The Sun.
London, England, 1854-07-27 00:00:00

la MINISTRY-THE "RIGHT" MAN.

(From the Morning Herald.)

To collect the verdict of the public on any great ques-
tion, in any mode which may secure us from delusion
or deception, is not, perhaps, very easy, but it is far
from impossible. At the present moment, on the only
point of pressing importance—namely, whether the pre-
sent Government is honestly prosecuting the war —we
imagine that we can point out one tolerably safe crite-
rion of what the people think.
We have already said, more than once, that a rational
and diScriminating view of the line taken by the public
press will, often furnish this criterion. P.obably this
was never more true than at the present moment.
By a rational and discriminating view, we mean an
estimate founded on all the known facts of the case. We
are not merely to count heads. We are not to assume
that a Government is popular because it is supported by
the Times ; or that it is unpopular, because it is opposed
by the Morning Herald. Let all the circumstances be
taken into account. If, therefore, we seek to learn from

the public press what is thought Of the Government, we
must begin by throwing certain journals out of the ac-
count. We do not think that anything can be argued,
in the present case; from the opinions of the Morning
Herald or the Standard ; or from those of the Times,
Chronicle, or Globe.
The reason is obvious. The Morning Herald and
the tundard opposed the Aberdeen Ministry from the
first hour of its formation. The Times, Chronicle, and
Globe supported that Ministry from its earliest existence
to the present moment. Renee, in taking the opinions
of either of these five papers, we should be asking the
judgment of those who had adopted a prejudice at the
out-iet.
But there are four other London journals of various
shades of politics, and all of which are free from political
connection either with the Government or the Opposi-
tion. These are the Morning Poet, the Morning Adver-
tiser, the Daily News, and the Sun. And, be it re-
m irked, that so far as these four journals could be sus-
pected of any bias—that bias would be in favour of the
present Government. Three of them are of Liberal
politics, and the fourth as an admirer of Lord Palmer.
ston. Not one of the four has any leaning to Lord
Derby or his friends. Now, have these four journals
expressed any opinion, recently, as to the conduct of
the war ? And is their verdict at all unanimous ?
It is singularly so. The Conservative, but Palmer-
stonian Post,—the Radical Daily News,—the highly-
Liberal Advertiser and Sun, all concur in the most
remarkable manner: All agree most fully and cordially
that the way in which the war is carried on, or rather
the way in which the war is not carried on, is most dis-
graceful to all parties concerned in it.
The weekly humorist Punch, equally " Liberal,"
equally opposed to Lord Derby, entirely concurs in this
judgment, representing in its caricature of this week,
the Queen, as schoolmistress, writing this character of
the two principal members of the Cabinet

" In the case of Masters Aberdeen and Russell, I re•
gret to say that the most extreme idleness has charac.
terised the whole half-year."

Are we not right, then, in saying that the present is a
case in which the public verdict may be easily gathered ?
These various journals represent various cla=ses of the
public, none of them being Derbyite ; and their decision
is a unanimous one—The present Ministry is not honEstly
carrying on the war.

One other test is a less obvious one, but, if closely
examined, it furnishes an equally invincible proof. It
is—an inquiry how the Ministry is defended by its par
tisans ?

Now let us give one example of this from the Morning
Chronicle of yesterday. The Premier is thus defended
by an advocate of, perhaps, rather too vehement a
temper :

"Lord Aberdeen suffers in ponular estimation from a
coldness of manner which is as far as possible from being
the index of his heart. Ardently loving the people and
their cause, he spurns the art of popularity to an extent
which is. perhaps, scarcely prudent in a democratic
country, governed by rhetoric. The first Conservative
Free-trader, a most consistent friend of religious liberty,
and the steady, though peaceful, supporter of constitu-
tional government in Europe—which claims to popular
esteem on which other men would have traded to the
greatest advantage—he has not only not eourted, but he
has repelled applanse. Acting simply on the dictates of
his conscience, he has expressed those dictates in the
simplest and most unvarnished form. He thought the
bread tax unjust, and be eagerly embraced and heartily
supported Sir Robert Peel's prop.)sition to repeal it ;
but he has never tried to make capital out of his per-
sonal conduct on that occasion. He never brags ; he
taunts nobody ; be does on each occasion the thing that
he thinks right ; he says on each occasion the thing that
he thinks right, and no power on earth will induce him
to say more. He believes that the Emperor of Russia
has done a great and crying. wrong, and he will do his
utmost to avenge that wrong. No one who knows him
doubts fur a moment that his whole soul is in the
struggle." _ _ _

Nlffien Sir Dugsld Dalgetty hears his visitors in the
dungeon indulge in a similar strain of the Marquis of
Argyle, he exclaims, "You must know the marquis
very well ; or, rather, you must be the marquis him-
self l"

With equal truth may we say, "This is a singular
sort of newspaper-scribe, who professes such a remark-
able knowledge of Lord Aberdeen's heart,' and con-
science,' and whole soul.' "

But we must make one other objection—namely, that
the Lord Aberdeen of this fancy sketch is as little like
the Lord Aberdeen of real life as the Argyle of the dun-
geon was like the Argyle of the council-room. Both
were fictitious.

