The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-25 00:00:00

za•L'.

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LONDON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1851

We give in our impression of to-day the comments
of all the j,,urnali on the secession from office of
Lori PALmEasroti. We have heard various sur-
mises tai the cause of the retirement from office
of the great English Statesman, but we have heard
of none which are not in the highest degree honour-
able to the Patriot Statesman who, like his great
prototype, CneTnam, is at this moment inflni:ely
more endeared to hii countrymen than he could have
continued to lend the protection of
been had he
his name and fame to "the GREY Iniquity."
The Times states that neither foreign influence nor
GREY influence has been used to procure the retire-
ment of the English statesman ; to what influence,
then, are we to attribute the retirement of Lord PAL-
mas,e'rort ? We have heard rumours to which we
attach not the slightest degree of credit, but to
which this assertion of the Times would seeru
to give ;Kt air of probability, that there

have been other and higher influences brought
to bear against Lord PALMERSTON. We merely al-
lude to these rumours to express our unqualified
disbelief in them. With the accession of King
ErtsEsT to the throne of Hanover the solidurite of
Great Britain with every petty German Principality
ceased.

Christmas, in the midst of all its recollections, can-
not fail to bring an agreeable sense of political secu-
rity to the mind of every reflective Englishman. It
is well to bear this fact just now in our remembrance.
Its influence upon our emotions must necessarily en-
hance whatever pleasure is experienced at this season
o f n
viviality and social happiness. The thought
conviviality
that we are existing under the shadow of institutions
remarkable at once for their vitality and their libe-
rality, must perforce fill our hearts to overflowing
with sentiments of mingled patriotism and gratitude.
Added to which it may be as well occasionally to
summon these reflections to mind, trite though they
may appear to the superficial, because in the reverie
provoked by them we may each of us find new cause
for attachment to our Constitution. In spite of the
bickerings of parties, in spite of the contentions
of factions, in spite of the quarrels of cliques,
and castes, and classes, we may, as a
nation, discover in the truth here referred
to, the practicability as well as the advantage of the
genuine principle of fraternity. Among all princi-
ples, surely that is at this moment the most season-
able, and as surely it must be regarded likewise as
the most capable of finding in England its realiza-
tion. While in other lands it may be employed as
the parrot-like watch cry of the dreamers of insurrec-
tion, amongst ourselves it may be freely spoken as a
word of sweet and solemn significance. In Eng-
land we may exult with reason in our common sub-
mission as citizens to a Government based upon the
system of representation. In England we may
cherish the authority which, born from the will of the
people, aims at the development of their prosperity.
In England we may recognize, with a sentiment of
devout thankfulness, the maintenance of those laws
which yield their fruition in the upholding of the sanc-
tity of Order, of Family, and_of Religion. Elsewhere
those holy foundation-stones of society may have crum•
bled away, or have become pulverised by Revolutions,
but with us, thanks be to GOD, their very names may
be taken as symbols of adamantine endurance. They
are words, and not only words, but truths, identical
with the conservation of our national happiness. They
are truths, moreover, which add by their remembrance
a new beauty, a perennial joy, and an indefinable,
but no less appreciable, tranquillity to the domestic
hearth of an Englishman, be that hearth in the baro-
nial hall, or in the rural cottage, in the city parlour,
or the west-end drawing-room. Trite, we repeat,
though these considerations may appear to the unre-
Lcting, they may be judiciously as well as appropriately
summoned forth once more to our recollection—gar-
nishing our thoughts with no less timely verdure than
that which adorns the walls of home with the holly
and the mistletoe at Christmas.

