The Sun.
London, England, 1851-02-24 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1851.

Nothing certain has as yet transpired with respect
to the new Ministerial arrangements. It is known
that Lord JOHN RUSSELL, thoroughly ashamed of
the financial" SCHEME" propounded by his blundering
colleague, which he could not have supported without
irretrievably ruining his already damaged character,
and perhaps in some degree irritated by the domi-
neering spirit of the " GREY" clique, and also by the
manifest alienation of many of the most consistent
Liberals, from whom he had heretofore received
valuable assistance, bad cut the Gordian knot by
his resignation in the hands of his SOVEREIGN.
placing
No other course was open to him if he decided to
avoid an ignominious defeat on the Budget—
a defeat which must have been productive of the
most injurious consequences to the entire country, '
as giving an apparent triumph. to the friends and par-
tisans of commercial restrictions and selfish mono-
polies. With the existing Cabinet he cculo not hope to
conduct the affairs of the nation with credit to him-
self or advantage to the community. Nor
could he of his own authority dispense with
the services ( ! ) of two at leac.l of the members of
his Administration without the special sanction of
her MAJEsrv. It is clear that this resolution on his
part was 'nastily formed and as rapidly carried into
execution. Several Ministers—the 'Marquis of LANS-
DOWNE and Earls CARLISLE and MlNTO—were absent
from the Cabinet Council held on Friday, whose
presence would unquestionably have been secured
if a step of such vast importance had been
previously contemplated. It must, therefore, have
Sprung from the proceeding-, at that rcry Council,
and probably arose from the undue pertinacity with
yebieh the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his
Emily PArtY insisted on retaining the "rREcZOuS

BUDGET," and remaining deaf to the voice of public
opinion. Nothing, however, was concluded at the
audience with her MAJESTY which immediately fol-
lowed the seance of Ministers. An adjournment
was accordingly asked for from the House of Com-
mons to afford time for further deliberation. On
Saturday morning, the Marquis of LANSDOWNE ar-
rived from Bowood Park, and proceeded forthwith to
Buckingham Palace ; Lord JOHN RussELL speedily-
was in attendance, and her MAJESTY granted a pro-
longed interview to the Ministerial leaders in the two
branches of the Legislature. Immediately after their
departure an urgent dispatch was forwarded to Lord
STANLEY, who soon afterwards, at three o'clock, was
admitted to an audience, which lasted more than
an hour. This would appear to indicate that
the Protectionist chief was consulted as to the
possibility of his forming a Government,
if he should be sufficiently daring to venture on the
rash experiment. The organ of the party stoutly as-
serts that his Lordship was entrusted with full autho-
rity to form a Ministry, that he undertook the task,
and that at this moment the commission remains in
his hands. We suspect, however, that " the wish
was father to the thought," and that the matter was
not quite so clear as our Contemporary represents it.
Scarcely had the Noble Lord left the Presence Cham-
ber, when her MAJESTY dispatched a second missive
to him ; and shortly afterwards a note was forwarded
to the Earl of ABERDEEN from Prince ALBERT, re-
questing his attendance at the Palace. It would appear
as if the last-mentioned Peer was invited to discuss
the possibility of a fusion with the more Liberal por-
tion of the Peel party, rather than to take any part
himself in the new Cabinet. Lord JOHN shortly
afterwards had a conference of two hours' duration with
her MAJESTY. He had scarcely departed when a
reply arrived from Lord STANLEY to her MAJESTY'S
second communication, which was speedily followed
by Lord ABERDEEN, who continued in consul-
tation with the Royal couple until midnight.
Yesterday morning the Noble Earl had an interview
with Sir JAMES GRAHAM, and afterwards, accompa-
nied by the Right Hon. Baronet, waited on Lord
JOHN RUSSELL, and at a later period of the day he
visited Lord STANLEY, at his residence in St. James's-
square, and eventually spent some hours in the even-
ing at Buckingham Palace with her MAJESTY. Such
is the real state of affairs, and we do not suppose that
the public curiosity will be satisfied this evening
by hearing of any definite arrangement being
concluded. Meanwhile there is great anxiety among
the subordinates of the different parties, and great ac-
tivity on the part of their leaders. Lord STANLEY
has written to the Right Hon. W. E. GLADSTONE to
Paris, while the Earl of CLARENDON has been sent
fur to Ireland.

