The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-25 00:00:00

_L
THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, APRIL 25, 1853,

SECRETS OF THE COALITION.

(From the Standard of Sciturddy night.)

The Times of this morning, with its usual indis-
cretion, charges the Conservative party with a
conspiracy with the Irish Brigade, the object of
the alleged conspiracy being to obtain the defeat
of the Ministry on condition of exempting Ireland
from the income tax.

We are now in a position to disclose the follow-
ing revelation of the means by which the majority.
of December last, against Lord Derby's Govern-
ment, was obtained, and our readers will probably
judge to whom the charge of conspiracy is ap-
plicable.
A few days before the division on Mr. Disraeli's
Budget, which drove Lord Derby's Ministry from
power, a meeting of the Irish Brigade was held, to
determine the course which they should pursue.
One of the stipulations demanded by some of that
party was, that in the event of a change of Minis-
try, an income tax for Ireland should not be pro-
posed by their successors.
A right honourable gentleman who now fills a
high office conveyed a pledge to that meeting that
an income tax would not be proposed by the party
then in opposition, in the event of their accession
to power. The pledge was conveyed to the meet-
ing by three Irish members, one representing a
western county, the two others representing south-
ern boroughs.
We can further inform the Times that within the
last 24 hours, when the right hon. gentleman was
upbraided with the violation of his pledge, his
reply was, that he had pledged himself for the old
Whig Ministry, and had given none for the Cabinet
now in power.
Comment upon this transaction would be thrown
away.

(Frora, the Morning Herald.)

It is our duty this morning to bring before our
readers a transaction which, take it all in all, from
its inception to its end, from the giving of a discre-
ditable promise to its still more discreditable viola-
tion, we do not designate too strongly when we say
that it constitutes an intrigue as disgraceful as any
by which power was ever obtained through the
secret machinations of profligate politicians. We
are now in a position to unkennel one portion' at
least of the-underhand conspiracy which, in Decem-
ber last, plotted and accomplished the overthrow of
Lord Derby's Administration. We proceed to lay
the narrative of the transaction before our readers,
and Englishmen will judge whether we have applied
to it expressions too strong.
It now appears that in December last, upon that
vote on the budget which we have been so often
assured was the result of no factious combination,
but the pure and disinterested and accidental agree-
ment of different hostile parties to reject an unwise
measure of finance—it now appears, we say, that
the vote rejecting the proposals of Mr. Disraeli was
obtained by the employment of that peculiar ma-
chinery of political negotiations of which the con-
venience of party assigns the management to the
gentleman who fills, or is expected to fill, that very
delicate office, the duties of which are not very in-
distinctly, although very decorously, expressed by
the title of " Patronage Secretary to the Trea-
sury." _ _

Our readers are aware that under the ancient
regime of Lord John Russell, the official duties of
the post, for which the above is the plausible euphe-
mism, were ably and efficiently discharged by the
Right Hon. Wm. Goodenough Hayter, the repre-
sentative of the borough of Wells. They know
also that, under the Ministry of Lord Aberdeen,
he has returned to his former office, and still makes
his gentle suggestions in the lobby previous to a
division in the evening, and still dispenses in the
morning at Whitehall the small favours of " tide
waiterships," and " clerkships," and " gauger-
ships," and all other little " ships," by which inde-
pendent supporters of the Minister are so marvel-
lously gratified for their country's good.
Premising so much, let us ask the attention of
all honest men to the revelations which elsewhere
we transcribe from the columns of our admirable
contemporary the Standard. We do not seek to
shelter ourselves behind the high character of that
journal. We repeat the statement on our own re-
sponsibility, as we were in possession of the facts
on Saturday afternoon, and as we would have
stated them this morning, whether we had been
anticipated by the accident of the hours of publi-
cation of any other journal or not.
The facts are these :—ln December last, a few
days before the division on the budget, a negotia-
tion was opened between the leaders of the Opposi-
tion and that particular section of the House of
Commons to whom we long since affixed the now
familiar designation of " the Pope's Brass Band,"
the object of that negociation being to induce these
respectable gentlemen to add their moral weight
and numerical influence to the motley levy of divers
tongues and nations—the gathering of the clans,
which was then organising to destroy the Ministry
against which they had but one bond of union—a
common hatred of Conservatism.
All the terms of the treaty, unhappily, we are
riot able to disclose. Among the stipulations, how-
ever, insisted upon by some of the Irishmen, was a
distinct pledge that in ,the event of their combining
with the expectant placemen to drive Lord Derby
from power, his successors would not propose an
income tax for Ireland. The result was, that at a
full meeting of those Irish members who chose to
call themselves the popular party, three of their
body were authorised by a personage " now and
formerly holding high office," to give, on behalf of
the opposition leaders, the required pledge, and on
the distinct faith of that pledge " the Irish party "
voted against Mr. Disraeli's budget, and the Minis-
try of Lord Derby fell.

