The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-26 00:00:00

THE SUN. LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 26, 1853.

INDIA, CHINA, AND AUSTRALIAN

MAILS.

SOUTHAMPTON, DEC. 24.
The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam-
ship Euxine, Captain F. Meehan, arrived here at
4 p.m. to-day, bringing the heavy portion of the
East India, China, Australian, and Mediterranean
mails, in charge of Lieutenant de Lisle, R.N., Ad-
miralty agent.
The latest dates of this steamer are—Alexandria,
December 8 ; Malta, 12 ; and Gibraltar, 18. She
brings 47 passengers ; and among the cargo is 11.
packages of gold-dust from Australia, understood
to be the first importation, in any quantity, of the
precious product of the Australian gold-fields by
this route. These remittances are likely to con-
tinue, and it is probable that considerable amounts
may lie periodically received, as the Peninsular and
Oriental Company, besides lowering their tariff of
freights, have made arrangements RA- insurance of
a satisfactory nature, which it is believed will in-
duce the colonial shippers to patronise the line
The precise value of the gold brought by the
Euxine on the present occasion is not mentioned,
but it is reported to be from 20,0001. to 30,0001.
sterling.
_ _ _

The Australian mails, received by this convey-
ance from Sydney, Port Philip, Adelaide, and
King George's Sound, were due at Southampton,
according to the contract, on the 4th December,
they have arrived therefore 20 days past due.
The causes of the delay are the failure of the screw
steamer Shanghai, from the Australian ports, to
connect with the homeward packet at Point de
Galle, Ceylon, and also the detention of the mails
at Alexandria for nearly six days, waiting for
the arrival of the Euxine, from Southampton,
which made a long voyage cut, in consequence of
experiencing bad weather. The Bombay and Ma-
dras, two fine screw steam-ships of 1,200 tons and
240 horse power, are to be forthwith employed upon
the Australian mail service in place of the Chusan
and Shanghai, which vessels, having only 100-horse
power, and being of small tonnage, are by no means
suitable for the work. It is hoped and anticipated
that the serious irremilarities of the Australian
mails hitherto prevalent on this line will thereby
be avoided, and that the mails will in future be
brought up to Ceylon in ample time to be trans-
ferred to the proper homeward.bound steamer ap-
pointed to convey them. _ . _