Grateful for the protective influences discoverable
in our Constitution, we cannot meanwhile remain in
any respect indifferent to the contrasting agitation
in which other races are involved more or less near to
us in the different quarters of Christendom. France
especially, among all these various powers and princi-
palities, claims from us the meed of our most earnest
sympathies—France allied with us as the foremost of
European nationalities—France who has for seventy
years struggled through blood and terror, through
tears and calamities, through glory and agitation, to
the idol of her aspirations, the serene and inscrutible
Goddess of Liberty. Formerly, we know well
enough by this time, to our cost and to our shame, we
—ourselves a free people—permitted our statesmen
to interfere in the efforts made by our neighbours to
bring about :their political and social emancipation.
Latterly we know equally well that a return to any
such policy is diametrically opposed to the national
wishes of Englishmen in regard to the hopes and
efforts of the neighbouring population. Viscount
PALMERSTON was amongst the first to proclaim
the necessity of this calm and magnanimous
course on the part of the British Govern-
ment. It has been in :accordance, moreover, with
that declaration of the late Foreign Secretary that
our Ministry have maintained a friendly intimacy
with the administrators of the adjacent Republic, with-
out permitting themselves to interpose in any way with
,:he course of events in Paris. More especially at the
present juncture have the Members of the English
Cabinet reason to preserve an attitude of imperturba-
ble quietude in regard to the progress of affairs in
France, now that we have witnessed the splendid close
of the recent difficulties of that country by the chivalric
bearing of Louis NAPOLEON. Thanks to that valour
of the PRESIDENT, the future of his native land is no
longer darkened by the on-coming cloud of a new and
more than ever terrible revolution, which imparted
so many frightful anticipations to 1852 even before
the hour of its commencement. That cloud
of political embarrassment—charged with the
thunders and with the lightnings of
Socialism could not at this time
nave been dissipated but fur the daring coup (fetal by
which the PRESIDENT strangled the intrigues of the
conspirators. His promptitude wili-
nesshasbaffiedthe
of his antagonists. His out-spoken bravery has
led to the discomfiture of their base and furtive pu-
,illanimity. Impatient at the anomaly of his new
position, anxious to rescue the nation from its web-
work of difficulties, indignant at the dastardly beha-
viour of those factions who were transforming the
arena of the Legislature into a field for the rehearsal
of insurrection, Louis NAPOLEON boldly took the
initiative by his memorable proceedings of the 2d of
December. In so doing we have seen by the recent
elections—elections, remember, by universal suffrage
and by secret voting—he acted in a manner gratifying
to the vast bulk of the population. Nor could this by
any possibility have been otherwise, for in dissolving
the Assembly, in carrying out every detail of the
coup d'etat, in appealing to the people, and in
confidently awaiting the result of that appeal,
Louis NAPOLEON has not merely vanquished the
various enemies of France, he has done more than
this, he has re-established Order—he has saved Society
—he has preserved Religion. But for his coup d'etat
the streets of Paris must have run red with blood be-
fore 1852 had far advanced, and the torch would have
been lighted and the sword drawn, which would
have devasted the whole of Europe from one ex-
tremity of the Continent to the other. It.is for ac-,
eomplishing this much, it is for preventing they
horrors of this otherwise inevitable anarchy, it is for
calling again into existence an alliance between
Freedom and Authority that the PRESIDENT of the
French Republic has entitled himself to the admi-
ration of his fellow-countrymen and to the gratitude
of Christendom. Recognizing these most incon-
trovertible facts, the free people of France have,
through the ballot-box, and by means of universal
suffrage given the sanction of their approval to the
late events by according several millions of votes to
Louis NAPOLEON !

Appreciating the force of these occurrences, our
statesmen have only additional reason to respect the de-
cision pronounced upon their own affairs by the neigh-
bouring pypulation, and to afford the head they have
selected the strength arising from a friendly in-
L tercourse with our Government.

Reflections like the foregoing upon our own fortu-
nate ‘ecurity as a nation, and upon the newtawakeniu
y
K Prosperity of an adjacent people, are not,
we conceive, inappropriate on this day—the day
which crown?, the peaceful year of our Exhibition
with the joyful feetivities of Christmas.

