The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-17 00:00:00

number of gentle Men who 'levy seeur,ol no ben, fit 'to
the country "fir the promotion t‘;4'Whhtlhc!ea ,btlite.Ya.ls..dhSiocitlbucti:n
kio IMMO), .
AVe believe' filar the publtii
rally Were not Satisii,d
sstisfectcry,Aretice,nte6444i. .43 to feel, 'Duch
iii finding that it wa'S made use of forte' purpose
putting down; :the ,named -of ,its officers ,on the list,ot
our claimants -for increased salaries . and higher
rank. Tue investigation, ; width, to say- ;brie
lot.st, from the fact of being :called for, looked pt.c.tty,
much like a i enstirr, had not'pa:ised away, before, with
i,,,i,?cecit haste, promotions and appointments
v,i,:reby the facou;Atcs end' del:eta-hots' of the- lute
3dinistry, ' some cases;-er th,ir 2thrdinst,fi,
touch rejoiced if the country was put
tag(4l: It we are, to hkve a navy, and it is to;n1-
wetth
anything, if we are not to,throyr ourseives,altogether on ,
peSco principles, pray lot this system of annoying
wetthy men VIII ;1,3rkw0,.. 'zpffic4r s ;\,ttitAtisloPtcl
end we demand, that it abandoned in the,
name of ibn people for whose protectiou,i.mal
not for the subsidizing, of grasping families, at exists:
It is 'tinjui.t.. to the
,great, .bulk of. our naval,. officers,
VA unfaithful to the country,ituad likely to lestal our
national strength must materially, to go on witl. the
•
jobbery and favouritism of which the Admiralty has
hitherto been the centre— , It would be better, ,to
late the whole establishment than to 'keep it up iii the;
condition in which it has hitherto been kcitt„:t.n4,..of
gromblingand-disconteit.ifor which there is cause,
in consequence of the unjust end ungenerous treatment
of those officers who had not the greatest of all merits,
' those of some sort of family connexion with
those in whose hands the good things of the
country were placed, to be diiposed of for the
country !a good, , and not for their own. It
would be an effectual way of patting an end to
this gross and disgusting partiality, if every officer 'fit
for the service of the country were called for in his turn
according as such services as he has to render may bt;
required. We believe that this principle is to a con-
siderable extent acted on in the Royal Marines, and that
the attention of Whig patrons was frequently called to
it by Lord Howe. It will, as far as the royal navy is
concerned, do, the Country some good, Awhile the Pro-
tectionists are in office, they will show that it is prac-
ticable to regulate the business of public offices without
constantly pushing brothers, nephews, and cousins into
every vacancy that may happen to fall, or making new
posts,- or seizing on inadequate pretences for promotion,
if such vacancies should not occur with sufficient ra-
pidity to meet the appetite of political patrons.

• -
SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
TIMES.—We trust that our readers have thoroughly got
up the grand consultation of. political doctors on Monday
night, for they will never see' such another. The interesting
patient, as the Derby Administration appears to be thought,
must have been brought into existence with a special view
to the promotion of constitutional science. Unfortunately
the doctors, as it too often happens, were not so anxious to
find out what was really the matter as to make out a fore-
gone conclusion. They would ask leading questions, and, if
the patient was so perverse as not to follow the lead, they
went on squaring its answers to their own preconceptions.
The case of the patient must be either this or that, and, as
far as they could make out, it fell more under one class, and
therefore it could not belong to the other, and there was no
remaining alternative. The new Administration must be
the former Opposition, for there must be an Adminis-
tration and an Opposition. As an Opposition it must
have had a ' principle, and that principle it must
continue to have as an Administration. In both
cases it must be led ed. As still pledged to
Protection, it must be g odious to the country.
It had been in a minority, and must still be in a minority,
and, as the Administration was now in a minority, the Op-
position must be now in a majority. The former must, there-
fore exist on sufferance, and be incapable of action, except
for such purposes as the common interest of all parties might
absolutely require. The result of this chain of argumenta-
tion, and a world of other logic, is that the new Cabinet is
Protectionist, in a minority, on sufferance, commissioned to
ask the supplies, to dissolve, to divide the new Parliament on
a corn-law, to be outvoted or outbullied, to let in the present
Opposition, and to retire to a respectable obscurity. Never
was there so methodical an investigation, or so triumphant a
result. It may be argued backwards and forwards, from the
right to the lett, or the left to the right, and the demonstra-
tion is as complete as that celebrated process Which would
ha've condemned Ophelia to the grave of the suicide.