Throughout the voyage the Euxine has encoun-
tered a continuance of heavy head gales, more es-
pecially between Gibraltar and Alexandria. On the
13th inst. she passed the Peninsular and Oriental
Company's ship Indus with the outward India mail
of the 4th inst., bound for Malta and Alexandria.
From Gibraltar we have. accounts to the 18th
inst. The Peninsular and Oriental Company's
steamer Indus, five days from Southampton, arrived
on the 9th inst. The screw steamer Melita, 5± days
from Liverpool, arrived the same day, and cleared
for Malta and Constantinople. The Dryad, 17 days
from Portsmouth, and the French steamer Pro-
phete, from Mogador and Mazagan, arrived on the
9th. The screw steamer Tiber, 61 days from Liver-
pool, left Gibraltar on the 10th inst. for Genoa and
Leghorn. The Tuscan Government steamer San
Vittoreo, 10 days from Glasgow and two from Lis-
bon, bound to Leghorn, arrived on the 11th. A
Spanish squadron, consisting of two frigates and
sloops of war passed the Straits of Gibraltar to the
eastward at 7 a.m., on the 11th inst. The screw
steamer Orontes, 12 days from Alexandria, and six
from Malta, touched at Gibraltar on her way to
Liverpool on the 13th ; she brought from Alexan-
dria 298 Moorish pilgrims, returning from a visit
to the shrine of the Prophet at Mecca via Alexan-
dria. They landed at Gibraltar en route to Tan-
gier, on the coast of Morocco. The French brig
Beranger, of Havre, with sugar from Bahia not
being able to hold her ground during a heavy gale
from the S.W., which blew in Gibraltar bay on the
12th inst., parted cables, and drove across the Bri-
tish schooners Onward, of Bristol, and Arabella,
of London, doing damage to both those vessels,
and, fi holly, went on shore on the North Front,
where she remained. The Gibraltar Chronicle of
the 14th gives the subjoined particulars of damage
to shipping :
"Yesterday afternoon an alarm-gun from the upper
signal station announced that a barque in the bay had
parted from her anchorage and drifted on shore off Fort
St. Philip, where she now lies. The wind had again
increased after mid-day ; it blew with great force from
the S.S.W., and occasioned a very heavy sea. Besides the
above barque (formerly a hulk, but now fitted up for the
purpose of navigation), two faluchos were driven on the
beach at the North Front. The Sardinian barque Ce-
sare, Captain Gandolfo, which arrived from Lima on
the 11th inst., broke two chain cables, but fortunately
rode out the gale with the remaining anchor ; no assist-
ance could be rendered her owing to the roughness of
the sea. The wind abated about 6 o'clock, and it con-
tinued to rain very hard without intermission until mid-
night.
"The British schooner Recovery, of Brixham, parted
her bower anchor on the afternoon of the 12th, and on
the 13th her spare anchor. Signals of distress were
made, but no assistance could be rendered until the 14th,
when a boat's crew from the shore assisted in recovering
both anchors and cables. The Georgio Maplath, from
Odessa for Cork, put in here this morning in a damaged
state ; and the Gustave, with loss of main and mizen
topmasts, and the whole of the rigging damaged while
in a gale off Cape St. Vincent, The unknown schooner
reported at anchor on the 15th under the Mediterranean
Battery was the Crescent, which was dismasted on the
sth inst. in a gale, about 100 miles north-east of Moga-
dor. Her Majesty's steamer Vesuvius went out and
towed her into the bay. The Samuel and Edward re-
ports having seen the British barque Adventure, of
Poole, from Cadiz, with bowsprit gone, mizen and main-
mast-head broken, and other damage suffered in a gale
off Cape St. Vincent, 14 miles west by north."
The United States frigate Saranac, Capt. J. C.
Long, 25 days from Norfolk (Virginia), and six
from Fayal, arrived at Gibraltar on the 16th inst.
She had on board the Hon. Mr. Spence (the new
American Minister to Turkey), his family and
suite, en route to Constantinople. The Peninsular
and Oriental Company's steam-ship Tagus, Captain
Joy, reached Gibraltar on the 16th, having been
detained two days by bad weather at Lisbon. She
left again. far Southampton the same night, touch-
ing at Cadiz, Lisbon, Oporto, and Vigo. The
screw steamer Grecian passed from west to east on
the 16th inst.
At Gibraltar exchanges were last quoted as fol-
low :—On London, at 90 days, 511 ; Paris, sf.
39c. : Marseilles, sf. 40e. ; Genoa, Of. 45c. At
eight days' sight on Madrid, Alicante, and Barce-
lona, 1,-1 dis. ; Cadiz, 1 dis. ; Malaga, par : Seville,
dis. ; Valencia, 1 dis. ; Spanish pillared dollars,
5 per cent. premium.

PORTUGAL.

SOUTHAMPTON, SATURDAY, MIDNIGHT.

By the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam-
ship Tagus, Captain J. K. Joy, we have dates from
Gibraltar, to the 16th ; Cadiz, 17th; Lisbon, 19th ;
and Vigo, 20th inst. The Tagus could effect no
communication with Oporto in consequence of the
weather.
This packet brings 21 passengers, and on freight
4 packages specie, value 1,1071. sterling, 1,114 half-
chests and 48 boxes oranges, 58 boxes eggs, 2 casks
of wine, 140 serons of birdseed, 34 elophents' tusks,
104 cases of dates, and 21 packages of sundres.
The screw steamer Gannett left Lisbon at the
same time as the Tagus. The latter steamer on
the 19th passed within the Bar of Lisbon two ves-
sels dismasted—one a full-rigged ship, which had
lost her topmasts, hull painted green, and showing
second distinguishing pendant, No. 8,620 ; the
other a large brig or bark, with only foremast
standing, showing first distinguishing pendant,
No. 3,267.
The St. Jean d'Acre and Odin having joined the
British squadron at Lisbon, the vessels under Rear-
Admiral Corry at anchor in the Tagus on the 19th
were—the Prince Regent, Duke of Wellington,
St. Jean d'Are, Imperieuse Arrogant, Tribune,
Amphion, Odin, Desperate, Valorous, and Cruiser.
There were also three French steamers of war there
—viz., Le Newton, Ebrie, and Terrore, but the
two last were preparing for sea.
Incredible reports had been spread at Lisbon
that the fleet had gone out to suppress some ex-
pected outbreak. It had also been falsely stated
that cholera and small-pox existed on board .some
of the vessels. The fleet was in excellent health,
with only 19 men in the hospital, and Admiral
Corry intended taking it out fora cruise a few days
after the packet left.
The General Screw Steam Company's new steamer
Natal, 12 days out, from London, for the Cape,
' put into Lisbon on the 17th to repair damages.
Three months' bills were quoted upon the Lisbon
Exchange by this mail at 54id. on London, bills
over, and takers scarce ; Paris, 532 ; Amsterdam,
421 ; Hamburg, 48k ; and Genoa, 530, with little
doing. The Portuguese New Three per Cents.
were at 3K- to 40, and the Bank of Portugal shares
in demand, at 150 to 140 milreis discount per share,
in Lisbon bank notes, subject to 2i per cent. dis-
count ; Oporto Bank shares, 51 to 6i, per cent.
premium, in metal.
By this steamer we have letters from our corres-
pondent in Lisbon to the 19th inst. The Portu-
guese Cortes assembled at S. Bento on that day to
record the King Regent's reiteration of his oath.
The King, Don Pedro V., was also present at the
Royal sitting, with his brother, Don Luiz, as Con-
stable of the Kingdom. The King Regent's speech
upon the occasion was as follows :
"Worthy Peers of the Realm and Senators,—
"Deputies of the Nation,—
"After the heavy blow which it pleased Divine Pro-
vidence to inflict upon my heart—leaving my dear
chil-
dren orphans and, the Portuguese nation submerged in

