The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOITRNALS.

TI3IES.—The death of the Premier very naturally
leads people to bethink themselves what manner of
man they have lost, what a Premier ought to be,
and who there are that fulfil the most necessary
conditions. We have lost a man whom, in justice
to ourselves, and in submission to the final award of
facts, we are forced to admit to have been the greatest
Statesman left in the land. The nation is not infal-
lible, but it must have been something worse than
mistaken if Lord Palmerston was not a great man,
and a man most competent to govern the country.
On the other hand, it is remarkable that he did not
attain to his singular pre-eminence and his full esti-
mation till he had arrived at a patriarchal age. Had
he died at seventy he would have left a second-class
reputation for cleverness, restlessness, a wit rather
too readily at the service of the occasion, a dexterity
chiefly shown in getting out of scrapes, something
like indifference upon questions thought of supreme
because of domestic importance, and a zeal on other
points to the verge of indiscretion. It has been his
great and peculiar fortune to live to right himself,
and to show the preponderance of the greater
powers and the nobler faculties. The moral of his
life has been the converse of the old sage's. We
must now depreciate no man, nor call him unfortu-
nate, till he has lived his full term, and run out of
all his opportunities ; and even then we must con-
sider that a better fortune might have brought out
hidden qualities. The secret of a life and character
had yet to be revealed. We are ready to admit
that there is something in the respect paid to age,
in the power of a large and long experience, and in
the tendency of a good position to improve itself.
This may be thought sufficient to explain why Lord
Palmerston was a greater man at 80 than at 60. But
this is really a question of fact, and there are
very few men who, under any circumstances what-
ever, show better at the more advanced age, and
exhibit qualities hardly guessed before. No doubt
many are conscious of aspirations that only wait
the opportunity, and feel themselves tied down
by the straitness of circumstances ; but they are
much mistaken if they expect such qualities
to keep without use. No length of years
would have made Lord Palmerston what he was
but a few days ago had he not substantially been
that already, and had not that really been the true
character of his whole career. No reasonable poli-
tician will ever look for a model Premier, but in the
last addition to an illustrious series we see what is
indispensable. The virtual ruler of a free country
has to help it to govern itself. He has not to come
with a scheme and policy of his own ;• he has not to
dictate principles, or warp the nation round to a
faction or a school ; he has not to assume every-
thing wrong, and all to be set right ; he has not to
set down this class as usurping or that as aggressive ;
he has not to cabal against a people, or plot against
opinions ; he is not himself a deity, or a saint, or a
conqueror, or a founder, who has to inform a social
chaos with his own loftier and purer spirit ; least
of all is he to assume that the world is always going
wrong, and that he alone has the secret of its rescue.
There is a great deal in books, in places of education,
and even in common talk that favours these ideas,
and compels a young statesman to undergo a certain
process of exfoliation before he can become a prac-
tical man. Such a country as England must and
will govern itself, nor is there is any help for it ; so
that if anybody is not satisfied with the conduct of
his country, he had best let it alone. That Lord
Palmerston was a patriot in this sense ; that he had
the art to find out what his country wished to do,
and the will to assist it ; that he obtruded no preju-
dices of his own ; and that in our foreign affairs he
has at least helped England to act up to its character
and position is at once his glory and his reproach ;
for on these friends and foes are agreed. We have
no wish to say a hard word, or even to think one, of
those who take an opposite course. It is their life's
one work to stand by their order, or to raise a class,
or to extend a principle, or to advocate a doctrine
and extend a spiritual allegiance, or to establish an
idea, not to speak of the less noble aims too apt to
intrude. It is enough to say that these are not
patriotism, and that a Premier must be a patriot.
He is the arbiter in many controversies and the
umpire of many references. He must give all their
due, and must not even be suspected of a wish to
diminish one existing class,' state, or interest.
Changes, of course, there will be in the mutual re-
lations of these things ; but they are not to come
from him. Parties and classes are in perpetual
antagonism, and, generally by their own fault, they
will occasionally suffer losses, which the Legislature
may be called on to reduce to form. It may, there-
fore, happen that a Premier may be called on to
give his name and weight to -changes having the
force of social revolutions. But his first duty is to
do his best for the whole of the people, in the true
spirit of compromise, and "in the light of a free
constitution." It cannot be his place to rouse a
pressure from without, to collect a body of mal-
contents, to head a crusade, or attempt any of the
day-dreams whereof books are full. In an age at
once literary and adventurous, originality of idea
and personal achievement are thought the chief
claims to glory. But under such conditions glory
may well be left to egotists, if they can attain to it.
