The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-26 00:00:00

LORD PAL2,IERSTON.

(Ftoim the Times of December 16.)
There is something in the month of December
which seems uniformly to make Lord Palmerston
. _
unmanageable. The constellation which presides
over the winter solstice must predominatirneienrsht:
horoscope. December, 1851, saw Lord Pa
• he
separate from the Whig Ministry, with which
acted for five years ; December, 1852,
witnessed
coalition with the heads of the same party wit"
•nd
a
which he had quarrelled only a year before ,
now, December, 1853, beholds a new breach .
be-
tween Lord Palmerston and his allies. The disease
of breaking .up Cabinets seems with him to have
assumed a chronic form. There is au old Greek
proverb which warns us to love as if we were
about to lite, and no man has acted up to the
precept better than the nobleman whose loss to
the Coalition Ministry we this morning announce.
In 1851, Lord Palmerston was separated
_fraso.
his friends because he was indiscreetly 11..11'
in his zeal to approve the absolutist revolution
of the 2d of December. In 1853 he quits the
service of the public because he „cannot induce
himself to support even a moderate scheme
of
constitutional reform. In both cases he has been
actuated by anti-Liberal principles, and yet we
shall not be surprised to hear and read that in al'' ,
the Cabinet has lost one of the most enlightened
and Liberal statesmen it possessed. This deluSl
as to Lord Palmerston's real principles and feeling',
.is not altogether his own fault, but rather thato°±
the ultra party in this country, which insists a_
foisting upon him qualifications to which, as far as
we are aware, d
he never made the slightest pre
ical'
.tet,
sion. It has been the fashion among the Ra
to represent Lord Palmerston, in home as 1°11,85.
in foreign affairs, as an ultra-Liberal statesmar,
and many have been the speculations for rallyl
under him the more advanced sections of Reformer~'.ns
To do Lord Palmerston justice, these dehisiers
have never been of his raising. Affable rusimelat,
a frank and pleasing address, and a singular
dexterity in seizing and turning to his lirhtb.
the topics of the day, have invested him wlej,
much personal popularity ; but no one ,ev,,r,
superficially acquainted with Lord Palmer-
ston's ston's history could draw from
it eltaraci
augury favourable to these versions of
Liberal tendencies. Lord Palmerston commence
public life under the Ministries of Mr. Percival
and Lord Liverpool, and in this high Tory
sliollj
he imbibed principles which he has never w
abandoned, and which seem to have regained their
r
original force over his mind in proportion as herfal;
proaches the goal of his political career. '45
Liberalism of Lord Palmerston, such as it has
been, has never outrun—nay, has barely let
pace—with the demands of the age. In 185;4,
quarrelled with his colleagues in the cause al ;he
solutism against constitutional government, and.
has now resigned, not fromany difference of °plat
on momentous questions of foreign policy, but n!-_.
cause he cannot make up his mind to reform. l"
any shape—to enfranchisement or dibiranehise..
ment, to any extension of the suffrage, or anY fel;
moval of those small and corrupt boroughs
still diserace our constitution. Like the puke
Wellington in 1830, Lord Palmerston is agaills,. t
reform, and resigns his place because he will a°
form part of a Reforming Ministry.
We do not feel disposed to comment on this
drawal in any spirit of bitterness or of repining'
We have never believed Lord Palmerston to le
that which Finsbury and Marylebone have so often
insisted on making him. By his secession the gle
nistry have lost a most accomplished gentian
an able debater, a skilful and practised master °
official business ; but the Liberal cause has lost ne-
thing. We believe that among all living statesmen
Lord Palmerston is the only-representative left °.
those Tory principles which once formed the domi-
nant creed of politicians in and out of Parliamen
The very zeal which Lord Palmerston has display
e
for a liberal policy abroad, and for social improve;
meat at home, has often seemed to us the prod'''.
of a mind anxious to divert attention from orgaill°
changes by concentrating it on topics less danger-
ous and less exciting. The habit of mind of a Mini-
ster for Foreign Affairs regarding all changes in °°'
Government rather as they would affect our init.
ence abroad than promote harmony and progre'
at home, and the dread of weakening the Executive
by rendering our external relations subordinate'
like our domestic affairs, to the direction of Parl
went, and have tended to increase these ant,'
Liberal predilections. No one weighs his words
more warily than Lord Palmerston ; and when he
told us in the autumn that the present was an age,.
not of reform but of improvement, we believe that
he gave utterance to his own sincere conviction,
and at the same time showed the direction in which
he was anxious to turn the minds of his colleag?'
and the public. Sanitary reform, corporation
reform, the purification of our air and our river.;
were regarded by him, we imagine, as so man/
diversions by which the public mind might le
drawn off from the perilous contemplation of orgallif
changes. We believe Lord Palmerston to bed;
Tory of the old school, such as Canning was
earlier and middle life. Instructed by experience'
willing to concede much to popular will, ready t°a
deal with minor abuses, but resolute to withstan„,
any attempt to extend the changes to which he was
an unwilling-party in 1831, he sincerely holds the
doctrine of finality which Lord John Russell 11
fussed. We may regret the loss to the Ministry °
so brilliant a colleague, but we cannot for a 931;
ment wish that in the Coalition Government sue
principles should have been in the ascendant, 11°r
~.
feel otherwise than rejoiced that in his hostility
all reform Lord Palmerston was left without °
seconder.
Lora
However willing we may be to do justice to
Palmerston's motives, there are circumstances c 0 t
nected with his resignation which seem to stan3P
some degree with wantonness and caprice. It sell
inexplicable that, having worked step by step wire
the committee of the Cabinet appointed to prePe,
the bill, it should only have been at the conclusr
of their labours that he made known his fuartri;
mental objection to any scheme of reform. -"Ili
also at least unfortunate that this secession shoora
have the appearance of being levelled against 11°,,,
John Russell, the author and originator of the
sure, but also the cause of Lord Palmerston's NviL
drawal from the late Ministry. The proper tiro i.,
intimate his aversion toireform would have Leo
when Lord John Russell, in answer to Mr. Lock
'King's 'motion, solemnly pledged the Goverr
meat to the introduction of a measure, and not at'ea
the heads of that measure had been considcree
and elaborated by himself. But most of all On
have a right to complain that Lord Palmerst%
should have chosen the present momentous er
of our foreign affairs to take a step which mightf,
have the effect of exhibiting before the eyes c'l,4,
reign nations even the faintest semblance of ';"it
union in our councils. If war can be avertel(l
can only be by throwing into the scale the full 31`ot
undivided weight of our public men, and it is °if
the part of a patriotic Minister to weaken
influence at such a moment. Although Lord
merston has resigned on grounds of purely d°l,ll.sets,
tic policy, there will not be wanting journfoi 5
and diplomatists to represent his resignation Its
triumph of the pacific over the warlike &me,
in our councils. There was no necessity for soge,re„
cipitate a step. We regret to lose our Heine
retary, but we should regret still more to keep
on his own terms. •

