The Sun.
London, England, 1854-06-17 00:00:00

THE COALITION.

(From the Press of this clay.)
Four months of feebleness, accompanied by some
humiliating circumstances, have been followed by a
reconstruction of the cabinet, which has not added
either to its strength or its dignity. Lord John Russell,
whose self-respect we were told, was sustained
by his filling no post under Lord Aberdeen, now
avowedly holds a subordinate office under that
energetic chief. This pointless result has not even
been accomplished without cost, and the price
of an undesirable incident is the degradation of a
young and able Minister, and one of the few members
of the Coalition to whom the country looks with some
degree of confidence and hope. Had the seals relin-
quished by the Duke of Newcastle been entrusted to the
late President of the Council, they would certainly have
been used with not less vigour and discretion than by
Sir George Grey, who will find in the office, to which he
returns with exhausted energies, no traditions of his
past success.
During the last two months the decline of the Cabi-
net in public estimation has been rapid and continuous.
This is the more remarkable, as there is a great absence
of party feeling in the country, and the Opposition
throughout the session, with the exception of the im-
portant motion of Mr. Baring, has discreetly confined
itself to consolidating its strength, and acting on the de-
fensive.
There is no doubt that a considerable and influential
portion of the community, on the formation of the pre-
sent Ministry, were prepared to accord to it their sup-
port from the belief that it consisted of men eminent for
their skill in the management of affairs. The country,
in a great measure, was willing to find compensation for
the absence of distinct principles in official dexterity.
A series of failures, perhaps without parallel in Parlia-
mentary history, has taught us that no degree of mere
administrative habitude can supply the energy which a
compact and confiding party can alone afford, or
remedy the internal dissensions of those who are
bound together neither by political nor personal sym-
pathy. The country has seen with amazement
during the last four months enormous propositions
brought forward without due deliberation and
precipitately withdrawn. The Ministers have intro-
duced schemes for the reform of Parliament, for the re-
demption of the public debt, for national education, for
the abolition of the law of settlement, for the remodel-
ling of oaths, of universities, and of the whole civil ser-
vice of the country, and for the abolition of constitu-
tional securities, with the carelessness of children blow-
ing bubbles. Their campaign has been an alternation of
overwhelming discomfitures or precipitate retreats. It
is this readiness to meddle with all things, and inability
to settle any, that has alienated from them that valuable
public confidence which was not originally prompted by
party feeling. The impartiil world naturally observes
that if these great measures were necessary for the
public welfare they ought not to have been abandoned,
and, if unnecessary, ought not to have been introduced.
But while the country is perplexed at the incapacity
of those from whom so much was expected, and who
themselves announced that so much should be accom-
plished, it finds itself suddenly in a condition which it
had almost brought itself to believe was incompatible
with the civilisation of the age ; and that it is absolutely
involved in a war which may be prolonged and costly,
and of which the cause and the object are equally obscure.
It seems now pretty well agreed that no Power in Europe
wished to go to war ; and that, if Lord Aberdeenhad not
been Minister of this country, no war could possibly have
occurred. A want of frankness and of firmness
on the part of the English Ministry has tempted
the Emperor of Russia to occupy a position from
which he finds it almost impossible to extricate himself
with honour. Counting on the avowed prejudices of
Lord Aberdeen against the Sovereign of France, and
his long-cherished sympathy with the Sovereign of Rus-
sia, Nicholas, feeling his way at every step, ventured on
a course which may involve -Europe in a struggle of
years. His assumption was that England and France
could not act together : he consequently complimented
Lord Aberdeen on the English fleet not accompanying
the French squadron to Salamis ; the compliment was
accepted without a remonstrance, and the Russians passed

the Pruth !
Whether we consider our external or domestic rela-
tions, one is almost tempted to admire the ingenuity
which in the space of eighteen months has contrived to
accomplish so much disappointment, and to achieve so
much disaster.
In the meantime, there are some symptoms in our in-
ternal condition which ought to attract the attention,
and perhaps excite the anxiety, of all reflecting men. It
is impossible any longer to deny, or to conceal, that the
Protestant feeling of this country has assumed a power
which, if not appreciated and guided with sincerity and
discretion, may effect in these kingdoms even startling
changes. The desertion to Rome of a large body of the
Oxford clergy some years ago was the first event which,
awakening the High Church party from their bewilder-
ing trance, largely reinforced the Protestant ranks ;
the Wiseman aggression—above all, the solemn announce.
ment in Parliament, at the time, of the Prime Minister of
England, that there was without doubt a vast Papal con-
spiracy against the liberties of Edope—confirmed, and
even inflamed, the fears of the followers of the Reformation.
Since that period there has been, on the part not only of
the middle classes, but of the great majority of the upper
classes of this country, a growing conviction that a stand
must be made against the aggressive spirit of Rome.
The influential presence in the existing Cabinet of those
very statesmen who uncompromisingly and successfully
opposed Lord John Russell in his attempts to resist the
Jesuit influence has been viewed from the first with dis-
trust and alarm by the mass of the community, who
rarely interest themselves in the struggles of political
parties. But this spirit has already made itself felt even
in the present House of Commons. The Parliament is
more Protestant than the Ministry, but the country is
more Protestant than the Parliament.