Lord Palmerston's career may not have been sub-
lime, but it has not been vainglorious. It has been
called a hand-to-mouth policy. Its successes have
been ascribed to tact, adroitness, and good temper.
It has been described by every term that could take it
out of the province of true statesmanship and make
it a purely social triumph. Be it so. Yet it has
been something to win good humour and good will
from contending parties and aggrieved classes.
They would not have been so easily and agreeably
vanquished had they felt the country to be,really
misgoverned, or to be under any great burden of
wrong. Nor can we entertain so low an opinion
of our country as to suppose that, like a lover or a
pet, it requires in its rulers the merely personal
graces and charms of manner. Some of our most
distinguished statesmen have been reserved and even
ungracious, and though they have certainly lost fol-
lowers by the defect, it has not prevented a just
appreciation of their motives and their measures.
Perhaps there never was a time when augury was
more difficult., A new Parliament—very new, in-
deed ; complications that may lead to war ; and the
sudden termination of an interregnum, as, with
some truth, the Administration has been called, con-
stitute a new and inscrutable state of affairs. The
man who should be forward to grasp the helm is to
be admired rather than envied, for he starts on his
course at nightfall, on an unknown and stormy sea.
One cannot but be reminded of the proverbial fate
of those who first mount the breach, or are the
leaders in a revolution. Courage, however, is
always necessary, and England does not like a suc-
cession of statesmen who shrink responsibility or
take a waiting line. On the other hand, the public
is alive to the dangers of the time, and is ready to
give its forbearance as well as its confidence to a
Government standing on no other ground than the
interest and honour of the country. The vicissitudes
of Lord Palmerston's own Ministerial history have
had their moral at this juncture. There was a mo-
ment, not many years since, when he was suspected
of allowing the personal fears and wounded dignity
of a great neighbour to hurry the pace of our Legis-
lature--making laws, in a word, at French d 'eta-
tion. He had to go to the country to repair his
damaged position, and the country gave him its
usual confidence. Since that Parliament and the
country have allowed him to tie our hands by a
commercial treaty with the same Power, and more
than once to let a sound discretion overrule the sug-
gestions of a too sensitive foreign policy. This has
been done in full reliance on the word of the Pre-
mier, that, however aggrieved England might feel,
her honour was not engaged to a different course.
That confidence is still ready to be given to the
wisest policy, whether glorious or not. But we
envy not the man who has to decide for us and the
nation, and to add with his own hand one more
stone to the great edifice of international justice and
right. How far there may be coming difficulties at
home can only be known at the meeting of our
new Legislature.

PosT. —HOW long will the Veteran Cabinet last
afterits reconstruction by Lord Russell? Its life
already extends over six years, or about twice the
average duration of Cabinets, and it now becomes
of importance to inquire whether it can hope in the
future to escape those storms from which the Par-
liamentary atmosphere has-of late been so remark-
ably free. That Lord Russell should resume the
lead of the Liberal party was not only natural, but
certain, under the peculiar circumstances of the
moment. Mr. Gladstone's intellect is no doubt of
greater range and subtler power than that of any
of his colleagues, but, though the man be there, his
hour is not yet come. It would have been suicidal
to his great hopes were such a man to have caught
up the mantle of Lord Palmerston and endeavoured
to rule in his stead over colleagues of whom so many
are his seniors, educated in far different days, dis-
tinct in their experience, and distant in their sym-
pathy. With them he never could have originated
a policy or accomplished anything but his own mor-
tification, the disruption of the Government, and the
injury of the party. With Lord Russell the pros-
pect is different. If he proves successful in his ad-
ministration, he may fairly look to prolong the vita-
lity of the Cabinet which has received so rude a shock.
If he fail in the task, the Government will fall natu-
rally, and with dignity, and the party will res)rt, not
uncheerfully, for a period, to the Opposition benches.
The time for a Gladstone Cabinet is hereafter.
When in the post of Leader of the House, and
especially of the Opposition, the present Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer shall have learnt to conci-
liate and control that supremely difficult assembly
—when, on the :luestions of the then day, he shall
have distinct and obviously beneficial views of

public policy, he may come into office strong, un-
fettered, and surrounded by many new colleagues,
few older than himself, with the firm expectation of
achieving great things and satisfying the noble am-
bition of a statesman. But we have to deal rather
with questions of the day than with speculations for
the future. The Cabinet of Lord Russell will have
to meet a new Parliament in three months from this
time. The elections have been undoubtedly very
favourable to the Liberal party, and it will remain
to be seen whether the Government can permanently
command the majority which is pledged to them,
and which would certainly follow them into the
lobby if any vote of want of confidence were put
forward at the beginning of the session. The only
certain loss to them is that of those Conservative
votes and abstentions which were of late years se
invariably accorded to Lord Palmerston. The
Opposition will become more compact and strong.