But there was a time when nature itself was
tortured in this. fashion, not to reveal itself but to
prop up a theory. The student of physics stretched nature
on the rack, and put his questions like an inquisitor. " Are
you this?" ho would say to the speechless material, " or are
you that ; for you must be one of-the twa2._You are not this,
then you must be that; and you must have all the qualities
which my authority ascribe to that class of material." What
progress science made under this arbitrary and presumptu-
ous method we all of us know, and if we want a living illus-
tration of the pass to which science had come three hundred
years since, we may find a very pretty one in the perverse
ingenuity and obstinate aberrations of Parliament on Monday
night. But there is such a thing as stretching a chain
of reasoning so tight that it breaks, and a victorious
conclusion will sometimes admit of a ridiculous con-
futation. Let us take the case of these savans on
their own showing. Let us adopt their conclusion—
a conclusion which, as it appears from their knowledge
of Parliamentary history, and their intimate acquaintance
with the party under examination, they were prepared for
from the first. On Lord John Russell's own hypothesis, the
advice he tendered to her Majesty on Saturday, the '2lst ult.,
was substantially as follows :—" Madam, I'm worried' to
death. I can't command a majority. My colleagues are in-
subordinate, and my followers demoralized. I was beaten
last night, as I was half-a-dozen times last session, and as I
shall be again next week. As a dissolution just now would
be a national calamity, I must resign for the present. Your
Majesty will have to send for Lord Derby and ask him to
form a Government. Of course it will be Protec-
tectionist. It will be bound in honour to restore Protec-
tion, if it can. It will be odious to the country, and its
accession to power will be followed by indignation,
uncertainty, confusion, paralysis, revolutionary hopes, and
all sorts of evils. It will be in a minority, and consequently
on sufferance. That being the case, it will have nothing to
do but go through a little routine work, occupying three or
four weeks, dissolve Parliament, and appeal to the country
on the question of Free Trade. Meanwhile, I shall employ
my leisure in recruiting and drilling. I shall enlarge the
basis of my Government, and in the course of the summer—
for that is all the time I can allow—l expect to beat Lord
Derby in his new Parliament, and to be summoned once more
to your Majesty's counsels. On this estimate and calculation,
I advise your Majesty to accept my resignation, and send
for Lord Derby." That is Lord John Russell's case, on his
own showing; but that showing we believe to be fallacious
and untrue. We do not believe that Lord John Russell has
done anything so bad as the arguments used on Monday
would prove him to have done. We think better of the ad-
vice he tendered to her Majesty not yet a month since. Why,
all the links of that great structure of reasoning adopted on
Friday are questionable, and demand vast qualification. In
the first place, the "majority" of the into Government, and
the " minority" of the present, are to be understood in a cer-
tain sense. Lord John Russell had not a majority that he
could depend upon ; nay, on many questions he had not a
majority at all ; otherwise he would have been Premier
to this day, for it takes a good deal to turn out a
Whig Minister, or indeed any
.other Minister. On the other
hand, though Lord Derby, it is true, has not a majority on
one particular question, which he has expressly said he will
never propose to the present Parliament, he has a majority
on many others—nay, on all that are likely to come before
Parliament this session. Of course, the Chesham-place
alliance may adopt the factious tactics which Lord John
ascribes to "the country party," but there is no good reason
why Lord Derby should be in a minority on the Militia Bill,
or the Chancery Bill, or any other intended measure. He is
net likely to be in a minority on education, as appears from
his remarks in the Lords last night, and Lord Roden's inter-
pretation of them. As little likely is he to be in a minority
on the question of the Church. What, then, is the value of
the assumption adopted by Lord Derby himself that he is in
a minority? Nor can a better case be made fur the
theory of the late Opposition, or that of the present
Opposition, adopted in this singular
and controversy. There
were three Oppositions h month ago, there therereOppositions now; and the occasional . combination of the
three will be just as much an accident now as it was.
_a
month ago. It is true that the new triumvirate is o
tnduce divide
the spoils of office, and therefore possesses a greater i .
meat to unity than was ever felt by the three parties
ever more
eing the old Opposition. But no triumvirate wasehr
d than a partnership of temporary convenience, anti
if e
Russell, Graham, or Cobden thinks he can oust or
ae
_g
the others, he will certainly do it. Where then is
.th •Ops
OP-
position, and the. consequent majority? If it exists in
itsa
permanent form, except on one great topic, that phase of
existence is at all events new. We know not what stuff peo-
ple suppose Lord Derby to be made of,
he is to be ex.
think him made of wax, if they imagine! e
but they must
At their
actly what it suits their convenience to m
will, his Administration is to be pledgedato actuatl,
of Protection ; it is to be bound to a naked declaring
,
measuresto
precluded from expressing an opinion,
othatis not written in
r declaring a policy,
much more from introducing a measure
ere dummy for the
the imaginary bond. It is to be a
teChdesehwamiti;
practice of the new rifle brigade,,o,rvginhaentizheede
it
tt
place. It is only "an Opposition
a
any measure of its 'own, or any substantive course of action
'own,a leak in the ship, while the
at all ? It is only employed to stop
a
captain and crew are busy on deck. It was to serve this tempo-
rary need, and this ominous purpoa®, that her Majestyhave the was t
beneo
send for Lord Derby, and the country
few weeks. The pur-
pose once answered, the useless tool was to be thrown aside.
Alt this is the character which Lo. rd Derby's antagonists are.
determined to stamp on his Administration, . and they seem
to take it very ill if he will not quietly submit to the process
We cannot give our confidence to Lord Derby, but much.
less can we advise him to with the
hiss
own n,ntand aof his own.
disgrace, and to inflict severe
retribution for his offences. against Peel and Free
Trade. His position is neither very noble, nor very
powerful, nor very free. Except for the chivalry of
we mig t almost call it undignified.
taking it against such formidable odds, and the abilitywith
which he sustains it,
But, if he wishes not merely to prolong it, but to save it
from ignominy, he must let us know that he contemplates
hereafter something more than merely obstructive Conser-
vatism. Parliamentary Reform, popular education, pan-
perism, the government of our colonies, and other subjects
press for remedial and progressivelegislation quite as much as
the burdens on land, or any other class grievance. Such le-
gislation, or the promise of it, is the only salt that can keep
a Government sweet in the estimation of the country, and be