The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

THE CHANGES IN THE MINISTRY.
(Front the Daily News )
There are two or three considerations connected
with the recent change in the Cabinet that deserve
a serious notice, for they affect the character and
stabilty of
the Cabinet, and the situation of the
country.
First of all, no congratulations are addressed to
Lord Palmerston on having secured the services of
the Marquis of Clanricarde in the political govern-
ment of the empire. Lord Palmerston's moat de-
voted organs in the press are silent as the grave ;
they have not one word to utter on the occasion ;
they shun the subject ; not even the reproaches of
their opponents can extort a word of excuse,
apology, explanation, much less praise. There is,
then, it "eine
subserviency of a point beyond which the political
the Government journals will not
descend, and that point has been-reached by Lord
Palmerston.
In the second place, no public man, no politician
of eminence or sagacity, no person with any posi-
tion in life, no one possessing a particle of serious-
ness, earnestness, or regard fur the public welfare,
but expresses astonishment at this act of Lord
Palmerston. At clubs, in private society, in all
public places, the feeling is the same. Everywhere
the inquiries are—" What can have been the
motive t what does it mean 1 is Lord Palmerston
intoxicated with success ? or has he been subjected
to influences he could not control !" Neither the
r warmest admirer, nor the most indifferent
Liberal ; neither the bitterest Tory nor the most
lukewarm Conservative, can suggest a reason
or conjure up an explanation. "It looks like
insanity," says one man,
in-
stance,,ltis of Palmerston's "It is another
levity," remarks a second.
some approaching catas-
trophe," exclaims a third. But with all alike,
the hardy caprice of Lord Palmerston in passing
prelude
o f
over respectability, character, and talent, in order
to light on—Lord Clanricarde, is perfectly in-
; explicable.
In the third place it is to be remarked that the
choice is Lord Palmerston's own aat. In such
appointments there are no common ministerial re-
sponsibility in eabir ets. The Prime Minister
selects his own colleagues ; and on this occasion
Lord Palmerston made no exception to the general
rule. It has been made a complaint against Lord
John Russell that while Prime Minister ho once
or twice kept his cabinet in ignorance of his inten-
tions, and took the public into his confidence be-
fore them. If so, Lord. John no longer stands
alone in this respect ; for it is apparent that the ap-
pointment of the new Lord Privy Seal came with as
much surprise on several:members of the Palmer-
ston Cabinet as it did on the public. Loyalty to
their chief may forbid any vain attempt to undo an
accomplished fact, and may keep together a cabinet
which the accomplishment of that fact has mortally
woundel, brit the mortification of the country is
not greater than that of Lord Palineiston's col-
leagues.
And lastly, it is to be observed that on that
section of Liberal politicians which have hitherto
felt itself bound, by what it deemed to be con-
siderations of public duty,lto give the present Go-
vernment more support than it really deserved,
the effect of this appointment has been seriously to
diminish, if not entirely to destroy, all activity and
earnest interes.. in the Cabinet over which Lord
Palmerston presides. On this point we speak with
a knowledge of opinions most reluctantly but
seriously expressed. Interest has been converted