They are hungry for office, and will use every tactic
known in Parliamentary war. The Irish will be-
come lapdogs if they are to retain canine affinities,
and their " muzzles" will be eagerly removed by
those who so lately advocated their retention. The
" lateral extension" of the franchise will extend into
the most amazingly elastic proposition, and the
question will be discovered to have many sides, all
capable of extension, and in any direction, so that
the voices of those extreme Liberals may be won
who do not hesitate to vote for any party that makes
them a concession, and who see a benefit in every
change. Under these circumstances, and in presence
of an extremely active and eager Opposition, the
Government will enter on the session with the loss
of the great personal popularity of Lord Palmer-
ston. Lord Russell, though much respected, does
not command that universal goodwill so freely
accorded to his great predecessor. In the Commons
the Cabinet is acknowledged to be weak, and it is
precisely in the Commons the absence of Lord Pal-
merston occurs so conspicuously. Even in the last
two sessions, whenever his failing health required him
to stay away from the House, the members became
almost uncontrollable, and it was only on his return
that order and discipline were restored. Though
the Chancellor of the Exchequer's powers of mind
are acknowledged by all, whether it be that he is
too much always right, or whether it be that by
some manner of speech he makes the mental infe-
riority of others too conspicuous, or whether it be
one of twenty other reasons, the fact remains that
the late House willingly rebelled, and often made
proof of a certain unreasoning resentment such as
that exemplified in the division on the fire insurance
reduction, when, for no valid cause, they put the
Government in a minority for the sake of dictating
a part of the budget, and depriving Mr. Gladstone
of the credit of initiating a measure on which it was
quite well understood he had determined. It does
not follow that, because this was the case in the late
House of Commons, a like conduct will be pursued
in the new Parliament. The Chancellor of the
Exchequer, in assuming his new position, may
chance to find new ways of pleasing, and the young
assembly may give evidence of a ready equanimity,
and show a willing subordination. .We hope that it
may prove to be so. It seems difficult to believe
that a great party elected to support a Liberal Go'
vernment would hastily throw power into the hands
of its political opponents. Nor do we believe that
the present Government runs any danger on any
great question. The peril lies in those difficulties
that crop up almost before one can say whence,
they arise: Such an example was the treatment of
Lord Palmerston on the famous Conspiracy Bill,
which he introduced with success, and which the
Tories were pledged to support. The Premier
had, however, given offence by an imagined tone
of dictatorship to various of his supporters at vari-
ous times. During the passing of the bill some
papers were laid on the table, and in a certain des;
patch of the French Government words were found'
which some thought ought to have been resented.
Mr. Milner Gibson brought forward a motion on the
subject. To the amazement of the Conservative°,
member after member on the Government side rose
to express bitter feeling. The temptation was too
great to be lost. They resolved that very night t°
abandon their pledge and to vote against Govern"
ment. It was a Friday night. Sir William Hai;
ter, who quickly found whither matters were tend'
ing, urged Lord Palmerston to arrange theadjournment of the debate, alleging that by 0,1
Monday night the insurgents would have returned
to their allegiance. The Premier, stung by a double
treachery, refused. The division occurred, and the
Liberals, to their amazement, found that they bad
placed the Government in a minority. Individual
regret was plentiful. Each thought he was reveng:
ing some real or fancied slight. He had intendca,
to show independence and to display menace, but
had never for a moment dreamt of turning out the
Government. But the deed was done. Such is the
lesson to be learnt by chiefs if they ever fail to con:
trol the obedient votes of supporters. Such dane
threaten any Government that cannot enforce ch°:,
cipline in their party. We arc far from predicting
misfortunes to Lord Russell and his Cabinet. The,'
will meet Parliament with a powerful majority
pledged to their support, and it will depend up?!
themselves to prove that they know how to retaiil:
its confidence. The coming year looms full of P9l.
tical portent. New questions are likely to arise 111
Europe, and we trust that the Government will gi,i
proof that the political sagacity of its late chief iv;
still guide its counsels; and both at home and abrog'l
obtain thelapproval and support which were so freely
accorded to Lord Palmerston.