The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-08 00:00:00

L)i'DON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1856.

The visit of Lord PALMERSTON to Manchester
has been closely followed by one to Liverpool.
It would scarcely be judicious on the part of the
Premier when honouring the manufacturing, to
neglect the commercial, metropolis of England.
Had he abstained from visiting the latter it might
net only have occasioned domestic jealousies, but
led to serious misconceptions amongst other na-
tions. The cordial concurrence of all classes of
the population with the foreign policy of the Go-
vernment might not only have been doubted, but
grave mistakes occasioned on the all-important
question--mistakes tending to produce very
untoward results. When, however, it is
seen that the manufacturing and commercial
interests two such important elements
in English society are thoroughly united
on the grand topics of the day, and that
they unhesitatingly endorse the Ministerial policy
—the strength thereby conferred on the Govern-
ment will go far to prevent any erroneous
calculations based on supposed differences between
that Government and the community at large.
It is, in fact, the best answer to the recent
declaration of a French Ministerial journal—the
Constitutionnel—that it does " not believe that
the English people are prepared to ratify such a
policy, or to accept with joy, the consequences it
may entail." Two of the most important sections
of the body politic have already, by their enthu-
siastic plaudits, ratified that policy ; and although
they would deeply regret any renewal of hosti-
lities, or weakening of the friendly ties by which
we are connected with the bfave and magnani-
mous people of France, they would still not
shrink from any consequences which the steady
persistence in the course which the honour of
Great Britain imperatively marks out might
entail.

There is not, perhaps,, at this moment a more
popular man in the United Kingdom than the
First Lord of the Treasury—and why ? How
has this great increase of pul9lic confidence and
approbation been obtained ? Simply in conse-
quence of the bold and manly enunciation of
sentiments befitting kis high position, and such
as might have been anticipated from the PAL-
MERSTON of former days—the truly English
Minister, the author of the emphatic declaration
that " England had no cousins !" It was owing
to his bold assertion, quotei in our leader of yes-
terday, that " the duration of the Peace must
depend on the honour and fidelity with
which its conditions are observed." And the direct
application to Russia—" That Power which
brought upon itself the hostility, either active or
moral, of all Europe, by a forgetfulness of inter-
national rights and duties." On the due ob-
servance and faithful fulfilment of the very lenient
terms and stipulations imposed on Russia by that
Treaty will directly depend the permanent peace
and tranquillity of Europe.
These few sentences, already circulated by the
Press throughout the entire country, have con-
firmed friends and converted opponents. Whatever
minor differences may exist on points of domestic
policy are all merged in the great, the vitally
important topic of the day. Who will best sustain
the dignity, honour, and prestige of Great
Britain through the impending crisis, is
the only question which arises in the
mind of every true-hearted Englishman ;
and inasmuch as the views and opinions of Lord
PALMERSTON are eminently satisfactory on that
point, he will receive the cordial support of the
country until some variation between his profession
and practice be discovered. Should that discre-
pancy unfortunately occur, great indeed will be
the disappointment, and terrible the revolution
of sentiment, but we hope, we believe, in more
auspicious results. If left to himself—if unfet-
tered by sinister influences—Lord PALMERSTON
will faithfully observe the spirit as well as the
letter of his undertakings. Should he be coerced
into an unworthy line of policy, he well under-
stands what the exigencies of his position, as well
as a respect for his political character, will
require—and sooner will he surrender place
and power than consent to forfeit the
high position which he now occupies in the
estimation of his country. Let him still extend
protection to his fellow-subjects in whatever
quarter of the globe they may be placed. Let him
cause to be known to every nation, that a wrong
or insult inflicted to the person, or to the pro-
perty, of even the meanest citizen of Great Britain
will be as promptly noticed and vigorously avenged
as if it were offered to the most exalted in our
land. Either will be a blow against the majesty
of England—and will be treated with similar un-
flinching resolution. All we can add is our cor-
dial concurrence in the aspirations of his numerous
and important audiences, who listened to his in-
spiring declarations in the two great towns of
Lancashire—the expression of a fervent hope that
the Noble Lord may long be spared to his QUEEN
and country, to preside over an Administration
conducted on these statesman-like and national
principles !