mourning for the loss of a virtuous Queen it so dearly
loved—my first moment of relief is that in which I find
myself in the centre of the national representatives. In
their presence I have just reiterated the solemn oath
which the constitutional charter requires from the Re-
gent during the King's minority.
" This sacred oath will be by me religiously kept.
" My sincere and anxious care will ever be to pro-
mote, in all respects, the happiness of the subjects of
the King Don Pedro V., at whose side you now see me.
" During the short time which intervenes before he
attains his majority my every effort will be exerted to
give him the lessons of a father and the advice of a
friend, that he may daily become more worthy to oc-
cupy the glorious throne of his august ancestors. I
will not cease to remind him of the eminent virtues of
his excellent mother, and of his immortal grandfather,
Senor Don Pedro IV.

" Meanwhile, confiding in the favour of God and in
the efficient co•operation of the national representatives,
I hope to deliver the kingdom of his Majesty the King,
my august son, in the enjoyment of perfect peace, of its
precious liberties, and in the advancement of those in-
dustrial and administrative improvements so necessary
for the prosperity and contentment of all Portuguese
citizens."

This royal speech would not be replied to by the
Cortes except in a few words from the Cardinal
President of the House of Peers. The Legislature
was to continue its sittings until the end of the
year, when the session will close, and the new one
for 1854 is to be opened on the 2d of January with
the usual speech from the Throne. It was reported
that M. Fonseca Magalhaens was about to retire
from the Portuguese Ministry, but there appeared
to be no likelihood of any change in the adminis.
tration. Count Thomar was in the capital, with
the intention of taking his place in the House of
Peers during the next session.

LORD PALMERSTON- LORD JOHN
RUSSELL-SIR JAMES GRAHAM.

(Front the Morning Advertiser.)

We believe we are correct in stating that Lord
Palmerston has returned to the Home Secretary-
ship. The matter was finally arranged on Satur-
day evening. We could have wished, for his own
sake, that Lord Palmerston had never again crossed
the threshold of any office in Downing-street, ex-
cept that of the First Lord of the Treasury. But
it is due to his lordship to say, that, though still
in name only the Home Secretary, he is, to all
intents and purposes, the Premier of England ; for,
before he would listen to the entreaties made to
him to return, he made conditions which virtually
make him the head of the Cabinet. Lord John
Russell, who has hitherto been something in the
Cabinet, will hereafter be nothing ; while Lord
Aberdeen will be no better than the effigy of a
Premier.

Never was man so besieged as Lord Palmerston
has been, both by written and verbal solicitations,
to return to an office he had quitted. The greater
part of his (the Noble Lord's) time last week was
occupied in reading letters, imploring him to return
to the Home-office, and in receiving visits paid to
him solely with the same view. But neither Lord
John Russell nor Sir James Graham ventured, after
their conduct to Lord Palmerston, to pay him a
visit. We are assured, however—and yet knowing
what we do, we can hardly believe it possible--
that Lord John actually wrote to the noble lord a
letter, beseeching him to rejoin the Coalition Cabi-
net, and promising, as an inducement, that if he
would do so, he would abandon those parts of the
Reform Bill to which Lord Palmerston objected.
For the sake of the character of our public men,
we trust the latter statement, though so confi-
dently made, will be found to be without founda-
tion ; for Lord John Russell, we are informed on
undoubted authority, behaved of late towards Lord
Palmerston with something approaching to rude-
ness. In fact, his conduct to the latter Noble
Lord has been represented to us as a repetition,
under different circumstances, of that of Decem-
ber, 1851, when he ignominiously expelled him
from the Whig Ministry. Sir James Graham, we
are told, was an aiding and abetting party in this
matter ; but it is said that, considering the politi-
cal character of the Netherby Baronet, Lord Pal-
merston did not care about his rudeness. Not so
with regard to the demeanour of Lord John. It
was the immediate cause, as we stated on Thurs-
day last, of Lord Palmerston's retirement from
office ; and, in sending in his resignation to
Lord Aberdeen, he expressed himself in terms of
becoming indignation at the conduct of Lord John.
Had Lord Palmerston not returned to office, this
letter, which would have excited great attention,
would have been read to the House of Commons,

