The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-28 00:00:00

POSITION OF TIIE MINISTRY.

Let us earnestly entreat the attention of all lovers of
constitutional government in England to the position
occupied by the present Ministers. We ask of them
that they will look at that position from no party point
of view, bnt that they will judge of it solely with refers
enco to those great constitutional principles which are
the traditions of English government, and which, alter
all, are the only tree safeguards of English liberty and
English greatness.
There is no doubt whatever that at this moment the
Ministry continve in office solely by the forbearance of
men strongly opposed to them. They cboso to stake
their official existence upon the passing cf the Foreign
Enlistment Bill. It has been abundantly proved by an
analysis of the division lists that this measure was carried
solely because a large number of men, strongly opposed
both to the Ministry and the measure, abstained from
voting upon one or other of the divisions by which the
fate of the bill was decided.
We do not now inquire whether those who absented
themselves acted right or wrong. We certainly do
not question either the honesty or the patriotism of
their intentions. We merely call attention to the
indisputable fact, that a very large number of members
of the House of Commons who usually oppose the pre-
sent Ministry, and who are known to dislike their
Foreign Enlistment Bill, neglected, from some motive
or other, to give effect to their opinions by voting the
rejection of the measure. Had they done so, and had
Ministers kept their word, we would not now have either
a Foreign Enlistment Bill or a Coalition Cabinet.
This establishes the proposition, thet Ministers hold
office at this moment by the forbearance of their politi-
cal opponents. How far this may
of affairs, we will not
be to Ministers credit-
able, or to the country a safe
eta te
now stop to inquire. Unhappily
there is much more
than this. Lord Aberdeen continues Prime Minister,
because the House of Commons, or at least a large nura•
her of its members, are content to abandon the right or
the duty of expressing their opinions.
We can understand very well that members of that
assembly generally giving their confidence or their sup-
port to Ministers should hesitate to displace them by
an adverse veto even upon a measure of which they dis-
approved. To feelings like this we believe Ministers
owe nine-tenths of the votes which were given fur the
Foreign Enlistment Bill. There would, of course, be no
difficulty in understanding the motives which migi t
influence men generally opposing the Ministry to sup-
port a ministerial meagure of which they approved.
But the care with which we are dealing is one widely
efferent from either of these—it is that of men who,
disliking both the Ministry and their measure, yet, from
one motive or other, abstained from voting against it.
It does not need many words to prove that exactly to
the extent to which such :eh:sena:3 prevails, the functions
,f the Hoese of Commons are, in truth, virtually in
abeyance. If the number of members thus withholding
themselves upon a division on a vital question be con.
siderable, u-c may fhirly say, that upon that question
the opinion of the House of Commons is, in truth, not
taken at all. The assent of the House of Commons is
not given to it. The forms, indeed, of the constitution
and of Parliament niay be observed ; but all that can
give to those loons vitality, or meaning, or life, is
wanting.
If this be a correct view of the proceedings upon
tl,i.; mensere we are justified in saying that Ministers
hold office, not merely by the sufferasee ef their op-
ponents, but by the abeyance of the constitutional func-
tions of the House of Commons. It is a very serious
question to ask, whether this be a safe state of things ?
We have a Ministry existing only by the voluntary
abdication of their duties on the part of the represen-
tatives of:the people. The action of the popular branch
of the Legislature would be fatal to their official life.
They can only prolorg that life by lulling into inaction
the House of Commons.
This is in itself a grievous and a great calamity. We
are old-fashioned enough to believe that popular opinion
and popular feeling, expressed in the Parliament, con-
stitute the very soul and breath of our English Govern-
merit. We are sure that the national sanction to the
resolutions of Ministers is that which is best calculated
to give them weight and authority, not only at home,
but abroad; and that in our free and happy constitu-
tion the approval of the representatives of the people
qivoi to those resolutions a moral influence which
the decisions of despotic Governments never can com-
mand. This, in truth, is the advantage in a free Go-
vernment which more than compensates for the many
and obvious inconveniences that attend the public
discussion of its measures. The resolves of the British
Government are those of the nation, and not merely of
its rulers.
But all this is lost if we have a Ministry that depends
for its existence upon the inaction of the House of
Commons. Let us take this very Foreign Enlistment
Bill as an example. Is there any pretence for saying
that the nation represented in Parliament has assented
to its passing ? We do not merely say that its passing at
all was a surrender, on the part of those who voted for
it, of their own opinions to the wishes or the conve-
nience of Government—this is an assent, although an
extorted one—but let us test, by the numbers of the
divisions, how far even such an assent as this was really
given by " the Commons in Parliament assembled."
Upon the second reading of this bill 241 votes were
given for the measure, 202 against it. Ministers could
only induce 241 members of the House of Commons to
record their assent to this measure—very little snore than
one-third of the house. Never was there an occasion
upon which Ministers might more confidently have
reckoned upon the presence of those who thought with
them. The crisis was one of the deepest national
anxiety and the gravest national peril. Even as a de-
monstration of earnestness in supporting the Sovereign
it might have been expected that a full attendance of
members would have marked the interest felt by the
nation in the war. No party stimulus was neglected to
bring up the lagging to the support of the Ministry.
Circulars were issued headed with the unusual but signi-
ficant announcement—

" Certain important and DICISITE divisions."
Every effort was made to summon ministerial sup-
porters to their post, and after all this, for a aneasur•
which they professed to think so essential that without
it they could not carry on the war, the Ministers of
Queen Victoria were scarcely able to obtain the votes of
a third of the House of Commons.