We still, then, adhere to the opinion that we ex-
pressed on Saturday, that there will not be a total
change, but merely a modification of the Ministry,
which will be strengthened and re-animated by the
infusion of new blood, and the removal
of its decayed and withered branches. That
Sir CHARLES WOOD retires into a private station is
certai', and we believe that the mourners at his
political obsequies will be few indeed. No man ever
succeeded more completely in alienating the good
opinion and forfeiting the respect of the community.
He has erected monuments " more durable than
brass" to his own incapacity, and he will
afford another powerful illustration of the
" little wisdom" with which the affairs of
mighty nations are directed. With hiiia will depart
his brother-in-law, Earl GREY, and it is by no means
improbable that others will at the same time retire, in
order to enable an amalgamation to be made of the li-
beral section of " Peelites" with Lord JOHN RUSSELL,
Lord PALMERSTON, and the more efficient members
of the late Cabinet. We cannot think that Lord
STANLEY, impetuous as he is known to be, would
venture on forming a Government which could not
by a possibility survive many weeks. Any attempt
to force a renewed corn-law on the people would
be resisted to the uttermost, and might lead to re-
sults at which the Noble Lord himself would
shudder. If, on the other hand, he acted with
greater moderation, and regarding free-trade as a
fait accompli, refused to bring ,forward any mea-
sure for the restoration of the restrictive policy,
now happily obsolete, he would alienate many of his
supporters, and ere long be denounced as a traitor
by the indignant agriculturists. We believe that
the " RUPERT of debate" will not encounter such an
alternative.

There is nothing, however, to prevent the fusion of
parties to which we have alluded, and by which a
really strong and efficient Government might be
formed, that would carry out the important mea-
sures now in contemplation. Such a Ministry is
desired by the country, and such a Ministry
will, we believe, be formed. Oh for one hour of the
departed statesman whose loss was so bitterly la-
mented in palaces and in cottages throughout the whole
length and breadth of the land, who would with one
touch of his genius have dissipated the confusion, and
reduced the existing chaos to order and regularity !

Whatever may be thought by the more sanguine
among the aspirants for Protection, in reference to
the numbers who voted with them the other evening
upon Mr. DISRAELI'S motion, the narrow majority
remaining on that occasion to her MAJESTY'S Ministers
was in no way attributable to any want of confidence
in the wisdom of the free trade principles. The
question in reality, although having nominal allusion
to the urgency of agricultural distress, had no direct
reference to the conflicting merits and demerits of
the free trade and the protectionist policy. It was
simply in the bearing the division might have upon
the Government that so many Liberal representatives
were told out into the same lobby with the Hon
Gentleman the Member for the county of Buckingham.
Otherwise the minority would never have swelled
to such enormous dimensions. Of this the Country
Party may rest assured, that with all the sympathy
felt for the losses incurred of late by themselves, the
people of England have no disposition whatever to
revert even to the shadow of a revival of protection.
We are perfectly aware that a preposterous opinion
is just now being entertained in one quarter, that a
resignation of Ministers would necessitate an appeal
to the country, and that an appeal to the country
would render inevitable a triumphant return of Mem-
bers representing the interests of agricultural mono-
poly. Never has there been in our recollection a
more ridiculous illusion. Never were hopes so.besed
upon aerial aspirations. " The wish," in this instance,
is most obviously " father to the thought." Be-
cause Mr.Desßam gets, by hook or by crook, a
body of supporters in the House of Commons, reduc-
ing the Ministerial majority.to a mininum of eighteen,
his supporters are instantly possessed of a conviction
that Lord STANLEY'S name must speedily figure
in the Court Circular as a firmly-established Ad-
ministrator. The dreamers! As if the memory of the
League was a myth ! As if the crowning act in the
career of the late Prime Minister was a thing forgot-
ten! As if Lord Joan RUSSELL had never written
a letter to the electors of London, Sir ROBERT PEEL
had never opened the ports by an Order in Council,
or RICnARD COBDEN had never spoken from the
stage of Covent-garden Theatre, from the hustings of
the North Riding, or in the well-known hall at Man-
chester! The sudden oblivion which would appear
to have fallen over the minds of the agriculturists, in
reference to these rather memorable occurrences, has
in truth about it an aspect positively ludicrous. And
all this simply because, from a disgust cherished for
the present Cabinet, a considerable section of the Com-
mons was induced to vote for once with the forlorn
and powerless Protectionists.
Dissolve the Parliament now sitting, appeal to the
country even in its present temper, excite an dee- '
tioueering fury throughout the United Kingdom by
raising a cry in behalf of the suffering agriculturists,
and you would still find the constituencies returning
free-trade Members to the Imperial Legislature at
Westminster. Upon the veracity of this prediction
loubts may be entertained, but a fortnight might de-
,nonstrate its correctness. Under any circumstances
it can scarcely be imagined that the old and detested
imposts formerly levied upon corn and other cereal
importations would be revived after their having been
once positively abolished. Attempt to inflict even an
et= of that villanous burden again upon the
oommunity, and the consequences would be
soon visible in the outbreak of a revo-
lution. Never again can the food of the
peoi ' -le be made to pay toll for the purpose of keeping
up cur ariitocratic esiabliAmeate. Once opened to