WHOLESALE ROBBERY BY A POLISH NOBLESI
PARIS.--Last week a foreigner, who put up at an ho
the Tuileries, presented himself at the baoltl`q
house of Messrs. Rothschild, at the opening of buside'n;
arid gave notice that some person had entered his arsr°° a,
during the night and taken away his watch, his
P edit
and pocket-book, this last containing a letter of cirici
for 2,000 f.,, given by the house of MM. de RothselT4
at Vienna, on the house in Paris. This he requested;
have stopped, if presented. Half an hour afters nj
shionably-dressed young man'inade his appearance,
presented the order for payment. He was told thatlh_cei
money would be paid as soon as the order was return;
from the office of one of the heath of the house. „
tthhee
young
gtime a police officer was sent for, and ..1a5v...0
man had signed his name to a receipt he ova
ahreredsteeedla.redßehinigs takenname bteofobree the commissary
eedasoft.Pparioooaf
of that being the fact, he showed several PoPe"
documents in which that name appeared. 187_,.btectlb
' searched there were found on him a gold watch
and chain, a porte-monnaie, containing a certain_eou_,
of gold, a blue silk purse, empty, and a pocketbra
of
containing visiting cards, with• the name on thee ,e.
Count de W--, Rue de Ponthieu, which article b inud,
Glared he had found in the street the same tooria.„:o
Just as the search had concluded, the foreign gent en; df
from whom the letter of credit had been stolen, appe_a_nejj,
and at once recognised the blue silk purse and tpeks,
watch as his property. In consequence of this. eivd,
tion, the commissary of police ordered a visit to be made
tion,
with the prisoner to the address in the Rue de Poo"
(fthera
mentioned on the cards found in his posse;sion, on at
he was identified as always passing by the name of vf.,,tinf
de W---. A great quantity of valuable propeet:iless
various kinds was found in the apartment, and vtio,a,
than 17 paletots of various kinds. Further idre_a_Zda
tion proved that the prisoner was really the Crving
W-, a Pole by birth, and of a high family, but_os
in Paris principally by stealing property from th
of wealthy persons in hotels. Two days after, a Pfith.
who had been on intimate terms with the Prirbniesra' ;test,
out knowing his real character, on hearing on in his
gave notice that two large trunks had been
and tabs
charge by the prisoner. These were also
acter, and
full of things of a
oohs miscellaneous chr, _
_risoner
.hwashictea:ne
fsuulslypecoctmedmitteefobreetirlial,oleunn.
charge of forgery and theft.— aaign The
: dojo,

LATEST FOREIGN NEWS.

WAR IN mil vijHANISTAN I
The following despatch was received in Paris
Yesterday from Trieste :

" Trieste, Dec. 24.
"News has been received from Bombay to tly.
28th of November. •
"According to these accounts, the Shah of Petsla
11:48 marching towards the north with an army of
405000 men and 100 cannon.
" The English were, on the other hand, marching
towards Affghanistan, to bar the defile of Cohat 1)7
means of a fort.
" The Russians, it is added, have entered Khii
and destroyed Achinetzen, in Independent 11",artar
!` Letter from Cairo of the 15th of -Deceoltwv
announce that the Abyssinian mountaineers ha
expelled the'Turkish population from Massora a
lieurikas.