The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

LORD PALMERSTON'S RESIGNATION.
(Front the Press of this day.)
There is an enormous diplomatic conspiracy hatching
att this moment, which, if successful, will prove most
disastrous to the honour and the interests of Queen
victoria and her realms.
a Our readers may perhaps remember that, three weeks
Austria,
we were the first to announce to the public that
at the unavowed, yet understood, instigation of
Russia, had proposed to the numbined Governments of
v
.._,land and France that they should join with her in
teuggesting to the belligerents an armistice for the
Winter.
Seven days after it was our duty also to announce
that Russia had signified that further negotiations would
not be listened to, that her part was taken, and that part
Wes" war.
The reoeipt of this declaration, so far as our Govern-
!llia was concerned, was denied by its principal organ,
nut in terms carefully adjusted, not to say suspiciously
equivocal. At the same time there appeared to be no
little inctnsistency between our second announcement
And the important information of which, on the preced-
ing week, we had been first the means of communicat-
ing. Confident in the authenticity of our source, we
lovaited, without apprehension, the evidence of its truth.
It appears, then,
m that more than a month ago Austria
old make to the cobined Governments the above-named
renewal
of an armistice. They, eager to secure the
renewal of diplomatic co-operation with Austria, replied
'About loss of time, and favourably, to the overture,
but added that they could not consent to the proposition
for an armistice, unless it was considered the preliminary
" a negotiation for peace. To this Austria, in time,
rejoined that, as peace was the object of all Govern-
Aleuts, the armistice might be considered as a prelimi-
nat7 to that end.
In due time i was reported to Austria that the Porte
had been sounded on the subject, but that the Sultan
*would oansent to no negotiation of which "the instant
and complete evacuation of the principalities," as pro-
tnised by Lord Clarendon to the British Parliament, was
tot a condition precedent. Upon this a despatch (not
a note, as was hurriedly and incorrectly expressed) in-
stantly arrived from St. Petersburg, and was read to a
French Minister, who communicated its contents to his
Sovereign, disclaiming negotiations, and appealing to
War as the only arbiter.
We will not stop now to inquire whether the same
declaration was made by a similar process to our own
Government. On this head we have much to say ; but
time presses. It is the less necessary to enter into this
Matter now, since our readers may depend upon the
.following statement, however incredible it may seem—
Vie., that Great Britain, notwithstanding the pledge of
Lord Clarendon to Parliament, and all that has since
occurred, consented to recommend, in the most urgent
manner,an armistice to the Porte, and a consequent
negotiation for peace, without making the slightest sti-
pulation respecting the principalities, or even alluding
to the subject. We have reason to believe that it was
even agreed that an arrangement in the spirit of the
forte
propositions should be pressed upon the
rode ; and all this upon the ground that the four Powers
itad entered into a loose declaration that, in their opinion,
it was expedient that the integrity of the Ottoman do-
Minions should be maintained.
These proceedings take place while the organ of Lord
Aberdeen is assuring its credulous, or its perplexed,
readers that Russia, by the return of the German Powers
to diplomatic concert with the combined Governments,
and by their consequent arrangements, has received " a
great diplomatic check," and lost the fruits of half a cen-
tury of its successes ; it being an undoubted fact that
the German Powers have throughout the affair been
ever playing the game of St. Petersburg, and that the
Cabinet of the Kremlin has suggested every move and
Pulled every string.
In the meantime, notwithstanding the denial of our
announcement, that the sword would be the only arbi-
ter between Russia and Turkey, there occurs the slaugh-
ter of Sinope, followed up by a consequent victory of
the Russians on land. Observe the facts, though they
are almost incredible ; but they will not be contradicted,
for we have the authority by our side. After innume-
rable delays and fatal procrastination, the combined
fleets of England and France anchor in the Bosphorus,
and immediately the Russians obtain their first success,
and that on the very element on which the combined
fleets could alone assist Turkey. But it is not only the
English and the French fleets that are lying idle almost
in sight of this " untoward" event. The Turkish and
Egyptian fleet is also inert. And why? Its crews
were not quaffing champagne grog. It was inert through
the influence of the English Ambassador !
Our readers are aware that the admiral of the Turkish
fleet is a gallant English officer, Captain Adolphus
Slade, bearing in Turkey the title of Mushoover Pacha.
