The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-04 00:00:00

1-0N1)oN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1887

SIXTEEN was this morning announced from the
Chair of the Commons by the Right Honourable
the SPEAKER, to be the very notable majority—in
a House of 515 Members—against Her MAJESTY'S
Government ! The SPEAKER himself, of course,
standing aloof, and the four tellers counting out
into the opposing lobbies—" for" the resolutions
of the Member for the West Riding 263

"against" them 247 ! Altogether, as we have
said, there were present last night in the House
of Commons 515 out of the nominal aggregate of
658 representatives. A very unusual number to
have assembled together for division upon any
Question whatever—a most unusual number to
have divided upon a Question involving, in all
probability, in its settlement—the state of poli-
tical Parties the fate of the existing Admi-
nistration the future of the present
Parliament t It remains now to b© seen,
of course, Row it may affect all this
—Flow it may operate in regard to political com-
binations—How it 'nay influence the fortunes of
the Cabinet—How it may tell upon the duration
of the House of Commons as at present consti-
tuted ! As we have intimated, the gathering
was unusually large upon the occasion of this most
important Division. Although unusually large,
however, it was still, as we have remarked, an
assemblage of but 515 out of what we have termed
the nominal aggregate of 658 representatives!
An aggregate advisedly so designated, seeing that
the disfranchisement successively
of St. Alban's
and of Sudbury has reduced that nominal total,
by four, to the still merely nominal maximum of
654 altogether I One of the most conspicuous
seats out of all these 654 as a residue—namely, one

of the four seats for the City of London—being
shut up (in vindication of a lofty principle) at the
instance of the Jew Banker, the Baron LIONEL
DE ROTHSCHILD. So that, in point of fact, put-
ting on one side the Hebrew M.P., and the no
longer createable li. P.'s for St. Alban's and Sud-
bury, and the Speaker himself, and the four tellers
—.out of the remaining 648 members but 510

voted this morning. Consequently there were as
many as 138 of the popular represent3,tives, after
all, still most unaccountably absent from tc-Jay's
Division. Actually 138 members unaccounted
for—being only twenty less than the whole

of the representatives of Scotland and Ire-

and ! Scotland with her 53—Ireland with her

105—yielding together an aggregate of 158:

nearly a score above the number of absentees

from the momentous division in the mat-

ter of this Chinese Difficulty.
Cui Bono ? The Opposition ? Hardly—in a
direct manner : seeing that the motion upon which

the House has divided emanated not from their
side but from a back bench below the gangway
ou the side of the discomfited Government. The

Manchester School? Scarcely—even in an indi-
rect manner : seeing that they, as Free-Traders
and Peace-Men (we had almost said Peace Hum-

bugs), have had to fraternise with the strenu•

ous and magnanimous upholders of the late
War, and with the long-persistent and long-

persevering Champions of Protection ! The
Peelites, or rather let us call them the Gladstone-

ites ? Barely—seeing that they constitute, after
all, but a marvellous little cluster of leaders, with-
out any folbwers whatever, good, bad, or indif-
ferent. Again, then, we ask in the presence of
this startling majority of "sixteen," in a House
of 510 voting representatives—Cui Bono ? It is
a problem of which the House and the Country
have now eagerly to await the solution. That solu-

tion, if it be vouchsafed soon, will be vouch-
safed in plain terms simply as a gratuity by her
MAJESTY'S Ministers. For the decision arrived at
this morning by the Commons, though adverse
to the Cabinet, is not in point of fact expressive
of a distinct censure, much less expressive of a
want of confidence. It is literally a decision in
favour of a Select Committee, in answer to certain
resolutions proposed by an independent member
on the Ministerial side of the House—not in
answer to any resolutions emanating from the
side of her MAJESTY'S Opposition. It is conse-
quently, as LISTON had it in the Farce, "quite
optional"—if Ministers show themselves in any
signal manner, influenced by the result of to-day's
division. There is neither any political ne-
cessity for a Resignation, nor any Parliamen-
tary necessity for a Dissolution. Supposing
either of these strong measures to be acted upon,
in consequence of this majority of " sixteen," the
result, we repeat, will be, in either instance, a
gratuity on the part of Lord PALMERSTON'S Ad-
ministration.

Meanwhile—simultaneously with this division I
of the House of Commons, in the matter of the
Chinese War, comes the timely intelligence that
the Persian War has been brought to a sudden
and satisfactory termination. Than which latter
event nothing could scarcely be more happily well-
timed ! _Here is our opportunity. Let the Squad-
ron under Admiral Sir MICHAEL SEYMOUR be at once
enhanced by the combination with it of the military
and maritime forces recently despatched against
Bushire, under the joint command of Admiral
LEEKE and General OCTRAM. Let our energies
be now directed in a compacted and concentrated
manner upon the lawless cause represented by
the insolent scoffers at the British Flag, and the
audacious and contumacious violators for fourteen
years of the Treaty of Nankin I That is the
course which we look to her MAJESTY'S Ministers
to follow in the present emergency ! That is the
course upon which the newly negotiated peace with
the Shah of Persia affords them now the opportunity
of adventuring 1 That is the course, the ener-
getic and patriotic, the national and rational
course which we are encouraged to anticipate at
the present moment from. Lard PALMERSTON'S
Government. Encouraged so to anticipate it by
the bold and chivalrous, the manly and statesman-
like attitude assumed this morning towards the
close of the late protracted discussions by the
Noble Viscount himself, the Leader of the present
Administration.

