The Sun.
London, England, 1859-06-20 00:00:00

THE NEW MINISTRY.

(From the Moiwing Herald.)
The Palmerston Administration, after a whole
week employed in reconciling " discordant sections,"
and after infinite labour, has slowly emerged into
being. For the moment, then, the difficulties are
smoothed. Exclusion from office and an ill-con-
cealed desire to obtain place and power have con-
tributed to unite in one Cabinet politicians holding
opinions essentially distinct, and to demonstrate
that the strength of a Government consists in the
want of union amongst its members. And yet this
is taking place at a political crisis more grave than
any that has arrived since the infamous Peaee of
Tilsit. This is no laughing matter ; it is matter
rather for serious reflection and bitter disappoint-
ment. It would be almost impossible to exaggerate
the danger arising to England and of Europe from
the accession to power of the Ministry whose names
we publish to-day in our columns.
The most important question at this moment is
that of our foreign policy. Two of the great
powers of Europe are engaged in a deadly feud ;
another power has practically declared that she
must be prepared for war; and, in order to be
ready to strike as soon as the decisive moment
shall arrive, has ordered that her powerful army
shall be put on the footing of active service. A
fourth great power has plainly indicated that, un-
less—what seems most improbable—the war is
localised she can no longer decline to participate in
the contest. To complete the existing complication
—to render it scarcely possible for this country to
preserve that strict neutrality demanded by the
national interests and the national wish, nothing
was wanting but an Administration of which Lord
Palmerston should be the nominal chief and Lord
John Russell the Foreign Secretary. Lord Palmer-
ston is pledged to maintain the French alliance, no
matter how derogatory that alliance may become
to English honour, no matter how contradictory
to British interests. Lord John Russell has held
out hopes to Italian patriots which it will never
be in his power to carry out, and virtually, if not
actually, the two Ministers are secretly pledged
to a revolutionary war. We acknowledge as strongly
as any one the wrongs and grievances of Italy, but
we believe that there are remedies worse than the
disease; and if the chief actor in the bloody scene
now acting on the continent of Europe be sincere
in his professions even he may find to his cost that
he is but the child of circumstances. His creed is
fatalism ; and it may be said that, so far, he has
been justified by success ; but he may find that he
has raised a storm which, strong as he is, he will
be unable to calm. In such a case where would
England be, with Lord Palmerston as Premier and
Lord John Russell as Foreign Secretary.
Fortunately, however, the new Cabinet can
scarcely hope to hold together for any lengthened
period. Individual übiliiy is not the only—not even
the chief element to be desired in the composition
of a Government, and one of the most prominent
evils in the present Ministry is its divided leader-
ship. We did not require Lord Granville's indis-
creet revelations to inform us that Lord John
Russell had taken the Foreign Office by storm, and
now that he is in possession of the citadel he will
hold his own against all comers, and make entire
independence of action a condition of retaining a
nominally subordinate position. If he was indis-
creet as Home Secretary he will be indiscreet as
Foreign Minister, and in his new position the
slightest indiscretion may entail very serious con-
sequences, even if it did not plunge the country
into war. Lord John is now in the position of a
constitutional monarch who refuses to be restrained
by constitutional checks, and we merely ask
whether such a state of things is not anomalous
and dangerous? What, then, shall we say of the
new Chancellor of the Exchequer ? Public opinion
—that is, of course, Whig public opinion—pointed-
unanimously to Sir G. C. Lewis, but important
considerations and the necessity of making large
concessions to the Peelites combined to place Mr.
Gladstone in the more distinguished post, and to
condemn the less ingenious but more reliable
financier to the comparative retirement of the
Home Office. Then there is Sir Charles Wood,
who was lately consigned by a Palmerstonian
organ to political oblivion, but who, after
his notable success in half ruining our navy, is
sent to exercise his faculties for mai-adminis-
tration in the post vacated by Lord Stanley. The
juxtaposition of these two names is all the commen

that need be bestowed on this singularly ill-advised
appointment, unless, indeed, we add, for the benefit
of all who think it a national and paramount duty
to keep up the British navy, that the Admiralty is
now handed over to that " conspicuous novelty," as
his friends call him, the Duke of Somerset, and to
that discreet nobleman, Lord Clarence Paget, who
ought certainly to thank his stars for the late oppor-
tune dissolution of Parliament. It would be too
long to go through the whole list of the new Cabinet.
We shall merely congratulate the Colonies on their
new Tractarian Minister, whose opinions on colonial
subjects, as on most other subjects, are so remark-
ably in accord with those of his colleague, Mr.
Cobden. This, then, is the new administration,
constructed at the cost of so many sacrifices of
opinion, and presenting types of nearly every
school of politicians in the House of Commons,
united, so far as we can see, by no bond of union but
the absolute impossibility of forming any other
combination with the most moderate hopes of suc-
cess. It is certain that the Whigs have only waived
their personal pretensions for the present in order
to bide their time. They know that so anomalous
a collection of "fortuitous atoms" can have no per-
manent existence, and they will take their seats in
Parliament with the expectation of vacancies in the
new Cabinet which they count upon occupying.
The most ludicrous feature in the present Go-
vernment is the thoroughly Palmerstonian manner
in which the extreme Liberals have been " done."
They have been cheated, bamboozled, and disap-
pointed. They were no sooner drawn within the
fatal circle of Willis's Rooms than their doom was
sealed. On that critical occasion all was made
smooth and easy for them, extravagant promises
were given, the olive branch was tendered by
knowing and practised hands, and with syren
notes their souls were lulled into acquiescence.
They believed--yes, even Mr. Bright believed
—that the veteran leaders had learnt a salutary
lesson, and were no longer disposed to deny
a voice in the Cabinet to men who for many a
long year have constitued the real strength of the
Liberal party, as they have always exhibited the
greatest honesty of purpose. Nous avons change
tout cela was to be the motto of the Palmerston or

