The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-19 00:00:00

NAPOLEON cannot for his own sake remain idle.
The onslaught will be made by the French and
Sardinians, for their opponents let slip the golden
opportunity of marching on Turin, and inflicting
a heavy blow on Piedmont before the arrival of
the French auxiliaries. We are aware that
it is asserted that it would have been imprudent to
do so, with such fortresses as Alessandria and
Casale in their rear. But it would be well if these
matters had been thought of before the declaration
of hostilities, and forcing a war, the consequences
whereof must fall most heavily on themselves.
They have however unnecessarily placed themselves
in the wrong, and forfeited the sympathies and
support they might otherwise have obtained. They
must now submit to the inevitable results.
They have brought them on themselves and cannot
complain of any evils that may follow. At all
events England will maintain its neutrality, and
pot interfere either with men or money, or any of
the materiel of war, to assist any of the parties
concerned in such transactions.

Positively for the last time the doom of the
present Government has been pronounced by the
wiseacre prophets of the Opposition. How often
the same prediction has been uttered before, we
took occasion to remark only on Saturday. This
time, however, we are distinctly assured, there is to
be" no mistake." If there be any uncertainty at all
yet remaining in regard to the transaction, it is an
uncertainty not in regard to the fact, which is de-
clared to be inevitable, but simply in regard to the
manner of its accomplishment. The more sanguine
in these vaticinators fix as the fatal turning point
for Ministers—the Address in answer to the Speech
from the Throne—if not even the election to the
chair of the Speaker. The less factious,
however, while hesitating as to whether
the last Speaker will be re-elected with-
out any division, or the Government nominee
pitted against the nominee of the Opposition—de-
precate the notion of rendering either the choice of
Speaker, or the Address to her MAJESTY, the weapon
of attack against her MAJESTY'S advisers. And
certainly, under the circumstances, the selection of
either of those imminent opportunities by the Chiefs
of Party on the Opposition side of the House would
afford the most flagrant instance of the total subor-
dination to the mere instincts of petty, personal,
ambition of all the nobler incentives of patriotism
and of high political principle. Without any such
indecorously precipitate scramble for power, upon the
very threshold of the new Parliament, the leaders
of "her MAJESTY'S Opposition" will have abundant
and early opportunities for measuring weapons with
the leaders of her MAJESTY'S Government. At an
ordinary juncture, the tarrying awhile for the
advent of one of those honourable opportunities
would be the course unquestionably most worthy
of being taken by our statesmen. At an
extraordinary epoch such as the present—with a
great European war but just kindled upon the
plains of Lombardy between the embattled arrays
of France and Austria, the two most formidable
military Powers of Christendom—anything like
this projected instant and insensate struggle on the
part of those who are Out, at no matter what
cost or sacrifice to those who are In, would
be about the most melancholy spectacle that could
well be afforded by our assembled representatives.
The victory required to be won over the existing
Government would be a victory that would only
be won by an enormous sacrifice of principle
on the part of the Opposition. Examine for a
moment the proportions of parties in the new House
of Commons. There are, according to the organ of
the Opposition, 300 Conservatives returned to the
new Parliament, in other words, 300 Derbyites re-
turned in a compact and organised phalanx,
to take their seats around and at the back of Mr.
DISRAELI on the Government side of the House—
there to confront by their united mass the scattered
and heterogeneous body of 354 Liberals of all shades
of Liberalism, making up the aggregate concourse
on the side of the Opposition. Those 300 Derbyites
act together strongly, unitedly, powerfully. Those
354 Liberals act together scarcelyat all. Theycan only
he brought together just once in a way upon some
extraordinary emergency, and then only just for
that emergency. They include among them all sorts
of divisions and subdivisions. They are marshalled
under the banners of too many chiefs ever to be a
permanently united phalanx, or in any way very
formidable. Confronting the Treasury bench there
is Lord PALMERSTON with his followers. Below
the gangway, upon the front bench there, upon that
same Opposition side, sits Lord JOHN RUSSELL with
his select supporters, the Whigs of the old school,
the Bedford-house party, the Whigs pur sang look-
ing to Woburn Abbey as to the fane of the political
Delphos. Seated upon a back bench behind Lord
PAL3IERSTON above the gangway of the Opposition
is an independent Liberal like the Right Hon.
EDWARD HORSMAN. While below the gangway
of the Opposition, seated upon the back bench im-
mediately behind Lord JOHN RUSSELL, is another
independent Liberal (another right hon. that is to
be), JOHN BRIGHT, M.P. for Birmingham. Be-
tween these conspicuous members and leaders of
the Opposition there is the difference as of the
poles asunder. For example, Lord PALMERSTON
is distinctly against any sweeping measure of re-
form. Mr. BRIGHT is, on the contrary, for a mea-
sure of reform so sweeping that the more timorous
opponents of his bold scheme look forward,
as to its inevitable consequence, to the even-
tual triumph of Democratic over Monarchical
institutions. Mr. HORSMAN is decidedly for the
Ballot—Lord JOHN RUSSELL is as decidedly against
the Ballot. Mr. BRIGHT is opposed upon principle
to all war—Lord JOHN"gent in," for example, upon
the occasion of the last war, the war against Russia
in the Crimean peninsula, with the pugnacity of a
game-cock, the closing words of his bellicose speech
being the well known battle cry of " GOD defend
the right"s
1 There is, we repeat, the difference as of
the
poe asunder between the so-deemed united,
l
but in reality most disunited body of 354 Liberals
on the side of the Opposition—led on by such con-
spicuous members as Mr. BRIGHT and Mr. HORS-
MAN, or by such rival chiefs as Lord PALMERSTON and
Lord JOHN RUSSELL. An organised and united
party, who have the additional advantage of being
in, and who number altogether no less than a solid
three hundred, have their own fate, if they act but
wisely, in their own hands so firmly grasped—that
if they lose it now by paltering with what is of far
greater worth than the interests of party—tile in
terests of the nation at large—they will have only to I
thank themselves.

The bullion, on which the welfare of the com-
munity so greatly depends, is rapidly leaving the
country. It could not be otherwise under the
existing monetary code, while we must sell gold at
a fixed price. When any nation can purchase it
at £3 17s. 100. per ounce, it must flow from us in
case of any extraordinary demand. A serious war
has commenced, and, although we may observe a
perfect neutrality, any of the parties concerned
may come on us and take away that which is of
vital importance to our own industrial community.
If ever there was a period when the Bank
Charter Act required to be repealed, or modified,
it is the present. We find many European nations