Notwithstanding all the eloquence lavished on
the wrong side of the argument during the recent
debate—notwithstanding the " opening" attack of
the Honourable Member for the West Riding of
Yorkshire, and the " closing" onslaught of the
Right Honourable Gentleman, the Member for
Buckinghamshire—Mr. COBDEN'S roll of thunder
and Mr. Drosnama's forked lightning—the facts,
the dates, the law, the justice, nay, let us add,
the real humanity and morality of the question
rest to the very last, we still believe, in this
case upon the side of Her MAJESTY'S Government.
The decision of the Commons in this respect
cannot, we rest assured, influence in the end
the final and more authoritative judgment of the
Country. This, be it said, in spite of all the
really extraordinary powers of debate squandered
upon the support of the resolutions before the
[louse by the more remarkable and conspicuous
members of the late motley and triumphant Oppo-
sition. In spite, for example, of all the matchle,s
rhetoric artifices of the Hon. B ironet the membe
for Hertfordshire. In spits of the brilliant orato-
rical disi•lay of the Right Hon. Gent!eman the
member for the University of Oxford. Notwith-
standing the great forensic achievement accom-
plished, to very general admiration, in the
House of Commons on Monday night !
Notwithstanding the brief but noble burst
of eloquence with which the Hon. and. Learned
Gentleman, the member for the borough of Leo-
minster, yesterday adorned the fallacious argu-
ments of the Opposition ! Although assailed thus
formidably by a combination of genius as well as
by a combination of parties—the cause of Mi-
nisters in this Chinese Controversy, the cause, in
other words, of Truth and of Justice—remained
to the last serene, erect, and unshaken
in the midst of the contentions of the De-
bate, and in defiance even of the adverse
majority of the Division. In striking testi-
mony of which it is only necessary to direct at-
tention to the one really Great Speech delivered
on the side of the Government, the impres
sive, logical, argumentative, and incontrovertible
harangue with which Lord PALMERSTON himself,
at the close of the debate, memorably and authori-
tatively vindicat d the China Policy of his Ad-
ministration.

Commissioners intrusted with the task of enter-
ing upon a most delicate and difficult Inquiry—

Colonel TIILLOCH and Sir JOIIN M‘NElL—it now
appears, have not only been wholly unre-
warded, but monstrously and wantonly insulted
in Her MAJESTY'S name, through the instrumen-
tality of Her MAJESTY'S Government ! Every-
body knows by this time how judiciously, how
effectively,
how chivalrously and uncompromis-
ingly those two
wo aistinguished persons acquitted
themsalv es
from first to last in the conduct
of their most
complicated a
investigation. Tleloorn anV esP
thresouncscibesles
of their joint commissions, indeel, have been so
conspicuously anci vividly re •
cognise-1 as to have
become by this time " patent," as the
to the whole population. They have been acknom-
lodged officially by the Administration. They
have been eulogised authoritatively in. both
Houses of the Legislature —in the Lords
by the Secretary `of the War Department--inn

THE SUN,

the Commons by the First Lord of the Trea-
sury. Yet, in spite of all this, Colonel TuL-

LOCH and Sir JOHN WNEIL, notwithstanding the

acknowledged merit and success of their extraordi-
nary Commission of Inquiry—notwithstanding the

almost universal acclaim attended upon that
merit and that success, have remained up to this
moment unrewarded. They have, it now appears,
been not only unrewarded, but have actually
I been grossly and unjustifiably insulted by

her MAJESTY'S Government. How—any one

may understand in a few moments by
glancing over a remarkable correspondence
published elsewhere in our impression of

