The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-31 00:00:00

THE TURKISH LOAN.

Exhibitions of weakness and inconsistency in
the many, and criminal and selfish combination in
the few, like that which recently occurred on the
Turkish Loan, tend, no doubt, not only to shake
the public confidence in individual statesmen, but
in representative government itself. Foreign news-
papers devoted to the cause of absolutism and re-
pression are not slow to catch up this cry, and
our own press, the child and natural champion of
free discussion, has not hesitated in many cases to
echo it. Those who do not go to the extent of in-
culpating representation as a means of government,
are not less fain to admit a great diminution of
their confidence in public men, and gradually in-
creasing distrust in names that once would have
commanded the most cordial support. We our-
selves are free to confess that, if our present House
of Commons and present statesmen were to be re-
garded as the best possible fruit of the representa-
tive system, we should regard the future with seri-
ous apprehension, and doubt, if not despair, of the
permanency of our consitution. But a more careful
examination of the subject leads us to conclude
that, whatever be the faults of our present ruling
class, they are in themselves remediable. If, in-
deed, we found that the people uniformly sympa-
thised with the follies and perversities of its rulers,
—that every factious, pusillanimous, or treacherous
movement in the House of Commons had its cor-
responding development in the national mind, and
lad its corresponding expression in the voice of
public meetings, of society, and of the press,—we
should be disposed to believe that representative
Government was hopeless, because the more faith-
' fully our Legislature represented such a nation the
less fit would it be for the management of great
affairs and firm and consistent perseverance in a
settled line of policy ; but when we find that it is
precisely in its vagaries and eccentricities, in its
vacillations and tremors, that the House of Com-
mons does not represent the country, and that the
mean and truckling sentiments which find such
free utterance there have no echo beyond the walls
within which they are uttered, we begin to see
that the disease is functional, not organic, and
that if the House of Commons fall into error it is
not because it does, but because it does not, pre-
sent a faithful image of the public mind. If the
great mass of the people were unsound we should
feel at once how vain it is to look for good fruit
from a corrupt tree ; but until this be the case we
see no reason to doubt that, whatever be the de-
fects of our system, they are within reach of amend-
ment.
Now, if we examine into our history since the
beginning of the present war we shall find that
nothing can be worse than the conduct of a large
portion of our rulers—nothing better than the de-
meanour of the whole body of the persons ruled.
Only consider for a moment the series of blunders
and miscarriages, beginning with Lord Johu Rus-
sell's pusillanimous letter in February, 1852, and
ending with Mr. Gladstone's last quibbling speech
on the Turkish Loan, which have held up several
sections of our governing class to the scorn of Eng-
land and of Europe, as first evincing a great want
of wisdom and foresight, then grievously misma-
naging their negotiations, and wasting the time
which ought to have been spent in preparations for
war, then planning a bold and hardy enter-
prise, then retracting their assent to that enter-
prise, coming round to the side of peace, and
seeking, by means the most factious and un-
fair, to embarrass the very Government to
which they had belonged. Then look at the
Peace Party, more Russian than the Czar, more
Cossack than the Hetman, quibbling away the jus-
tice of our cause, adopting and overstraining the
arguments of our antagonist, magnifying our re-
verses, attenuating our successes, ever seeking to
weaken our alliance 'with France, ever misrepre-
senting the objects of the wor, sometimes as having
relation only to the Holy Places, sometimes as a
crusade in favour of Islamism against Christianity
—sometimes in one light, sometimes in another,
but never as really defensive in its nature, and,
waged for the protection of our own liberties and

the independence of Europe. Then there are
regular Opposition—caring, apparently, little or
nothing for the vote which they give, but shaping
it solely With the view of placing Government in
the minority ; now peaceful, now warlike, voting
at one time for vigour, at another for vacillation,
condemning the ambiguous language of the Go-
vernment with greater ambiguity, and its uncer-
tain conduct with greater uncertainty, true neither
to their country nor their party, but only to the
wavering caprice and unsound tactics of their
leaders,

nut, while these things have been going on in
the Senate, how different has been the conduct of
the people They have been deserted by leaders who
first led them into the war and then denounced it,
but they have never deserted themselves. They have
been the object of unceasing calumny. Mr. Bright
and Mr. Cobden have stigmatised them as pot-
house politicians, rushing wildly into the war, of
which they knew nothing, of which they had not
counted the cost, and from which they would only
be too happy to escape. Mr. Gladstone, in the
plenitude of his own depth and consistency,
speaks with contempt of the present superficial
current of opinion, and talks of the day of reckon-
ing that is to come when all these things shall
be accounted for. Long before this the national
spirit was to have been quelled and the desire for
peace to have become universal. We need hardly
say that no conquered people were ever more foully
calumniated by the partial historians of the victo-
rious race than have the people of England been
by a considerable section of those who aspire to
rule and profess to represent them. From first to
last the demeanour of the people has been calm,
consistent, and resolute, free alike from rashness
and cowardice, from undue exultation at success
and unmanly depression at failure. They did not
enter into the war until they had satisfied them-
selves, on the fullest and fairest investigation, that
the quarrel was just and the contest necessary.
Once involved in war, they have patiently acqui-
esced in the imposition upon them of heavy bur-
dens. That portion of them employed in active
service has displayed the most unflinching gallantry
by sea and land. The disasters of the winter excited
indignation, but neither daunted the national
spirit nor humbled the national pride. In their re-
solution to bring the war to a successful conclusion
there has been no change or shadow of turning.
They stand now as ever, patient, forbearing,
long-suffering, ready with their treasure if we
want treasure, ready with their blood if we
require blood, anxious to endure anything
except the ignominy of a disgraceful peace,
and to submit to any sacrifice except that of
national honour, the preservation of which is in
them a feeling and passion. Such a people are
worthy to be represented by men more closely re-
sembling themselves—possessing the same high-
souled courage, the same unflinching endurance ;
the same resolve to follow out to the utmost, and
with the most perfect fidelity, the terms of the
alliance with France and the ultimate aims of the
war. With a people so minded there is no fear of
a representative government, but only that the
government may not be sufficiently representative,
and that the popular will may find an unworthy
exponent in its leaders. Whatever be the faults of
the Parliament, the heart of the country is sound,
and will find a sufficient utterance, if not through
its present organs, at any rate through some chan-
nel or other. We are no flatterers of the people,
but it were indeed well for us did our statesmen
see as clearly and as singly what is needed for us
as those for whom they assume to act.