Lord Aberdeen is now clesceibed as " the first Conser-
vative free-trader, the consistent friend of religious
ligerty, and the steady supporter of constitutional
go,ernment." But what says history:
In 1827, when Mr. Canning and Mr. Huskisson
made the first attempt to modify the corn laws, the
first name in the majority against the proposal was
that of Aberdeen. In eight mouths after this
Canning Ministry was dissolved, and Lord Aber-
deen, the stern Protectionist, was rewarded with the
Duchy of Lancaster. In June, 1828, a proposal was
made by the House of Commons, "to consider the Ca-
tholic oaths"— the mildest way of approaching emanci-
ryttion• Again, the name of Aberdeen was foremost in
,
rejecting even the proposal to consider the stbject, and
a 4 a staunch Protestant he was raised to the Foreign
Secretaryship.
The very next year the Duke ordered his troops to
" right about face," and "Aberdeen" was all for Eman-
cipation._ _ _

Excluded from office for a dozen years, he had no fur-
ther opportunity for such feats of agility. But in 1841,
having assisted Sir Robert Peel in rejecting the Whig
proposal to lower the duty on wheat to Bs., Lord Aber-
deen once more becarne.a Minister—a member of the
Protestant and Protectionist Minis'ry of Sept., 1841.
Li 1845, at Sir Robert Peel's command, he supported
the Maynooth Bill ; and in 1846, similarly obeying
orders, he abandoned the corn laws !
More than thirty years of his public life had been
spent as a Tory, when "circumstances" demanded one
more surrender. To gain office a fourth time, it was
now necessary to abandon the Conservative camp alto-
gether, and to become the Premier of the Peelites and
Whigs. But even this dose was not too strong. Nor
do we suppose that if Mr. Bright could gain a majority
in the House of Commons Lest year—Lord Aberdeen
would not at all object to " manage the House of Lords"
for the Bright Government.
And this is the sort of patriotic statesman of whom
the writer in the Chronicle tells us that—
" He does on each occasion the thing that he thinks
right ; he says on each occasion the thing that he thinks
right ; and no power on earth will induce him to say
more."
Oddly enough, on five or six great occasions, when
this inflexible patriot saw it "right" to make an entire
change in his conduct—that entire change happened to
he just- the very thing that was needful to enable him
to hold his place ! No doubt all was pure, and virtuous,
and patriotic ; but the concurrence of " conscience" and
interest was somewhat remarkable, occurring, too, so
repeatedly !

THE PARIS EXHIBITION.—The sum of 4,7001. hits been
subscribed kt Manchester towards the expenses of the
forthcoming Paris Exhibition.

GOOD FORTUNE.—A labouring man of the name of
Mitchell, who was working in a hedge-bottom near
Gainsborougb, the other day, was called from his employ-
ment by a gentleman from near Burgh, who conveyed
to him the inter-i.tincr information that a relative of his
—Mr. Sutton, of Thorpe-had left him personal and
other property to the valhe of something like 20,0001.
Mitchell had only seen his benefactor once or twice in
his life, and had not had the slightest intimation of the
good fortune that awaited him. He is a married man
with a large fsmily.--Eastern Counties Herald.
THE OCCUPATION CENSUB.—On Tuesday two bulky
parliamentary volumes were published, containing the
Occupation Census of Great Britain.

MELANCHOLY AND FATAL ACCIDENT FROM DROWN-
ma, —On Monday last Mr. Francis Thomas Yates
Molyneux, an undergraduate of St. John's College,
Cambridge, was unfortunately drowned whilst bathing
in the river Severn, near Potter's Load. The deceased
had been reading during the long vacation with the
ReV. Mr. Considine, vicar of Alveley, and had been in
the habit of bathing in the Severn nearly every day
during the last three weeks. He was advised not to
bathe, as he was subject to cramp.—Carmarthen
Journal.
SCOTTISH RIGHTS ASSOCIATION.—The council of this
.body niet on Saturday last, when the secretary laid be-
fore the council the following letter : —" Whitehall, 12th
July, 1554. Sir —I am directed by Viscount Palmer-
ston to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the
28th ult., and in reply toyourinquiry in retard to the office
of Secretary of State for Scotland, to say that there is no
intention at present to create such an office.—l am, &c.,
H. Waddington. F. H. Carter. Esq., Secretary to the
National Association for the Vindication of Scottish
Rights."
USURY LAWS REPEAL.—A bill has been presented by
the Marquis of Lansdowne for the purpose of repealing
the laws relating to usury and to the enrolment of
annuities. The bill purposes to repeal a great number
of acts and parts of acts reladiig to these laws ; but the
measure does not affect transactions already entered into,
or the laws relating to pawnbrokers.
swnistphiecinre:lbennetialeisn
THE Two SICILIES.—A correspondent writes : Naples, •
July 12 :—" From a conversation I have just held with
a..gentlernan who has just come from Messina, provided
long
to b
been
ne
entertained
that
dei,ce of private has been tampered with,
hiantTheeet:or'rretshpaotna.
now they fi "
--us....eat not individualsly are private letters opened,
but they have dared to on
l letters addressed
open the official
to the embassy both of the English and American
tioas, although the
hale of the French le respected.

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