It being known, some little time ago, that a squadron
under this officer was about to cruise in the Black Sea,
Lord Stratford, our Ambassador at the Porte, sent for
Captain Slade, and endeavoured to prevent the expedi-
tion, on the ground that, "as the Turkish Admiral
was an English subject, it might tend to embroil us
with Russia." The gallant Slade, as became a man
of honour in the service of the Porte, treated the
appeal with the contempt which it deserved.
Re went, and he returned, and he recommended
to the Turkish Government that the whole fleet should
hamiediately repair to the Euxine. Every means were
d recourse to in order to prevent this step ; and,
finally Admiral Dundas—no very wise man, to be sure,
but one, certainly, who would not act from his own in-
spiration—declared to the Turkish Government that if
their fleet entered the Flack Sea he would return with
the English fleet t i the Mediterranean. The Divan,
with a protest,
yielded to this violence, and, under these
circumstances, the Eeglish, the French, and the Turkish
fleets permitted an expedition of five thousand troops,
convoyed by a few frigates, to be massacred by Russian
Men-of-war. What infamy !
It is all very well to say that the retirement of Lord
Palmerston from the Coalition Cabinet is not occasioned
by the conduct of their foreign policy ; that the sup-
posed divisions of the Ministry on that subject are
'fictions ;" and that his " retirement will not in any de-
gree lower the tone or relax the energy on foreign
affairs of the Cabinet." No doubt the withdrawal
of Lord Palmerston from the Ministry is not merely,
or even perhaps mainly, occasioned by the conduct
of their foreign policy. It is occasioned by a general
conviction that the whole bent of their administra-
tion is alien both to the reason and the feelings of
the country, ---that they do not appreciate the character
of England, and have no root in the heart of any large
Portion of the community. But as for pretending that
the divisions of the Ministry on our foreign policy are
imaginary—this is indeed a " fiction," and a, bold one. It
is true that the policy of Lord Palmerston has, in the
main, been followed, but it has been always followed too
late : on almost every occasion it has been adopted by
Lord Aberdeen under the-threat of Lord Palmerston's
resignation ; and on almost every occasion it has
been ultimately adopted, though only supported by
a minority ; for, with the exception of Lord John
Russell, and the estimable Lord Lansdowne, Lord
Palmerston has not counted a sincere adherent on
these matters. Lord Aberdeen was, however, resolved
that Lord Palmerston should not escape from theCabi-
eet on a foreign question ; though he had the majority,
. he always, therefore, eventually succumbed, but with a
delay that virtually secured his ends. Had the British
fleet, for example, left Malta when Lord Palmerston re-
commended that course, the Pruth would never have
been passed.
And what will happen now ? "The tone of the
Cabinet on foreien affairs," we are told, " is not to be
lowered, and their energy is not to be relaxed." As for
lowering the tone of the Cabinet—that we defy them to
,d,°- As to their energy, its evidence may be found in
Lae Bay of Sinope. But, at present, the prospects of a
sublimer spirit and increased vigour may be found in the
circumstance that the Emperor of the French has just
declared that a connection with Lord Aberdeen is " too
humiliating," while the Emperor of Russia has just in-
formed Baron Brunow that, notwithstanding the provo-
cations he has received, he still retains his native mag-
nanimity, and that, when he has conquered the Turks,
both by sea and land, and in both quarters of the globe,
he will be prepared to accept the Vienna Note—without
Modifications.

( From the Times.)
We understand that the Cabinet will meet to-day to
consider the steps that must be taken to supply the va.
eaneY so suddenly and unexpectedly occurring 'in the
ranks of the Ministry. The office which Lord Palmer-
ston has resigned is one which can on no account be suf-
fered to remain vacant for a single day longer than is
obsoletely necessary. The powers of the Home Secre-
tary are most commonly called into action by sudden
emergencies, in which hours, and even minutes, are of
'Consequence. At the present time the necessity of fill-
ing the office immediately is particularly pressing. The
Lancashire " Strikes" may pass at any moment from
8 Mouldering discontent into open riot and tumult, and
the pressure of severe winter always requires a most
vigilant superintendence of the high officer to whom is
intrusted the maintenance of peace and the duty of
Watching over life, property, and justice. It is also es-
pecially necessary at this moment, when the country is
called on to assume a firm and unflinching attitude in
the presence of all Europe, and to make an impression
as much by the vigour and unity of her councils as by
the stren
no
and display of her armaments, that there
should be '
o seat vacant among those who are called
the
to advise and support the Crown, and to maintain
41,e safety without neglecting the dignity of the empire.
