The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-12 00:00:00

he might have survived for many years to come.
It Was to be otherwise, however. The able Gover-
nor-General of Canada, the brilliantly-successful
negotiator of peace with China and with Japan,
faithful to the part he had so long and so success-
fully sustained as the servant of the Crown and of
the Country, though he knew himself to be suffering
from a heart disease, unhesitatingly accepted the
weighty responsibilities devolving upon any ad-
ministrator who, as the successor of Lord CANNING
had to undertake the government of Hindostan.
Although his suddenly interrupted career as Go-
veruor-General of India, has been in no way at all
eventful—perhaps we should rather say precisely
because it has not been in any way eventful—it has
been a career in the highest degree honourable to
himself as Viceroy. It has set the seal to his repu-
tation, at once, as a loyal subject of the Crown, and
as a patriotic administrator.

Amid the numerous discourses with which oar
Parliamentary representatives are whiling away the
tedium of the vacation, the public will turn with
some interest to the speeches of two members of
some distinction, one of whom has held, and the
other is still holding, official position. As the re-
presentatives of two parties, the Government and
the Opposition, the views of 3lr. LAYARD and
Mr. FITZGERALD are not without importance. A
token of the stillness of the political atmosphere
is shown in their speeches—the former originating
little, but endeavouring to put the best face on
matters ; the latter supporting the theory of " Rest
and be Thankful," and approving the course which
has been pursued by the Government in many
important particulars. Still the tone of the two
addresses is very different— Mr. LAYARD'S is depre-
catory, though occasionally indignant, while Mr.
FITZGERALD takes pains to assure us that he is hap-
pily indifferent which party is in power ; and
indeed, of the two, he would rather prefer a
lengthened continuance of Lord PALMERSTON'S
tenure. It is true that the ex-Under Secretary
:ook the opportunity of upholding the spirit of
party, of lamenting that indifference to political
differences which is growing but too common.
There was a good deal of truth as well as of satire
in his application of the story of the desperate
poacher who was reclaimed by converting him into
a keeper. The country side, which had been con-
tinually disturbed before, was left in happy tran-
quillity, and on this principle Mr. FITZGERALD
declares that some of his Tory friends would be
sorry to see the present Government disturbed, as,
while it is in dace, they feel tolerably secure from
any startling change ; whereas they know from old
experience that the moment their own party as-
sumes the reins of power, a universal outcry will
be raised by the Opposition, for reform and inno-
vation. " I shall be sorry," said a gentleman of
this class to Mr. FITZGERALD the other day, " to
see Earl RUSSELL and some of his friends removed
from office, because I am certain that so long as
they remain there we shall hear nothing of the
question of Reform." Alluding to the story we
have already quoted of the poacher and the keepers,
Mr. FITZGERALD expressed his conviction that these
statesmen would remain quiet so long as they were
our keepers. Mr. LAYARD, meanwhile, was of course
busy in upholding the proceedings of his friends. He
entered at some length into the various questions
now agitating Europe, maintaining, of course,
that in every case the acts of Lord PALMERSTON'S
Cabinet have been " wisest, virtuousest, discreetest,
best." He would not suffer his opponents to take
the credit of his acts. The Opposition were always,
he declared, finding fault with the proceedings of
the Government, and therefore it was to be inferred
that they would not have acted in the same man-
ner had they been in power. They had blamed the
Government for not recognising the South, and for
stopping the steam rams; ought he not to infer
from that that their opponents would pursue the
very opposite course, and plunge the country into
war with the United States. This it seems is to
be the argument with which Lord PALMERSTON'S
followers intend to meet the expression of public
indignation respecting the unwarrantable inter-
ference of Lord RUSSELL at Birkenhead. Polish
affairs were, of course, discussed in both speeches,
and with much the same result. It was held by
both gentlemen that England was called upon to
exercise all her moral force in behalf of that long-
suffering and down-trodden people, but that her
duty stopped at that limit, and that she was not
called upon to go to war in their behalf. Viewed in
this light, the course pursued by our Cabinet was
the only one open to an honourable and, at the same
time, a prudent :and practical nation. Another
instance of similarity of opinion was manifested in
speaking of Denmark—a question which, however
perplexing and entangled, is certainly not to be
passed over at the present time. Both members
alike declined the task of unravelling the myste-
ries of German genealogies, and of diplomatic en-
tanglements, but on this matter, too, the unity of
sentiment in the two parties was happily very
visible. The official, though passing briefly over
the subject, expressed a hope that the German
Powers might be induced to respect the faith of
treaties, while Mr. FITZGERALD boldly denounced
their present course as absolutely dishonest, and
declared that it was of the N ery greatest importance
to England to maintain the independence of Den-
mark. " I hope," he remarked, " that whoever may
be in power, they will consider it the decided policy
of this country to uphold at all hazards the inde-
pendence and integrity of Denmark, and resist an
aggression which is alike unjast in its objects and
dangerous in its termination." In the conclusion of
an eloquent address, Mr. FITZGERALD dwelt
strongly on the unity of sentiment and feel-
10g which pervades the different classes
-
this country, and the readiness with which
all •
Joined in the prosecution of any cause
which had for its object the general good. On the
whole, these
exponent two speeches may he taken as fair
of the
if parties th views of the two leading parties,
lies rather b
be called, where the distinction
can
men than measures.

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