The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-21 00:00:00

RESIGNATION

OF THE

MINISTRY.

(From the Times )
Rather earlier than usual in the session the Ministry
is out. Last night, soon after eight o'clock, in a thin
House, and on the question between a local and a
general militia, Lord John Russell was beaten on Lord
Palmerston's amendment, and forthwith resigned. But
that the non-existence of a Government in this empire,
in the face of great insecurity, if not lacteal danger, is
by
no means a laughable affair, there certainly is some-
thing amusing in the extraordinary concurrence of cir-
cumstances which has brought it about. There is
scarcely a political incident, greet or small, of the last
six mouths that has not had a share in it. There is the
Palmerston rupture, there is the French coup diilat;
there is the invasion panic, and the question of natielvd
defence; there is the Irish Orange fund, and the Irish
Papist quarrel; there is the Protectionist with the two
other Oppositions; and last, but not least, there is the
fatal dinner hour, which, to judge from the numbers
on the division, must have told on the result. When the
debate commenced the Howe was pretty full, hut soon
began to thin, evidently under the influences that Lave
proved fatal to many a more disciplined army, and the
catastrophe which the augurs had predicted for Timrs-
day night came off yesterday instead. Perhaps the bril-
liant flashes of an aurora borealis which ushered it: the
day had a voice in the affair. Almost any reason
might be assigned in preference to the seeming occa-
sion; and it can scarcely be imagined that all who voted
against Government last night, still less all who stayed
away, were prepared for the consequences of their non-
support. Possibly, as has frequently happened before,
the Minister has stooped to avoid a fatal blow. The
little cloud that was ultimately to blacken the heavens
has long been over the horizon. Need we mention the
Kafir war, to be brought home at last to the Colonial
Secretary by Mr. Adderiey'a motion next Tuesday
night? On Thursday, while deprecating a purely fac-
tious and mischievous division against Ministers, on
Lord Naas's motion, we observed, " The day will come
soon enough when the present Government will stand on
its trial, and probably be condemned." In that we al-
luded to the debate which was then expected to occupy
the greater part of next week, and to terminate in the
censure of the Colonial Secretary and the resignation of
Ministers. If that expectation were well founded, Lord
John has certainly selected a much softer place to fall
upon than fate seemed to threaten. He has made his own
bed with considerable judgment. But should the Kafir
question have been got over, Lord John would only
have been reserved for shipwreck on his own new Re-
form Bill. The difficulties ahead are now of a more
serious character than those which have hitherto been
removed by the mere ceremony of resignation, followed
by an immediate resumption of power. Lord John last
night showed the greatest anxiety to accept in an adverse
division a vote of non-confidence. " In a matter relating
to the internal defence of the country" he would not di-
vide with any other man the responsibility of the mea-
sure to be adopted; and, accordingly, lett the House to
choose both the measure and the man. Were the resig-
nation otherwise doubtful, that very matter of fact man,
Sir Benjamin Hall, took care to clinch it by expressing
a hope that Lord John was resigning in earnest, and not
merely to take office again. Sir Benjamin likes to make
safe. No African sportsman ever watched the lion,
pierced by his rifle, with more anxiety to see if it were
really dead—no undertaker could be more shocked to see
the revival of the body already laid out in Spanish ma-
hogany and regulation lead. " But are you really dead,
and may we stamp upon you?" was the substance of
the worthy Baronet's question, and the reply was
of the most reassuring nature. Lord John Russell's Ad-
ministration is actually no more. As to the difference
itself, on which so important an issue has been decided,
it is one which we should be ready ourselves to merge
in the general question of confidence. We should be dis-
posed to conclude that in a matter some time in contem-
plation, and abundantly illustrated• by the experience of
the last war, the Government had made the best choice,
especially as it has not adopted blindly either of the two
chief precedents, but has aimed at a judicious compro-
mise between them. There is, indeed, much truth in
what Lord Palmerston says on the subject, but it
amounts simply to this—that the more regular, the more
disciplined, the more permanenNthe more moveable, and
the more within call a militia can be made, the more
serviceable will it prove in the event either of invasion,
or of any war making a large drain on our regular
army. This is a mere bundle of truisms. But Lord
Palmerston does not appear to us to meet another ques-
tion of some practical importance. How far will his
militia be popular or practicable? Even under the ex-
citement of actual war, a threatened invasion, and a de-
cidedly warlike spirit, at the beginning of the
century, the General Militia was always a grie-
vance. Substitutes became very costly, and the ballot
was almost as much detested as the French conscription,
or even as our own pressgang. The decision of the
House, however, has produced some singular effects.
Lord John Russell has gone out on a thorough war
question and a most thoroughly warlike debate. The
House has taken the more warlike measure of the two--
viz., that which approaches most nearly to a standing
army. We, meanwhile, who were charged with raising
all this flame by talking EO much of national defences
and treating Englishmen and Frenchmen as if they were
natural enemies, have preferred the less warlike measure.
To crown all, Lord Palmerston, who professes nothing
but confidence in the disposition of the French autocrat,
