The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-12 00:00:00

and are always ready to join in the aspiration,
that " the best man may win," but they will be
disgusted and exasperated by any appearance of a
Parthian or Guerilla warfare.

The Times and its imitators are particularly
severe on " this attempt to govern by a minority."
But where, we ask, is the majority, whose
leaders can administer the affairs of the
nation ? Lord PALMERSTON certainly does
not command such a majority, or he would not
be taking his place on the opposition benches, and
carping at measures which are unquestionably
better than any that he either offered or was
Lord JOHN RUSSELL has it
prepared to offer.
not or he might have had a chance of forming an
Administration ; nor does it rest with any of the
prominent members of the Liberal party. Perhaps
Lord DERBY has a larger following than any man
in either House of Parliament. This is easily
ascertained. The Whigs are divided into
PALMERSTONIINS and RuSSELLITES, either of
whom would rather see Lord DERBY in office than
the chief, under whose banner they are not serving.
Even the Liberals are not united. Mr. ROEBUCK
and Mr. BRIGHT have each friends who will sup-
port their views, and who are disposed to exclaim,
with reference to Lords DERBY and PALMERSTON,
a plague on both your houses," and that poli •
tical Ishmaelite, Mr. GLADSTONE--.WhO inasmuch
as ho has no followers, fights a la HARRY Gow,
" for his own hand," will turn that " hand
against every man," and assail each in turn,
whenever it suits his purpose to do so.
Where, then, we repeat, is the majority ? It
is nowhere, and it is fortunate for the people that
is so. A dictator may be very well during an
emergency, when everything must yield to an
overpowering necessity, and the nation must sub-
mit to one evil, in order to avoid another of still
greater magnitude. Should the nation pronounce
against Lord DEBBY, merely because he is Lord
DERBY, although his measures were all that could
be desired, it would confer an absolute dictator-
ship en Lord PALMERSTON, for at preseit the
choice virtually lies between the two, inasmuch as
there is no reasonable chance of " the calm
JOHNNY who upset the coach" being able either
to form a Cabinet or to hold office for a tingle
month. Whatever ho was pleased to offer should
be accepted " with bated breath and deep hu
mility," " the Conspiracy to Murder Bid"
should be swallowed, Lord CLARENDON
should be reinstated in the Foreign-
office, Sir G. C. LEWIS at the Exchequer, and
that talented and well-informed statesman (!) Mr.
-VERNON SMITH at the India Board. There is
but one way of avoiding such calamities, Vi 4., by
giving fair play to every man who may be selected
by her MAJESTY, or rather by Parliament—for
their choice virtually rests with Parliament—to
form an Administration, and to deal with him
according to his deserts. In other words, the old
party division should be forgotten, and " mea-
sures, not men," should be looked to by the chosen
representatives of the people. We shall soon
know whether this will be the case. If not, it
will afford another and a very powerful illustra-
tion of the gross ignorance of persons occupying
seats in the Legislature, of the real state of public
opinion, and of public feeling.

So Lord CLARENDON'S list victim is now free.
PARK, AS well as WATT, is out of King BOMBA'S
clutches, and will doubtless soon be home. We
say advisedly Lord CLARENDON'S victim, for he
has been " accessory," as the phrase now is, and
though not " before," yet certainly during "the
fact." Had Lord ivlaizazssunY instead of Lord
CLARENDON been Foreign Minister last July, end
Lord DIRUY been his Premier, we believe that
both WATT and PARE would Lave been soon out

1 ... ,1.

for imprisonment in a dungeon little better dial'
a cesspool. We hope Lord MALMESBURY has not
done with the affair yet ; he has still to show, by
obtaining a becoming compensation, the contrast
between his own and the CLARENDON tactics. It
is for him to prove to Europe that the peasaLt and
the mechanic of England is in the view of the
Peers of England as much an Englishman as any
Peer himself ; it is for him to reverse the impres-
sion produced by Lord CLARENDON'S complaisance
to despots, and to let the whole tribe know that it
is at their peril to insult England by persecuting
the humblest of her citizens.

Lord CLARENDON. knew at the beginning that
the men were perfectly innocent. His correspon-
dence, now before us, proves that he knew it, yet
we find nothing but the most ignominious conces-
sion to the Neapolitan Government of their right
to retain these notoriously innocent men, and to
try them by their law. Everything is asked as a
matter of favour, not demanded. When part of
the Sardinian crew were liberated, Mr. BIRBAR
was to ask the same gracious justice for Lord
CLARENDON'S two fellow countrymen. He was to
beg the favour of seeing the accused, as their ad-
viser ; everything on behalf of the innocent suf-
ferers was to be asked with the most maiden
modesty and bashfulness, from the brutal Neapo-
litans and their KING.

Brutal—we are not condescending to abuse ;
it were beneath us to waste our breath or paper
in abusing Neapolitan officials and their KING. If
Lord CLARENDON did not know from the pen of
Mr. GLADSTONE in the affair of the noble POERIO
that the term brutes as applied to them, is a libel
on the brute creation, he very soon knew, for we
all knew it, that their treatment of his two fellow-
citizens was of the most brutal kind. If he has
forgotten, let him take up PARK'S last re-state-
ment of the well known facts, and ask himself
what it became a British Foreign Minister to do
when he knew that two innocent British subjects
were being treated thus. First, they were tricked
into a surrender of themselves, and under pro-
mise that coals should be furnished to them to
depart immediately, consented to come ashore,
they were then handcuffed and carried off to the
Vicaria, a prison of which PARK says, that " it is
beyond belief that, in a European country, such
an abominable den should exist." The cells so
small that their mattresses touched each other ;
no chairs, of course they sat on the beds, such as
they were ; no light but through a strongly
grated window, through which they must not
look under penalty of being shot by a Swiss merce-
nary ! The cell, too, was horribly damp, infeste I
with rats—PARK caught seven in a trap made
with one of his boots ; bad air, bad and dirty
water, no ventilation, and a large wooden tub fur
necessary wants, emitting a horrible effluvia all
day, were amongst the other differences between
Lord CLARENDON'S own sitting room and the cell
How
byanwEritnigulgishawfaenw,
owfi tihiisthneegpw
l in Lands,
power
neglected victims.
Ines, to liberate leis countrymen from such a den
as this, could enjoy his own bed and meals vie
cannot conceive. We believe in no diplomatic
etiquette in dealing with such worse than savages
on behalf of our countrymen. Talk of the
" comity of nations"—surely it ought to be re-
ciprocal comity, and even if imprisonment there
demandmust be , twh
aa
ts
inott
shouldLor d CbLeit
imprisonment ? If Bourse and his subjects are
daeßelle7tNanedn tibtleeadl tilt;
, satisfied with these prisons) we may surely de-