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THE SUN.
LoNDoN, SATURDAN AUGUST 2, 1862.

The Premier was not ii,
his hest cue last night.
It was better, to be sure, than
tcgetting in a pas-
sion, and calling men like Mr,
dunces;
still, whatever the merits of his ease, his
speech,
for a wonder, reads somewhat heavily between
those of Mr. COBDEN and Mr. DISRAELI. Til
The
first had, indeed, the advantage of choosing his
line ()f attack, though Lord PALMERSTON could

hardly doubt what it would be, and Mr. DISRAELI
that of the summing up, as judge, after hearing
, " the leading counsel in this great controversy
between the Liberal party and the Reform Go-
vernment." Still, we must say that we expected
something cleverer from the yet merry Premier of
three score and fifteen. He is, of course, always
stronger in banter than in argument; it is
his constant and successful fence ; but on the
present occasion, though good retorts were not
wanting, they were fewer than usual. His speech,
on the whole, produces the impression that the
" counsel for the Reform Government" felt that
that of the " counsel for the Liberal party" might
tell more than he wished, on the jury which
would hear all next morning, and which would
deliver its verdict at the next election.
But let us hear the counsel for the Liberals. His
speech was long, but certainly not wearisome. The
principal counts of his indictment were—the failure
of the Government to fulfil the pledges by which it
obtained office, and turned out the Tory Govern-
ment—on three points, Economy, Non-interven-
tion, and Reform. In regard to the first it was
pleaded that a return to Parliament showed the
pALMERSTON taxation to be the heaviest yet known
in time of peace. In 1830 taxation amounted to £2
4s. 11d. per head ; in 1840, to £1 18s. 2d ; in 1850,
to £2 ls. sd. ; and in 1860, to £2 Bs. ld. The Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer himself showed that the
taxation had increased in a duplicate ratio to the
wealth of the country.. But that was not all, the army
and navy estimates this year are larger by £8,000,000
than those proposed by Mr DISRAELI in 1858-9.
And while the other members of the Cabinet had
each their fair share of responsibility for them, yet
it was also fair to regard the Premier as theprimum
mobile of all this expenditure. Mr. 'COBDEN
rightly thought that Lord PALMERSTON would take
credit to himself for being so. And recounting the
details of the noble lord's policy, dating from the
Syrian war, which occasioned the first rise in our
estimates, he reckoned the noble lord had cost us
about £100,000,000 !
The sincerity of the noble lord was admitted,
but it was the sincerity of monomania, and it was
a monomania which had led to ceaseless agitation
on the naval expenditure, or rather strength of
France; for whatever strength France had, or has,
was gained at a small expenditure compared with
ours. Then came the clever illustration from
WHATELEY'S " Historic Doubts relative to NA-
POLEON BONAPARTE," from which Mr. COBDEN
quoted a passage amusingly descriptive of the way
in which the speaker wished to represent Lord
PALMERSTON as unloosing the pockets of the people
by the bugbear of a French Invasion. So the
absurd and comic reasoner in WHATELEY represents
the Minister for the day doing in the time of
BONAPARTE. But this, says Lord PALMERSTON
and some of the press this morning, was rather a
satire of those who used such arguments, In Mr.
COBDEN'S speech, however, we do not perceive a
trace of reliance on the justice of the application of
the argument. It was quoted as a happy descrip-
tion of what Prime Ministers might do at any
time—if it did not fit WILLIAM PITT it does fit
Lord PALMERSTON, is how we understand the quo-
tation. We are afraid the cap does fit, for Lord
PALMERSTON only got rid of it by saying it did
not fit Mr. PITT. This, with his good leave, was
not the question. Which was—whether it fitted
him.

Of course in impugning the waste and extrava-
gance at the Admiralty and in the Dockyards, Mr.
COBDEN had easy work—but the point of the
charge was that the Liberal Government, in getting
rid of £30,000,000 of money had to she w for it but
one or two of the class of ships which are now con-
fessed to he the only efficient ones in a naval con-
flict. The cry is continually raised that the
French are outbuilding us, but we never hear of
any investigation into the doings of the men who
have spent such an incredible amount of
money, leaving us still so little superior
to our rival. A chief clerk of a mer-
chant, who had filled his own department
of the warehouse with unsaleable goods would be
called to account for it by the merchant. The
Liberal party, under the leadership of the noble
lord, will in like manner be called to account for
thirty million's worth of ships, which the Americans
openly tell us they do not fear. The Chinese wars
were naturally adduced by Mr. COBDEN as evi-
dence that the non-intervention pledges of the
Government, and indiscreet baste was alleged in
the case of the Trent. That the present war in
China has alone upset Mr. GLADSTONE'S budget
seems to be certain—as the troops kept there will
more than swallow up all ids surplus.

But where the indictment on behalf of the
Liberal party against Lord PALMERSTON was best
sustained, was on the question of party. Indeed,
Lord PALMERSTON could offer no reply to it, but
that of throwing over party. It is now matter
of notoriety that the advanced Liberals, disgusted
with the Toryism and large expenditure of the
Premier, were ready to unite with Mr. Disraeli and
the Tories to turn him out of office. The result
was, that the greater part of the Tories deserted
their leader. " Some one got at Mr. WALPOLE in
, the stable," as Mr. OSBORNE said of him, and
he who was to have been the Tory winner
threw up, because he, and other Tories with
him, thought Lord PALMERSTON a more effi-
cient Tory than any of their own number. It
could not be denied that under the leadership of
the noble lord every Liberal measure had retrograded
—the Ballot, Church Rates, Marriage Law, Burial
Grounds, Grammar Schools Bill, had all gone back-
wards, as well as Reform Bills. Even the night
poaching Bill had only one vote from him, and that
one to help it. Led as the Liberal party now is, its
conduct becomes slack, and the principles advocated
by the party lose ground. Counsel for the Liberals
says therefore, better than go on so let us go
into . .
°Pposaion. Our position now is that the
Present •.
of power, Appositionhave all the advantages
I
th none of its responsibilities. Con-
servativ reaction there is none—it is an absurdity.
But there is "tell It thing as a Liberal Government
triumphing over the
~ great body of the Liberals by
the help of the Conservatives.
The defence of
Lord
es.
4Ltelluee_,
RnSTON may be almost
in in one
set
summed up
went with me. 0 the House and the
countrY 4 N'thnt Mr. COBDEN
made the main point this is true, To
every argument
of Mr. COBDEN'S the Premier could
reply that he
mustered the most votes. There is much,
too in this
argument for the Minister of a
free country, The
i Minister
only question wll be, did the
mislead the country. Lord PALMERSTON evaded
the main question, whether he had or had not played
•
teo much on the danger of invasion, on which sub.
ject a Minister is presumed by the
people to have
the best information. He appealed to the Volun-
teers, forgetting how he had snubbed the movement
at the beginning, and forgetful, too, that it Was
very much advocated by many as a means of ren-
dering unnecessary such an extravagant military
expenditure. He denies, and we only hope events
will justify the denial, that we shall be led into a
war in China ; and we may hope, after the warning
he has had, that he will confine himself carefully
to the protection of the trading ports. The
charge of practical Toryism the Leader of the