The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—Lord Derby last night made one of his
best after-dinner speeches to the new ;Lord Mayor
and his guests at the Guildhall. It is only at long
intervals that a Conservative chief has the privilege
of responding to the toast of " Her Majesty's Minis-
ters," and Lord Derby, though three times Prime
Minister, has only for the third time, and at inter-
vals of years, spoken in the character of one to
whom the guardianship of the country is committed.
The late Lord Palmerston, in office in his youth, in
mature manhood, and in old age, bore his responsi-
bilities lightly. To speak as a Minister at a public
banquet was as natural to him as to talk at his own
dinner table; the proper phrases came unbidden to
his lips ; he was open or reserved as the case re-
quired as if by instinct, and charmed an assembly
by his frankness without uttering a word that he did
not wish to say. Lord Derby has many of the
same quaiities, but the exhibition of them is not
so spontaneous. He feels the respansibility, not to
say the difficulty, of the position he occupies.
Called suddenly to fill the highest post in the
State, and with no definite majority in the House
of Commons to support him, the present Premier
knows he can only hope to succeed through the for-
bearance of his political opponents, and that their
forbearance can only be obtained by earning the
good will of the country. Able administration and
better measures than their antagonists could offer
must be the trust of the present Cabinet, and they
have not yet had time to convince the country
either of their sincerity or their ability. Hence a
certain reserve which marks the statesman who
hopes to perform something, but whose achieve-
ments are still in the future. Lord Derby does not
break that silence respecting his coming measures
which he and his colleagues have kept through all
the temptations to indiscretion that beset a Minister
during the autumn vacation. If the preparations
for the session have begun in earnest, and Cabinet
Councils are long and frequent, the public must
wait for the result till the meeting of Parliament,
for nothing was extracted by the hospitality of
the City. We have no reason to quarrel with
such reticence. nine are still three months left
of the Recess, and the Government has a right to
take all the time it can for the consideration of its
measures. Lord Derby makes the usual survey of
public•affairs at home and abroad, and says, wiih
truth, that there are many reasons for congratula-
tion. In spite of the financial disasters of the pre-
sent year, the country is prosperous, the revenue is
maintained, trade does not flag, and there is abun-
dant employment for the people. There is, indeed,
something marvellous in the commercial vitality of
the nation. We have had a commercial crisis sur-
passing any that has preceded it in violence and
duration • we have had individual loss and indi-
vidual suffering which can scarcely be calculated,
and the extent of which each man can only judge
by the cases of which he has private knowledge ;
we have had an indifferent harvest, and provisions
have increased in price ; yet the national energy
suffices to to make all good. If no unforeseen
disaster befall us, we may hope that before the 9th
of November comes round again the traces of the
great crash of May, 1866, will have been nearly
obliterated. In the good wishes which he ex-
pressed towards foreign countries, the Premier will
meet with universal concurrence. It is clearly the
interest of Austria and Italy to live in friendship
with each other, and, now that there is no cause of
contention between them, to forget that they have
ever fought. Italy can only develope her resources
by sparing her people the heavy contributions they
have hitherto had to offer on the altar of patriotism,
and Austria must retrench or suffer financirl disaster
more fatal even than the defeat of Sadowa. Lord
Derby's references to the Atlantic Telegraph, to the
hospitable reception of our Volunteers at Brussels,
and to the display which is to be made in the French
capital during the ensuing year, were apposite and
well received. The most important point in Lord
Derby's speech was, however, the intimation that a
proposition for the arrangement of the differences
between America and this country with respect to
the Alabama claims would be favourably entertained
and that the duties of neutrals in maritime war
might, if necessary, be reconsidered. Lord Derby's
Government is, happily, able to approach these
questions without suspicieon or prejudice. During
the four years of the late civil war they
were out of office. It is among the advantages of
our Parliamentary system that one set of men, who
may be pledged to a certain line of conduct, or who,
at least, cannot easily and gracefully depart from
it, may retire to make way for others who are more
free to act. From the very fact that Lord Russell
and his colleagues had to conduct long and irritat-
ing controversies, and to come to conclusions dis-
tasteful to the American Government and people,

it would be almost impossible for them to approach

these discussions with a fair chance of success.
They will not the less, we hope, give a cordial sup-
port to their successors in any attempt which may
be made to remove a cause of offence which appears
to be deeply felt on the other side of the Atlantic,
and to achieve a substantial and permanent reform
of international law. Whatever differences of
opinion may exist as to the past or present policy
of the Conservatives, it must be admitted that
since they have been' in office they have not shown
themselves wanting in administrative activity.
The Army, the Navy, and the affairs of :India
have been handled with vigour, and we have rea-
son to believe with success, during the last few
months, and it is probable that when Parlia-
ment meets we shall find that other departments
have not been neglected. If, in addition to these
matters of domestie administration the Government
can settle the troublesome questions which have
grown out of the cruise of the Alabama, they may
feel that their tenure of office, however short, has
not been without benefit to the country and credit
to themselves. Though it is almost in the nature of
things, and is certainly for the advantage of the
country, that the Liberal party should be for the
most part in office, and that the Conservatives
should perform their appropriate function of check-
ing and regulating the stream of legislation, yet
seasons recur at which it is beneficial that this re-
lation should be changed, and that the party gene-
rally in Opposition should be called upon to act
where they have been accustomed only to criticize.
The present, we conceive, is one of those seasons,
and Lord Derby and his colleagues have once more
the opportunity of gaining a higher reputation than
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vacation, and the Conservatives have now to pre-
pare for another session with the consciousness
that their policy must decide their fortunes.