The Sun.
London, England, 1834-07-15 00:00:00

tinue as his colleagues. On many accounts we think
it might have been better that Lord Althorp should
have been the Premier ; but as the King has selected
Lord Melbourne, and the arrangement is understood
to be approved of by those who are to act with him,
we can only express our hope that it will be equally
satisfactory to the House of Commons and the
country. Lord Melbourne was brought up in the
principles of Whiggism, and was a great favourite with
the late Mr. Fox, and with Francis Duke of Bedford.
He is a man of great acquirements, and liberal opinions.
He is said by those who know him intimately, to have
nothing aristocratic either in his notions, or in his ge-
neral manners. Few men are more thoroughly acquainted
with the principles of political science, or less likely to
be swayed by antiquated prejudices or bigotry. His
conduct in reference to the Reform Bill was straight-
orward and manly. He has not bepraised himself at
public meetings, but his claims to popular support
have not on that account the less foundation. We
understand that the King's wish was to try whether
an Administration could not be formed of the leading
men of all parties ; but when this was represented as
wholly impracticable, his Majesty did not manifest
the slightest desire for the return of the Tories to
power. On the contrary, we believe that nothing but
sheer necessity will ever induce him to gratify their
wishes in this respect. It is not unlikely that Lord
Duncannon or Lord Ebrington will take the place
vacated by Lord Melbourne, unless it should be occu-
pied by one of the present Members of the Cabinet,
in which case one or the other of these distinguished
friends to freedom will most likely fill his place. Re-
port says that Lord Wellesley will retire, as well as
Mr. Littleton, and that Lord Durham and some
friend of his—Mr. Tennyson has been spoken of—
will go to Ireland ; but of this we can only speak as
one of the reports of last night. Mr. Stanley will sup-
port the Government on the general questions of fo-
reign and domestic policy, although he retains his opi-
nions with regard to the Irish Church. In these
opinions we think him very wrong ; but it is so far to
his honour, that he will not countenance the Tories,
and that he was adverse to a coalition Ministry. The
new Government will, we trust, be of one mind, and
proceed as rapidly as circumstances will permit in the
work of reform and retrenchment. The Tories have
certainly met with a new defeat, and we suppose they
will not be slow to manifest their feelings of mortifica-
tion.—Morning Advertiser.
It appears from various evidence that our intimation
of yesterday was well founded, and that Lord Mel-
bourne has been enjoined by the King to form a Mi-
nistry, not on the coalition principle, that is to say
without any admixture of Conservatives. It is also
ascertained that Viscount Melbourne felt so strongly
the pressure of the partiality shown by a large number
of persons in the House of Commons for Lord
Althorp, as to yield to the expediency represented by
them, of securing the continuance of the late Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer in the Cabinet ; and that Lord
Althorp has declared himself willing to revoke his
resignation of the preceding week, the effect of which
resignation, therefore,' has been nothing more nor less
than this—that Lord Althorp has irrevocably deprived
the Government of Lord Grey as its chief, without
relieving it from himself—as doer of no business in
the House of Commons. The last " reconstruction"
of the Cabinet presented to the country just the old Ca-
binet, stripped of four of certainly not its least efficient
members. At the time we held it up to public deri-
sion as a thing that could never stand—and we predicted
truly. The present "reconstruction" of the Cabinet will
amount, we fear, to somethino. like an aggravation of the

former one, exhibiting merely—another subiractionfrorn it
in tie person of Earl. Grey ! We have heard of a 74
being cut down, first, to a frigate, that she might sail
the betterfor it ; and, next, by the removal of a second
line of upper works, sawed away to a mere corvette.
It is true that such a vessel would be lightened of her
lumber, as well dismAntled of her guns, but what
sort of management is that which gradually divests a
man-of-war of her best guns, and leaves at last only
inferior metal to fight ,with ? There is no rumour of
any change in the form or materials of the Melbourne
Cabinet, as compared with that of Lord Grey, beyond
the mere substitution of the former Nobleman for the
latter as First Lord of the Treasury ; nor have we
learned positively in what manner the Home Depart-
ment is to be filled up. But if all the other Cabinet
. _ _