influential
in the metropolis ex-
tremelytheir several depart-
mencommendable manner. The
discharge their re-
There are two Ifodiejor-----:----
useful and in
ts, and who, generally speaking,
ly
inufa ht
ihgehlieges are
.to a formidablecrpeeacttii:e icuonme tfi3Owntss
extent dcpendent on the one, and their personal secu-
rity an the other. There is no more respectable or
respected body of tradesmen in the country than the
publicans of London, nor does there exist anywhere a
more efficient or well-conducted corps of guardians
of the public peace than is composed of the members
of the police force within the metropolitan circuit.
If in any case misconduct be displayed on the part of
any individuals in either, it is incumbent on those
who possess the capability of singling it out for re-
buke and punishment to discharge the salutary duty
with alacrity and determination, in justice alike to the
compromised fraternity and to the public in general.
Entertaining these opinions we cannot reprehend

too forcibly the misbehaviour of certain of the City
police as brought to light at Guildhall in the present
week. It appears that these vigilant gentlemen,
passing along Coleman-street about one o'clock on
Sunday morning last, observed a light in the bar of
the Dolphin public-house, and heard a noise as of some
one moving about. They knocked and were admitted.
They instituted a vigorous search on the premises,
and found nothing irregular or unlawful. The land.
lord, not being well pleased at this strict overhauling
of his domicile at unreasonable hours, indulged in
some language at their departure neither compli-
' mentary nor prudent. Indeed it was evident, as we
shall shortly see, that no very cordial understanding
existed between the host and his intrusive visitors.
This insult to their dignity was summarily and unex-
pectedly avenged by the immediate arrest of the irre-
verent Boniface, who was forthwith hauled off to the
station-house, charged, and locked up for the night.
The capture was a piece of gross and unwarrantable
tyranny, but the committal was even a still more
flagrant violation of right. The prisoner offered—
and who and what he was must have been perfectly
well known to the officials entertaining the charge—
to procure bail, nay, to send home for 501. and deposit
it as a security for his appearance to answer the
charge of being drunk and using abusive language.
Nevertheless, although the offence was a bailable one,
his lawful and reasonable appeal was disregarded, and
he had to enjoy, perforce, the luxury of the cell until
his sick wife had to leave her bed, at ten o'clock on
the following morning, to procure his liberation.
Well might the presiding magistrate characterise this
monstrous course of proceeding as inhuman and ma-
licious. The propriety of the latter epithet was
rendered apparent by a very pertinent interrogatory
addressed by the prisoner to one of his captors, Mr.
Policeman 146—" Have I ever supplied you with
drink gratuitously ?" Answer—" Never ; and you
are not the sort of man to do so." This naïve con-
fession of villany offers a ready clue to the mystery
of such extraordinary apparent zeal on the part of
the blue-coated custodians. It immediately and
naturally established in the magistrate's mind the
conviction of a purely malicious origin. The de-
fendant was not given to " treat" policemen, or such
an answer would never have been blurted out. Not
only was he forthwith discharged from scandalous
detention, but the conduct of the pair of perambu-
lating spunges was directed to be brought under the
notice of the Commissioner, in order that it might be
made the subject of due investigation.
The Commissioner will, we doubt not, see full
justice done, and it might not be inopportune to im-
press on him the advisability of issuing the strictest
injunctions with regard to the conduct of the police on
night duty. They require to have a good watch
kept on them, for some few publicans there are who
think that "a drop on the sly" is a passport to their
favour in case of the discovery of an occasional breach
of the statute. No really respectable publican would
be guilty of currying favour in such a fashion; but is it
not too bad, that, because a well-conducted
man, who has carried on his business for
a period of four years without any allegation made
against him of disorderly conduct, or supplying
liquors after the specified hour on a Saturday night,
sets his face against the system of " standing Sam" to
thirsty Dogberries, he runs the danger of needless
annoyance, and, as in the present instance, of down-
right persecution ? Such fantastic freaks of office
must be put an end to for the credit of all concerned.
Honest tradesmen are not to be causelessly tormented
and dragged before tribunals on frivolous and vexa-
tious pretences, and corrupt functionaries must he
taught that their misdeeds will sooner or later come
to light, and draw down upon their heads a substan-
tial measure of reprehension, which will render them
a salutary example and warning to any of their call-
ing who may feel tempted similarly to offend.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The Constitutionnel has the following on the elec-
tions :
"We continue to give the results known up to our
hour of going to press:—Yes, 5,109,540; No, 500,900.
The majority obtained up to this time is 10 to 1.
The weather has prevented the communication of dis-
patches by the ordinary telegraph, otherwise more ex-
tensive information would have been obtained as
to the results of the Tote. What is ascertained, how-
ever, may servo as the basis of the most favourable
coujectures. The numbers now known give a still
weaker relative proportion to the negative votes. It
was yesterday 17 per cent., it is now reduced to
less than 10 per cent. We shall only make one rt flee-
tion on these first results, and that is that the vote of
the 10th December finds its real commentary and ex-
planetion in the vote of this year. It becomes evident
that both votes have been the result of a national move-
ment, of a spontaneous impulse of the people, and not
the work of the whole parties and of their chiefs. Tee
Legitimists and thteOrleanists not only did not oppose, but
they supported the election of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte
in 1848, and they boasted of having done so. They have
repeated a hundred times since the 10th December, that
the day on which they should withdraw the hand
which had protected the elect, he would again fall
into a kind of electoral isolation. We must be per-
mitted to say that the present result shows how much
these boastings of the old parties are worth. Legitimists
and Orleanists have had no weight in the present in-
stance. The least hostile among them have recommended
abstention, and the national movement manifested this
year has as much grandeur as that which astoni,hed
Europe in 1848. Consequently the old parties no more
made the election of December 10, than they have made
the present vote. Their former co-operation could not
have produced the result which their present opposition
could not prevent. Whether parties interfere or not,
whether they act against him or not, Louis Napoleon
Bonaparte is not less the elect of France."
The Government has received the following tele-
graphic dispatch from the sub-prefect of Tonnerre :
" The elections have terminated in my arrondisse-
ment. Out of the 82 communes of which it is composed
32 have voted unanimously, and 22 have only given one
negative vote each. People, worn down with age and
sufferings, and old soldiers of the Empire, who have not
for many years left their houses, had themselves carried
to the place of voting in the midst of repeated cries of
Vive Napoleon! Vive le Sauveur de la France!' I
shall not attempt to describe the enthusiasm of the people
around me; the following figures will speak more elo•
quently:—Number of voters, 13,873—Ye5, 13,478; No,
425; lost votes, 33. Comparison of the votes on the
10th December, 1848-11,667; majority in 1851-1,811.
To-morrow you will receive the general list and recapi-
tulation of the votes by communes."
M. EMILE PEAN has been taken from St. Pelagie,
and conducted to Orleans, in virtue of a warrant
issued against him.
" Various journals," says the Uwivers, " have
spoken of letters pretended to have been addressed by
the Sovereign PONTIFF either to the Apo3tolic Nuncio
or to M. DE MONTALEMBERT, and relating to recent
events. Such persons as are even slightly acquainted
with the usages of the Court of Rome, have no need
to be enlightened on such assertions, but for the in-
formation of the public in general, we think it useful
to declare that they are all unfounded."
The Consultative Commission met yesterday at the
palace on the Quai d'Orsay, M. BAROCIIE, the vice-
president, in the chair. After the six youngest mem-
bers had been called on to act as secretaries, M.
BAaoeuE proposed to the Commission to divide itself
into seven bureaux, which should examine the votes
given on the 20th and 21st inst., according as the re-
turns arrived at the hotel of the Ministry of the In-
terior. This proposition having been acceded to, the
bureaux were then formed by lot, and the first of
them at once proceeded to examine the votes of the
navy, the only returns as yet forwarded to the Com-
mission.

