The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-01 00:00:00

MINISTERS-THE PAR.

LI AMENT.

Significant hints have already been given of the
intention of Lord ABERDEEN to turn the repre-
sentatives of the British people into puppets,
whose sole business will be to register and approv e
his ukases (the word is appropriate, being bor-
rowed from his "friend of forty years' standing"),
but who are not to venture on any discussion re-
specting the past, or demand the slightest infor-
mation as to the future. A painful necessity re-
quires the Legislative sanction to sundry matters
which the would-be Dictator would gladly dispense
with if practicable. That, however, is clearly
impossible. The Militia cannot be sent out of
the country without the authority of Pailiament ;
nor can even the Joint-Stock Administration get
on without a further vote of credit. But these
matters are, if possible, to be dealt with as mere
formalities, which can be arranged within a few
days. Any attempt to put forward impertinent

inquiries, at the risk of protracting the winter

session, is to be treated as leze majeste of the
- worst description. Woe betide the unfortunate
member who with reckless hardihood ventures on
the forbidden track. Hs must make up his mind
to endure unmitigated snubbing, and to have the
folly and audacity of his request exposed in the
most unsparing manner.
We are DQW told by one of the ablest advocates
of "Aberdeenism" in the fourth estate, that " it
is possible that some hasty or inexperienced mem-
ber may demand from Ministers an account of
the military position, and of the past and future
°Perations, of the Allied Armies !" The demand
of Oliver Twist "for more" could not excite more
indignant asbnishment among the Poor-law
Guardians than does even the possibility of such
an atrocity in
that th
We are told. ABERDEEN" Champion.
"elf discussions on such topics
should be raised in . ,
Parliament, the duty of Mi-
nisters will be obvious. Reserve with respect to
the past, and silence with p res ec t to future inten-
tions, will be generally understood and respected !,,
As the above may be regarded as semi-official,
clearly intimating the course contemplated by the
Government, if the House should exhibit similar
subserviency to that displayed on former occasions,
it is manifest that we are a,gaie to have the
changes rung upon the principle already
repeated, usque ad nauseam, that because
we are at war we are bound to submit to all
the ridiculous twaddling, and, what is still
worse, the unwise and impolitic schemes of a
Prime Minister determined on "peace at any
price, or on any terms," or to the fiscal and flint):
%al crotchets of a Chancellor of the Exchequer

who cannot cone, sive the possibility of rendering i
the apportionrae nt of the Income Tax in any de-
gree more equi'Lable than at present ; and who,
after exhausting: the national purse for the pur-
pose of paying off an old demand, or rather of
concealing the serious losses occasioned by his
own humiliating failure, desires that the whole ex-
penses of the War may be defrayed from the cur-
rent revenue of the country. If the country had un-
limited confidence in the efficiency and deternaina-
tien of Lord ABKRDEEN, if -the People were satis-
fied blindly to trust all matters to his control and
management, certain that the War would at length
be carried on with vigour and energy, then there
would be some show of reason, some plausibility in
the demand. But, as we believe that not one man
in ten, or possibly in one hundred, entertains
such reliance, we must still hope that the British
Parliament will vindicate its independence, and
insist on taking a fitting part in the government
of the nation, and more especially in all matters
affecting its relations with Foreign Powers.
Although we do not agree in all things with
Mr. GLADSTONE, we cannot refrain from quoting
his manly and spirited denunciation of such a
course. The Right Honourable Gentleman dis-
dained to avail himself of such a paltry pretext
for evading legitimate discussions. In his
Financial Statement of the Bth of May he
said " There are, indeed, those who say
that the period of war is not a time when a
question of confidence should be entertained. Sir,
to that I reply, even as regards an Administra-
tion, still more as regards a Minister, and most
of all a Minister of Finance, that a period of war
is the very last when that important trust should
be committed to hands that have been discredited
in the view of the House and the country ;"
boldly adding—" Now, don't let it be said that
this is a time of war, and that, therefore, the
question of confidence should not be raised. It
being a time of war is the ♦ery reason why you
should make up your minds whether financial
matters have been mismanaged or not !''
These views are so sound in themselves, and
so appropriate to the present occasion, that we
make no apolsgy for here repeating the very
words of the Right Honourable Gentleman, which
constitute a decisive and convincing answer to the
argument from whatever quarter it may be pre-
ferred. It cannot be relied on as a defence by
any supporter of Mr. GLADSTONE, or as an excuse
for apathy and indifference by any independent
member.

