The Sun.
London, England, 1851-03-17 00:00:00

exTtninit

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 17, 1851.

It is said that the Honourable Gentleman the
Member for Inverness-shire, anxious to avoid occa-
sioning any additional difficulty to the already suffi-
ciently-embarrassed Government, has declared his
istenon of postponing his motion respecting the
affairs of Ceylon for some time, until the Ministerial
• crisis has paced away. We can easily understand
the natural anxiety of Mr. BAILLIE to bring the Cey-
-10-n vesticrn, respecting which he has taken so deep

THE

an interest, under the consideration of Parliament at
the earliest opportunity. The special Committee ap-
pointed by the House of Commons have already closely
investigated the various transactions alleged t-, have
taken place in that island, but they have not, we
regret to say, received that assistance from the Colo-
nial-office or the Government to which they were
entitled. It was, therefore, perfectly right that the
Chairman of that Committee, the gentleman who had
originally introduced the subject, and who had
exhibited the greatest activity, zeal, and intelligence
in his management of the entire affair, should call
upon the House to support its Committee, and
to act upon the report and the mass of evidence which
had already been delivered. The motion was, how-
ever, regarded by the Premier as tantamount to a
vote of censure, and he announced his intention of
delaying the amended financial statement, about which
the nation was so greatly excited, until the Ceylon
question had been disposed of. On Saturday we
pointed out the probable reasons by which the Noble
Lord was influenced in adopting this extraordinary
course ; he would rather sustain a defeat on any
subject than on one of finance. Gladly would he
get rid of the unpleasant topic until the Ecclesiastical
Titles Assumption Bill had been finally disposed of,
and the only obstacle to a junction with Sir JAMES
GRAHAM and the more liberal section of the Peelites
were completely removed, and he could rid himself of
the incubus that has been more intolerable to the un-
fortunate Prime Minister than the old man of the
sea was to the sailor SINUAD, or the abhorred hag to
the merchant ABUDAH, viz., the presence of
Sir CHARLES WOOD as Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer.
If defeated on Mr. BAILLIE'S motion, the farce
of " resignation " could be re-enacted ; a few
more weeks might thus be got rid of. Lord
STANLEY might again be sent for, but the impedi-
ments that already proved insuperable still exist. His
followers have acquired no great experience during
the few weeks that have elapsed since he deplored
their deficiencies in that respect, declaring that there
were " few, if any," who had the necessary knowledge
ofkofficial matters for carrying on the Government. And
if he then felt that he could not safely appeal to the
country or resort to a dissolution of Parliament, while
the Supplies were unvoted and the annual Bills—
the Mutiny Act, &c.—unsanctioned, his position
has not been in any degree ameliorated since. Indeed
the expiration of the income-tax on the sth of April,
without any substitute :therefor, converting the
anxiously-looked for surplus into a deficit, would ma-
terially increase his difficulties if about to assume the
helm of the vessel of the State. The " Heir of Derby"
would, therefore, again fail, if he should even be so
rash as to undertake the responsibility for a single mo-
ment, and a plausible excuse would then be afforded
for again resorting to the assistance of the Right
Hon. Baronet the Member for Ripon, and sacrificing
the emasculated and mutilated Bill, the " ridiculous
mouse" produced by the parturient mountains of
" Protestant feeling" and " national independence,"
so loudly vaunted by the Noble Lord.
It would indeed be but " a trifling offering"—by
no means worthy of the importance attached to it by
either party—to the negotiations carried on during
the Ministerial crisis, and one to which we believe the
community in general are now totally indifferent.
If it can be carried in its original form, well. Although
that was feeble enough, it was good for something ;
but we say advisedly that the abridged and at-
tenuated proposition now brought forward by the
Government is nothing but " a mockery and delu-
sion," that it is in every respect worse than useless,
and that it is absurd to occupy the public time on such
insipid trash.
The opportune withdrawal of Mr. BAILLIE'S motion,
will, however, take away this excuse. The choice
of weapons whereby to perish is no longer
open to the disheartened Premier. THE BUDGET
MUST BB BROUGHT FORWARD, and the country must
be enlightened with respect to the four weeks' labours
of Sir CHARLES WooD. We must know how
Schedules D and E are to be disposed of. We must
know whether the taxes on light and air are to be re-
tained in their present obnoxious form, or whether they
are to be really and truly abolished, without an
equally objectionable substitute being enacted in their
place. Above all, we must know whether the ridi-
culous attempt to pay off the national debt, by main-
taining the most obnoxious imposts, is to be perse-
vered in.