We find the following in the Presse on the subject
of the conversion of the Five per Cents :
" Our own information authorises us to confirm the
warning given of the approaching eventuality of a
conversion of the Five per Cents:"—
The Patrie positively contradicts the report that
the Finance Minister contemplates the conversion of
the Five per Cents. and the imposition of an in-
come-tax.
It is said that the new Constitution will be pro-
mulgated in the early part of the ensuing week.
We read in the Pays:—" Some persons have been
speaking at the Bourse of a measure of reparation
which, they said, the PRESIDENT of the Republic
was about to decree, namely, to pay the indemni-
ties due to railway companies and private
persons for the injury done their property
in February, 1848. It was said that a de-
cree was to appear in the Afoniteur on the
subject. Resolutions of this kind have no need of a
formal expression of approbation ; they are justified
by their spirit of equi y. The Government of the
PRESIDENT of the Republic, in thus inaugurating
GD
on II rt.e
MondayN liberated
the vote of the French people, elevates its mission,
and merits the co-operation of all men of order."
DLIVERGIER
A aA, l‘ I . Bi x
fromo ,
s and.t
Pel eneralagie.LEYDET were
The
Courrier du Havre states that it is in con-
templation to establish a French
factory in China, on
the plan of those formed by the English, Dutch, and
several other nations. This establishment will it is
said, be placed under the direct superintendence,of M.
DE M lONTIGNY, the Consul at Shanghai, aid
will render great facilities to commercial relations
with the Celestial Zuipire.