This is a position in which the Government of an Eng-
lish Sovereign never should be placed. To escape adverse
divisions is but a poor triumph for a Ministry in a crisis
like this. Deserted benches tell against the country, if not
against Ministers, in the division. For their measures
Ministers ought to command the cordial and enthusiastio
support of Parliament and the country. This is something
very different from the sullen silence with which a.
large proportion of the House of Commons have barely
permitted the ministerial measure to pass. The absence
of so many members of " the great council of the nation"
is no good omen for the country. We do not inquire
whethr that absence was wise or not. We only state
a proposition about which there can be no dispute—that
Ministers could not bring to sanction their measure
more than one-third of the representatives of the people.
Let Parliamentary divisions be counted a`s they may, we
repeat that such a Ministry- does not command that na-
tional sympathy and support without which no Ministry
can manage the affairs of England with success.
O. the contrary, it'is plain that Ministers succeed in
holding effico only by reducing to practical inaction the
sentiments and opiniors of at lea-A, one-third of the /liise
of Commons itself. We may speculate upon the matter
as we p!easo, but here is the plain fact. Oar Parlia-
mentary Government is one which is carried on by
members of Parliament staying away. We earnestly
recoup:lend this fact to tha, serious consideration of
Lord John Russell, and those who, like him, still profess
an attachment to the Parliamentary system established
by the revolution of 1638:—Morning Herald.

POSITION OF THE RUSSIANS IN 4514
MINOR.

We extract the following from a letter dated Mosul
Nov. 10 :—As I have seen utterly erroneous accounts in
two London papers as to the movements of the Russian
troops under Bebutoff, I have to inform you that they
have not " entirely withdrawn across the frontier, aban-
doning every position which their successes at Bayazid
and Kurackder4 had enabled them to occupy." I am
able to contradict this statement on the authority of a
letter received to-day by the English vice-consul here,
from Yezdershier Bey—the son of the notorious Bedr
Khan Bay, now in Candia— who is at present at Mardeen,
six days to the north of this, engaged in collocting irregular
troops for the army at Kars. He says, "By the last news
from Van I learn that the Russians have collected a large
force and encamped at Kozlygal, 12 hours from Van os
the road from Bayazid. By this it would seem as if
they intended a winter campaign—through six feet of
snow." To this satisfactory disprover of the "entire
withdrawal " of the Russians, I may add an equally flat
contradiction to another paragraph in one of the same
journals, which states that "the Turks are advancing by
forced marches on Tiflis from Kars and Batoum. The
Turks at Kars and Batoum were never
farther from
" forced marches " in their life, unless indeed it be back
upon Erzeroum before the Russians, and not upon Tiflis
even if
theld ground,
and coming
after them. This also I can state, on the faith of a private
letter which reached myself some days ago from a friend
at Kars, who writes "Everything here is just as it was
a
o
Russiansdisturb ur b remain on their
e
snow allowed of a movement. Reinforcements are mo
we nth
are ago;no ttlhikeely to
d
ar-
riving at Batoum, but neither there nor here is thereany
likelihood of a stir spring." So much for the with-
drawal of the Russians beyond the frontier, and the
"forced marches" of my old acquaintances upon Tiflis.

ST. DAVID'S COLLEGE.--Mrs. Mary Anne Evans, the
widow of the Rev. D. Evans, formerly rector of Simon-
burn, in the county of Northumberland, has invested
the sum of 542/. in the Three per Cent. Consols, to
found a scholarship in St. David's College, under the
denomination of the "Simonburn Scholarship." It will
be open for competition to students training for holy
orders, who shall be natives of any of the 15 counties of
Wales, including Monmouthshire ; but, cceteri3 paribus,
it is provided that a native of Carmarthenshire shall
have theprefi ranee.
WAR VESSELS IN THE FIRTH.—At present th• Firth
of Forth is the station of a squadron of war vessels,
consisting of the Edinburgh, 60 guns, carrying the flag
of Rear-Admiral Chads ; the Cruiser, 17,. Captain
Douglas ; the Archer, 14, Captain Heathcote ; and the
Jackal], tender. All the vessels have auxiliary steam.
power. The Cruiser, which was the first to arrive from
the Baltic, took up its station on Thursday in the rcads
between Leith and Granton ; the Edinburgh came up as
far as Inchkeith on Friday, and on Saturday-took an-
chorage higher up, saluting the Fort as it passed. On
Sunday the Archer arrived about two o'clock, and
saluted the Admiral's Sag,—Edinburgh Courant.