The Sun.
London, England, 1851-02-22 00:00:00

pt'esents a third alternative; but before the Liberal p)rt:,
cis be reunited, the foolish anti-Aggression Wunder
must be abandoned. With sectarian disputes quc ted,
and an improved financial policy, there is no saying but
that the Whig Ministry might even yet weather the
storm. We scarcely think it necessary to conternplst
the contingency of the reins of Government lxing
assumed by Lord Stanley; for the mere supposition r:t
once :.agizests difficulties which, in the estimation of
the principal porsenage concerned, are, we doubt not,
regardid as insuperable. While partisans are deviAlg
" cries " fir the hustings, and including freo
trade in their advertising catalogue, they may b.,
well assured that the country is resolved, sod will
not even allow it to be discussed as an open question.
Even if Lord Stauley could retain officJ he must aban-
don his party, or persuitcle them to compromise all their
favourite doctrines. His pledges to support a vigorous
policy against the Roman Catholics must aho be re-
emsilered, and left uufulfflled. In our own criticisms of
the policy of the present Government, we have ever
sought rather to urge upon it the adoption of sound
principles, than to involve it in party difficulties. With
pledges given to toleration, to free trade, and to pro •
gross, it is perhaps not impossible that the Administra-
tion which has so long enjoyed the indulgence of Par-
liament and of the country might yet redeem its credit,
though it is certainly difficult to hope anything for states-
men who have contrived to be wrecked by deliberately
steering on a shoal, with calm weather and sea-room at

command.
HERALD.—Last evening the House of Commons
was taken by surprise when, in a full House, anxiously
expecting the resumption of the adjourned debate upon
the income-tax, Lord John Russell rose, and, without
assigning any reason, moved that the deba!e should be
adjourned until Monday, promising that on that day he
would state his reasons for the request. That the re-
quest has originated in some Ministerial crisis is evident.
At three o'clock yesterday a Cabinet Council was held.
It lasted three-quarters of an hour, and from that Ca-
binet Council the Premier proceeded to her Majesty.
After an audience of the Queen he came down tai the
House of Commons and postponed until Monday the de-
bats supon the Budget, stating that he could not pledge
himself that even, then he would bring it on, but pro-
mising that on that day he would state his rea-
sons for the request of postponement. It
would be, perhaps, useless to repeat the rumours
to which this proceeding naturally gave rise. It was
said with confidence that Ministers at the Council had
resolved on tendering their resignation—that Lord John
Russell had proceeded to the Palace for that purpose—
and that nothing but the shortness of the interval pre-
vented the announcement of their resignation from being
formally made to the House. Our readers will under-
stand the grounds upon which this rumour resteel, when
we place before them the paragraphs from the Court
Circular and the Parliamentary report, which give the
authentic account of Ministerial movements yesterday.
The Court Circular informs us that—"A Cabinet Coun-
cil was held at the Foreign-office, at three o'clock, the
summonses for the Council having beenissued in the fore-
noon. The Members present were Lord John Rus-
sell, the Lord Chancellor, Sir George Grey, vis-
count Palmerston, Earl Grey, the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, Sir Francis Baring, Sir
John Hehhouse, Right Hon. H. Labouchere, the Mar-
quis of Clanricarde, and the Right lion. Fox Mettle."
The same authority informs us that—" The Council sat
three-quarters of an hour. After the Council Lord
John Russell went to Buckingham Palace to have an
audience of the Queen." What is the course which the
Noble Lord proposes to take is the question which is in
everybody's lips. For the rumour that the resignation
of Ministere has been actually resolved on, abundant
confirmation is to be found in the circumstances. The
hasty summoning of the Cabinet Council—the full at-
'eedance of its members—the shortness of its delihera-

