The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-07 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1854.

Parliament appears to be sufficiently impressed
with the difficulty of its position, and of that of
her MAJESTY'S Government. The House of
Lords adjourned at eight minutes to six, and the
House of Commons at half-past six o'clock, yes-
terday evening—with a few questions timorously
asked and indifferently answered, and absolutely
nothing whatever of importance accomplished.
The Marquis of CLANRICARDE, indeed, compla-
cently announced his intention of postponing fur
yet some few days longer his threatened motion in
reference to the Russo-Turkish difficulty. Where-
upon the Noble Earl the Foreign Secretary can-
didly acknowledged his satisfaction at the post-
ponement of a discussion which by possibility, if
prematurely forced upon the Legislature, might
prejudice the feeble chance that still remained of
more successful negotiations towards a pacific settle-
ment. Literally nothing meanwhile was whispered
in the Lower House beyond the incidental query
addressed to the Ministerial Leader of the Com-
mons by Viscount JOCELYN, as to whether the
Russian Ambassador had really ceased to hold
diplomatic relations with the Court of St. James's
—a pertinent interrogation, to which Lord JOHN
RUSSELL replied by expressing his belief that not
only had M. DE BRUNOW intimated his intention
to take his departure from the Court of St.
James's, but that he had actually quitted London
that day, meaning yesterday. Otherwise than
by this inquiry no allusion whatsoever to the
Eastern Question was made last evening, during
the course of the then sitting of the popular
representatives—their attention being absorbed
in such matters as a threatened Committee to
take into account certain imputations of trafficking
in places, directed by a couple of newspapers
against a particular class of members of the Com-
mons 110q130 of Parliament. Principally, how-
ever, the regard of the popular representatives
was directed yesterday by Lord JOHN RUSSELL to
anything but 1. question affecting the foreign
policy of the tjaild• Kingdom—instead of this,
indeed, to the old, wrii_out,
and threadbare sub-
ject of debate, the substitution of a single oath
for the triple and incongruius oaths of allegiance,
supremacy, and abjuration. It is by such
ingenious devices that the energies of the
Parliament are being directed by
Ministers
from any prompt or searching scrutiny of the
source of eleven months' anxiety---not individual
anxiety only, but national anxiety--in regard to
the mismanagement of a question which has been
complicated from a local dispute between Russia
and Turkey into a cause of war between the
Northern AUTOCRAT and the allied Powers of
Christendom. It appears to us, however, that
this industrious trailing of the herring is altogether
a work of supererogation. Government need be
under little anxiety, for the present at least, if
we may judge from the spirit, or rather from the
lack of spirit, hitherto revealed by the Opposition.
The Opposition, in truth, would seem to be
fairly bewildered as to the course they should pur-
sue just now under existing circumstances.
The
first night of the session plainly enough disclosed
the extent of this bewilderment. No plan of
the campaign seemed to have been thought of—
no tactics seemed to have been decided upon.
Anybody spoke and at last nobody—until matters
having at last come to a stand-still, and a cry of
Question having been raised in one or two direc-
tions, Mr. DISRAELI was forced, as it were, in
spite of himself and before his time, to rise and
Address the House, if for nothing

the flaw of a hasty and premature adjournment.
Since that first evening, Lords and Commons
have contrived to fritter away the public time
upon, comparatively speaking, indifferent subjects
of discussion—the arch-question of the day being
evaded by mutual consent by the Opposition and
by the Government. At first there was at least
a show of reason in the excuse that the papers re-
lating to the Russo-Turkish difficulty, ordered by
her MAJESTY to be placed upon the table of both
Houses, had not as yet made their appearance in
the shape of a goodly blue-book—the great blue-
pill of the session, to be administered to the Legisla-
ture by her MAJESTY'S Government. That valid
and sufficient reason for delay can no longer
be adduced by members in extenuation of
the leniency of their protracted postponement.
Wherefore, every thing considered, it is most
earnestly to be desired that the whole subject of
dispute shall be now speedily brought forward in
both Houses of the Imperial Parliament. It can-
not seriously be said to interfere any longer with
the chances of satisfactory negotiation. The evil
can no longer be evaded ; it must be grasped and
strangled. Besides—the dignity of the Crown,
and the glory of the Empire, and the honour of
the Nation, have to be reclaimed, and Ministers
have to adventure upon the attempt, at least, of
their own vindication.