The main questions at this moment are—Has
Lord ABERDEEN the unalloyed confidence of the
country? Can the safety of the Army of the
Crimea, the honour of the British nation, and the
hope of a permanent and satisfactory peace, with
ample guarantees against its future violation, be
left in his hands without check or interference ?
We are told that the Ministry have "gained valu-
able experience, and have warmed to their
work." This is all that one of their ablest
and most thorough-going advocates is able
to put forward in their favour ! Why what a
confession of early incapacity and indifference is
this—they have "warmed to their won: !" It
might be said of a spavined hack, scarcely able
to crawl forth from its stable, but surely it ex-
hibits in the most pitiable light a Ministry to
whom we are gravely asked to confide matters of
such immeasurable interest and paramount im-
portance to every true-hearted Englishman.
The independence of Parliament must be
boldly asserted, and amply vindicated. Ministers
reckon without their host, if they imagine for a
moment that they will escape so easily, or that there
will only be a few matters of form gone through.
They may be well assured that they will be called
to an ample account, although perhaps, not by
" a hasty or inexperienced member." The country
requires satisfactory explanations, both as to the
past and the future, and an unequivocal declara-
tion that the War will be carried on " in earnest,"
until the pride of the CZAR has been humiliated,
and his power for mischief been materially re-
duced, if not absolutely broken.

POLAND. AND OUR PEOPLE.

Poland is to become the test of English states-
manship—the test both of its hear, and of its
capacity. The annual meeting of the Poles, con-
signed by Cabinets sneeringly" to the benevolence
of the lamented Lord DUDLEY STUART, is elevated
this year by events to the highest significance.
It seems to have survived for a time like this—
survived to rebuke the cold-heartedness of our
politicians, yet to offer them an invaluable light
to their path. This year, also, the meeting itself
was marked by two striking facts. It had to
commemorate the death of a truly noble martyr
to the Polish cause, and to listen to the eloquence
of a new but mighty champion, in the person of
the great Hungarian exile. And while the evi-
dence was being furnished to every hearer that
KOSSUTH has not been studying military science
altogether in vain, it must have glanced across
the thoughts of many that PROVIDENCE may have
been raising up the man as necessary to the pre-
sent crisis as was Lord DUDnIY STUART to the
long four-and-twenty years of Polish exile and
distress. Of course, the merits of his strategical
propositions are open to the fullest discussion.
The noble Hungarian himself would, above all,
wish them to be honestly canvassed. But, as to
his two main points, we do not think honest
men—by which we• mean men who guide their
policy by the rights and interests of nations, and
not by the interests of dynasties and court fac-
tions—we do not think such men can hesitate
about them for a moment. The war has been
aimlessly and unskilfully conducted, though waged
with unparalleled bravery by our soldiers —that
is one point ; and who can deny it ? And that
" The twenty-fourth anniversary of the Polish
Revolution is a query by which the genius of the
future is about to test the vitality of the British
Empire," that is the other point. And we think
it equally needs no demonstration ; every genuine
British heart has already adopted it.
Poland has been long a burden to the conscience
of England (and of France too), whether England's
rulers know it or not. Our people have always
in heart groaned over the Russian and Austrian
policy of her Cabinets. They have never borne
without sadness the memory of the first sad par-
titions, and the sight in later days of Russian and
Austrian devilry, in Poland in 1830, and in
Hungary in 1849. The perfectly Satanic provo-
cations and barbarities of NICHOLAS in Poland in
1830 would have made a war against the perpe-
trator of such unheard-of atrocities as popular as
the Turkish one is now ; and possibly all the
wiliness of our Ministers would have scarcely saved
Austria and Russia from feeling the effects of
British bayonets and broadsides when Hungary
was crushed but for the fatal predominance in
our councils at that time of the Manchester
school. We then said, and all will see it now, that
firm words and deeds for Hungary in 1848 would
have saved millions of money, perhaps hundreds
of millions, and thousands of lives more precious
still. Even Lord JOHN RUSSELL, who sneered at
the Hungarian "rebellion,,' and virtually embol-

