The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-16 00:00:00

L'i't. ,'ON, MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1167,

Viscount PALMERSTON must be up and doing I
There can be little doubt about that. For although
the Noble Lord goes to the Country in the midst
of very general and very deserved enthusiasm in
his character as " THE BRITISH MINISTER"—we
thank Lord JOHN for teaching us that phrase—
there is no quo tion at all about it that the Elec-
tors are yearning just now (and not by any means
unreasonably) fir the issuing by the Premier at
the present Crisis of something bearing the charac-
ter of a Grand Political Manifesto.

About Lord PALMERSTON'S Foreign Policy there
is felt, far and wide among the vast majority of the
English People, no difference of opinion whatever.
About the course pursued by the Noble Vac )un t
and his Ministerial Colleagues in regard to the
new-horn Chinese Difficulty, the views entertained
by the community are all but unanimous. About
all the grander problems in what may be collec-
tively designated the Home Policy of Great

Parliamentary Reform—
Fiscal Reform—
Financial Reform—
Educational Reform—
Legal Reform
Colonial Reform
Sanitary Reform
to say nothing of such matters as "The %Dot" and
"The Currency —aboutall these things, and a
great many more, England wants Lord PALMERSTON
to "speak out" categorically, for (ice and for all
,--and to do so, moreover, With the utmost pos-
sible distinctness and explicitness. Tho Electors
generally require this, all the more eagerly, it may
be observed, because of the rather eccentric and
Sir-Peter-Laurien proceedings of the First Lord
of the Treasury (to say the least of them) in
"putting down," a few weeks since, th,, memor-
able motion of Al r. LOCKE KING. Now that the
constituencies are appealed to—they ongh I-, in
reason, to know precisely in regard to what they aro
appealed to. Not simply in reference to the Chinese
Question Not even, for that matter, exclusively
in reference to the whole of the comprehensive
and complicated questions implied under the gene-
ric title of our Foreign Policy ! They ought, as
clearly as possible, to be apprised upon all the
various great questions agitating the public mind,

upon all these questions without distinction--
what., positively, aro the Opinions and Priaciples
cherished in regard to each by the PALMERSTON
Administration.

Never, perhaps, had any Prime Minister, on
Appealing to the Country, a nobler or more envi-

able opportunity. It is the very tide to be taken
at the flood—the very tide which if taken at the
flood, as The Immortal Bard bath it, leads inevit-
ably "on to Fortune." It rests entirely with Lord
PALMERSTON, at the present moment, whether this
golden opportunity shall be lost, or whether it
shall be fully realised. Let him but speak out
plainly and `to the purpose, without any unneces-
sary delay, and the Liberals of the United King-
dom en masse will be among the number of his
ardent supporters. In testimony of this—l©t the
Noble Viscount but mark the "sinus of the
times" among the Radical Reformers generally
almost from the first moment of the present
emergency. Let him bear in mind, for example,

the course pursued frankly and boldly by really

Independent Members, and by really Independent
Journalists. Uninfluenced by Party Bias, they
have each and all spoken out frankly and explicitly.
We ourselves have so spoken from the commence-
meat. The Times has so spoken in the matter of
the Chinese Controversy. The Examiner has so
spoken. And so on through the whole catalogue.
The earnest yet dispassionate sentiments thus
enunciated by the printed Organs of Public
Opinion out-of-doors, being enthusiastically and all
but unanimously responded to by almost all the
independent constituencies,without one notable ex-
ception, throughout the length and breadth of the
United Kingdom. Meanwhile, the Individual
Organs of Popular Opinion within-doors—that is
to say, such of them at least as remained altogether
uninfluenced by the Syren Voices from the West
Riding of York, and the City of London, and the
University of Oxford—How about these ? How
about the really liberal and independent represen-
tatives of the People in the British House of
Commons—how about the Faithful Few who con-

tinued to the very last undeluded by the prevail-
ing political hallucination ? Why, as to
these, let Honest Tom DIINCOME; of Finsbury,
be taken as the very Typo as well as Para-

gon ! And from him, Lord PALMERSTON will
remember that his deserted and vilified Go-
vernment received the support of a manly and
cordial vote—the vote of as thoroughly indepen-
dent a man as ever took his seat in the represen-
tative Chamber of the Imperial Legislature. The
Radical-Reforming M.P. for Finsbury following
up this manly vote of his with sundry very well-
tempered and very significant suggestions, point-
edly addressed to the Noble Viscount at the
head of Her MAJESTY'S Government. To the
effect, for example, that as to Lord PALMERSTON'S
views in regard to his Home Policy—Why, that
the Noble Lord must alter these ! A recommen-
dation good humouredly, and yet, as we have said
very pointedly, addressed to the Prime Minister
the other evening by the Liberal Member for

