The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-19 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1853.

Attention is now somewhat equally divided
between the difficulties of the Russo •Turkish
question and the difficulties of the ABERDEEN
Government. It is generally recognised that
there exists an intimate connection between these
two enormous embarrassments. Whatever the
organs of the Coalition may say about the origin
of the present crisis iu Downing-street, there can-
not remain a doubt in the mind of any rational
observer that there is a latent chain of influence
associating those two widely-separated incidents—
the massacre of the Turks at Sinope and the
resignation of the seals of the Heine-office by
Viscount PALMERSTON. Immediately on the an-
nouncement of the latter occurrence we asserted
distinctly and without any hesitation, that there
was a want of accuracy, as well as of ingenu-
ousness, in the declaration put forward by
the Ministerial journals, with such really
suspicious alacrity, to the effect that
an antagonism to Reform had induced
the Noble Lord the member for Tiverton, to with-
draw so very abruptly from the ranks of her
MAJESTY'S Government. That opinion, which we
were the first to articulate—our remarks having
appeared in these columns as early as Friday even-
ing—have, we are gratified to observe, been
enforced by the coincidence of a considerable ma-
jority of our daily and weekly contemporaries.
It is pretty generally understood, indeed, that
the insinuations of the recognised organs of the
Cabinet are nothing less odious than a most fla-
grant and wilful misrepresentation. The most
moderate of those who discard the explanation
officially given of Lord PALMERSTON'S retire-

ment, insist that at the very least it is, in
its main purport, grossly and shamefully exag-
gerated. How far the exaggeration 'has been
carried the country can scarcely learn with any
exactitude prior to the meeting of Parliament.
Postponed though that reassembling of the Legis-
lature may be—it must now come before long,
probably in the early part of February. And
then woe to the prevarications and the pusillanimity
of the ABERDEEN Government ! The evil day may
be deferred by every ingenious device dictated by
the Ministerial timidity accustomed to find refuge
from danger in procrastination after procrastina-
tion. But once arrived, as it ultimately must
arrive—Adieu ! to the ingenious but miserable
System' Of reserve hitherto maintained by the
Administration, Breaking through all the silken
toils of Ministerial etiquette, the veritable ex-
planation of past
occurrences must then come in
a substantial form More the Imperial Legislature.
Out of the confusion created by this sudden
resignation of office by v;
4colint PALMERSTON have
in rapid succession a
emerged variety of ru-
mours as to the individual most likely to be no-
minated his successor in the Chief
Secretaryship
for the Homo Departs n t
Lord Joim RUSSELL
having declined to burthen his exhausted energies
with the labours and responsibilities of oface_it
has been doubted whether the vacant place might
not be wisely awarded—to whom ? Why, either
to Sir JAMES GRAHAM—thereby necessitating the
nomination of some other administrator to the
head of the Board of Admiralty ! Or to Lord
PA.NMIIRE—the ballot-ratting Fox MAIILE of yes-
terday ! Or to Sir GEORGE GREY—thereby
compensating for the slight passed upon
him iu selecting him for no post what-

ever on the original formation of the
ABERDEEN Government ! These are the reported
candidates for the Home Secretaryship. Either
Sir GEORGE GREY---Or Lord PANM ORE—Or Sir
JAMES GRAHAM. Already two of the three have
presided with acknowledged ability over the affairs
of the Horde Department--GREY during the

RUSSELL, and GRAHAM during the PEEL Adminis-
tration. Lord PANMIIRE would yet have to de-
monstrate his capacity for the Chief Secretaryship.
Not so with the rival candidates. Nevertheless,
the appointment of either of the latter could not
but be attended with considerable difficulty. Sup-
posing the office were awarded to Sir GEORGE
GREY, he—as an " outsider"—would have, at a
very late hour in the history of the Coalition, and
at a very inconvenient jucture in the situation of
affairs generally, to be initiated ab initio in the
manifold secrets of the covert and disingenu-
ously elaborated policy of the Government.
Supposing, on the other hand, that Sir
JAMES GRAHAM were chosen as the suc-
cessor of Lord P ALMERSTON—the. difficulty of
the Cabinet would be thereby in a manner doubled,
a change being necessitated not in one but in two
of the most difficult and important departments
of the Administration. Somebody, that i 3 to say,
would thereupon have to be selected as a fit and
proper person to preside over the Board of Admi-
ralty. So that abruptly in the middle of Decem-
ber the country would find itself rejoicing in the pos-
session of a new First Lord of the Admiralty, and
a new Chief Secretary for the Home Department.
This, remember—with the vacation rapidly draw-
ing to a close—with the new Reform Bill " loom-
ing in the future"—and with a maritime war
threatening more and more darkly beyond the
opposite shores of the Mediterranean !

