The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-23 00:00:00

disputable right to determine upon which Testament oaths
should be administered, so that no Jewish peer could take
his seat in that house without their formal sanction should
the Crown ever give existence to the question. While,
therefore, the position of the House of Lords would be un-
altered and inviolate, no member of the Jewish faith, without
its fiat could ever mingle in its councils, the difficulties
which will arise from the imperfect system of 1858 would
pass away. No collision on the oaths could take place
between the houses, no debates on the standing order
could arise in the Commons. The anomalous and unbe-
coming demarkation of the Legislature with the opponents
of our faith would be avoided, and the solemnities intended
to be permanent in the bill of rights would be restored.
But, if such a mode of acting does not seem to be desirable,
I appeal to the present, to the late Government, and that
right rev, bench which has so clear a right to influence the
question that they may gradually mature a safer and
happier solution. Two things seem to be indisputable,
that the Legislature of 1858 cannot be accepted as endur-
ing, and that nothing would tend more to the dignity and
credit of the House of Lords, clouled in the eyes of some
by their long, although sincere resistance to the claims of
Baron Rothschild, than that the settlement see still re-
quire should be accomplished by its labour. The noble
lord moved the first reading of a bill to re-enact the oaths
of allegiance and supremacy in place of the oath of 1858.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TI3IES.—The House of Commons has postponed the de-
bate on the affairs of Poland by an act so sudden and so un-

expected that it would hardly become us to find fault with
the gentlemen who took the other side. All was prepared.
Lord Palmerston had agreed to pave the way for Mr. Hen-

nessy to deliver the fervid harangue with which, no doubt,
he was charged. If there was any delicacy due to pending
negotiations and to hopes in the bud, but not yet blighted,

the Minister was the man to feel it, and he had stood up to

move, in effect, that the debate be proceeded with. But

,he house itself interfered. That house, so regardless of

Ministerial scruples and difficulties, so ready always to talk
and leave on others the responsibility of action, stepped in

to protect the Minister who asked for no protection, and

and negatived Lord Palmerston 's motion fcr the postpone-
ment of the orders of the day. This it did by a majority to

good, just three to two, that the dissentients had nothing
to do but to protest and complain. They had prepared good

speeches, and found themselves suddenly put off to next
Thursday, which may be a good way off yet. Nothing could

be more expeditious than the operation which sends these
gentlemen "into next week." Mr. S. Beaumont made the

appeal, Mr. Kinglake seconded it, and Lord Enfield cor-
dially endorsed it, whereupon there ensued a division, and
the thing was done. Mr. Hennessy did not resist, and Lord

Palmerston did not reply. But when all was over, and no

thing remained but to pass on to some very domestic ques

tions, then Mr. Horsman woke up, and Lord R. Cecil re.

covered his self-possession, and several other gentlemen
could say a good deal more or less to the purpose. A feeble
attempt, indeed, was made to undo what had been done. It
was quietly proposed to Lord Palmerston that he should use
his influence with those who had notices on the list to in-

duce them to do spontaneously what the house had just
positively refused to do for them, and so allow Mr. Hen-
nessy's motion to come round again. This, however, as
was observed, would hardly have been respectful to the
majority of tho house. The substantial result was one to
which the most ardent friends of Poland can hardly
demur. Lord Palmerston, expressing his opinion that
any strong declaration by the House of Commons
would stop negotiations altogether, and explaining
that it would not be proper to lay before the
house the very words of the communication just made
to the Court of St. Petersburg till the answer could be pub-
lished with it, proceeded to give the substance of that com-

munication, Together with France, and with the modified
agreement of Austria, England had proposed to Russia-1.
A complete and general amnesty; 2. National representa-
tion according to the Constitution granted by Alexander I.

in 1815 ; 3, Nomination in Poland of a separate and na.

tional administration having the confidence of the country ;
4. Full and entire liberty of conscience, and repeal of the
restrictions on Catholic worship ; 5. The Polish language
to be acknowledged in the Kingdom as the official language
for administration, law, and education; 6. A regular and
legal system of recruiting ; and a suspension of hostilities,
as the only good basis for negotiation. When this impor-
tant explanation had been made, it was asked, and, indeed
it was natural to ask, why, when so much could be told,
and Lord Palmerston had shown himself ready to proceed
with the debate, he nevertheless acquiesced in a postpone-
ment which may be for a very long day. The reply is ob-
vious. Even if the delay of a few days tells the house no
more than it knows now, it will have had those few days to