The Duke DE DOUDBAUYILLE, one of the chiefs of
the Legitimatist party, has addressed a letter to the
Gazette de France on the recent great political change,
in which he says :
" The means to which Louis Napoleon had recourse
have been employed, it must be admitted, with a deter-
mination and a cleverness which every one recog-
nises, however electrifying they may have seemed; and
if order now has the victory, as ought to be wished
in the interest of all, it must be attributed to
the bravery of the army, and the good sense
of the public. What is certain is that the Socialist
party, excited by leaders more ambitious than
devoted, menaced social order. That party is for
the moment put down. The Orleanist party, actuated
rather by a selfish sentiment than by general interest,
has just experienced one of those defeats from which all
recovery is impossible. The various positions which it
had seized on are now withdrawn from it. The Legiti-
mists of the Assembly—we say it with the deepest sad-
ness—led on by blind men, have not comprehended
their situation with respect to the country, and the
ration has just followed them, since they did not know
how to place themselves at its head. Louis Napoleon, in
the eyes of the powers of Europe, has for the moment
saved society. This is a fact impossible to deny."
Colonel DE MONTESQUIEU FEZENZ 4.0 and Captain
DE LOVERDO, both of the staff of the army of Rome,
have been dismissed from their employments and
placed on the retired list.
PARIS BOURSE, DEC. 24.—Closing Price..—Rentes
Five per Cents., 100 f. 80c.; ditto Three per Cents.,
65f. 50c.; Bank of France, 2,605 f.
SINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, DEC. 24.
East Indian, 20% —Great Indian Peninsula, 534—Luxem-
bourg, 3,A—Namur and Liege, 6;4—Northern of France,
16%—Orleans and Bordeaux, 54—Paris and Rouen, 2536—
Paris and Strasbourg, 1514—Rouen and Havre, 9,4—Tours
and Nantes. 7 7,;1 ex int.

THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 25, 1851.

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.
Britannia, 120, Captain Goldsmith, has hauled cff
alongside her bulk. The Sprightly arrived at Ports-
mouth yesterday at noon, bringing up a good many
able seamen and a barge and two cutters for her.
St. Vincent, 120, was undocked this morning, and
taken alongside the basin sheers to receive her two
heavy pivot guns, which she will carry on her quarter-
deck, having no poop.
Neptune, 120, is being rigged by her crew along-
side Portsmouth yard jetty ; she will have her estab•
lished lower masts and bowsprit, but will have jury
topmasts and yards.
We are sorry to learn that Lieut. the Hon. P. F.
Pellew, of the royal yacht Victoria and Albert, is
lying very ill at Totterdale's Hotel, Portsea.
Powerful, 84, is in the old basin at Portsmouth,
and will be docked on Friday or Saturday.
Retribution steam-frigate, Captain Warden, is re-
fitting alongside her hulk.
We hear from Tangier that the excitement lately
prevailing there having subsided trade was gradually
reviving. Her Mljesty's steamers Hogue and Dragon
had, at the beginning of last week, gone to Lisbon.
There remained in Tangier Bay but one French Go-
vernment steamer, a Dutch corvette, and a Spanish
one.—Gibraltar Chronicle of Dec. 15.
FATAL ACCIDENT.—Oa Monday last, at Ports-
mouth Dockyard, Wm. Hurry, a shipwright, was in
the act of locking up his chest, which was placed at
the edge of the railway, when before he could get
away he was knocked down by one of the carts which
was passing at the time with three tanks on it, from
the factory to the Simoom, the wheel of which passed
over and shattered his leg to pieces. He was conveyed
to Hasler Hospital, and amputation being found ne-
cessary, he died under the operation. Deceased was
a widower, and leaves five children totally unpro-
vided for.