The truth is—whoever may be nominated
Home Secretary in place of Lord PALMERSTON—
whether his successor be Sir GEORGE GREY, or
Lord PANMURE, or Sir JAMES GRAHAM, or even
(supposing his scruples be overcome as to an in-
voluntary resumption of the toils and responsi-
bilities of office) Lord JOHN RUSSELL—the change
would be merely temporary, merely a make-shift
prior to the final breaking up of the ABERDEEN
Government. Are not the signs of that disrup-
tion already visible ? Not alone in the resigna-
tion of Lord PALMERSTON. But in the antici-
pated withdrawal of Lord LANSDOWNE from the
Administration. Above all—in the notorious
Unpopularity accumulating above the heads of the
Coalition in consequence of the despicable weak-
ness of their foreign policy—a weakness revealed
in every phase of this miserable Russo-Turkish
difficulty : from the toleration of the passage of
the Pruth to the toleration of the butchery at
Sinope ; from the diplomatic mission of MENSCHI-
KOFF to the march of the forces of GORTZ-
CHAKOFF ; from the seizure of Moldo-Wal-
lachia by the CZAR to his haughty rejection
of the modifications ; from the failure of the
Vienna Note to that last, and for us most base
and disgraceful among the incidents of the struggle,
the allowing of a Russian vessel to fire into a
British Merchantman, and subsequently to board
her off Trebizond ! All these things call loudly
for, and absolutely necessitate, a decisive and over-
whelming retribution upon the ABERDEEN Go-
vernment. •

The Sabbatarians have received a " heavy blow,
and great discouragement." They have been de-
feated in their own stronghold ! Their doughty
champion has been foiled ! All their efforts
to prevent the operatives of Glasgow from breath-
ing pure air on the only day they can possibly
obtain it have proved futile. The Court of Ses-
sion will not, it appeals, lend its aid to drive the
people of Glasgow into whisky-shops and ale-
houses. It will not participate in the attempt to
promote habits of inebriety, or to compel the over-
toiled mechanics to adopt less innocent modes of
passing the timo than sailing down the Clyde, or
strolling along its banks and admiring its romantic
scenery. Nay, more, the zealous opponent of
these practices—the person who endeavoured to
obtain an interdict against the proprietors of the
steamers, their servants, agents, and all other
persons employed by them from plying to, or
landing, or embarking passengers upon any part
of his property on Sundays—received a severe
censure from the Court, administered through the
venerable and respected Lord Justice-Clerk for
the unjustifiable steps he had taken—and privi-
leges he claimed, and which have hitherto re-
mained uncontested, have been, to say the least
of it, seriously endangered by his attempt to push
them beyond their legitimate limits, to interfere
with the poor man's enjoyment of his only holi-
day, and to change the Sabbath from a day of
rest and happiness to one of gloom and mortifi-
cation.

The matter to which we have alluded arose
from the proceedings in reference to the steam-
boat " Emperor," which was started last summer
for the purpose of making pleasure excursions on
the Clyde on Sundays. A fearful commotion was
at once excited among the advocates for " Judai-
cal observances,"—among those who some time
since prevented a distinguished lady from
seeing her dying father, and obtaining a last
blessing from his trembling lips. Dark denuncia-
tions were hurled at the offenders, but in vain.
The accommodation was still provided for those
willing to accept it, and crowds hastened to
avail themselves of a benefit which they had
never before obtained. The vessel per-
formed her trips to the intense satisfaction of
all concerned, but to the profound horror of her
straight-laced opponents. Words, however, prov-
ing ineffectual, other and more decisive measures
were resorted to. The intervention of Sir JAMES
CoLquirouN, of Luss, a gentleman who thought
himself a very great man, who could by a simple
prohibition put an end to the unhallowed pro-
ceedings of the unchristian knaves. As the
owner, yr alleged owner, of the three piers at
Gareloch, the Hon. Baronet forbade the landing
of passengers on Sundays. This step, however,
proved utterly futile. Although the gates were
locked, and it was announced to the passengers
that it was the will and pleasure of Sir JAMES
that they should not be allowed to pass over the
forbidden piers, they took the law into their
own hands, and forced a passage. On the follow-
ing Sunday another forcible landing was effected,
the gangways being placed against the gates, and
the people who were prohibited from passing
through the gates deliberately going over them
with many telling jokes against their discomfited
and irate opponent. This was too bad. "To beard
the lion in his den, the DOUGLAS in his Ha 11,,,
was more tolerable than this contemptuous disre-
gard of the mandates of Sir JAMES CoLuHourq.,
of Luss, and that too on the piers erected with
his own proper money on his own patrimonial
estate. This could not be endured. The invaders
should be brought, as the Irish gentleman said,
"to a sense of their situation." If they relied
on the strong arm of the flesh they should be
vanquished with their own weapons ; and if that
failed, why the law was still available, and that,
if necessary, would be resorted to.
Accordingly, the zealous champion adopted a
strange mode of testifying his respect for the
Christian Sabbath. Perhaps no stranger mode of
exhibiting feeling was displayed since the time
when Dien MARTIN showed his humanity by shoot-
ing a man for ill-treating a donkey. Sir JAMES'S
method of enforcing the " bitter" observance was
by collecting a motley group of county police-
men, gamekeepers, and other servants, a species
of posse comitatus, with instructions " peace-
a b
themselves "peace-
ably !. 1 " to
eessist a landing. The " peaceful"
demonstration consisted 'of the party arm-
ingand arraying with sticks and bludgeons,
themselves in order of battle
along the disputed territory. A conflict ensued.
Scotchmen are by no means disposed to allow
themselves to be frightened by a display of force.
The passengers determined again to force their
way, and as the natural result a scene of violence
and confusion ensued. The passengers, who were
prevented from crossing over the gates with the
ladders of the steamers, used them successfully
as rams to batter down the impediments. Me-
chanical contrivances were used on the following
Sunday, but the still victorious passengers quietly