and who was dismissed for undertaking to approve the
military usurpation, has actually carried against Govern-
ment a measure implying less confidence than theirs in
the intentions of our warlike and powerful neighbour.
Of all the parties in this puzzle, who is now the panic-
monger and provoker of war? Certainly not we. As
certainly Lord Palmerston. But what is now to be
done? Will Lord Palmerston undertake to form an
Administration, offer Foreign Affairs to Lord J. Rus-
sell, and return to him for his better guidance
her Majesty's minute on the proper subordination
of that office? Or, failing the members of the existing
Cabinet, will be attempt a composite Ministry, and win
over Lord Clarendon if he can? He will more probably
resign the task to the Protectionist chief, who has long
since proclaimed that his arrangements are made, and
he has only to walk in and take possession. The conti-
nued disorders in the Whig camp have once more opened
the path to Lord Derby, and he has really no choice but
to do what he can. Perhaps, it is rather too early in
the session for that good twelvemonth's run of office
which some have hoped for, but whether for six weeks
or six months, Lord Derby will most likely be our Mi-
nister next week. He has some things in his favour.
The Now Reform Bill will not stand much in his way.
He can put off a good deal to next year, and among
other matters not pressing for immediate action he will
probably reckon the fatal question of Free Trade. Un-
less his followers hound him down too close on this point,
he may perhaps get over the session, and trust to such
further chances as events, or the still more inscrutable
temper of his adherents, may supply.
(From the Herald.)
The Ministry has resigned: a momentous fact, very
briefly told. Far less brief will be the speculations re-
specting it, or the inferences deduced from it. Yester-
day they were in imagination triumphant; their majority
upon Lord Naas's motion was received with " loud and
continued cheers." Their evening organ, almost to the
last fatal hour of their fall, was predicting for them a
long and prosperous reign. From the slough into which
they had plunged, according to their chosen prophet,
they were to rise whitened of the stains which they had
contracted in the public estimation; and they were to
rise the higher and the stronger in proportion to that
moral, degradation into which they had fallen. Accord-
ing to him, it was almost a happiness for them to have
soiled their fingers, that they might enjoy the benefit of
this Parliamentary cleansing. The blow has reached
them in the midst of this exultation—from a hand
which, but a few weeks since, Lord John Russell would
never have expected it—but yet from that hand, which
all men feel, lends to that blow
.a-tremendous efficacy,
and loads it with a just retribution. In Lord Palmerston's
amendment there was unquestionably the right; if we
are to have the militia revived for the defence of the
kingdom, then, as the Noble Lord justly urged, the pro-
visions of the Bill and its title were antagonistic; the
measure was a cheat; _it was taking the House by false
pretences. If a regular defence was to be organized for
the kingdom in general, then a local militia was a con-
tradiction in terms. The plan of the Government was
neither one thing nor the other; like the Ministerial
Reform Bill—like, in short, many other measures of the
now late Administration, it professed one thing and did
another. Satisfactory, however, as might be Lord Pal-
merston's reasoning, was it his reasoning, was it his
temporary•succeso, was it his majority of 11, which de-
feated the Government? Certainly, whatever might
have been the expectations of the House, it did not seem
to feel so. And the sudden resignation of Lord John,
much as he might have felt that that resignation mast
come before long, was the result of a concurrence of
causes which had been in active operation undermining
long since the stability of the Government; it was motel
like the act of a man who gives in, not so much from
any instantaneous danger, but, because be
ishemfmeatadl
in on every side, he can but put off the
result for a few short hours, and
so
resigns at once than live out the dreadful antici-
pation. nett ihcer
i -
pation. The prospect was gloomy enough; within and
without there were fears and fightings.
measure which, at the commencement of
could have kept danger at a distance, and
produce a di-
thTehseesseinonly,
p
di-
version in his favour, had failed most si signally
p o p y.
nally in
ularitre-
curing him sympathy, or even a gleam
If he turned his eyes to his colonial policy, a
mountain
y, there was
direction;
nothing to comfort him in that
of mistakes, of bad management, of ill-success, exagge-
rated and embittered by the peculiar temper of the
'
Colonial Secretary, was daily sin
higher, and damming out all prospect otw
amelioration.a s
If
he looked towards Ireland, the scene not more
cheerful. All circumstances were combining to close
upon his Ministerial existence, and dmibgubrtyhha:e beenAdminis-
trationftbe
in ruins. Whatever, then,
.o
anticipations of the country with regardoinkd r Johntb was
toha this particular
so wary
particular
measure, we cannot thatcovirnceeicvaennott
t
taken by surprise.
and experienced has resigned in a fit of ill-temper or of
consternation. Lord Palmerston
has not by a felicitous
1110,0 checkmated his previous colleague• but,
with
his usual dexterity, Lord John has made use of this
conjuncture to fall gracefully and easily. if poiyxena
must fall by the hand of this new Neoptolemus, let her
fall with all the ease and decency she
On&part
of this farce,
however—or, shall we term it, this tragi-
comedy?—We confess we do not well understand. Thurs-
day night Lord Palmerston was foremost in throwing his
wipe before his vulnerable and panting friends—he did
much to shelter them from the effects of Lord Naas's
motion, and to bring them honourably off the field.
night, this cltmpign,
Friday like another Coriolanua, is