The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-05 00:00:00

eA traing .:71,11it

LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1848.

Parliament has ',to-day received the signal of its
prorogation, and if the rapture of the popular repre-
sentatives be not as boisterous as that of the unfortu-
nate urchins of Do-the-boy's Hall on the occasion of
their celebrated " breaking up" for the holidays, it must
at the least have been accompanied by a sensation of
almost as profound pleasure. _Hansard can scarcely
afford us a parallel of a session so prolonged and so labo-
r:.ous ; and certainly the hereditary skill of the official
stetiograiphus, the GURNEYS, can scarcely ever have
been taxed more severely by the volubility of the
different discussions. 01 these peccadilloes on
the part of our Senators, we have already
heard more than enough, from the cutting
personalities of Mr. DISRAELI down to the
austere and uncompromising criticisms of Blackwood.
We have been reminded by the former that the in-
putation of garrulity which has been levelled against
the miscellaneous Members in the House of Com-
mons is so far erroneous, inasmuch as no one pro-
voked debates upon the question of the financial crisis
in November, and inasmuch as every reasonable op-
portunity was afforded to the Government for the
production of its four successive financial statements.
Granted so much to the leaders and subordinates of
the Opposition ; granted that in regard to the
Budget and the monetary panic those poli-
ticians evinced a rational and laudable leniency.
Yet—not a syllable is whispered either by
the Hon. Gentleman the Knight Representative
of Buckinghamshire or by the distinguished maga-
zine whose genius is racy with the inspirations of old
CHRISTOPHER NORTII, about the " missing dispatch"
discussion, about the preposterous attempt at the im-
peachment of Lord PALMERSTON, about the quibbling
efforts at procrastination made by the Noble Lord the
Member for King's Lynn, or about any other of those
desultory attacks by which the progress of the Go-
vernment measures were impeded by the factious.
So visible in almost every stage of the public busi-
ness have been thcse interruptions and interpolations,
to spiteful have been the insinuations of Mr. UR•
CIUHART, so impertinent and reiterated the calumnies
of Mr. ANSTEY, so peevish and blundering the statis-
tical quips and cranks of Lord GEORGE BEETIECK,
that the Opposition has assumed the invidious aspect
of a pcilitical Yrutees—a fluctuating annoyance—
presenting its poisoned prickles at every angle
like a burr, a thistle, or a hedge-hog—
squirting the darts of its invectives at the
with the adroitness of a porcupine—
assaulting the Cabinet under as many colours a& me
chjislion, and fighting with as many weapons both
ofiWve and defensive as the terrible bands of the
Rohillas. So conspicuous has all this been that we
might with some truth address the Opposition in the
language of VIRGIL--
" Quomodo teneam mutan tem Protea vultuna?"
How is it posible to distinguish the ever-variable
-..oentenance of the rancorous and Protean assailants
of the Administration ?

Apart from all these discourteous and ungene-
rous obstacles thrown in the way of a Cabinet,
alreedy embarrassed by the unparalleled disasters of
the epoch—the political perturbation of Ireland, the
distracted condition of England, the repetition of a
calamitous scarcity, the prevalence of a dangerous
gidemie, the absence of employment in the manu-
facturing districts, and the extraordinary duration
and severity of the commercial crisis throughout the
whole of the United Kingdom—it must not in fair-
ness be forgotten that a profound responsibility
pressed upon the conscience of our ruling statesmen—
the responsibility of maintaining the dignity of British
influence in the midst of twelve or thirteen gigantic
revolutions, and that, too, without embroiling the
country in a war with one or other, if not with all,
of the nations cf the European continent indiscrimi-
nately.

and written about the
INltich has been spoken
short-csomingts of the present u
or nothing has bowl said about the things they Little
hehyhave
actually accomplished. Let us see
w what
are
really among the most prominent of their recent
achievements. 'Rey have maintained the character
of England in almost every one of the principal
Courts of the two hemispheres, without exception.
They have preserved peace with the whole world—.
wi Ii Republican France and with despotic Russia—
wl*!l the sanguinary and tyrannical monster who dis-
grays the throne of the Neapolitans, as well as with
the licentious and eccentric roué who abdicated the
crown of Bavaria—with the affrighted sovereigns
of the German Confederation, and with the
popular princes of Italy. Beyond this, they
have effected the commencement of a salutary