The choice of a successor to Lord Palmerston is also in-
tir
ted With peculiar importance from the position which
e statesman whose services we have just lost filled in
the eyes of the country, and had so long occupied in the
councils of his Sovereign., Though we see little reason
to believe that Lord Palmerston ever sincerely and
irnalY attached himself to the principles of the Liberal
ally from which he has now effected an abrupt and, to
ae,:ppearance, a final separation, and though we have
Infi_rk been able to approve his foreign policy, every one
ri.;a
`4cn
Ladmit that Lord Palmerston has played no insig-
anuld tor second-rate part in our public transactions,
untri:ght not
to be succeeded by an inexperienced or
_d statesman. The :Reform Bill, too, the very
ee;lure
eoiail on which he resigned, relating, as it does, more
y to the department of the Home Secretary,
te.quires to be watched by a Minister well acquainted
the the details which it must embrace, and versed in
gislationnelples which lie at the foundation of all such le
• , If the Ministry does not mean to be forced
h•"Fci ailLerkitOn'S sudden desertion into a confession

of weakness, it must replace the loss by a person at least
as eminent and as well known at home and abroad as
Lord Palmerston himself. This it is, happily, easy to
do ; and we consider it a very fortunate occurrence that
we possess the means of again completing the Cabinet
without in any way disturbing the existing distribution
of offices, or raising any of those questions as to the re-
spective merits of rival candidates, so dangerous to all
Governments, more especially to one founded on the
principles of Coalition.
Our readers will doubtless have anticipated us when
point out the circumstances which, themselves, indepen-
dent of any political or party predilection—have clearly
marked out to us Lord Palmerston's successor. It does
so happen that at this present moment we have a mem-
ber of the Cabinet unattached to any office and perfectly
well qualified to discharge the duties incident to the
Home Department. Lord John Russell has already held
the seals of the Colonial-office, and earned for himself,
in times when the true principles of colonial management
were much less perfectly understood than at present, the
reputation of a wise and conciliatory administrator. He
has also during the first two months of the present year
presided over our Foreign Affairs ; but there is no doubt
that the special bent of his mind and the nature of his
favourite studies point to the Home Department as one
which k,) is peculiarly qualified to fill. The position,
also, of a member of the Cabinet and Leader of the
House of Commons without being attached to any office
has in it many embarrassments which were probably not
foreseen at the time it was accepted. It seemed to want
that support which office and patronage alone can give,
and to do but slender justice to the powers of its occu-
pant. There was a certain emptiness and unsubstan-
tiality about it, which was neither worthy of its own
dignity nor that of the statesman who occupied it. Con-
pled with the office of Home Secretary, however, such a
position seems to be all that ambition can desire, more
especially at a time when a new Reform Bill is about to
be submitted to Parliament. It is impossible, too, not
to see that Lord Palmerston's resignation has in it some-
thing of a personal attack upon Lord John Russell, and
is probably not wholly unconnected with the transactions
of December, 1851. The gauntlet is thrown down, and
Lord John Russell is challenged to pick it up. No re-
tort could be more dignified or more just than to accept
the challenge, and meet Lord Palmerston's sudden and
petulant abandonment of his post by a willing assump-
tion and careful discharge of the duties which he has thus
abandoned. There is an obvious fitness in the change
thus suggested. It would be for the benefit of the
public to secure the services of the Minister most likely
to make us forget his predecessor, most called upon
to remedy his defects, and who has, indeed, been
the principal cause of the present dispute. With little
support from public opinion from without, and with
no sympathy within the walls of Parliament, Lord
John Russell introduced his Reform Bill in 1852, and
he made the passing of such a measure an indispensable
coalition of his joining the present Cabinet. Had it
not been for his zeal in the cause, the question which
has raised the present dissension might have slumbered
for at least another year. If Lord John Russell has
been the occasion of this disruption, it seems not unrea-
sonable to suggest that he should do all that in his power
lies to remedy it. As a member of the Government of
Lord Grey, Lord John Russell introduced the Reform
Bill of 1831 ; as a member of the Government of Lord
Aberdeen we trust he will propose the reform of 1853.