consider the actual propositions made to the Russian Go
vernment. The gentlemen who came down late with their
speeches prepared, and, perhaps, as unready as English-
men usually are to address themselves to the new state of
things, will have had leisure to change their front, and
make speeches to the purpose and matter before the house
That is the useful result of a postponement which some
speakers describe as an unparalleled surprise, an outrage on
the traditions of the house. and one of them even as a valid
reason why a man should never be believed again. On the
principle that the public good overrules all conventional
scruples, we congratulate the British public on last night's
decision. It certainly would have been disrespectful to
send Russia a civil remonstrance, and, before she could
send her reply, to overwhelm her with abuse, and attempt
to bully her into compliance. We may do either one or the
other, either reason or threaten, but we must not do both.
POST.—Pending the present negotiations, and whilst the
exact tenor of the notes addressed to Russia by the three
Powers, with the replies which they will elicit, are still
unpublished, the House of Commons showed a wise discre
tion in postponing what necessarily would have proved an
objectless debate upon the affairs of Poland. The motion
for postponing the orders of the day, in order to afford Mr.
Hennessy an opportunity for bringing forward his motion
on Poland, was negatived on a division, but the delay which
is thus occasioned will enable that hon. member to raise
some tangible issue when he submits that motion to the
consideration of the house. A few evenings since the
Foreign Secretary made a statement in the House of Lords
which gave universal satisfaction, and which in no small
degree contributed to the decision arrived at last evening,
Earl Russell, when announcing that separate notes had been
deapatched to St. Petersburg by the three Powers, stated
that, without waiting for the reply of the Russian Govern..
ment, he would lay on the table of the House of Lords a
copy of the communication transmitted by her Majesty's
Government. Pending therefore the brief interval which
will elapse before the publication of that despatch, it would,
as Mr. Kinglake rightly observed, have been a profitless
occupation of time to speculate on what course of action the
Government were bound to take. It is not just of Mr. Hors-
man to say that the Government broke faith with Mr. Hen-
nessy, or were parties to what he termed " a surprise" upon
the house. Consistently with his promise, Lord Palmerston
moved the postponement of the orders of the day, but it was
perfectly competent for the house to reject his motion. The
Ministry can have no object in stifling a debate on Polish
affairs, but they may feel, as did a large majority of the
House of Commons last evening, that at the present juncture
a purposeless discussion would not only be ill-timed, but
absolutely hurtful to the interests which its introducer would
have been most anxious to serve. Whilst diplomatists are
cudgelling their brains in attempts to discover a solution of
the Polish question, the insurrection continues to spread,
and the instances of Russian enormities become daily more
numerous. Mr. Hennessy would, therefore, have needed
no special justification for again bringing the affairs of
Poland under the consideration of the House of Commons.
A fortnight since, in the House of Lords, the Earl of
Ellenborough, when inquiring into the present state of
negotiations with respect to Poland, took occasion to review
the condition of the belligerents, and to inculcate the neces-
sity in the interests of humanity of sparing no efforts to
bring to a close what must, if proceeded with, becomes war
of extermination. Sinee then matters have undergone but
little modification. The relative positions of the Russian
forces and the insurgents remain the same. The diplomatic
negotiations have, however, been advanced one step. The
three Powers have transmitted separate, but in all practical
respects similar proposals to the Cabinet at St. Petersburg.
The answers previously given by the Russian Government
to the notes addressed to it by Austria, France, and Eng-
land, although in many respects differing from each other
in details, agreed in throwing upon those Powers the onus
of making such suggestions as would be considered con-
ducive to the restoration of tranquillity in Poland. It was
therefore, necessary that the three Governments should
confer upon the proposals to be made, and for this purpose
confidential communications were interchanged between
them. They have now agreed upon and transmitted their
communications to the Russian Government ; and it may
be sufficient for the present to say that these communica-
tions are based upon the provisions of the Treaty of Vienna.
But although the intervening Powers may have agreed
upon their course of action, the difficulties with which the
solution of the Polish question is beset are not one whit
diminished. England, France, and Austria may settle be-
tween themselves the nature of their demands, but it will
still remain with Russia to determine whether she will ac •
cept or reject them. Earl Russell was very far from san-
guine when referring in the House of Lords some days
since to toe probable issue of the present negotiations ; nor,
considering the manifest unwillingness of the intervening
Powers to make the refusal of Russia to comply with their
proposals a casus belli, it is surprising that the Foreign
Secretary should have been despondent of such an issue
as would satisfy the requirements of the European Powers
and the just demands of the Polish people. It may be,
as Earl Russell observed, that an armed intervention on
behalf of the Poles would be productive of nothing but
calamity and contusion ; but if the possibility of sucil,
an intervention does not appear in the back-ground, one
may well feel diffident of the result of diplomaticßu. siannego-
tiations in favour of the Polish people, at t a
!ourt.

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