The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-10 00:00:00

wisdom of shamelessness. Had they had but a
particle of modesty they would have put the best
face they could on the matter, and have said-with
a smile, "Make your trial, gentlemen, and after an
election or two we will talk over the results." It is
mortifying to see public men degrading themselves
by such cowardice. If anything be un-English, it
is that two leading English Ministers had not
fairness and candour enough to say to the small
part of their Cabinet itself, and to the vast number
of their supporters who demand the Ballot—you
are welcome with all our• hearts to such a paltry
concession as the trial you ask. Why, it is but
asking us to give you a political halfpenny,
Well, we have done with the Whigs as Re-
formers. This paltry piece of proud injustice is
really the worst of all. They have no moral right
to reject such a proposal as Mr. DUNCOMBE'S
The friends of the Ballot felt only that it was too
little to ask—that the trial demanded was one to
their disadvantage—yet even this the bad con-
sciences of their opponents dared not grant. If Lord
Joiis RUSSELL and the PREMIER mean to ignore
their supporters in this way, let their supporters
ignore them. If they can run over to the Tories
to beat us, let us return good, as they deem it, for
good, and run over to the Tories to beat them.
Faction this, of course. Yes ; but who teaches us
faction ? The small Whig clique, who will per-
sist in beating the whole body of Liberals by Tory
aid. We do not like party and partisan voting,
but we shall indeed have no reason to resort to it.
We shall soon have a Finance scheme, and a Re-
form scheme, on each of which, without faction,
we only fear that we may have too much cause to
vote that it is a " mockery, a delusion, and a
snare."

In fulfilment of a threat to which we yesterday
made reference, Mr. SEYMOUR FITZGERALD moved
last evening for the adoption of an address for a
return of the military forces of all arms under
orders to proceed, or on their way from this coun-
try, her MAJESTY'S East Indian territories, or the
colonies, to China, and for a similar return as to the
naval forces under orders to proceed to the same
seas upon the same enterprise. It is especially ob-
servable that the returns in question having been
moved for as " unopposed," were agreed to by the
House without one syllable of comment from any
one either on the Government side or on that of the
Opposition ! And that yet, immediately after-
wards, the noble lord the Foreign Secretary found
himself constrained to inquire from the hon. gen-
tleman who had brought the motion forward—to
inquire from him as if in sheer surprise—whether
upon this double motion he (Mr. SEYMOUR FITZ-
GERALD) had really asked and received the sanc-
tion of any one authoritatively connected with
the Government' Mr. FITZGERALD'S reply to this
very natural and reasonable interrogation on the
part of Lord JOHN RUSSELL was in regard to one
moiety decidedly, but in regard to the other very
undecidedly satisfactory. It was to the effect sim-
ply that the Secretary to the Admiralty had agreed
to his portion of the returns moved for, and that he
(Mr. FITZGERALD) understood from the Secretary to
the Treasury that there was no objection to the rest
of the returns, namely, those relating to the military
part of the new Chinese expedition. Hardly, under
the circumstances, can it be wondered at that Lord
JOHN RUSSELL, as the Foreign Secretary of State,
should at once protest in regard to this latter rather
dubious intimation, " I must say I think it is en-
tirely without precedent that such a return should
be moved for without the Secretary of State for
War being asked whether he had no objections."
The reasonableness of Lord JoHN's remark could
only, as a matter of course, elicit the loudly-
expressed approbation of the House, and ex-
tort from Mr. FITZGERALD the acknowledgment
that he was quite willing to defer the returns as
to the military forces, so that the Secretary of State
for War might be consulted, if it were desired—
adding, however, once more, that the return of the
naval forces had been assented to, as he had before
stated, by the Secretary to the Admiralty. Hap-
pily, before this little contest of words between the
late Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
and the present Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs had terminated, Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT
made his appearance in the house; and, ap-
prised of what had passed, the Secretary
of State for 'War at once settled the matter imme-
diately in dispute, by answering very frankly that
he had no objection whatever to the hon. gentle-
man having the information he desired to elicit
from the War-office, in addition to the information
the concession of which had been already agreed to
by the Board of Admiralty.
It is not to either of these sufficiently
gracious concessions of information, howbeit,
that we are here in any way anxious to
direct public attention. It is rather to the
remarks that immediately afterwards fell last
night from the lips of the War Secretary that
we would now point more particularly—contain-
ing within them, as we conceive they do,
much serious matter for Mr. FITZGERALD'S and
for many another person's consideration. Having
intimated, as we have seen, that he had not the
smallest intention to obstruct the hon. member in
his endeavour to obtain any reasonable amount of
information upon the subject referred to, as far as
it might lie within the scope of his department,
Mr. HERBERT added—" BUT it was obviously inex-
pedient to make a public return of the strength of a
hostile expedition ." And, observed yet further,
" The hon. gentleman had seen the general
order giving the number of regiments proceeding
to China, and he must say he thought it would
be very inconvenient to publish Me return asked
for !" Surely in every syllable of this there is
reason ? Surely in all this there is simply plain
common sense? Supposing this to be denied, how-
ever—supposing the reasonableness of Mr. FITZ-
GERALD'S curiosity to be insisted upon—he ought
next, of course, by a logical development of the
same line of reasoning to move for accurate accounts
of the scheme of the intended campaign by land
and by water along the Chinese seaboard ! Ac-
counts to be duly sent in by General HOPE GRANT
and by Admiral HOPE—[the sanguine character
of their coupled names by the way sounding most
auspiciously !] accounts we say to be fur-
nished respectively by the Naval and Mili-
tary Commanders-in-Chief, to be laid upon
the tables of the Lower House, and published in
the columns of all the newspapers for the especial
instruction, in good time, and for the ample fore-
warning of the foes about to be attacked, be they
the Chinese themselves, or be they their wily Rus-
sian auxiliaries ! The proceeding, in either case
we mention, is glaringly opposed to right rea-
son, to common sense, to the most ordinary pru-
dence. Publish the exact particulars of the forces
you are about to send out upon any warlike
expedition and you may just as well
at once give to view an accurate outline of your in-
tended mode of using it ! A premature revelation
in either way is just simply ridiculous. It is, in
fact, about ' •
as irrational a proceeding as can well be
--and we are heartily glad to observe how energeti-
cally and explicitly, though, of course, quite briefly
and casually it Was reprobated last evening by the
Secretary of State for War, after it had been ear-
nestly deprecated in his absence by 41"16
" ble col-
league the Foreign Secretary.