There is no choice, no evasion—Lord JOHN
RUSSELL must either at once repudiate his imbecile
colleague, and act according to his own better judg-
ment, or he must be prepared to meet his fate with
resignation, certain that the unanimous verdict of
the community on his defunct Government will lay
the catastrophe to the account of Sir CHARLES
WOOD.

Politicians of even the most democratic order
throughout France have been compelled all along to
acknowledge that the election of the Prince Louis
NAPOLEON to the Presidency was attributable en-
tirely to the devotion cherished by the people for
their imperial souvenirs. Upon any other conjec-
ture the triumph of the previously exiled son of the
ex-King of HOLLAND would have been altogether un-
accountable. It was manifest, to employ the expres-
sion of M. DE LAMARTINE, that France wished to
shelter herself, after so many troubles, under the
shelter of that great name which, after an interval of
more than thirty years, still exercised over the
imaginations of her children a kind of posthumous
dictatorship. Sorely wounded by the insurrection of
June, when civil war desolated the streets of
her capital, and when a patricidal band
of rebels smote the very vitals of the
Republic, France was carried away by a
profound solicitude to assure to herself, by some
means, however eccentric, the chances of recruiting
her strength by a period of tranquillity. Hence it
name to pass in the December of 1848, that a man
without any antecedents whatever as a statesman and an
administrator, was chosen by the electors of the depart-
ments in preference to CATAIGNAC or LAMARTINE—
in preference to the soldier who had crushed under
his heel the bloodstained form of Rebellion, or of the
poet who had, with his persuasive voice, called a
regular system of Government into existence out of
the chaos of a Revolution. Fortunately for the mul-
titude, their choice fell upon one not altogether un-
deserving of their confidence. Had the heir to the
fortunes of the BONAPARTES been some mere adven-
turer, indifferent to all the laws of public morality, and
resolved at all hazard to further his own interests, ir-
respective of every generous consideration, the
Republic would have been delivered over, bound hand
and foot, to the mercies of a powerful and, under the
circumstances, an almost irresistible aspirant for
despotism. As it was, the PRESIDENT turned out, to
the surprise of his deriders, a man of honour, courage,
probity, calmness, reserve, and circumspection—all
qualities essential for the happiness of the country in
its most embarrassing position, and absolutely requi-
site for its chief ruler, if he would maintain himself
against his innumerable assailants. Instead of con-
spiring at once to transform his household into a court
end to transfer his residence from the magisterial
abode of the Elysee to the palatial dwelling of the
Tuileries, Louis NAPOLEON showed himself from
the very outset solicitous to testify his scrupulous al-
legiance to the Constitution. His policy was perse-
veringly one of conciliation, of moderation, and of
amenity. All classes and parties without distinction
were admitted to his assemblies. He conferred pri-
vately with the Legitimatist and the Communist,
with the secret aspirants for a regency and the pro-
moters of the cause of ultra-democracy. He listened
to the arguments advanced by the dreamers of a
Socialist millennium, and to the sophistries of
those who
would fain have brought down upon the
land the penalties of a precocious restoration. From
the first
moment of 'his inauguration he evinced
i.readiness to listen to politicians of all colours, to the
reds and the whites, to the revolutionists and the
counter-revolutionists—ready to acquire from all
tquarterssecure
e advice t
somethingh k
at
like might
a revival appearof to
peace hi m calculatedan d
p r
pros-
perity s-
perity to the population. During all those agitating
and capricious months which followed • the retirement
of General CAVAIGNAC from supreme power, his suc-
and imperceptibly acquiring en
the responsibilities devolving upon
tic;e qs fuoari
)iVtaaescestweaidthily
an administrator.
So far as the conduct of the
Rational affairs was concerned, the lessons takenNAPOLEON
provedN
in this most
bdyiffieuthite Prince n c eau Louts
the
sciences
most