PORTSMOUTH, WEDNESDAY.—The following young
officers passed examinations in gunnery on board the
Excellent, qualifying for the rank of Lieutenant, on
Monday and Tuesday :—Messrs. May, Edwards,
Porter, Burnaby, Creazy, Kidd, Kaye, Wilson,
Markhand, and Lomax.

A very successful trial of Jeffrey's marine glue took
place in this dockyard this morning, pursuant to Ad-
miralty order. The joining of the pieces of the main-
mast and foremast of the Edinburgh, 72, was effected
most completely.
The Sprightly steam-tender, Mr. George Allen
Acting-Master Commander, returned from Devonport
to-day with the seamen and marines belonging to this
port paid off from the Havannah and Fly.
The Simoom, iron steam-ship, got her steam up in
the basin to-day to try her engines.

APPOINTMENT.
WOOLWICH, DEC. 24.—Clerk—George A. Evers-
field (1846), from the Hercules store-ship, to the
Excellent gunnery-ship, at Portsmouth.
The engines of the Royal Albert, 120, are to be of
1,000 horse-power ; and it is said the firm of Mauds-
lay, Son, and Field, have received the order for their
construction, and also for another pair of engines, of
1,000 horse-power, for a first-rate ship• of• war, which
is to have her stern altered at one of the eastern
ports. There is every reason to believe that all future
ships-of-war will be built so as to be fitted with screw
propellers ; and it is even said that the ships-of-war,
especially those of the first-rate class, in good condi-
tion, will be fitted with auxiliary engines when an
opportunity offers, on their being paid off at any of
the home ports.