the atrocity of that system, the eyes of the multi-
tude can no longer be blinded by the sophistry of the
monopolists. To adventure upon an experiment of
the kind indicated would be the most perilous course
any faction, perhaps, ever adventured upon—a course
provoking all the fury of a nation roused to a con-
sciousness of attempted spoliation. Even, therefore,
upo❑ the supposition that Lord STANLEY were called
upon to fulfil the responsibilities of the First Lord of
the Treasury, it would be frivolous to anticipate the
revivification of the protectionist policy. Ameliorate
the condition of the agriculturists the Ministers
might do, and ought to do—but impose anew the
abolished tax upon provisions they cannot,
they dare not. So profoundly satisfied are we
upon this point, that we view with a sort of
indifference the fluctuations of the official baro-
meter, satisfied that any change which may rid the
country of the GREY clique would be eminently
advantageous to its interests, and beneficial to its
constitution. To our thihking, it scarcely matters
who may succeed to power, if we can but deny to
the Earl of ABERDEEN the administration of Foreign
Affairs, and to Sir CEIARLES WOOD the Chancellor-
ship of the Exchequer. With Lord PALMERSTON
retained in one house at Downing-street, and Sir
CHARLES WOOD bundled out of another, we shall be
inspired with feelings of exultation. Indeed, a modi-
fied Cabinet, a Cabinet composed of the cream of the
best parties, of the leaders of Liberalized Conserva-
tism and of Conservating Liberalism, would, of all
things, be the best calculated to redound to the na-
tional credit, and to impart a wholesome stimulus to
the national prosperity. Concessions made to the
end that such may be effected permanently will
be the most brilliant tokens of patriotism that
can be afforded just now to the empire by its princi-
pal statesmen. Let them feel convinced upon this
head, and good must inevitably result to the country,
benefits flowing from the ve,ry dangers. of the present
crisis, unity from its enmity, order from its confusion.

The Bishops will have an admirable opportunity
to-morrow of forwarding Mr. Locxx li-I:so's efforts
to place our system on a more popular basis, by join-
ing, as rumour says they will join to a great extent,
in opposing the Bill of the Earl of ST. GERMANS to
legalize marriage with the sister of a deceased wife.
When a member of their own Church and of their
own House was interes:cd in the matter they passed
a Bill unanimously o legalize his marriage. Now,
when the Dissenters are unanimous in asking for
relief, and thousands of the poor are proved to be in-
terested in the matter, we hear that some of them will
affect to think that what was right in 1835 is wrong
in 1851, and that Leviticus xviii., 18, which forbids
such a marriage only during the life of the wife, is
to be taken in a non-natural sense.

If the Bishops persist in this course, and after en-
couraging all sorts of Popish practices among professed
Protestants, seek now to do what is the worst part of
Popery, enforce obsolete canons which are contrary
to Scripture, they will do much to increase the exist-
ing feelirtg of exasperation at the way in which legis-
lation is conducted for the benefit of the rich at the
expense of the poor.