this evening. A correspondence between Sir J.
M'NEIL and Lord. PANMITILE, at the outset
of which the last-mentioned " ready writer"
coolly announces to that distinguished gen-
tleman—" I have the honour to acquaint you
that her MAJESTY'S Government have de-
cided to mark the services rendered by you in
the discharge of your duties in the Crimea by ten-
dering to each of you the sum of 1,000 !" In
most impertinent explanation of which very asto-
nishing announcement the Noble Lord goes on to
remark—" This grant is intended not as a mere
pecuniary equivalent for the results of your in-
quiries, but to convey likewise in the manner
which appears to them most proper the recogni-
tion by her MAJESTY'S Government of the zeal
and ability with which those inquiries were
conducted, to which Lord PALMERSTON in
his place in Parliament has already borne
testimony." As if these two high-minded gentle-
men were really nothing more than a couple
of honest bagmen recompensed by their emptDyers
with a douceur, instead of being her MAJESTY'S
Commissioners Extraordinary ! Is not this, we
ask, an insult most monstrous, most gross, most
wanton, most unjustifiable? And an insult—
to whom ? On the one hand, to au eminent and
veteran diplomatist, a Grand Cross of the Bath,
and formerly Minister Plenipotentiary, in the
name of Queen VICTORIA, at the Court of the
Persian SHAH at Teheran ! And, on the other
hand, to a Colonel in her MAJESTY'S Army,
eminent by his long services in his twin capacity
as an officer and a gentleman ! To these two dis-
tinguished men, in recognition of their last, and
not by any means their least, good service to
their QUESN and Country, her MAJESTY'S Minis-
ters have been offering the astounding insult of a
bounty of 1,0001. a-piece by way of most appro-
priate recompense I No marvel that, in a
haughty spirit of scorn and. amazement, Sir
JOHN M‘NEIL and Colonel TuLLocii have
declined to be the recipients of alms
from Her MAJESTY'S Government. No wonder
the latter shrinks with horror from what would
almost have been resented by a German Jager,
and the former (as with a genuine " British stare"
of amazement) from an " act of grace" scarcely to
have been expected even from the creatures of a
German Princeling.

It is scarcely possible that, under existing cir-
cumstances, the Chancellor of the Exchequer can
contemplate pressing the enhanced duties on
Tea and Sugar on the popular branch of the
Legislature. It would require a strong Govern-
ment to inaugurate a total change in the fiscal
policy of the country. A change opposed not
only to the wishes and feelings, but even to the
express pledges of the majority of their supporters.
A change, moreover, which will be steadfastly
resisted by many influential members, and which.)
even, if carried, must materially damage tke
Ministry in the estimation of every consistent
Reformer. Surely Ministers are not now in a
condition to Bet public opinion at defiance, or to
risk another serious defeat. If an appeal to the coun-
try is in contemplation, they will have far better
prospects if they can simplify the question by
eliminating the fiscal element. Their financial
policy is, so far as the people are concerned, their
weak point, and while a general election is im-
pending, they muA at least, "assume a virtue,
if they have it not." Even the most hackneyed
waiter on PROVIDENCE, the professor of the most
elastic vertebrce, perceives the necessity of resist-
ing a proposition which, if carried, might oppose
an insuperable obstacle to his triumph at the
hustings.

Parliament has now received unequivocal notice
of approaching dissolution. Its days are numbered.
It only exists on sufferance until indispensable
arrangements can be made. All disputed points
must be carefully eschewed, and more especially
a question like the tea duty, which may be re-
garded as the introduction of a retrograde policy,
diametrically opposed to everything that has been
ventilated by any Ministry for the last 16 years.
We have pointed out some of the many serious
objections against indirect taxation, and which
especially apply to the duty on tea, the most ob-
noxious of all. The very proposition is a viola-
tion of faith virtually pledged to the nation, as
well as of the more direct understanding arrived
•.tt with the importers and dealers in tea. It is
the abandonment of the principles of Free Trade
for the petty doctrines of Mr. ARTHUR YOUNG,
the shining light, that has bewildered the faculties
of poor Sir G. C. LEWIS.
We must have a speedy intimation •f the course
which Ministers intend to adopt. It would
greatly tend to the convenience of men of all
parties if Sir G. C. LEWIS would intimate his in-
tention of withdrawing the resolution respecting
the duties on tea and sugar of which he has given
notice, and which stands for Friday next. He
would thus meet the wishes of the community at
large, remove a very serious difficulty in the way
of Ministers, and greatly improve their position
in the inevitable contest that must take place.
The sooner a distinct understanding can be arrived
at the better for all parties. Sir G. C. LEWIS
may be assured that promptitude and decision in
making his views known will be very beneficial to
himself and his colleagues. He has already suffered
sufficiently by the mystery so unnecessarily and so
injudiciously m tintained on the subject of the
" pettifogging quibble." The very notion that
he intended to avail himself of it greatly damaged
the Ministry. Let them carefully avoid a similar
mistake on the present occasion.

The Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Bill was
last night read a second time in the House of
Lords. That legislation is urgently required on
the subject is beyond the possibility of dispute or
difficulty. None have the hardihood to defend
the existing law of husband and wife—a law so
unfair to females, which renders the wife rather
the slave than the partner, and gives her
no redress for the most serious grievance. But,
although almost any change must be an improve-
ment, we cannot say that we greatly admire the
measure submitted by Lord CRANWORTIL The
Noble and Learned Lord is afraid to apply a
remedy at all adequate to the extent of the evil.
He halts in the path, and stops -very far short of
the goal at which he should arrive. He is, in
fact, constitutionally timid, and is clearly not

made of the stuff from which a great Reformer
can be constructed. Unfortunately, however, he
stands in the way of those useful propositions on
which bolder politicians adventure. Ho is just
at present the representative of the time-honoured