A Feeler has just been thrust out—inquisitively
yet timorously, like a snail's-horn—anent Mr.
COBDEN and the West Riding of Yorkshire ! It
has been, so to speak, inquiringly intimated that
the Great Free Trade Apostle may not seek at the
next general election the suffrages of England's
most numerous, and so far in some sense most
important, constituency. Judicious isn't it ?
Perhaps it might be as well for one or two more
of our leading statesmen to take a leaf out of Mr.
COBDEN'S book—Mr. COBDEN, who for once again
appears to be wise in his generation. That is to
say, if the rumoured withdrawal from the proxi-
mate contest for the West Riding of the quondam
pet of the League be anything more than the
prying, nervous little Feeler aforesaid. Lord JOHN
for example ! What ghost of a chance in the
" wide, wide wotid," has the small political Jehu
who bath upset the coach now " many a time and
oft"—what glimmering shadow of a shade of a
chance has my Lord JOHN RUSSELL of coming in
even as the tail of the four successes on the occa-
sion of the next aggregate poll at the London
Guildhall ? And 80, too, with divers
other celebrities of
whom, we take it,
there will be a clear sweep enough after the
dissolution of the present Parliament. A dis-
solution not at all impossible in this approaching
year of grace 1857. When, for, instance, Mr.
JAMES SA DLEIR will be at last, of course politely,
chasseed out of Sligo ! When Mr. litimpHßEy
BROWN will taste in due season the bitter dregs
lying perdu at the bottom of that 70,0001.
"draught" of deliciousness—anything rather than
smelling sweetly just now in the nostrils of the

" goOd men and true" of Tewkesbury. When
Glas—But the catalogue might be lengthened
almost interminably : so fruitful have the last two
or three sessions been of tests to the reputability
and respectability of all ranks and classes of men
in the lower branch of the Imperial Legislature !
Wherefore, revenons a nos moutons, or rather,
emsaiNg back from the vulgar flock to one conspi-
cuous bellwether—(for contagious we do earnestly
hope the hinted example here spoken of may prove
in the "long run" among the iroXXot of "burst-up"
reputations !)—How about Mr. COBDEN and the
West Riding ? Let us believe and trust that the
Feeler alluded to is after all something more than
a mere Feeler : that " RICHARD" may so far be
"himself again" that he will display sufficient
sagacity to prefer retirement to expulsion, a volun-
tary submission to an involuntary disgrace. He
had sagacity enough of yore to recognise the wis-
dom of the old song about—.
"Never being off with the old love
Until you are on with the new"—

seeing that he originally declined being put in
nomination for any other place than Stockport—
and was only elected at last for the West Riding
"unbeknown" to himself while he was making his
memorable tour of Europe to the tune of some
80,0001. chinking down at home in the golden
money—boxes of the Free Trade Testimonial.
And so—the " old love" Stockport was deserted
for the blandishments of a rival of more showy
embonpoint. And so—as a fitting consum-
mation to this recent and affecting episode
in the " Loves of the Triangles"—we come at last
to the touching denouement, in which the faithless
wooer, the fickle Lothario of the " situation," is
threatened, in expiation of his erratic liaisons, with
being jilted by his last love, the false fair of the
West Riding ! A vengeance, this, for the snubbed
and despised Dulcinea of Stockport ! Well-a-day,
there is a NEMESIS, it would seem, even for Poli-
tical Bagmen ! And bladders are still liable to
burst ! And the rusty spur may be hacked from
the boot, and the dagger of lath broken above
the head of a mountebank—as significantly as the
golden spur was shorn from the mailed heel and
the damasked blade of Toledo snapped in twain
over the draggled plume and tarnished casque of
the haughtiest Preux Chevalier of the Age of
Chivalry !