The pledge, we need not say, has been wholly
disregarded. One touch, and one only, is still
wanting to complete this exquisite picture. When
the " personage in high office" was taxed with the
breach of faith, to the indignant upbraidings of the
bearers of his message he is said to have replied
that he had pledged himself, indeed, for the Whigs
if they succeeded to power, but that he had no
authority to give :a pledge for the present Cabinet
or Mr. Gladstone.

Nay, something
.still more amusing is behind.
On Saturday morning the Times had the indescrib-
able folly to assail with rather gross vituperation
the members of the Irish Brigade, and charge them
in terms distinguished by the usual courtesies of
the Ministerial journal with conspiring by falsehood
and lies with the Conservative party to exempt
Ireland from the income tax. It must not be won-
dered at if flesh and blood could not stand this. It
was bad enough to have been fooled ; but after this
to be reviled ! ! The admirable discretion that
dictated the coarse attack of the Times will be per-
fectly appreciated when these wretched conspirators
for place shall feel the full consequences of the
scorn and indignation that must follow the provoked
exposure of their
.unprincipled intrigues.
Some lessons, indeed, there may be for all par-
ties in these revelations. For those Irish gentle-
men who suffered themselves by such miserable
pretences to be drawn into a combination against
the only Ministry that has existed of late years
disposed to do justice to their country, we confess
we have very little compassion, either under their
betrayal or the revilings that have been poured
upon them. From right-minded men they will
probably receive very little pity of any other kind
than that which we have heard more than once ex-
pressed for them in a homely phrase, which uncere-
moniously refers them for a redress of their griev-
ances to a personage not more particularly to be
named. The Irish people may perhaps be entitled
to a little more pity, and be somewhat more capa-
ble of instruction. We doubt not that many of
those who were taught at the hustings to shout
" Down with Lord Mummery Russell," will be a
little perplexed when they discover that the patriots
for whom they roared had scarcely reached St.
Stephen's when they were caught in the very centre
of a nice little negotiation to restore the said Lord
Mummery to power.
Even grave John Bull, we suspect, may rub his
eyes with amazement when Lord John Russell is
detected in the very fact of sending btllets•doux to
the brass band. It will not be forgotten that it
was from the Russell section of the Cabinet that
this negotiation proceeded. We have been already
assured by a Lord of the Treasury that between
the Irish Brigade and that miserable faction who
abuse the name of Peel, the closest and most cor-
dial union existed. We confess we should have
been slow to believe that the writer of the Durham
letter would have been the author of an embassy to
catch the political alliance of the nominees of Car-
dinal Wiseman and the Pope.
The people of the whole realm may learn something
of the way in which the Governmeut of this great
intriguers.
Lord is marred and interrupted by
Lord Derby was driven from office, not because his
measures were disapproved of by the House of Com-
mons, but because the Whigs had the good fortune
to have a negotiator of tact and dexterity enough
to win upon the favour of his opponents—and be-
cause the Whig leaders were unprincipled enough
to authorise him to give any pledge that might be
demanded by the nominees of the Irish priests as
the price of their support.
We may all, perhaps, learn something of the
blessings of a united Cabinet, when we find that
the authorised official of _the Ministry exculpates
himself from the violation of a distiLo and solemn ,

pledge, by the excuse that he gave it for one sec-
tion of the Ministry but not fdr the other.
The matter, let us earnestly hope, will not be
suffered to rest. We have not thought it right to
print the names of the three Irish members who
were employed to convey the assurance ; but since