When ALADDIN gave directions to the Geni of
the Lamp for the construction of a Palace of un-
paralleled magnificence, he particularly impressed
on his powerful and obedient servant his desire
that one of the twenty-four windows in the grand
reception hall should be permitted to remain un-
finished and incomplete. He desired that some-
thing should remain for future performance, al-
though the beauty of the miraculous structure
was materially impaired by the glaring deficiency.
It would appear as if our Ministerial ALADDINS
were animated by similar feelings, as if they could
never ask the Legislative sanction for a full and
perfect measure of reform, or, as has been asserted
of some classes of tradesmen, they could never
put any work out of hands without having re-
course to means calculated to occasion new jobs
for themselves or their successors. Hence the
fondness for bit-by-bit reforms for carrying
what might be sufficient to stop the popular out-
cry for the time being ; bat not what would
totally remove the evils complained of, and place
the entire matter on a permanent and lasting
foundation, so that further interference would not
be required within any assignable period.
On Friday evening a new and powerful illus-
tration was afforded of this system. The Presi-
dent of the Board of Trade obtained permission
to introduce two measures, excellent and unim-
peachable in themselves, but which should have
long since been rendered unnecessary. Of course
we do not and cannot blame Mr. CARDWELL for
the tardiness and timidity of his predecessors. We
freely and willingly accord him the credit to which
he is eminently entitled for his judicious proposi-
tions, which have been received with almost
unanimous approbation by members of all parties.
But surely it should not have been reserved for
1854 "to strike of the last remaining fetters from
the free navigation of the seas ?" That impera-
tive duty should have been. discharged before the
eighth year of what has been facetiously termed
Free-Trade, the fifth from the repeal of the Navi-
gation Laws. Why, we ask, should " a last rag
of protection" have been so long sanctioned ? or
why, when Parliament undertook to deal with the
entire code for the regula.t ion of our mercantile
marine, should the unseemly "tatter" have been al-
lowed to remain ? If the British shipowner and the
British sailor could fearlessly enter on a course of
unrestricted competition with t all other nations, why
was there any reserve which. only took away from
the grace of the concession :and the efficacy of the
movement. If it was right to throw open the
foreign trade to the whole world, there should
have been no restriction as to the coasting trade.
If, on the contrary, protective regulations were
required with regard to our home navigation, it
was a most imprudent and injudicious act to
hazard the " Empire of the Seas" which we have
;;o long maintained, or at least claimed, by an expe-
riment so perilous as that of making the whole
foreign trade free and unrestricted. It was, in-
ileed, a most inconsistent coarse to adopt, one
which hazarded the success of the entire experi-
ment ; and which we have altready bitterly expi-
ted, as every "pater familicss" paying 2s. 10d.
or 3s. per cwt., or 50s. per ton for his coal, will
inost emphatically and unhesitatingly assert.
We have said that it hazarded the success of
the entire movement. We do not believe that
nations should hesitate to do what is right and
proper because others are obdurate, and refuse to
make equivalent concessions. But the advantages
of reciprocity, of obtaining a full return for wha

we give, will be generally acknowledged. Now,
our chief, if not our only really formidable, oppo-
nent had roost handsomely offered to be guided
by our acts, and to return a full measure for
what we voluntarily bestowed ; but we hesitated.
We reserved our coast navigation about the
British islands ; and America retained hers
round the whole Northern Continent of

the New World. If we kept from the Tyne
to the Mersey, they also monopolised from
New York to San Francisco. It requires
no extraordinary argument to show which had
the best of the transaction. Tif we were to mea-
sure matters by a narrow scale of equivalents, it

would be easy to prove that British shipowners
lost more by not having an opportunity of enter-

ing on the American coasting trade than by pre-
serving the monopoly of their own. But a nation

like England should not be influenced by such
considerations. Whatever others may do, we
should pursue an honourable and straightforward
course, such as a simple regard to the general wel-
fare of the United Kingdom would point out, with-
out admitting other elements into the calculation.
It is notorious that since the repeal of the Naviga-
tion Laws the shipping interests has been far more
prosperous than heretofore ; and it may fairly be
asserted that the prosperity thus enjoyed, if it has
not been increased, has certainly not been in way
degree deteriorated by the concessions of 1849.
Freights have more than doubled, and seamen's
wages have improved in a similar ratio. But

that is not all. Where the restrictions were

maintained, we could not obtain a sufficient
supply for our demand on any terms. And yet,
Tyn
while lxub.ble to bring in foreign bottoms, coals
from the
t,,
or potatoes from Scotland—while
seeing that power which was so urgently required,
remaining utterly waste and unproductive, the
inhabitants of the metropolitan and southern dis-
tricts had to submit to almost famine prices for
these essential articles. This state of affairs
required an immediate remedy, and, thanks to Mr.
CARDWELL, it will be supplied. But what can be
s,id of the obstructive power which retained the ob-
i; ,xious restriction so long, until there was an univer-
s 11 demand for its total and unconditional abolition?
It; is said that we may thank the Board of Cus-
turns for the five years' maintenance of the nui-
sance—that they declared their inability to pro-
tect the revenue if the change were. sanctioned.
do not doubt that such a difficulty was
raised, but we cannot allow that it was such
to justify Parliament in continuing the
objectionable restrictions. In place of yield-
ing to such frivolous and querulous difficul-
ties, the Legislature should rather have applied
a stimulus to the Board, and compelled it to shake
off its apathy and keep pace with the spirit of the
age. Let us hope that such may be the course
henceforward adopted, and that all similar objet-