The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-16 00:00:00

Now, candidly, we do not credit that Viscount
PALMERSTON has been in no manner influenced by
events now transpiring beyond the Levant, in
thus abruptly tendering his resignation to his
SOVEREIGN. The peculiarity of the occasion se-
lected by him for that notable step is of itself
altogether too significant to allow of any implicit
credence being placed in this specious, but suspi-
cious, explanation thrust upon the public no-
tice by the organ of the ABERDEEN Government.
Immediately the dawdling and timorous policy
adopted by the Coalition in regard to the quarrel
between the Sublime Porte and the AUTOCRAT has
reached its climax, Lord PALMERSTON sends in
his resignation. Scarcely has intelligence arrived
of the deplorable victories of the Russians—the
victory gained by sea at Sinope, and that by
land at Akalsik when the Home Secre-
tary intimates his withdrawal from the ranks
of the Government. Undoubtedly there is
but too much reason to believe that the
people can scarcely expect to find a cordial and
energetic parliamentary reformer in Lord PALMER-
STON. Although that distinguished statesman
shares in the glory of participation in the tri-
umph of the Bill of 1831—he is recognised as
altogether too much of a Canningite to be very
much of a Reformer. We don't, therefore, imply
that the official organ of Aberdeenism is speaking
, idly or at random, much less to its own
knowledge, erroneously, or perversely in as-
suming that Viscount PA LMERSTON is, if
anything, decidedly averse to any " large
measure," such as that tantalisingly adumbrated
in the half-promise given to his constituents at
Carlisle a year or so back by the Right Hon.
Baronet the First Lord of the Admiralty. The
truth in that respect is already but too generally
understood and too long suspected. As ultra-
Reformers--as ardent aspirants for the organisa-
tion of the system of the Ballot, for the exten-
sion of the elective franchise, for the redistri-
bution of the electoral districts—as advocates
(neither indifferent nor of yesterday) of these
and other considerable innovations —we can
only discover reason to regret the absence of
liberality, of energy, and of determination in
Lord PALMERSTON in his character as a half-and-
half Reformer. Therefore, of course, we can find
only too much cause to believe that the Noble
Viscount has but a narrow and partial sympathy
with the project of supplementary reform now pre-
paring under the care of the Member for the City of
London, to be presented during the session of 1854
for the acceptance or refttsal of the Legislature.
But—what we cannot credit for one instant, is the
explanation put forward this morning in the avowed
and recognised organ of the Coalition, in reference
to this sudden and mysterious resignation of Lord
PALMERSTON, in the assertion that that withdrawal
of the Home Secretary from her MAJESTY'S Go-
vernment has no reference whatever to the foreign
policy of the ABERDEEN Administration. To believe
this would be to throw aside the whole of Lord PAL-
MERSTON'S most memorable antecedents. In other
words, it would be absolutely preposterous. Speak-
ing plainly upon this point, it must be pronounced
altogether absurd to suppose that Lord PALMER-
STON'S genius, and daring, and wisdom, and con-
sistency as a diplomatist, has not revolted from
the policy of England throughout this Russo-
Turkish difference, as a policy most base, because
most pusillanimous. That policy has compli-
cated a very simple contest between Right
and Might into a quarrel that has been
gradually dragging into its chaos the principal
Powers of Western Christendom. It has caused
the combined fleets of France and England, after
protracted delays, to appear at last in the waters
of Constantinople. Under what pretext ? Under
the pretext of preventing a collision between
Russia and Turkey a pretext which, if
sincerely, and honestly, and seriously en-
tertained, would have induced France and
England to send military assistance to the Turks
on the banks of the Danube, as well as maritime
assistance to them in the channel of the Bospho-
rus. Maritime assistance ! say we ? Assistance
that amounts to absolutely no assistance what-
ever ! Assistance that if real would have pre-
vented this terrible catastrophe at Sinope in-
stead of allowing the Turkish sailors there
to be slaughtered wholesale, and OSMAN
PACHA, after a most heroic resistance, to
be carried off prisoner to Sebastopol, and then
sending a couple of sneaking frigates into
the Black Sea--to carry medical help to the
wounded, and to obtain information ! Assist-
ance call we this ? Assistance to Turkey would
imply something vastly different. It would mean
the entrance of the combined fleets in full
force into the Euxine, their resolute seizure
of Sebastopol, the occupation of the Cri-
mea, the bombardment of Rherson, and the
ofandOdemssaar,itianined .auipd
transmission of militaryNvay
to OMER PACHA by
the current of the Danube to Braila, and across
to Bucharest. Instead of which we have had the
dropping of French and British anchors in Besika
Bay, and afterwards in the Waters of Constanti-
nople. Hence—more than from any lack of in-
terest in the new Reform Bill this sudden
withdrawal of Lord PALMERSTON from the
Coalition Government.

Modern experience has ascertained beyond the
possibility of doubt that nothing so greatly en-
hances tho value of property in any district as the
affording facilities for inter-communication--or, in
other words, for goods and passenger traffic. We
believe that if not a single shilling were returned
as profit by any railway iu the United Kingdom
that their construction would still have been the
most beneficial and useful work, in a national
point of view, that had been effected during many
successive ages. By their means the farmer is
enabled to effect the great object of every large
producer and large consumer—namely, to buy in
the cheapest and to sell in the dearest market.
I He can supply
supply his own wants on the most reason-
able while he is equally certain of finding
purchasers, at fair prices, for all that he does not
require for his own use. He can double, or even
quadruple, his crops by procuring manures cal-
culated to " bring his land into heart," and to in-
crease its fertility to the highest point of produc-
tiveness. At the same time nothing goes to
waste. He can send off every superfluity, and