the statement in the Standard, those names have
rung in every club in town. It would be affecta-
tion to deny that we have not directly pointed at
the right honourable official, who retain his old
office, presumes at what we may believe is found
the most efficient centre of unity, the identity of
the new party with the old. There can be no
longer any reserve in the affair. What has been
whispered in secret has been published on the
house-tops. Explations, we anticipate, rather
racy ones, must be elicited from all parties in the
course of the coming debate. Then arises the ques-
tion whether Parliament can do nothing to check
such a system of wholesale traffic in the votes of
legislators ?—whether, in fact, the whole negotia-
tion be not a high misdemeanor and contempt of
the privileges of the house, which calls itself a de-
liberative assembly ?
We do not undertake now to answer these grave
questions. We, at least, have done our duty. We
have laid the facts as we believe them capable of
being substantiated before the British public, and
we conclude as we began by declaring our convic-
tion that the annals of political profligacy supply
no instance of an intrigue more entirely unprinci-
pled than that to which we must not forget each
individual member of the Aberdeen Cabinet is at
this moment personally indebted for his place and
his salary as a Minister of the Crown.

(From the Daily News.)
The anger of Toryism is kindled against Minis-
ters because they propose to reform the legacy
duty. For generations land has enjoyed unjust
exemptions from the tax on successions by death ;
and instead of being grateful for all it has hitherto
enjoyed_by grace especial, and conscience-stricken
and silent on the announcement of its discontinu-
ance, Toryism affects a tone of injured virtue, and
threatens loudly to take vengeance upon those who
would put an end to its unvirtuous privilege. Con-
scious, however, of the utter weakness of its cause
in this particular, Toryism naturally prefers to take
issue upon other ground. The unamended income
tax will in many respects serve its purpose better,
and upon this, therefore, the chiefs of the Carlton
have, it is understood, determined to offer battle.
This battle of the session begins to-night, and
will probably last some days. To what extent a
counter-coalition may have been formed between the
Irish Catholic party and the Derbyites, we do not
undertake to say. But we record the numerical
strength, or rather weakness of the former, and can
therefore be neither by its own gasconade, nor by the
affectation of fear, somewhat clumsily assumed
respecting it in certain quarters. The entire con-
tingent that acknowledge the leadership of Mr.
Lucas hardly exceeded a score, and there are about
as many who have given in their adhesion from the
outset to the Coalition Ministry. The votes of
some half dozen Irish Whigs may be doubtful, but
most of them will either stay away altogether or
support the Government. Admitting, however,
that from sixty to seventy Irish members of all
creeds and opinions concur in declaring that they
do not wish to pay the same tax upon incomes
which, for ten years, has been exclusively borne
by the people of England, how much nearer will
that bring Mr. Forbes Mackenzie to his former
post of Secretary of the Treasury ? An evening
contemporary tells, with all the air of circumstan-
tial gravity, a story respecting the arts which are
said to have been used to gain a decisive majority
against the late Administration. Certain Irish
members continued, as the story goes, undecided
until the last moment ; no genial arguments or
blandishments could fix their wavering resolve, un-
less Mr. Hayter could obtain for them a pledge
from the coalition chiefs that, were they in office,
they would not extend the income tax to Ireland,
these intractable gentlemen would not help to
turn Mr. Mackenzie out and to put Mr. Hayter
in. After some negotiation, the pledge, it is pre-
tended, was given ; and now these gentlemen, ac-
cording to the Standard, are fully justified in mak-
ing reprisals by voting against the whole Bud-
get, or any part thereof they do not happen
to like. The story is only worth repeating as
illustrative of the state of decadence and despair
which pervades the party now in opposition. If
they had any great principle or any great cause to
invoke, we should not hear of such tales of broken
faith, or of appeals to such miserable motives as
these on the eve of a great party conflict. It is
pretty well understood, however, that the more
sensible men among Lord Derby's followers have
no desire to reopen the old quarrel between town
and country. Many of them have concealed their
regret at • having been misled into desertion. of Sir
Roert Peel, and since the humiliation to which
they were exposed in December last, when at the
end of a six years' mutiny they heard every prin-
ciple of that illustrious statesman practically adopt-
ed by Mr. Disraeli, these sober-minded gentlemen
have made no secret of their determination never
to be run away with again by any insurgent
genius. They feel that in the main the order
to which they belong has everything to lose and
nothing to gain by setting itself against the
common sense and general interest of the com-
munity at large. Free Trade has already begun
to convince even them of its compensating ad-
vantages. The price of agricultural produce has
not for a long time been so remunerative, and
even country gentlemen are beginning to under-
stand that low and just taxation is better for every-
body than high and unequal imposts. We believe
if such persons were to speak the thought which is
uppermost in their minds just now, it is an un-
feigned regret that the Peelites were not induced
to join Lord Derby in the place of Lord John
Russell. Between Mr. Gladstone's scheme for the
renewal of the income tax, and that of Mr. Dis-
raeli there is no substantial difference, which re-
commends the latter to the approval of country
gentlemen. Whatever faith they ever may have
had in their Arab chief, utterly died out -within
them before Christmas last, and of the two, they
would infinitely rather follow Mr. Gladstone as
their future leader than his more venturous rival.
To this it may some day or other come, and mean.
time we shall not be surprised at finding the names
of many respectable county members ini3sing in
the list of the division on the renewal for seven
years of the income tax. Like the tax they may
not, but they like the notion of a dissolution less,
and will not easily be induced, therefore, to neglect
their " heavy colds" or " urgent private business"
in the country to come to town in order to precipi-
tate a ministerial crisis.

