The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-04 00:00:00

THERMOMETER.

Highest since Noon yesterday
Lowest during the night 37 ,
This day at Noon .
Wind—West; light, with fine weather.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
r4lg DAY.—Morning, 2h. 50m.
Afternoon, 2h. 30m.
T
To-moTtRoW.-Morning, 2h. 50m.—Aftertoon, 3h. Bm.

AV
11
nip pa.). aw 444,
at
,111111 kit -
Ae 41tor'tt.,

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 1863.

Lord PALMERSTON, we may be sure, has done
-wisely in airing his reputation during this last week
in Scotland. It is about the best use, politically, to
which hec ould have put the earlier part of the Easter
recess—the leisure time coming immediately before
Easter. The enthusiasm of the noble veteran'srecep-
tion in the far north, if it fails in any way to
strengthen the position of the Ministry as a whole,
acts at any rate as a timely reminder (a re-
minder really in the very nick of time) of the popu-
larity appertaining- personally to its head, a popu-
larity that of late was becoming very much discre-
dited. After all, however, there is no gainsaying
it—there is no possibility of blinking or ignoring
the fact that, individually, among all our leading
statesmen—Lord PALMERSTON enjoys a popularity
altogether unrivalled. As the one sole basis, how,
ever, upon which to rely for the stability and main-
tenance of an Administration otherwise than in its
chieftain's reputation dean npopular, we still be-
lieve it to be quite inte. Powerful as the
Cabinet is in the ability of its members, strong
though it is in the Personal Popularity
appertaining to its Leader, if it still
doggedly pursues the course it has been
so long and so very obstinately pursuing, we
are perfectly well satisfied that every moment it
runs the hazard of a sudden collapse. The Op-
position at any moderately tempting opportunity is
quite formidable enough to outnumber the hetero-
genous mass capable of being mustered upon a di-
-Vision night to the right hand of Mr. SPEUZER,
that motley and painfully dissatisfied throng of
so-called supporters of the administration ! More
and more distinctly the real Liberals, the
independent Reformers below the gangway,
upon the Government side of the House, have come
to reorganise—in the Willis's Rooms compact A Do,
and in those famous Resolutions which ousted Lord
DEBBY and his colleagues for the sake of clearing
the way to office for Lord PALMERSTON and Ms
colleagues—(just what Sir HUGH CAIRNS tersely
called it) A Dodge ! Since then, we know that
systematically Reform has been coolly and de-
iiberately given the go by. We know and see only
too well that it is given the go by still. The fact that it
was so had became so flagrant last year that one of
the foremost Liberals in the House, one of the
greateet among the Practical Reformers of the Age,
Mr. COBDEN, towards the close of last session
pretty plainly threw off all further appearance even
of aiding with her MAJESTY'S Government, with
this deplorably and, under the circumstances, dis-
gracefully do-nothing Administration. Mr. COBDEN
being all the more
to fling away the mere
powerfully incited, thus
show even of friendli-
ness, by a consideration—surely a very bitter consi-
deration to him at once as an
Economist
and a Reformer—that while Ministers are
doing
just nothing in the way of Reform, they
are
doing, as one might say, just everything in the way
e
of Expenditure ! Going such lengths in the way of
profligate disbursements, that even the Tories cried
out at last, in indignation, " Hold, enough!" That
the leader of the Tories in the House of Commons
could apply to one of the most flagrant instances
of the wholesale extravaglnce sanctioned by the
Government, one of the happiest of his phraseolo-
gical taunts—namely, when he spoke last year,
as every one well remembers, about our bloated

armaments !
After Easter, however, comes the Budget and
after-Budget---a possible Division! Ministers
would do Ni ell betimes to right themselves, before
the tug of war begins this session—to right them-
tiefres with the House and with the Country. They
can yet do it. How ? Anyone might see it, as
tile phrase is, with half au eye. They are nomi •
maliy—for they took cffice as such—
d Economists. Let them at last justify
their right to both designations. Let them
strove themselves by their policy to be
both Reformers and Economists_ There is yet
tibiae for it. And if they act thus—though but by
an afterthought—they may, even now, set the
array of this formidable Tory Opposition at defiance.
If nob—if they still persist in: following out the
same dpgged,iand disappointing, and really disgrace-