The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-14 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 18C9.

Again Mr. DISRAELI has been attacked in the
House of Commons in regard to the one of his latest
appointments. Again he has had to defend himself
by the delivery of an elaborate explanation. Again
Mr. GLADSTONE, after listening attentively to that
explanation, has felt himself constrained to rise in
his place for the express purpose of exonerating the
right hon. gentleman from all shadow of blame, and to
pronounce his explanation of the circumstances under
which the appointment had been made in every essen-
tial particular satisfactory. Seeing that, in each in-
stance of this kind that has yet occurred, this has
been invariably the result, it is most earnestly to be
hoped that no other imputation of a similar charac-
ter will be lightly cast in future against the
right honourable gentleman the member for
Buckinghatnshire. Perhaps no man living under-
derstands the rules and the tradi:ions of the House
of Commons more thoroughly or more intimately
than the present Leader of the Opposition. Consti-
tutional usages, constitutional precedents are so per-
fectly well known to him, and are so entirely appre-
ciated, that anything like ablunder on his part in re-
gard to them, anything like a contravention of either,
partakes of the character of a casualty in the. very
highest degree improbable. Very recently it was seen
how preposterous the insinuation was, to the effect
that when nominating his late Private Secretary, Mr.
FREMANTLE, to the vacant office at the Mint,
he was advantaging one of hii personal and politi-
cal followers at the cost of the interests of an
entire department. And so now precisely in the
same way the imputation levelled against him in re-
gard to his selection of Colonel LOWTIIER, as Lord-
Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the counties of
Cumberland and Westmoreland, when it came to be
looked at was seen to be quite pointless and ill-fledged.
The poisoned arrow fell short of the mark. It did
not fall blunted. It never reached it. Incidentally,
by the way, Mr. DISIIAELI'S explanation in the
matter of Colonel LowTHER's two-fold nomination,
as Lord-Lieutenant and as Custos Rotulorum, pos-
sessed last evening an especial interest quite
apart from that question ; for inasmuch as
it afforded him an opportunity for the first time of
explaining the circumstances and considerations
which led himself and his principal colleagues, before
the meeting of the new Parliament, to place in her
MAJESTY'S hands their resignation collectively as a
`Government.

Referring last night to that particular period

—namely, to the brief interval transpiring be-
tween the General Election and the meeting of the
new Parliament—the ex-Premier sai•l quite frankly,
" I will tell the 110 Ise what occurred ;" adding, " it

is not agreeable to speak upon a subj, et o❑ which one
would natural:y wish to maintain a reserve and even
an entire reserve ; but it is much more important that
there should be a clear understanding in the public
mind upon these subjects than that feelings of any
individual should be considered." He then went on
to say "It so happened, when the borough elec-
tions wcr3 pretty well all over, it occurred to me, and
it occurred to those of my colleagues, whom I could
consult at that time—many of them being scattered
that there was only one course we ought to take.
We felt that the result of the General Election was