Such a step would be an assurance to the country that
there is no intention to abandon or compromise the ques-
tion. We look for this decision from the wisdom of the
Cabinet, and we do not expect that the Minister prin-
cipally concerned will seriously hesitate to undertake a
duty which so many and such varying considerations
urge him to assume.

(From the Morning Advertiser.)
Those whose newspaper reading is confined to the
Times, were yesterday startled by the announcement
that Lord Palmerston had ceased to be a member of the
Aberdeen Administration. The readers of the Morning
Advertiser will not have seen that announcement with
any surprise. We have, for some weeks past, prepared
our readers for a break-up of the Coalition. And, what
is more, we expressed our conviction that the event
was to be brought about by the resignation of Lord
Palmerston. We, a fortnight since, stated, in words
too explicit to have escaped the remembrance of our
readers, that his Lordship entered the C,abinet with the
greatest reluctance—that, though he was the first who
was asked to join the Coalition by Lord Aberdeen, when
the latter Noble Lord received her Majesty's commands
to form a new Cabinet, he was the last to consent—and
that his reluctance was only overcome by an intimation
of a wish, amounting to a command, from a high quar-

ter, conveyed through the Marquis of Lansdowne, that
he would take office under Lord Aberdeen. We added
that Lord Palmerston never had been happy in his
official association with the Members of the Aberdeen
Cabinet, and that, had he consulted his own inclina-
tions, instead of the wishes of others, he would have
resigned long ago:
All this we said a fortnight ago. So late as Thursday,
alluding to the new phase of the Eastern question, we
concluded our leading article with these words :—" We
are unwilling to believe that such men as Lord Palmer-
ston and Lord John Russell can long remain in office
under Lord Aberdeen." And, yesterday, in condemning
the Coalition for not preventing the crossing of the
Pruth by the Russians, we expressed ourselves respect-
ing the former Noble Lord in the following language :
"It is right we should here mention that there were
persona in the Cabinet who were for pursuing the course
we recommended. Lord Palmerston especially &din-
guished himself; in pressing that course on the adoption
of the Coalition. But he laboured in vain. There were
others who supported him : bat, acting under the inspi-
ration of the Itussianised Aberdeen, there was a decided
majority against them. We say this advisedly, so far
as Lord Palmerston is concerned. The only thing,
therefore, for which he is to blame is that, on being
thwarted in his views, he did not at once resign. He
should, without an hour's delay, have ceased his official
connection with a body of men who thus deliberately
determined to betray Turkey, promote the aggrandising
views of Rue‘ia, and stain the honour of this country.
Had Lord Palmerston taken that course, he would have
become by far the most popular man of the (lay ; and,
before the lapse of a fortnight, would have been the
Prime Minister of England."
But while, in our article yesterday, we thus reproached
Lord Palmerston for not having resigned, when he saw
so olear a development of the Russian prepossessions
and purposes on the part of the Coalition, we felt bound
in justice to the noble lord to state that we were cogni-
sant of very peculiar, almost omnipotent, influences,
which were at work to keep him in the Cabinet. Our
words yesterday, on this point, were :—" We are aware
of the peculiar influences which were put in operation to
prevent the House Secretary from taking that step.
But, however much weight he might, in ordinary cir-
cumstances, have allowed to those influences, he should
not, where such mighty interests were at stake, have
suffered them to outweigh his regard for the reputation
of his country, and respect for his own personal honour.
Country, and one's own character, have the first claims
on every public man ; and any wishes which may be ex-
pressed incompatible with these, no matter how exalted
niay be the quarter whence they emanate, ought to be
set aside as possessing no weight whatever. Our only
ground of quarrel with Lord Palmerston is, that he did
not resolve at the proper time to pursue the course
which his own judgment pointed out to him as the right
one, and which his feelings told him was the generous
curse, instead of sacrificing his convictions of right and
duty to the wishes of others. And, in expressing our-
selves in this way, we have good reason to believe that
we but give utterance to the views which are now enter-
tained by the noble lord himself."
