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

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[PRICE 4D. STAMPED 5D

Spirit of the Public Journals.

{From th,e Morning Post.)

The people of England will be surprised to learn the fact
which we publish this morning, of a majority of sixteen
against the Government ou the Chinese question. They
may seat have the patience to sift with extreme minuteness
the nice legal questions as to the character of the larch,'
which was seized, but they will rea 1 and will understand
the strong broad statement which Len Palmerston gave
last night of the policy of the British Government. They
will know what this country owes t 3 the great I7ar Minis-
ter, and they will act accordinely when they are called on.
Ou such a question, on a vote of censure, carried by such
a combination, the course to be taken, we presume, Carl-
not fer a moment be doubted. The present Parliernent
has nearly run its legal term, and it bee brought on itself
its dissolution. That, we have no doubt, will take place
in as short a time as is consistent with the dtschlrge of the
necessary preliminaries—those that are absolutely needed
for the current business of the country. That done, Eng-
land will be called on to declare itself.
The whole world—that is to say every quarter of the
world where an English newspaper penetrates ; wher) ex-
tracts from it appear in a translated form ; where Eng-
lish doings are reportel as objects of wonder, and talked
of with utter amazement—must look with more sur-
prise than ever at the heat and strength of discussion
that has occupied four nights of the Home of Commons
on the Chinese question. They may understand that
parties entirely opposite in the profession of general
principles may combine for one purpose ; that leaders,
whose-speeches have been for years a series of savage re-
torts and stinging reflections one against the other, may
join in the warmest apparent friendship for the sake of
ghat they deem a common interest. Such things have
happened, and do happen, in the politest and even in the
most. savage countries ; but what does hot often happen
except in England is the deliberate
manifestation and avowal
of the compact, and the deliberate seizure of the question
on which it shall be made. We have here a Minister who
has successfully carried out the policy of this country in a
war, under the suddenness and difficulty of which his pre-
decessor had sunk. He has not only gained a peace full of
honour, credit, and strength to the country, but he has
met our enemy Russia—the great professor of dishonest
diplomacy, in the field of treaties—and has fairly beaten
her, winning for England the greatest place which under
any other Minister she would have lost in the rank of Eu-
ropean nations. He has shown himself strong, vigorous,
and able in peace, as he did in war. He has proved that a
Ministry which succeeded in times of trouble, when no
other man dared undertake the heavy task, was not less
able nor less disciplined in those comparatively easy days
when the wars of this country were confined to the chas-
tisement of the ruffians at Canton. He has entered the
present session as truly great a Minister as England ever
possessed. He has borne with him the proofs of his great-
ness in the success which he has achieved under circum-
stances, which, except himself, no man dared face.
The peace which was won by him has been at once
attacked by a combination than which nothing
more disgraceful appears in the history of any country. A
miserable pretext is seized on in our relations with China ;
the true facts of the case are distorted to the utmost. The
legislators of England gravely attempt, not to protect the
rights, but to enforce the abandonment of those great in-
terests which are involved in the trade of this country with
the East. Three opposite parties, three parties who have
been for years directly and strongly opposed in politics, in
character, in personal speech, have jolued against the Mi-
nister who saved the country when the direction of affairs
was abandoeed by Lord Aberdeen in dismay, when it was
shrunk from with terror by the very members who at the
first moment of peace join to beat the man whom they
could tolerate so long as they needed him in war. The
country will judge the combination.