The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-21 00:00:00

Bygones are really, it seems, to be bygones.
Ministers, instead of being impeached as the au-
thors of the war with Russia, are to be supported
in its energetic prosecution. Whatever supplies
may be deemed requisite by the Cabinet are to
be frankly and cordially voted by the Opposition.
It is true that the Opposition could not altogether
refrain from casting a retrospective glance of re-
prehension at the diplomatic blunderings of the
Coalition—although the Right Hon. Gentleman
the First Lord of the Admiralty did protest
against the folly of pottering over blue-books.
Flesh and blood could not endure to look on at
that complication of failures as revealed in the
mass of abortive documents the copies of which had
been laid by order of her MAJESTY upon the tables
of both Houses of the Legislature—flesh and blood
could not endure to witness all this without
the utterance of some passing syllables of rebuke
or of condemnation. Some reference to the sub-
ject of these protracted and abortive negotiations
—negotiations ending in a war not local merely
but European, not affecting alone the integrity of
the Turkish empire but the interests of entire
Christendom—would surely have been justifiable
on the part of those confronting the occupants of
the Treasury benches, whether among our here-
ditary legislators or among our popular represen-
tatives. However willing and even anxious the
Opposition might be in no way to embarrass at a
juncture of such supreme importance what has
become at last the warlike and energetic policy
of the Administration—it would have been
altogether too much to expect that they
should refrain from passing any comments upon
the course hitherto pursued by the Coalition in
reference to their diplomatic proceedings, which
twelve deplorable months now prove to have been
so idle and illusory. It must be remembered,
however, that the discussions which have at length
taken place during this present February, both in
the Lords and in the Commons, were neither of
them originated by the party recognised as that
of the political opponents of her MAJESTY'S Go-
vernment. In the Upper House the debate was
provoked by the ex-Postmaster-General of the
last Whig Administration. In the Lower House,
it arose out of the charges brought forward
against Ministers by one who was Under-Secretary
of State for Foreign Affairs during the time
Earl GRANVILLE held the Seals of that depart-
ment, and, consequently, while Lord JogN Rus-
am was still supreme in Downing-street as the
Leader of the Government. The discussion on
the foreign policy of the Coalition was originated
in the Commons by the Member for Aylesbury as
it had been previously originated in the Lords by
the Marquis of CLINRICARDE. It was only
reasonable, therefore, to expect that neither the
Ae,rl of DERBY nor Mr. DISRAELI would fail to
avail themselves respectively of such exceedingly
tempting opportunities. They did so, in fact,
Precisely as stight have been anticipated. Bat if
doing so they neither of them shrank from
speaking in terms of severity as to the past, it
acknowledged, in simple justice, that
mustmre bfereen ee to the future they displayed no less
patriotism tha_"
ti
pleded magnanimity. They at once
on
themselves, as the leaders of the Opposi-
,g to support Ministers promptly and heartily
by acceding to Whatever supplies might be
requested in au
greenta.tion of the military and
maritime forces of the country in fulfilment of the
instructions so to do as intimated at the opening
of the session by the lips of Our gracious
Whatever the severity of Sovereign.
the strictures ro-
Le„.:l Coalition in
nounced by the antagonists of t P
either of the Houses of the Legislature
, it
therefore, under these circumstanc b would,
, e altoge-
ther preposterous for Ministers seriously to
complain of their harshness, much less to
talk of an
ungenerous and factious opposition.
Sir JAMES GRAHAM you disingenuously depre-
cated the notion of pottering over blue-books,
exonerate from the
but the country will implied
accusation of unfairness the decision which at this
critical juncture has marked the proceedings of
the chiefs of the late Administration.

Naturally enough, Ministers could not do other-
wise than recoil from the alternative indicated last
night by Mr. DISRAELI as affording the only ex-
Planation of their foreign policy during the last
twelve months—the dreadful and disgraceful alter-
native of Uredulity or Connivance. Naturally