The semi-official Constitutionnel has been se•
verely rebuked by the fully official Moniteur for
its undue interference in matters far beyond its
control and authority. No doubt its managers
thought that they were rendering good service to
the State in following up the hint thrown out by
its leader. But the wandering hound, who " gave
tongue" beyond the limits authorised by the
director of thg chase, and started in pursuit of
fresh game, has been promptly and effectually
" whipped by the literary veneur. The Lifoni-
teur only opened at the English Press ; the Con-
stitutionnel virulently attacked the English Go-
vernment The former contented itself with an
appeal to the good sense of the English people
against what it was pleased to term "the calumnies
put for ward by different organs of the English press,"
The latter also appeals to the same good sense,
but against what ? Against the Government
itself, which it indirectly accuses of being inclined
"to re-enter the lists, not certainly to assure the
execution of the Treaty of Paris, but in order to
tear it to pieces, impudently, before the eyes of
the world, with the view of satisfying an ambition
momentarily disguised!" This is indeed a grave
accusation, and coming from a journal known to
obtain much, if not all, of its inspiration from the
Cabinet of the Tuileries, would, if let t uncontra-
dieted, have gone far "to destroy the confidence
between the two Governments, and tended to dis-
unite two nations whose alliance is the best gua•
rantee for the peace of the world!"

In attacking the Times the Constitutio awl, to
use the homely but expressive illustration of one
of Queen ELIZABETH'S mayors, "took the wrong
sow by the ear." Our contemporary has replied,
in an article which we have extracted into
another part of this day's impression, and which
so fully and ably discusses the question, that it
would be almost an act of supererogation to add
a single argument to those which the Leviathan
has adduced. That article we earnestly com-
mend to the calm and attentive consideration of
our readers. It. will well repay perusal, inas-
much as it places one of the most interesting
questions of the day in a correct and judicious
point of view--...0ne that enables us to regard it in
all its varied phases.
But it also brought down on its head what to
it was a still more stringent castigation. It pro-
cured for the Editors the public reproof of the
official organ, which was doubtless accompanied
by a solemn admonition in private from those
whose wishes the Constitittionnel is bound to
respect and obey. It may be very painful to the
Parisian Pistol to be compelled to eat its
leek ; but it has no alternative, It must
swallow_ the unpalatable morsel. It may grumble
and make wry faces—but there is no help for it,
for it must pay the penalty for its uncalled for
interference and meddling. It may endeavour
"to ease its mind" by an onslaught on the
English Press in general, and the Times in particu-
lar ; but should it do so, it will scarcely improve
its humiliating position. We venture to promise
that the gage it may be pleased to fling down will
be promptly lifted, and that it will find a doughty
champion to contend for the rights and privileges
of British Journalism.

We can readily understand the vexation and
annoyance of the French Ministry at the indis-
creet and unauthorised intrusion of the Cons&itu-
tionnel into a matter wholly beyond the limits
heretofore assigned to it. As the :Afoniteur truly
declares, "to envenom a discussion is not the way
to facilitate its solution !" The Constitutionnel has
endeavoured to do so, and has been emphatically
and unequivocally repudiated. We cannot, how-
ever, regret its attack, inasmuch as it has elicited
from the Moniteur the distinct declaration that
England and France agree upon all the
great questions of the day in Europe, and are
only divided upon one of very minor interest.
Let the whipped hound then slink back to his
kennel, and henceforward abstain from yelping
after too high game, or trespassing beyond the
limits assigned for his action. He is only in-
tended to occupy the subordinate position of fol-
lowing with the pack, and cannot be entrusted
with the responsible duty of "leading the cry."

The Chief Commissioner of Works may con-
gratulate himself on having achieved a miracle.
He has not, to be sure, drawn blood from a stone;
that long-despaired of feat remains to be at-
tempted, but he has done what many will count
quite as difficult ; he has awakened the Metropo-
litan Board to a sense of shame. Eision teneatis,
he has put the Board on its—dignity ! His well-
merited and well-tempered rebuke has positively
had this effect. Its dignity ! That a popular
representative Board which does its duty is not
without considerable dignity, and ought to be
tenacious of it, we would be the last to deny.
But this Board, or rather the majority of it—for
we recognise good men and true among its mem-
bers—this Board stand on its dignity—the