless the House
of Commons is so far bent on the ruin, of the State, or
at least, is so wholly indifferent to its wellbeing,
as to have resolved against any possible Administra-
tion, it certainly is bound to give a fair chance to Lord
Derby and the men of whom his Cabinet will probably
be composed. The strange in and out work of the last
two sessions has already done mischief enough, and by
this time no sensible person can suppose the late Ca-
binet to be the only body of statesmen capable
of ;governing this country. There must be some-
where a possible Government, unless we are on the
high road to anarchy, and that possible Government
may be once more found, as it has been before, in
the remains of the Conservative party. As we will not
anticipate the verdict either of the House of Commons
or of the country at large on the Government now formed,
so we will content ourselves with a mere passing glance
at the difficulties presented by its political opinions.
Lord Derby dues not enter office by virtue of those opi-
nions, or on any question connected with them. He is
raised to his present position, as Lord John Russell was
raised to his, by the dissensions of the opposite party,
brought out on a question not so much of opinion as of
confidence. There is, then, no need why Lord Derby
should at once attach to his Administration a character
which it does not derive from its origin, or import
pledges from which, as a whole, it is free. As it is quite
clear that little can be done this session,
or with the existing Parliament, so it would I
be madness to provoke an early doom by renewing pro-
fessions which are neither recent in date nor capable of
an early fulfilment. On the other hand, it would be I
thoroughly gratuitous and unfair to force, or attempt to
force, on Lord Derby .a more explicit and positive de-
claration of his financial policy than the actual necessi-
ties of the nation may require. If we demand a for-
bearing policy from the opponents of the new Govern-
ment, much more may we expect it from its friends.
Such of the new Ministers as are in the Lower House
will have to present themselves to their constituencies,
and, unless the agriculturists really are as infatuated as
their libellers represent, they will not press for any ex-
press pledges on the subject of protection, particularly
as all the more judicious of the party, after the experi-
ence of six years, are content to stand by the verdict of
a general election.
The event which so abruptly terminated the exist-
ence of the late Administration had not only been long
foreseen, but it had been distintly shown for many
months past to be the certain and inevitable result of
the course to which Lord John Russell adhered. On
Friday, February 21, 1851, the First Minister threw up
the Government with as little hesitation as he exhibited
on Friday, the 20th of February, 1852 ; bat though a
twelvemonth elapsed between these two events, the ex-
istence of the Cabinet in the interval was precarious and
unreal, and the delay has proved chiefly advantageous to
those who may now succeed it in power. Unhappily for
the party which Lord John Russell has so long led, and
for the political interests of which he was thus consti-
tuted the chief defender, the lesson which the former of
these occurrences might have afforded him was turned
to no account. The more the spirit of the nation and
the exigency of the times required breadth and boldness
in the policy of our rulers, the more Lord John Russell
wrapped himself in the tightened folds of his persuasion,
until his power of serving the country was narrowed to
the resources of a coterie. Ile was brought back to
office last year by the failure of his opponents; but he
came: back with no vigorous determination to re-
mould the elements out of which a mote liberal
Administration might have been formed. Nevertheless,
so favoured was the head of the late Government by cir-
cumstances independent of his own will, that after the
failure of his opponents had again placed the direction
of affairs in his hands, the country submitted to pass a
year under little more than the semblance of a Ministry,
with provisional finances, hypothetical measures of
reform, and many infirm or superannuated states-
men. In such a condition the only act of
vigour which Lord John Russell performed
was likely to cost him dear, unless he found
means to follow up the removal of Lord Palmers-
ton by the introduction of new elements into his Cabi-
net, or by a complete reconstruction of his Administra-
tion. It was in no hostile spirit that these necessary
changes were strongly urged upon the First Minister for
several weeks before the meeting of Parliament; for the
adoption of them was the only course which could have
averted the catastrophe which has now occurred. A
few weeks would show, we then observed, whether Lord
John Russell was really one of those men of mark
who have gloriously governed the British Empire,
or whether he was to be judged as a mere Parliamen-
tary tactician. Yet even his Parliamentary tactics
have not been successful. With the certainty of
an early defeat staring him in the face--with the
fresh animosity of Lord Palmerston burning for revenge.