immediately upon the reassembling of Parliament;
but it is presumed the public will not, after the
patch-up which has taken place, have their
curiosity to see it, gratified.

Incredible as the thing may appear, we have the
best reason for believing that, notwithstanding the
signal triumph which Lord Palmerston has achieved
over Lord John Russell, by being welcomed back
by Lord Aberdeen and the rest of the Ministers,
on his own terms, Lord John Russell will not re-
sign. Can this be ? Can a man occupying the
place his lordship so long did in the service of his
Sovereign, be so utterly lost to all sense of honour,
as this would imply ? As for Sir James Graham,
nobody would expect him to resign under any
amount of indignity that could be put upon him.

(From the Daily News.)

On the tenth day after Lord Palmerston's resig
nation, his deserted and disconsolate colleagues
were still to seek for a successor eligible in their
eyes. His vacant office had been hawked round
the narrow circle of conventional eligibilities, but
all of them had declined the offer. Sir James
Graham was of opinion that the Admiralty was a
more congenial berth for him. Lord John Russell
had no dsire to encumber himself again with a
load of departmental business. Sir George Grey
had misgivings as to the reception his appoint-
ment might encounter in public. So many de-
clinatures brought the Coalition to their wits' end ;
only one other possible arrangement seemed to
remain—to coax Lord Palmerston back again.
And accordingly his Lordship has had long
remonstrative visits inflicted upon him by
diverse members of the Cabinet, and his
and their friends out of doors have been for
the last few days busy demonstrating—to their own,
conviction, if not to that of their hearers—how de-
sirable it is that the nob]e Viscount should quietly
return to Downing-street, and how perfectly con-
sistent such a termination of the fracas would be
with the dignity and self-respect of all parties con-
cerned. If the resignation of the ten days, and. its
consequent hunt for a Home Secretary, is to end,
like the figure of a country dance, with the- parties
who have been poussetting, swingingcorners, chasse-
ing down the middle and up again, resuming their
places to go through the same movements again,
we have nothinc, to say against it. Russell, Pal-
merston, and Gladstone, is, on the whole, a more
palatable olla-podrida, than Derby, Palmerston, and
Disraeli would have been—apparently the onlyalter-
native. We have nothing for it but to wait in trem-
bling but watchful hope till time shall show whe-
ther or not the reconciliation has been purchased
by a sacrifice in whole or in part of the promised
measure of reform. The public, indeed, will make
its remarks if Lord Palmerston resume office. A
public separation and re-union, with the causes of
both shrouded in the mysterious twilight that ever
broods over Downing-street, will give rise to as
much damaging conjecture as a similar freak
played. by a married couple. Sooner or later the
Ministry will be weakened by the present escapade ;
a repetition would be fatal, for who could repose
confidence in men who, while occupying highly re-
sponsible offices, quarrel a I'outranee, then kiss
and become friends again, no one can, but by con-
jecture, imagine why or wherefore ? All this is
obvious—is, indeed, the current subject of remark
wherever two or three are gathered together. But
little is said of an anomaly in our administrative
arrangements, which ridiculous Ministerial
squabbles like these are, however, fitted to
obtrude on public notice. If Lord Palmerston
is sought and won back it will be because
a substitute has not been found for him • and
if a substitute has not been foUndfor him it because
the men among whom it is deemed necessary to
pick and choose are so few in number. ,Now, why
is the range of choice so narrow ? Because it is
thought absolutely necessary that in order to be a
Minister a public man must belong to some one or
other of our half dozen aristocratical connexions.
He must be a son, nephew, brother of the old
revolution houses of Bedford, Cavendish, and Co. ;
or he must, by wealth or ability, and a long ap-
prenticeship of unwavering subserviency, have
merited adoption into some such clan or college.
The office of Minister in this country, like that of
Pontifex, Flamen, or Augur, in old Rome, is prac-
tically attainable only by those who by birth or
adoption belong to a narrow circle of families. It
is high time that this servile and conventional
superstition should be put down. It deprives the
country of the services of men who could serve
it well ; it encourages in the privileged class a cold
and supercilious habit of discouraging and repres-
sing rising talent ; it is continually leading to
petty womanish tea-table scratchings, scoldings,
and reconciliations like that which is so confidently
anticipated in the case of Lord Palmerston. It
subjects the country to ridiculous and emasculated
Cabinets. And the most provoking part of the
affair is, that the Liberal section of the aristo-
cracy, are the greatest sinners in this respect.
From the time when " All the Talents" were
hooted out of office for inefficiency till 1830, the
Whigs were kept under by the Tories. mainly in
consequence of the greater readiness of the latter
to open their ranks to receive young and rising
talent. In fact, the Tory party (so called) of the
latter half of the eighteenth and the first half of
the nineteenth century, has been principally formed
of mutineers whom the morgue aristocratique of
the great Whig houses had, from time to time
driven into the arms of the Court. In_' the orga-
nisation it has till very lately retained,it was
originally patched up by the coalition between
George 111. and the younger Pitt to put down the
coalition between Fox and North. But Pitt owed
in great part the position he attained so early ,to
his hereditary hold on the connexion which origi-
nated in the discontent of
"the Qobham Cousins"
at the way in which they were snubbed and kept in
minor offices by the Whig leviathans of the day.
Every allowance being made for the daring and
commanding temper of Pitt 11., his alliance would
have been of comparatively little value to George
111. but for his hereditary rank among the Grevilles
and their and his father's followers. d The coalition
has evercoalition
party which supported the King and
since been a kind of refuge for the destitute for am-
bitious rising politicians, who were, or feared to be,
kept out of employ by Whig clannishness. Cannin,p,
Peels, Crokers, and Roses—orators, steady plausible
" men of business," unblushing jobbers, all who
could be useful, were received with open arms by the
Toilkes ; while the Whig leaders kept scowling upon
every volunteer recruit as a new rival for offices in
expectancy. A deviation from the traditionary
- policy of the party led to their fusion with the
canaingite seceders from the Tory camp, and ulti-
f mately to the Whig accession to office in 1830. A
repetition of this violation of the hereditary practice
of the party has lately renewed the lease of their
political life by the coalition with the Peelite se-
ceders from the Tory camp. But unluckily these