If, upon the other hand, there be some gaps in,
the ministerial ranks on the present occasion, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer has only to thank
himself for causing them. He knows as well as
any man the strength and intensity of the objec-
tions so long entertained out of doors by men of all
shades of opinion to the undiscriminating tariff of
incomes. He knows full well the justice of such
objections ; and he must feel that, sooner or later,
they are destined to prevail. But he seems in this
and some other respects more anxious to walk in
the shadow of Peel than to emulate those practical
qualities of flexibility and adaptation which so
eminently characterised his master. There was no-
thing of detail, of shape, or form which Peel was
not ready to sacrifice sooner than endanger a great
object. Mr. Gladstone admits—as it is impossible
indeed, for him to deny—the prevalence and ear-
nestness of the opposition to an indiscriminate
rating of incomes. But, sooner than forego a literal
and unreasoning adherence to the formula of the tax,
as originally cast by Peel, lie offers to dribble it away
year by year, and at last to abolish it altogether.
Nobody, except Mr. Gladstone himself, seriously
believes that the latter result is likely to arise in
our time. Long before 1860 many circumstances
will have occurred in the natural progress of events
which may render such an abolition impossible ;
and long before then we doubt not that we shall
see the just and natural principle asserted of dis-
crimination between fixed and fluctuating incomes.

THE RECENT MANSLAUGHTER AT CHELTENHAM.—
We reported a few days ago the circumstances attending
a brutal attack made in the streets of Cheltenham, upon
a man named Richard Mann, by two women and a man,
who beat and kicked him in such a manner that he died
from the injuries. It will be remembered that the out-
rage was committed between ten and and eleven o'clock
at night, and that although the disturbance occasioned
by the affray occupied at least half an hour, no police-
man was to be found ; and the unfortunate deceased re-
mained bleeding in the street until three o'clock next
morning, when a policeman found him insensible, but
left him in the street for anothex hour before he had him
removed: These circumstances coming to the knowledge
of Earl Fitzhardinge, Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire,
through the medium of the newspapers, his lordship di-
rected that an inquiry into the conduct of the police
should be instituted by the magistrates of Cheltenham.
Accordingly this inquiry has just taken place before
eleven of the local magistrates, his lordship being pre-
vented from attending by an attack of gout, Mr. Lefroy,
the chief constable of the Gloucestershire constabulary,
was also present. It appeared the outrage occurred on
tie night of the Cheltenham Steeplechases, and nearly
the whole of the police force were in attendance on the
race course all day, so that the night police did not go
on duty until after ten o'clock, and the town was left
for at least an hour without a single policeman being on
duty. After hearing the statements of the police, the
bench came to the decision that on the night in question
the town was not protected by the police in the way in
wh'oal it ought to have been, notwithstanding the ex( u e
about their engagement on the race-course. ' They a s
resolved that "if steeplechase races again take place in
the vicinity of the town, the stewards or parties pro-
moting them should, at their own expense, provide the
meessary means for their being properly conducted."
THE OPENING. OF THE OXFORD, WORCESTER, AND
WOLVERHAMPTON RAILWAY.—The third section cf this
line, from Evesham to Wolvercot, near Oxford, will be
opened on the 7th of May, instead of the 2d, as recently
announced. The delay has arisen from the consequence
of a slip at that great difficulty on the line, the Mickle-
ton tunnel and embankment, •