offices are to be occupied by their late possessors, we
must say, that the stranger who consents to succeed
Lord Melbourne is at least as much to be admired for
his intrepidity as for his prudence. The old, that is,
the original, Cabinet of Lord Grey, proved un-
equal to the government of the British empire, and,
in the storm of six or eight weeks since, four of
its props were shaken out of it : so enfeebled, it
soon lost a fifth : how can so crazy a piece of
mechanism as it now is meet the wear and tear
of even the most ordinary purposes ? Without more
than half its primitive binding powers, every element
of distraction and final extinction is as active as a
twelvemonths ago. Look at Lords Lansdowne, Car-
lisle, Auckland ; what business have such armchairs
as these to take up the room of useful and effective
Ministers ? The nation cannot afford them employ-
ment at their price, or at any price. We foretell as
we did in the former instance, that the Members of
the old or new Administration, unless they prorogue
the Parliament, leaving all great measures to take care
of themselves, or as Providence may hereafter order,
will not as a Cabinet bear up to the end of the ses-
sion. In the meantime, one word concerning the No-
ble Lord who has charge of this ricketty and ill-omened
creation. Lord Melbourne, we think, could not act
otherwise than he has done, so far as regards the ac-
ceptance of the task imposed upon him by his Ma-
jesty. The King's .conduct is represented to have
been, as it has often been, manly, generous, and con-
fiding. Whatever Lord Melbourne's misgivings may
have been, therefore, he could not, as a loyal gentleman,
bound by a consciousness of the kind and noble treat-
ment he had experienced from his Sovereign, repel the
Royal overtures, and decline without a positive demon-
stration of its impracticability, the duty which he was
solicited to fulfil. We are quite sensible of the em-
barrassments which must on this occasion have beset
the Noble Viscount, and we are impressed more
deeply with their seriousness, from the belief we en-
tertain, that besides 'the vexatious necessity imposed
upon his Lordship, of taking from a party numerically
strong in the House of Commons the same inau-
spicious leader by whom Lord Grey's Government
was actually broken up, and by whose defective ma-
nagement the public business has been so cruelly re-
tarded, some of Lord Melbourne's learned, restless,
and indefatigable colleagues have added by their as-
siduous interference to his difficulties, and run breast

high with the haters of a dissolution among the repre-
sentatives of the people, in depriving the new Pre-
mier of any option as to whether he would or would
not force a certain Chancellor of the Exchequer upon
the Crown. The eyes of the country will before long
be opened to the consequences of this manoeuvre, and
to its motives. There is a rumour that Lord Dun-
cannon is to be appointed to a higher office. Why not
have made him Chancellor of the Exchequer ? Will
any man say that he is not as able, as rational, as
conciliating, as popular, as Lord Althorp ? But his
appointment would have rescued the Ministry from an
absurdity—a leaven which seems decreed by fate to be
an inevitable ingredient of a Whig Cabinet.—Times.
The Constitutionnel is perfectly correct in stating
that inquiries have been made, certainly in the most
respectful manner, on the part of the Russian Go-
vernment, as to the object of our naval armament in
the Mediterranean. That journal was unable to give
Lord Palmerston's answer to those inquiries, which,
we understand, was to the following effect :_.« That
the immediate object of the squadron was to afford to
the ships of which it is composed the opportunity of
acquiring habits of discipline, by constant exercise ;
and that it was not intended to be at all concealed,
that they have been sent to take that exercise in the
seas in which they should also be best prepared for
immediate action, should their services be unfortu-
nately required in that quarter by the course of events."
It is not true that the fleet has received orders to em-
bark seven or eight thousand men either from Malta,
or the lonian Islands, as the Constitutionnel and other
French Journals have asserted. What might happen
if any exigency should arice is a very dl; event ques-
tion. But the exigency has not yet arisen, and, in our