Finsbury, amidst the mingled applause and
laughter of Parliament. Yet one, which we are
now somewhat amazed to find, distorted into
something diametrically the reverse by our ever-
earnest and out-spoken contemporary the Dispatch,
and (thus perverted) taken as the text, for sundry
gibes at gallant-hearted THOMAS SLINGSBY DUN-
coam—for what? Why we distinctly assert for
what he did not say—for what he never intimated
—for what he would be about the very last man
in the House of Commons to declare or to insi-
nuate, no matter who the Statesman might be, his
remarks alluded to, or what the Government !
No ; the Member for Finsbury was right—we
believe we ourselves have been all along right—in
asserting that Lord PALMERSTON'S Government, if
they really want to avail themselves of the present
golden opportunity, must, in regard to their Home
Policy, in regard to the whole series of problems
referring to the complex Question of Reform, go
to the country proclaiming, Nous aeons change
tout cela ! At any rate, from Lord PALMEItSTON
himself individually, we repeat, the Electors look
(and again we say not unreasonably) for a Politi-
cal Manifesto, giving to the world, legibly in
black and white, a candid statement of the
Opinions and Principles which will guide, and
influence, and regulate the whole of the compli-

cated machinery of his Government.
A Manifesto which may be demanded all the
more reasonably now—when we have arrived at
the very evening upon which, through his pro-
mised Speech in the House of Lords, the Eirl of
DERBY is to make what may be regarded as a
formal bid for the Premiership

Never has the necessity for large and compre-
hensive measures of Parliamentary Reform been
more powerfully demonstrated than during the
brief Session now rapidly drawing to a conclusion.
Noble Lords, Right Hon. and Hon. Gentlemen
have shown themselves utterly ignorant of the
wishes and opinions of the People—or profoundly
indiffereet thereto. They acted as if a day of
reckoning could never arrive, as if their legisla-
tive tenure were permanent, in place of being of
the most fleeting and precarious character.
Every person of ordinary capacity, out of doors,
well knew that public opinion was in favour of
the course adopted by Ministers respecting the
Chinese difficulty—could have stated that the
coalitionists were ruining their own prospects by
the factious vote they were about to record. But
in Parliament the temporary triumph was all that
was regarded. The majority scarcely imagined
that the act which they fondly hoped would hurl
Lord PALMERSTON from place and power, and bring
into the same Cabinet DISRAELI and GLADSTONE,
RUSSELL and COBDEN, would be the signal for their
own political annihilation, the sealing of their
death-warrants as public men ! They regarded
objects through Parliamentary glasses, which pre-
sented them in a very different point of view from
what they appeared to the naked eyes of the
people. They had many favourable grounds for
opposing the Government., and had they only
given Sir G. C. LEWIS sufficient rope he would
speedily hare rendered himself and his colleagues,
according to the expressive Hibernicism, " past
praying for." But they permitted the golden
opportunities to slip unnoticed and disregarded.
They made no decided effort for the amendment
of the Bank Charter Act, but permitted Sir G. C.
LEWIS to " pack his Committee" to his heart's
content. Parliamentary Reform was passed, in like
manner, with scant notice. Aud although there was
a sharp, contest on the budget, weak points were
slurred over, and the real battle took place on mat-
ters of which the public thought but little. And,
finally, all their strength was concentrated on the
point when Ministers had not " a slight convenient
intrenchment in the distance," but an impregnable
fortress—guarded and supported by national en-
thusiasm and public opinion. It was a grave
mistake into which ti
ley were betrayed, and wo
already find sundry members of the party making
whining appeals ad mu' enc. ora'iam, declaring that
rthee andbe
r
they were not aware of the consequences of their
vote. Woc.rr. forgivewe.nir,A2fr onew on,fra the
, members,
Member
r,
forol Lambeth, has made economy and retrench-
ment his guiding stars. His Tote, although a
&lave mistake, was unquestionably honest. it