dened Russia to the attack, cannot now deny that
the impunity willingly allowed in Hungary was
the real source of the outrages on Turkey. If a
RUSSELL let NICHOLAS tear Hungary to pieces for
Austria, how could he expect that an ABERDEEN
would keep him out of Turkey? And a quiet
time he might have had of it in this case, but that
the people of England could endure it no longer.
The heart of the country, wiser than the heads of
its rulers, felt that the time was come ; that
savage despots had been trifled with too long ;
that the only free nation in Europe had stood by
expressing, through its Government, nothing but
goodwill to the tottering despots in 1848—had
never offered the slightest aid to Sicily, Naples,
Lombardy, Hungary, or Germany, but had on the
whole rather abetted than otherwise the cause of
the despots against the nations. England would
brook this no longer, and ABERDEEN, like the
soldiers of NICHOLAS, was driven into the battle.
Let our Legislators know that all this is now
in the thoughts and the heart of the people. Poland,
even now, is the key to the whole question, as
Hungary was in 1848. Right one of these C3llll-
- and the other will right itself; and Turkey,
and all, will be righted with them. It has proved
a cruelly fatal error to have been huckstering for
worthless Austrian aid when the infinitely more
valuable help of Poland was freely proffered. But
now the necessity of raising the Polish banner
forces itself on all Anti-Russian Europe. It 1011
force itself on this Parliament. Austria will be
repudiated by every independent Peer and Com-
moner ; Ministers will scarcely, or but feebly,
venture to defend the odious traitor they admitted
into the provinces ; and the House of Commons,
if they do, will pass, we trust, an almost unani-
mous vote condemnatory of the Austrian
occupation, and demanding that Polish aid
and Polish nationality become essential conditions
of the war. Nothing will more imperatively de-
mand the first attention of the Houses of Parlia-
ment than the Allies with wlpm we are to carry
on the War, and the general objects to which it
shall be directed. The men who shall be honest
enough to place Poland in the forefront, both of
means and ends, will have the hearty support
both of Sir JOHN TROLLOPE'S farmers, and KOS-
SUTH'S town audiences. Austria will be hissed,
hooted, and scouted, and her advocates deemed
traitors to the cause of the people. No SEYMOUR
correspondence is needed in the case of Austria ;
she has openly befooled our Government, cheated
the Turks, helped Russia instead of the Allies,
and more than indirectly filled our land with
widows and orphans. Let no English Ministry
imperil their character and their existence by de-
fending her, and ignoring Poland. The country
will be snubbed no longer, not even by " All the
Talents." There is but one alternative—to be
honest or to be ousted. Let Lord ABERDEEN and
Mr. GLADSTONE make up their minds in time.

MR. HEWITT, OF BEAGLE.

We have been ftvoured by the Admiralty with the
following extract of a letter from Vice• Admiral Dundas,
Nov. 8 :

" Captain Lushington speaks ♦ery highly of tike
officers and men under his command, and I enclose an
extract of a letter addressed by him to me, ix which he
again praises the conduct of Mr. Hewitt, mate of the
Beagle, in charge of an advanced battery.—l have, &c.,
(Signed) " J. W. D. DUNDAS,

" Vice-Admiral."

Extract of a letter from Captain Lushington, com-
manding the Naval Brigade, to Vice-Admiral J. W. D.
Dundas, dated Nov. 6, 1854 :
"I have much pleasure in againbriaging Mr. Hewitt's
gallant conduct to your notice, as well as that of Com-
mander Borlase and Mr. Muir, nor can Y refrain from
noticing the gallant conduct of Major Sir Thomas Treu-
bridge, of the 7th Fusiliers, to whose cool courage and
advice I was mainly iudebted for saving the gun, and
who afterwards, when dangerously wounded, set a noble
example by reusing to leave his post until relieved by
another field officer."