It will be admitted that those were somewhat remark-
able terms to employ only a few hours before the an-
nouncement was made, that Lord Palmerston had sent
in his resignation to the Queen. In our concluding
sentence, which we to-day give, there will be seen
to be a very especial significance. Lord Palmerston
does now deeply deplore that he did not resign sooner—
that he did not resign at the time that he was defeated
in July last, when he • sought to induce the Cabinet to
make the passage of the Pruth by the Russians a casus
belli, and to act accordingly. Had that been done, the
whole Eastern question would have been settled long
ago, and Europe would, at this hour, have been in the
enjoyment of profound peace.
It is, however, some satisfaction to find that that
which should have occurred nearly six months since, has
taken place at last. Lord Palmerston has resigned.
He is no longer a member of the Coalition. And now
that he has left it, that Coalition will forthwith crumble
into pieces. It cannot longer cohere. Without Lord
Palmerston it is impossible it can survive ; for he was
its life and soul. We have laboured long and hard to
rid the country of this mongrel Ministry. Our wishes
are on the eve of being gratified.
But we now come to the most important matter of all,
in connection with Lord Palmerston. The cue of the
organs of the Coalition is already evident. They have
received instructions to hunt down the noble lord ; and
thatjournal which is ever ready, on receiving the Aber-
deen commands, to do the most ungracious and most
unprincipled work, has already raised its savage yells at
the heels of his lordship. Scarcely has he crossed the
threshold of the Home-office, in quitting a place which
he could no longer fill with honour or satisfaction to
himself, than the Times follows hard after him and loads
him with its own peculiar obloquy.
To denounce the ungraciousness of anything which
that journal may do, would be worse than useless. To
speak of its inconsistency in thus falling foul of Lord
Palmerston, although, within the last few weeks, it had
held him up as one of the greatest statesmen of the day,
would only be a waste of space which can be devoted
to a better purpose ; for the. Aberdeen organ has long
ceased to be consistent in anything but its inconsisten-

cies.
Bc it rather our task to warn the British public
against the misrepresentations which the obsequious
slaves of the Coalition will seek to spread abroad, re-
specting the circumstances under which Lord Palmer-
ston has ceased to be a member of the present Govern-
ment. Already the Aberdeen organ labours with a
burning zeal to impress the minds of the British people
with the notion, that the Eastern question has had no-
thing whatever to do with his lordship's resignation,
and that he has taken that step solely because of a dif-
ference of opinion with his colleagues respecting the
new Reform Bill. Let no one be deceived by this. The
very intensity of the desire manifested by the Times to
convey this impression, would, of itself, be sufficient to
awaken suspicions as to the truthfulness of our contem-
porary's assertions. It is possible enough that the new
Reform Bill; in some form or other, has had something
to 'do with bringing matters to a crisis ; but we confi-
dently affirm, that it is not the sole or the main cause.
We maintain, and future disclosures will show that we
I are right, that Lord Palmerston has never been at his

ease in the Cabinet since he was defeated in his efforts
to prevail on his colleagues to resort to extreme measures
with regard to Russia, when the Czar ordered his troops
to cross the Pruth. And the miserable, imbecile,
cowardly policy which the Coalition have since pursued,
relative to the Eastern question, can only have made
him more and more ashamed of belonging to so un-
English a Ministry.
The Times and the Chronicle wish the public to believe
that, not only was the new Reform Bill the sole cause of
his lordship's retirement, but that he has broken with
his colleagues because the forthcoming measure was
much too liberal for him. There is something so super-
latively clumsy in this, that the attempt to mislead the
public will completely fail. Too liberal ! Why, there
is not a Ministerial organ, from the Edinburgh Review
down to the Economist, which has not prepared the
public for the veriest mockery of a measure. The Times,
the Chronicle, and the Globe, the recognised exponents
of Ministerial views and policy, have, during the last
few weeks, been daily telling us that the people do not
want a liberal measure of reform, and that, consequently,
the contemplated bill w:11 be a very moderate affair in-
deed. Why, then, should Lord Palmerston make such
a measure the cause of his resignation ? He was a party
to the Reform Bill of 1831, and he gave his sanction to
the Reform Bill of 1852, introduced by Lord John
Russell, with the concurrence of the entire Whig Cabinet.