new recruits have been trained in the school of a
man as jealously bent upon being the one great
statesman of his party as Sir Robert Walpole (to
whom, by the way, he bore some resemblance in
other points), and are of course almost as little
disposed to open their ranks to new men as the
Whigs themselves. Hence it comes that we find the
Coalition Ministry, like the Whig Ministry, when a
vacancy occurs, running the round of a few place-
men who are conventionally regarded as the only
eligible candidates for office, and if an arrangement
cannot be made with them, giving it up in despair.
And yet out of the official circles you will not meet
with half-a-dozen men who do not believe—who do
not know—that, to use a homely proverb, " there
are as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it ;"
that take any dozen of Parliament men at random,
' it is odds but you get as efficient a Cabinet as can
be manufactured out of those who are assumed to
monopolise all ' " official aptitude" for these high
posts. Look at the Derby Ministry. A more
hopeless collection of inexperienced men than the
party out of which its officials had to be culled
cannot well be imagined. Yet from sheer necessity,
the Aristocracy standing aloof, Lord Derby
was obliged so dispose of the greater part of
his high offices to commoners, and all the world
wondered how respectably the least promising
of them acquitted themselves. Assuredly the
great Duke—the descendant and representative
of the illustrious family of Smithson was
the worst failure of the batch. Now, if Lord
Derby, as the leader of the. collective Toryism and
narrow-mindedness of politics, gained so much by
a compulsory extension of the range of aspirants to
office, what might not the leaders of the party to
which the intelligence of the nation naturally in-
clined, hope to effect by voluntarily following his
example ? Would Mr. Fitzroy, Lord Palmerston's
deputy (we purposely select for an example a steady-
going working member, little, if at all, elevated
above common-place), make a much less efficient
Home Secretary than Lord Palmerston? And yet
the hereditary superstition which limits the choice
of Ministers forbids his being thought of, or any
public man of his standing. And so Cabinets boggle
and boggle, as the Aberdeenites have been doing
these ten days, only, it would seem, to get out of
a difficulty by ,coaxing back a man they had re_
jected. What does this prove ? Their selfishness
' first, their folly next, and their weakness above all.