—the steady opposition of the Protectionist party eager
for office—and the decreasing confidence of the country,
nothing could be more injurious to those liberal inter-
ests which are dear in the main to a large majority of
the people of England than the inert fatalism or apathe-
tic courage of their chief. An attempt was made to ob-
tain the co-operation of some of the adherents of the
late Sir Robert Peel. But these proposals were so faint
and indefinite that they offered no attraction and no
means of usefulness to men of spirit, character, and
ability. Lord John Russell, unable to increase the
strength of his Government, seemed intent only on in-
creasing its duties and its burdens. He met Parliament
with no recruits in his army, but with measures which
it would have required the whole strength of a powerful
Minister to carry. To carry a Reform Bill and to re-
form the Court of Chancery were not tasks for a
Government which had repeatedly failed in much
humbler undertakings. Accordingly Lord John had
no sooner laid his Bills on the table than his
wonted resolution appears to have forsaken hiss.
He had, indeed, the encouragement of more than ordi-
nary success on the two perponal discussions which have
taken place. His triumph was complete on the ,first
night of the session in his vindication of the dismissal of
the Foreign Secretary; and the admirable speech he de-
livered- in defence of Lord Clarendon the very night
which preceded his fall will be remembered by those who
heard it as one of the most spirited and effective of, his
oratorical efforts. the Militia Bill had hardly been
reckoned amongst the difficulties of the Cabinet, for the
general necessity of some such measure was all bat
unanimously admitted, and, with the exception of someh
details, it appeared to have been concurred in by -the
HoUse. No preparations were made to meet a hostile
division on that occasion. Theatsperity of Lord Pa rsi
ton's (speech took the Treasury benola by surprise, yet
Members usually devoted to the Government continuedthat
to leave the House, and returned to it only taloa: neeme
the Administration had ceased to exist.
burden
hour suddenly brought to Lord Johnbaßassell
an opportunity to free himself' from
a
he could ill sustain—to Lord Palmerston a triumph
their
over a colleague who had dissolved
connexion—to the Tory Opposition .an easy
un-
looked-for victory. It must remain uncertainhave ended
and
whether
the expected 'debate on the Kafir war would
in a defeat, and we suspect the dangerh of t
Ministry on
cross sing responsibilities
that occasion was overrated, howeverseverely and justly
the policy of Lord Grey might have been condemned.
'
But it was less hard for Lord John Russell to face a co-
lonial debate than to bear the in
scheme of reform which
of his position, aggravated by
a
no single party in the nation accepted or approved. He
accordingly ran the vessel ash ore and jumped from the
helm. We know not what part LordPalmereton will
personal resentment
claim in this sudden evolutioh,efeorejt would redound but
little to his fame if, upon his former
or more vengeance, he had tuand hurried
first opportunity:
from motivesr
n
e
d
of
on a
cal effect is to place a col-
leagues Prote-
ctionist at the very
e klaetioffice. The relative merits
division, of which th
Government in
organizing the national psi_
of two schemes for
forward by two men y
discussed 'this very who lately
labs, brought forw
measure
in the same sly
discussed
binet, will not suffice account for BO keen
so striking a result. Nor had
it difference and ad
it escaped us,
in discussing two months ago the Conse-
quences of Lord
Palmerston s separation from the Cabi-
net,s not to the side of the extreme Liberal
that it wa _
bat to the advantage of the Tories
party, b and Protec-
tionists, hostility would
tioniste, that if
Openly manifested,
be turned. That event has now taken place, and Lord
Palmerston has opened the gates to the party which was
then designated as " the common enemy." But the
service he has rendered to one side is scarcely inferior
to that for which the other must be grateful ; and
Lord John Russell was probably as ready to escape
from an untenable position, as Lord Derby is to ac-
cept the arduous duty imposed on him. It will
not be forgotten, however, that the Protectionist
party in the ,liouse of Commons, won their