The latter measure included a 51. franchise for boroughs :
the forthcoming measure, it is will understood, will
contain no such provision. The qualification in towns
is to be the same as at present.
It is, therefore, purely an .absurdity that Lord Pal-
merston should have resigned solely in consequence of
his opposition to the new Reform Bill, that opposition
being grounded on the belief that the measure is too
liberal. There must be other causes than that. With
the real state of matters we shall become acquainted in
a day or two. In the meantime, let no one be deceived
by the clumsy and malignant misrepresentations of the
organs of the Coalition. We say emphatically, and the
fact will soon be patent to all, that disgust at the foreign
policy of the Coalition, and not any little difference of
opinion as to the new Reform Bill, is the chief cause of
his lordship's retirement from office.
It is now for the country to seize so favourable an
opportunity of putting an end to the miserable and dis-
graceful course pursued by this country on the Eastern
question, by such an expression of public opinion as will
extinguish the Austro-Russian Cabinet of Lord Aberdeen.
Let the people now call aloud in a voice of thunder for a
thoroughly English Ministry. Let them, in other words,
demand, in a tone and terms that cannot be disregarded,
the appointment of Lord Palmerston to the Premiership,
—the man of whom Lord John Russell said, in the
House of Commons,i n 1851, amid the most deafening
plaudits ever heard in that house, that he was not the
Minister of Russia, or of Austria, or of France, but the
Minister of England.
Give ,us such a Minister now, and Great Britain will
again pursue a course of policy worthy of herself. Let
the country's motto be—" Palmerston for Premier,"
and, in a few weeks, he' will be the successor of Lord
Aberdeen.

( Front the Morning Chronicle.)
It may be desirable once more to state distinctly that
Lord Palmrrston's retirement from office has been occa-
sioned, not by any difference of opinion with his col-
leagues on foreign policy, but by the objections which
he entertained to the Ministerial project for reforming
the representation. The statement that no other cause
of disagreement had arisen in the Cabinet refers, of
course, to the event which is now exciting universal in-
terest. At the Council Board, as well as in all other
deliberative meetings, different opinions are doubtless,
from time to time, advocated by the individual members
of the Government. Lord Palmerston may possibly
have found himself, on some occasions, opposed in judg-
ment to the majority of his colleagues, and it cannot be
doubted that other Ministers haV'e in turn occupied a
similar position ; but the only permanent and irrecon-
cileable ground of dissension, and the sole occasion of
his lordship's resignation, had reference to the proposed
Reform Bill. At the formation of the present Govern-
ment, it was understood that Lord Palmerston ques-
tioned the prudence of the pledge which had been given
that the abuses of the existing electoral system should
be corrected. The Ministers, however, still entertained
the hope that their able colleague might reconsider, with
reference to a definite measure, his general objection to
constitutional changes ; and, for the purpose of obviat-
ing any chance of misunderstanding, it was arranged
that the Home Secretary should be a member of the
committee which was charged with the duty of drawing
dip a scheme for the consideration of the Cabinet. It
has unfortunately proved, though not unexpectedly, that
the difficulties which had, from the first, been known to
exist, have not been overcome by farther reflection. To
the great regret of his colleagues, Lord Palmerston has
conseqently determined to withdraw at once from a
Government with which, on the meeting of Parliament,
he would have been forced into unavoidable collision.
Since the early part of the present week, the remaining
members of the Cabinet have become exclusively respon-
sible for the conduct of public affairs.
The statesmen who has resigned office is not deficient
in friends or ia resources. Ha will have ample oppor-
tunities of vindicating his conduct, and of defining his
purposes, if he should, in any respect, be dissatisfied
with the statements which have already appeared ; and
it is wholly unnecessary to anticipate an explanation
which will be ,bundently- offered, should it be=thought
necessary. The friends of Lord Palmerston will cer-
tainly not attempt to justify the step which he has
taken, by alleging that he has from the first condemned,
and been prepared to desert, the colleagues who have
justly placed the most implicit confidence in his good
faith and good feeling. It was understood, from the
outset, that the measure of Parliamentary Reform might
possibly lead to an ultimate separation between the
noble lord and the other members of the Cabinet ; but,
on every other question, the late Home Secretary cor-
dially gave the Government that aid which his position
required him, and which his distinguished abilities ena-
bled him to render. 'With a full knowledge of all the
great questions now under the consideration of the Mi-
nisters, Lord Palmerston has deliberately announced
that a difference of opinion in the change of the repre-
sentative system forms the sole reason of his retirement.
