The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-06 00:00:00

THE DERBY GOVERNMENT.

- (Front the Morning Herald.)
Eager aspirants for office, their advocates and
satellites, indulge in a strange kind of warfare
against Lord Derby's Government, and permit
their fierce resentment to betray them into start-

ling inconsistencies. The chief fault laid to the
charge of the present Ministry is their undeviating
success. Had they blundered on in the usual
fashion no bitter invectives would have been hurled
against them, and disappointed members of a weak
Administration would not have taken up the pen.
Jealous political crit cs have during the last few
weeks run through a regular series of predictions,
none of which have been realised, and accordingly
they now fall back upon the dogmatic style. The
British public are told that such and such things
' must be done, and that other contingencies are ab-
solutely impossible. In other words, the views of
a small section of intriguing legislators are to be
regarded as the will of the nation, and against their
decision no appeal is to be allowed. The Whig
clique that has so long mismanaged affairs are re-
presented as posse: sing a prescriptive right to office,
and for the leader of a party more numerous than
their own to dare to wield authority is " flat bur-
glary." In tones of solemn mockery the people were
on Monday last informed by a confidential com-
munication published in the columns of a contem-
porary that Lord Derby has no right whatever to
dissolve, and that if beaten by a factious combina-
tion his only resource would be instant resignation.
In these shallow platitudes the writer discloses his
own weak points. Nothing do the Whigs dread more
than a dissolution of Parliament. They are fully
aware that a general election would still lurthee re-
duce their rapidly-diminishing band ; hence their
spasmodic attempts to make the public believe that
such a constitutional appeal is impossible. The feel-
ing of constituencies has of la'e been hostile to what
may be termed intermediate parties. By interme-
diate parties we mean those who filch a little from
one opponent and a little from another, yet possess
no very decided views of their own. The Peelites,
who in some degree partake of this character, were
at the last general election almost extinguished.
Their chiefs—men of remarkable ability and experi-
ence—escaped the fury of the storm, but the rank
and file perished almost to a man. Or all interme-
diate parties the Whiga are decidedly the most
objectionable. Fighting • under. the Conservative
banner one day and under Radical colours the next,
they remain steadfast to nothing but their devotion
to place. The conviction gains ground that the
Whigs have had their day ; and at the next general
election, come when it way, fearful will lie the
havoc committed in their diminished band.
The horror betrayed by politicians of this school
whenever a dissolution of Parliament is mentioned,
cannot, therefore, excite surprise. A hint at what
they consider a terrible down threws them into
convulsions. Em-Ministers rush wildly into print,
and by every form of sophistry endeavour to show
that a dissolution is impossible. An attentive
observer of what is passing in the political woad
cannot have failed to notice the systematic matter
in which the conflict has been waged. The chief
aim of Lord Derby's opponents has been to raise
an issue by which he might be compelled to resign,
without an appeal to the country. "Let us fight
it out between ourselves, and not allow the people
to interfere on either side," has been the burden of
the song chanted by members of the late Cabinet
and their organs. The budget was to be opposed,
and so was the India Bill. L )rd Derby, however,
stood firm, and his antagonists quailed. They per-
ceived that the noble earl w:ts in earnest, and did
not intend to be frightened from the vantage-
ground. Rumours of a vote of confidence were
also circulated, but they all gradually died away.
Two ideas were brought home to the convicions of
the captious and incapable Whigs. Tee first
was that they could not by fair means obtain a
vote hostile to Ministers, and the second was
that the people were determined to rail' round
them, and see that they had fair play. In spite
of the furious denunciations of interested organs,
in spite of the animosity by which they were
everywhere pursued, and in spite of such dis-
graceful tactics as those adopted by Lord Palmer-
ston and his colleagues when Mr. Monselys
motion and Mr. Lecke King's; 'County Franchise
Bill were under consideration, Ministers are popu-
lsr, and their popularity increases daily—aye, even
hourly. Old prejudices are rapidly disappearing.
Go into what circle one will comparisons may be
heard which would not sound pleasantly in the ears
of Sic Charles Wood, Mr. Vernon Smith, Sir G.
C. Lewis, and a host of legislators of this quality.
The fact is that the people are heartily disgusted
with the Whigs, and have at length obtained an
insight into the deceptions by the aid of which they
have for so long a time managed to wield the ascen-
dancy. As an illustration of this, we nt ed but
refer to criticisms in independent j Jurnals, both
metropolitan and provincial, and to the undis-
guised sentiments of the majority of reflecting men
in all parts of the kingdom.
No Minister has a rielr, to dissolve Parliament,
except upon some great question. Such is the
purport of the pitt ous lamentation of a disappointed
follower of Lord Palmerston, published in the
column; of a morning contemporary devoted exclu-
sively to the support of the ex-Minister. WhaP,
we would humbly ask this grave anel sapient ant ho-
ray, was the great question on which, in the spring
of !ast year, Lord Palmerston appea'eal to the con-
situencies of the United Kingdom ? S9lllO of the
then Ministerial candidates supperted the member
for Tiverton as the apostle of peace, and others as
the vigorous prosecutor of the war. One Palmer-
stouian declared that China was to be crushed ;
another, that the struggle was at an end. Au en-
thusiastic politician even went so far as to assert
that England was not engaged in a conflict with
the Chinese Government, but with counterpart of
a certain English legislator—the restless and indo
=table Yeti. Lord Malmesbury's exposure, in a

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