THE RIOT AT YARMOUTH.
(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)
YARMOUTH, HALF-PAST TEN, A.M.
For the present all is quiet; the soldiers are still in
the town. Several of the rioters are about being exa-
mined before the magistrates this morning.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of Saturday
and of yesterday.
On Friday, in the National Assembly, M. DE KER-
DREL presented the report of the committee, which had
examined the proposition:of M. DESMARES tending to
regulate the manner in which the election of the
PRESIDENT of the Republic was to take place in 1852.
The committee, M. DE KERDREL said, was of opinion
that no necessity existed for taking the proposition
into consideration, since it was evident that the elec-
tion in question must be effected according to the
provisions of the Bill of May 31.
There was a rumour spread on Saturday that it was
the intention of the Bonapartists to proceed in grand
procession to the Assembly, to present a petition
praying for an increase in the dotatio❑ to the PnEst-
DENT of the Republic. No such procession took
place, nor was any such petition presented. The
Patric has the following in relation to this rumour
" Ju►t as we were going to press, we learn that there
was in circulation, in the bulimic of Paris, a sort of
manifesto drawn up with the avowed object of preparing
for to-morrow a demonstration against the Assembly,
and that this manifesto was attributed to the soi-disant
friends of the Elyseo. We learn, at the same time, that
the Government disavows energetically these proceed-
ings, against which it is reedy to take the most severe
measures. We cannot too strongly warn the friends of
order against these perfidious attempts, by means of
which the enemies of the executive power hope, without
doubt, to give a second edition of the affairs of Allah."

The Pays, after quoting the paragraph of the
Pairie, says :
" To the information given by the Patric, we can add
what has just reached us. It appears that agents of
excitement have been sent to the different lccalities cf
the banlieue. We could even give the name of the indi-
vidual who has been to Pontoise, and who figured in the
Allais intrigue. We entertain a firm hope that the
friends of order and of the President will not suffer
themselves to be drawn into so pitiful a comedy."
The same journal says that a grand review of the
army of Paris will take place on the 24th, the anni-
versary of the revolution.
The Minister of the Interior has forbidden the hold-
ings of a Republican banquet advertised for that day.
The Ordre, which praises the letter of the Count
DE CHAMBORD to M. BERRYER, proposes the Prince
DE JOINVILLE as a candidate :or the Presidency of
the Republic.

We read in the Siiele :—" It is very natural that
the fusion of the two branches should be everywhere
the subject of commentaries. It is rumoured that the
ex-Queen of the French, MARIE AMELIE, and the
Princes of the house of Orleans, have sent letters of
adhesion to the Count DE CHAMBORD, and are ready
to share his perseverance to aid him to accomplish
the undertaking of national restoration. The letters
are said to have been sent to Paris, and read in
grand ceremony in the house of one of the great
personages of the party, the Marquis DE PASTORET.
These details were reported in the Assembly. It was
considered that the Orleans princes had acted, under
the circumstances, more as princes than as French
citizens. It was considered that they had abdicated
a fine title against a very problematic chance. It was
said that the impulsion and example came from the
Duke DE NEMOURS. We know not if all these ru-
mours are well founded. But amongst the Members
of the Assembly who are most disposed in favour of
the amnesty, and of the abolition of all laws of pro-
scription, it was said the question becomes simpli-
fied—the Princes place themselves on one side—they
prefer a title to the country; the citizens remain on
the other—they prefer the country to royalty.' In
these terms, and under these circumstances, the pro-
position of M. CRETON may be considered as an ad-
vance, or as an act of weakness by the Royalists, who
are disposed to deceive themselves. The proposition
is, then, compromised before the Assembly.'
The Constitutionnel of yesterday announces the
resignation of the English Ministry.
The Evenement says,—
... .

" We have just received a letter announcing to us the
result of the prosecution against MM. Mint, 'toner, and
Pellault, before the Court of Assizes of Nievre. It will
be remembered that the cause of this proceeding was a
publication in which these gentlemen protested against
the treatment to which a representative, M. Malardier,
had been subjected in the prison of Nevers. The jury
returned a verdict of not guilty, and the three prisoners
were acquitted. This decision was hailed with loud cries
nf Vive la Ilepublique,' by the crowd assembled near
the court."

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, FEB. 22.
Boulogne and Amiens, B'jii ex div.— Central of France
(Orleans and Vierzon), 16A—Dutch Rhenish, 31/B—East
Indian, 12—Northern of France, 15—Paris and Rouen, 2514
ex div.—Paris and Strasbourg, 10—Tours and_Nantes, 51

SPAIN.

Madrid journals of the 18th have arrived.

They contain no intelligence of importance.
MADRID BOLSA, FEB. 18.—Three per Cents.,
3411; Five per Cents., 14i. Exchange on London,
30 60 money.

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