Those who attribute the step which he has taken to any
other motive may possibly serve some collateral pur-
pose of their own, but they will prove but awkward ad-
vocates to the statesman whose reputation they profess
to exalt.
The organs of the mere professional Opposition will,
however, be restrained by no such scruples. In their
exultation at acquiring a supposed champion for their
party, it will matter little though they represent their
expected leader as an intriguer or a traitor. An actual
opponent of Parliamentary Reform will be welcome; but
a possible adversary of the Government in the debates
on the Eastern question will be still more vociferously
applauded. For twelve months past it has been asserted,
weekly and daily, that one of the most eminent mem-
bers of the Government disapproved of the entire foreign
policy of his colleagues : and, notwithstanding the
authoritative statements which have been made as to
the true cause of his resignation, it is easy to foresee
that the event which has taken place will be proclaimed
as the fulfilment of the prophecy which had been so
often falsified. Yet the proof that the supposed dissen-
sion was imaginary is furnished by the fact that, if it
existed, it must have lasted for a year. As soon as a
real difference of opinion arose, the dissentient Minister
resigned ; and if the same cause had been in operation
at an earlier period, the same step would doubtless
have been taken.
If an Opposition can be organised on the principle of
opposing any change in the representative system, no
political combination can be fairer or more intelligible.
It will not even be necessary to wait for the develop-
ment of the Ministerial plan before commencing a gene-
ral rally in support of an uncompromising negative.
The Government will stand or fall by a substantial and
practical project; and those who wish all things to
ie-
main as they are may at once begin their demonstrations
of hostility. Yet it will be convenient, for the sake of
popular discussion, to raise some plausible objections to
the yet unpublished scheme ; and for this undertaking
the secession of Lord Palmerston will furnish no imme-
diate materials. The retiring Minister will cbrtainly
not take advantage of his official knowledge to gratify
the curiosity of those who will eagerly seek his alliance.
If alarmist are told that the disapproval of the forth-
coming project, expressed by one member of the com-
mittee of the Cabinet, indicates violent and revolution-
ary intentions on the part of the Government, they
cannot, of course, be fully re-assured until the measure
is laid before Parliament. Reasonable men, however,
will probably consider that the position of affairs, the
state of public feeling, and the character of the indivi-
dual Ministers, furnis some security against the introduc•
tion of extravagantly democratic schemes. At all events,
there will be time enough to protest against the bill, if
it tends to unsettle the foundations of the Constitution.
At present, it is only known that a measure on the sub-
ject of the representation is in course of preparation,
and that Lord Palmerston unfortunately considers it in-
expedient. Specific objections to the project, on the
ground either of shortcoming or of excess, are obviously
premature.
The more factious members of the Opposition will
undoubtedly assert that the difference of opinion on
Reform is an empty pretext, intending to conceal a vital
dissension respecting the national policy in the East.
Yet it will be prudent to remember that, up to the 14th
instant,. Lord Palmerston was responsible for every de-
spatch of which the Cabinet approved, and that, since
his resignation, no step of importance is known to have
been taken. The supposed opponent of the policy of
the Government approved of the delay in the Turkish
declaration of war—assented, erroneously as we think,
to the Vienna Note —recommended the withdrawal
of the modifications proposed by the Porte—and sim-
ply concurred with his colleagues in the change of
opinion which was produced by Count Nesselrode's
Circular. During the recess, Lord Palmerston has been
one of the few members of the Cabinet who have taken a
share in all these transactions ; and it is understood
that, in some of them, his advice and opinion exercised
considerable influence. Finally, the same statesman
was a party to the Protocol which forms the basis of the
present negotiations. Lord Palmerston is no novice in
Council or in diplomacy, that he should plead ignorance
or error in justification of any disavowal of his respon-
sibility. Any Opposition which desires his leadership
must at least waitfor his support till the Government shall
have done something from which he can be dissociated.
It is no secret, however, that the ex-Minister and his
late colleagues part on the most friendly terms. What
they have done jointly with him they will be prepared
with his aid to defend—what they may do hereafter they