RESIGNATION of LORD PALMERSTON.
(From the Standard of last night )
The Morning Herald and the Times of this morn-
ing announce the resignation of Lord Paltners'on.
The communication made by the latter journal is
apparently of official composition. [The article from
the Times appeared in The Sun of yesterday.]
We have given this article in extenso, and, con-
trary to the usual practice, in this the most prominent
part of our paper. We have done so because, as we
have hinted, we believe the first half of it, if not the
whole, to have been written in Downing-street. The
apology for Lord Palmerston's forced resignation—
if it may not be more properly called the uncourteous
dismissal of the Noble Secretary—is the reverse of
satisfactory. Right or wrong, the foreign policy of
the country since 1846 has been uniform and con-
sistent, and as such, must have obtained the approba-
tion of the whole Cabinet, and we have certainly seen
nothing lately to afford cause for those who have
hitherto approved of that policy to condemn a per-
severance in it. There was a time when it might have
been, and, in our opinion, would have been, prudent
to restrain the ultra-Liberal propagandism of the
Foreign-office; but at that time the Cabinet
plainly had no disposition to do so ; on the other
hand, the father in-law of the Premier, Lord
Minto, was, somewhat in derogation of the
proper authority of the Foreign Secretary, sent by
his son-in-law to Rome as a supplementary Foreign
Minister, to carry by his ❑egotiations, and by his
personal conduct, the liberal propagandism of the
Cabinet much further than Lord Palmerston had ever
ventured to carry it. As among Ministers them-
selves, therefore, none of them had any reason to
complain of Lord Palmerston for having left this
country " without an ally, almost without a friend,
on the continent of Europe," all her Majesty's ad-
visers are in this respect equally guilty with Lord
Palmerston, and it were equally unjust and unge-
nerous to connive at his being made the scapegoat for
the common offence. We do not, however, believe
one word of the pretence, that it is the foreign policy
of the Noble Lord that has been the cause of his
dismissal or retirement, whichever it is to be called.
Several years have passed since Mr. Macaulay indis-
creetly revealed that irreconcileable hostility between
Lords Palmerston and Grey, which has distracted the
Cabinet from the first day of its formation, and no
session has since passed in which evidences of that
irreconcileable hostility has not transpired, inso-
much that year by year the public have been
told that either Lord Grey or Lord Palmerston was
on the eve of a retirement. Men are disposed to
believe that which they wish, and as Lord Palmers-
ton was certainly the most able, and on every ac-
count the least unpopular member of the Administra-
tion, the retirement of Lord Grey was more gene-
rally anticipated. The Grey party, however, it would
appear, have triumphed, but upon what ground it is
not easy to guess ; for, if Lord Palmerston's foreign
policy has been bad, the colonial policy of Lord Grey
has been incomparably worse—witness the Cape, wit-
ness Ceylon. It may be, however, that neither the
foreign policy of Lord Palmerston, nor the merits or
demerits of Lord Grey's administration has anything
to do in the matter. It has lately been whispered,
though not with any reference to a rupture in the Ca-
binet, that some of the Ministers had expressed a strong
disapprobation of the continuance in office of Lord
Clarendon and Sir W. Somerville, after the late ex-
posure of their misconduct in the administration of the
Irish Government. Lord Clarendon is a near connexion
of the Grey party ; and if Lord Palmerston were one
of the Ministers calling for the removal of that noble-
man, no more would be necessary to revive in exas-
perated bitterness the intestine war in the Cabinet.
Who the confessedly inexperienced young nobleman—
upon whom are to devolve the seals of the Foreign-
office—may be, we are unable to guess, any more
than we can conjecture why the Times, knowing it,
conceals his name. Is it to the Duke of Newcastle
the care of our foreign interests is to be confided ?
His Grace has earned some reward by his Newark
speech; but if the Duke is to be the new Foreign
Secretary, he would do well to take some lessons in
geography, for it may be remembered that when
Secretary of State for Ireland Lord Lincoln did not
know even the name of a principal county town in
that island. The Duke's style of speaking, too,
would ill supply the place of the ready elcquence of
his predecessor in office. The successor of Lord
Palmerston is, however, a matter of little moment, for
his tenure of office will be but brief. The late move-
ment is but the premonitory symptom of a general
change—" the beginning of the end." We
could have wished a little longer respite to
the present Ministers, but that cannot be per-
mitted and will not be permitted by the na-
tion. The victory of the pro-Papist Church-
deßouncing Grey section in the Administration is the
signal of its death. The people will not wait for Sir
Charles Wood's report of the cost of that disastrous
Kafir war, in which his brother-in-law has involved
us, to call for the removal of the man who formally
proposed to abolish the Protestant Church, and to
substitute for it a Popish Church in an integral part
of the United Kingdom, and who anticipated the Pope
in conferring territorial titles upon Popish bishops.
If the lately-professed Protestantism of England be
not a delusion and a mockery, England will not
endure his continuance in office, with his connexions,
as the ascendant party in the Government. Even
without the proofs that we have of Lord Grey's
enormous errors in administering the affairs of the
colonies, his Lordship's k❑own pro-Papist bias is
quite sufficient to awaken the jealousy of the nation ;
it it sees him the u❑balanced master of the Cabi❑et.
But Lord Palmerston has gone, and the Greys must
go, and Lord Lansdowne has intimated his weariness
of office. With what force, then, will the Noble
Premier carry on the Queen's Government? Lord
John Russell has much of the gallantry and enter-
prise of Diomede ; but it was held to be presumption
in the brave 2Etolian chief to say, " Let all else de-
part ; I and Sthenelus will carry on the war." And
Lord John Russell and his Sthenelus—Lord Truro--
will he hardly sufficient to measure swords with the
Earl of Derby in the House of Lords, and to con-
front the powerful Country party phalanx in the
House of Commons, his Lordship will have no re-
source but to hire the Swiss of Parliament—Sir
James Graham, so long piteously exclaiming in his
native dialect, " Wha wants me ?" and the other
forlorn Peelites. These Swiss are, however, few in
number, worse than weak in character, and sadly
dispirited. To replace the pro-Papist Greys by the,
if possible, more pro- Papist Peelites—would be but to
add weakness to weakness, which makes all weaker.
There is then nothing for it but a resignation, and
then will come a general election, which of course
must come soon, so that the sacrifice of office will be
the less. Looking at the whole matter, we cannot
doubt that the end of the Whig Ministry is near at
hand, so near that Lord Palmerston has reason to be
grateful for the circumstances, whatever they may be,
that have separated him from it, in a fall which cannot
be otherwise than disgraceful.