The Sun.
London, England, 1849-02-03 00:00:00

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lUrlt n I I Mt,

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1849.

In consequence of the masterly speech delivered
last evening in the House of Commons by Lord
PALMERSTON, the amendment of the Hon. Gentle-
man the Member for Buckinghamshire was with-
drawn—a majority of 141 having rejected the propo.
aition for an adjournment. Nothing could by possi-
bility have been more complete and triumphant than
the vindication of the foreign policy of her MA-
JESTT'S Government by the Noble Statesman at the
head of that department. I%lor can this be any matter
of surprise to those who have scanned without preju-
dice the conduct of that great diplomatist during the
unprecedented turmoils and the bewildering difficul-
ties of the year through which we have just
passed—the terrible and memorable epoch which
will be known for ever afterwards in
history as the Year of 'Revolutions. To say that the
Chief Secretary at the Foreign-office has so acted as to
prevent England from becoming embroiled with other
nations in the midst of such astounding movements,
and of such infuriated passions, would be of itself a
noble and glorious eulogium. But Lord PALMERS-
ToN has done immeasurably more than this : he has
not only preserved amicable relations with the diffe-
rent Powers of the Continent, but he has done so
without any concession of the dignity of his own
country ; he has not only avoided the chances of
battle between ourselves and the insurgent
nationalities of Europe, but he has negotiated, '
in the character of mediator, so effectually
as to have produced a cessation of hostilities in
the northern and scuthern territories of the Continent.
By bringing about a timely armistice between Den-
mark and Germany he has raised an impediment to
the advance of the French and Russian soldiers upon
the disputed province of Schleswig, and in so doing
has saved Prussia from the everlasting odium of
having fomented, through its cupidity, a general and
disastrous war throughout the dominions of Europe.
By mediating, again, between the hostile Governments
of Austria and Sardinia, he has opened to the
Lombardo-Venetians a prospect of their pacific
emancipation from their existing miseries. By
interposing, in fine, between the Sicilian
population and the Neapolitan SOVEREIGN,
he has put an end to a barbarous and desolating sys-
tem of warfare, he has saved Palermo from the fate
of a bombardment as cruel and destructive as that
which transformed the beautiful city of Messina into
a heap of smouldering ashes, and he has traced out a
channel such as may lead to the permanent and satis-
factory adjustment of difficulties which must other-
wise have been jumbled into inextricable confusion.
For these proceedings—proceedings so creditable to
the Minister and so honourable to the Country—we
have all along congratulated the Noble Viscount at
the head of the Foreign Department. Last night
they were recapitulated by him with a candour
and lucidity such as rendered further opposition
ridiculous. Not even Mr. DAVID URC.THART._
monomaniac as he is upon the subject of Lord PAL.
MERSTON—couId have had the impertinent temerity
to assail the foreign policy of the Cabinet, while the
House was yet digesting the arguments and brooding
over the declarations of that traduced but patriotic
Administrator.

Alluding to the course adopted by the Republican
Government of France in regard to the maintenance
of a friendly disposition between that country and
Great Britain, the Foreign Secretary passed a re-
markable and deserved panegyric upon the successive
statesmen wbo have presided Over the destinies
of that democracy since the days of last
February. And, referring to the absurd
charge of precipitation, because an ambassador had
been accredited to the Republic Administration of
CAvAioNAc, he maintained that the relations between
countries were not the relations between Cabinets,
but the relations between nations. " Governments,"