tions. nod the immediate proceeding of the Premier to
the Queen, all seem clearly to indicate such a conclu-
sion. It was but anticipating the inevitable result of
the es euing's debate, and escaping a damaging exposure
of the inefficiency of their financial scheme. Other
accounts, or rather, we should say, other
speculations, inform us that the Cabinet Council
euding in an open difference between the two secttoos
of the Cabinet, Lord John Russell has taken until
Monday to endeavour to reconcile those differences and
prevent the Cabinet being broken up. It is, we believe,
useless to speculate beyond the facts which we find in
the authentic record of the Court Circular and in the
Parliamentary report. We may have on Tuesday to
congratulate our readers upon the downfall or a Mi-
nistry that has betrayed all the best interests of the
country. We may, perhaps, have to tell of some 'of
those miserable devices by which the Whig. Cabinet
may continue to prolong for a very brief period its
doomed existence. To the great cause of the country it
matters very little. Their existenee as a Cabinet is
doomed. That Lord John Russell should on Monday
evening announce the resignation of Ministers will, no
doubt, give something of character to their closing scene.
Toey elennot affect to be ignorant that they have lost,
irretrievably lost, the confidence both of the House of
Commons and the country. If, in spite of that know-
dge they make an attempt by patching up their dif-
ferences, or even by appealing to new assistance, still
to hold office, the attempt may bring disgrace upoa
themselves, but cannot really injure, or even record, the
triumph of the national cause. The Protestant people
of England repose with perfect confidence on the convic-
tion that no Ministry that will mock the Protestant spirit
of the country can govern it—that both the Sovereign
abd her subjects will demand from her counsellors an
honest, a firm, and uncompromising course—and that
neither device nor artifice can prolong the existence of
any Cabinet which has forfeited, and justly forfeited, the
confidence of the nation. Whatever be the course which,
on Monday evening, Lord John Russell will propose to
take, of one thing we may be assured—that his Cabinet
is virtually this day at an end.
ADVERTISER.—There is all the difference in the
world between theory and practice. It is one thing to
lay down sound principles, and another to art up to
them. If saying a thing and doing it were synonomous
terms, Lord John Russell would be one of the best Mi-
nisters which modern times have produced. Unfortu-
notely, however, the actions of the Noble Lord do not
correspond with his words. He lays down principles,
but never turns them to practical account. Having laid
them down, he suffers them to go to sleep; and never, if
left to himself, would he disturb their slumbers till the
crack of doom. A remarkable exemplification of the
difference there is between the Premier's theories and
practice is now before the c -eintry. For the last four or
five years the Noble Lord, when hard driven by the in-
dependent Members of the House of Commons, has ad-
mitted the great defects Which exist in the Reform Bill,
and recognized the propriety of farther progress in the
pathway of Parliamentary reform. Time after time,
during the last four years, has the Premier confessed
that the electoral qualification ought to be extended to
large masses of the population, quite as deserving of it,
and as likely to exercise it honestly and efficiently,
as the better class of the existing constituency.
But it somehow or other has happened that Lord
John Russell has never, during all these years, taken a
single step to carry out his views on the necessity of
further representative reform. When pressed on this
subject, hoehas always, tinder one pretext or other, put
off the time for commencing the work of Parliamentary
amendment. And not only does he refuse to do anything
tiinaself, he will not, if he can help it, allow any one else
to move in the matter. Every proposal for legislative
reform is met by the Noble Lord, under some pretext or
other, with the most strenuous opposition which Govern-
ment can offer it. When household suffrage is proposed,
the motion is opposed on the ground that it is too vague.
When two or three measures are proposed at once, they
are re isted on the ground that they ought to be sub-
mitted to the House in detail, or rather that each pro-
pesition ought to be brought before the House singly.
Tree pretext fur the opposition Is, that more than one
proposition in favour of popular progress cannot be ad-
veetsgeously considered at a time. If measures of
reform are brought in after the middle of the session,

the pretext for refusing them a hearing is, that
is thou too late in the session to admit of their
being carried. A discussion on the quesiion would he
a mere waste of the time of Parliament, when no preaa
tical result can follow. It some popular representative
sexes time by the forelock, end does not allow more
thee a fortnight of the session to elapse, without intro-
ducing a measure of legislative reform, Lord John Rus-
sell, inexhaustible in his resources for evading his own
virtu it promises, pleads hard as a reason why the motion
ought to he negatived, that the Ministers have other bu-
siness chalked out for the House, which will fully occupy
the kessioa. This was the shift to which the Noble Lord
resorted on Thursday, when opposing the motion of Mr.
Locke King for the extension of the ten-pound qualifica-
tion to the counties. It is pitiable to sec the Prime
Minister of a great country like England capable of
timing recourse to such discreditable expedients. It
lowers the national character in the eyes of foreigners;
for the poople are, unhappily, always iden-
tified by other nations with the Government.
It would bo infinitely more manly on the part of
the Noble Lord to say at once, that he is hostile to all
farther reforms. But he has not the candour or cour-
age to do that. He still endeavours to sustain the cha-
racter of reformer, though not having the slightest
pretensions to it. He has not a single yearning
after popular progress in his little Whiggish heart.
Secretly, he abhors real reform. He is called the Mi-
nister of Finality. We verily believe ho would, if he
dare, show by his conduct that he is the Minister of
Retrogression. Under his Administration the country,
is, indeed, retrograding. Every succeeding year sees
‘he constituencies of boroughs diminishing in large
numbers. We have the prospect before us, unless some-
thing be done to arrest the process of retrogression,
of seeing some of our populous towns so many no-
mination burougha. Lord John Russell and his Whig
colleagues are practising a gross deception on the country.
They profess attachment to the cause of popular progress,
but they cherish none. They are hostile to any further
advancement on the road to representative reform. The
Premier will not only never move an inch in an onward
course, but he will, if he can, drive the country back to
the state of things which existed prior to 1832. He is
the Miaister of false pretences. As such, his Cabinet
has been tolerated too long. The people have borne with
him and his Government, because they were unwilling
to come to the conclusion that he was deceiving them.
This is the result of the generosity of the national cha-
racter. Bat there are limits to generosity. However
disposed we may be to take the most generous view of
the Premier's political character, there are facts and evi-
dence so utterly conclusive against him, that we can-
not, if we would, resist their force. We are compelled to
believe that he has abused the confidence, and taken an
unworthy advantage of the generosity of an unsuspiciousNoble
people. 'rhe great and invariable sins of the
Lord has been to retain Office with the least possible
amount of concession to the' popular demand. If he
ever brought forward a really liberal measure, it was
wrung from him by circumstances. It was not the fruit
of any affection for • popular •prineiples; •it was extorted
from hits by conaiderations of expediency. Re hay