Russell Administration. And so, by way of fulfil-
ling these gracious promises, and satisfying these
natural desires, in a Cabinet of sixteen members we

find the real Liberal party represented by Mr. Cob-
den and Mr. Milner Gibson, one at the Board of
Trade, the other at the Poor Law Board. The pre-
sence of two such men is just enough to disturb the
Cabinet, and to endanger its existence, but not
enough to give more than nominal weight to the
party whose opinions they are supposed to repre-
sent.

It is easy to conceive complications which are
certain to arise before long. To a Reform Bill the
Ministers are pledged, but imagine a discussion on
the reform question between Mr. Gladstone, who
cleaves to small boroughs, and Mr. Cobden, who
would probably sweep them all down as with a
scythe. The difficulty is not to discover subjects on
which they are likely to disagree, but those on
which they might be supposed to agree. And it is
imagined that the Liberal party will be satisfied by
so miserable a concession—a mere mockery of a
concession. No wonder that dissatisfaction is ex-
pressed by the Liberal organ!. No wonder that
the praise of Palmerstonian journals is strongly
tempered with indignation at the appointment of
Sir Charles Wood and others of the old Whic,
school. No wonder that speculations are already
rife even in Liberal circles as to whether the Cabi-
net can hold together till the close of the session.

TIIE DRAMATIC COLLEGE.—We are glad to learn
that, at a meeting of the executive committee of the Royal
Dramatic College, the charter of incorporation was presented
by virtue of which the present executive committee become
the council until the first annual meeting, which will be
held in May, 1860. We understand that the council will
at once take immediate steps fir determining the site of the
college, and make arrangements for laying the foundation
stones

DR. GODFREY AND UNLAWFUL AS
IN WHITECHAPEL.

On Saturday, Dr. John Godfrey, of No. 3,
Mount-place, Whitechapel, who was the defen-
dant in an action for seduction, when a verdict
was returned in his favour, but who was un-
successful in a prosecution for libel against Mr.
Wm. Newton, proprietor and editor of the East
London Observer, came to the Thames Police Court,
in company with several of his neighbours, to prefer
charges against some persons for riotous conduct
and threatening and annoying him. A stout and
robust elderly man, named Burchell, who came into
the building with his nose bleeding an hour pre-
viously, asked Mr. Selfe for a warrant against Dr.
Godfrey for assaulting him in the Whitechapel-
road. Mr. Selfe said a summons would do, and
granted one. Dr. Godfrey said the man was a per-
fect blackguard, and grossly provoked him. He
was willing that the case should be gone into at
once. Mr. Selfe said the summons would be made
returnable on a future day, and he would then hear
the defence.
Edward Bingham, travelling-bag maker, of 90,
Goswell-street, was charged with an obstruction.
George Palmer, 218 K, a police-constable, said
there were 400 or 500 persons assembled in ount-
place, opposite Dr. Godfrey's house. There were
many thieves and abandoned women amongst them,
and they were hooting and hallooing. No person
could pass on one side •of the road. The prisoner
was there near the doctor's own door with a cluster
of 30 persons or more around him, and he told him
to be moving. The prisoner said he knew nothing
about the case of Dr. Godfrey, and wanted to hear
a little about it. He refused to move away, and
was taken into custody.
Mr. Selfe—Now, prisoner, you hear what the
policeman says.
The prisoner—I do, sir: I came from the City to
Turner-street on business, and heard a shouting and
hallooing. A man was telling me all about the
affair, and the policeman ordered me to go away.
Mr. Selfe—The policeman did what was quite
right. Every one adds to the nuisance. It wAs
great nuisance for decent people passing along the
road, and also for the inhabitants, for persons to
assemble in front of Pr. Godfrey's house. You have
no right there at all. You don't live in the district.
Prisoner—No, sir. I went to Turner-street,
Whitechapel, to transact business.

Mr. Serfe—. You had better transact your business
than mix with disorderly mobs. You don't seem to
have been guilty of any actual breach of the peace.
You keep away from there in future. If you are
brought before me again I will send you to prison.
You are discharged.
Emmanuel Romaine, a Jew boy. of No. 2, Brick-
lane, Spitalfields, and Mary Ann Messenger, a mar-
ried woman, were charged by Donovan, 212 K,
with riotous conduct.

The constable said the footpath was blocked up
in front of Dr. Godfrey's house, and the prisoner
Romaine, who he believed was a thief, vas making
a noise and shouting. He told him to go way, and
he said he would not, and would stop aglong as he
liked. He took the lad into custody, and on the
way to the station-house the female prisoner inter-
fered, abused Dr. Godfrey, and called him most
horrible names. She worked herself to a pitch of
ungovernable fury.
Mr. Selfe—Let me have a specimen of her lan-
guage.

- The constable did as he was desired. The lan-
guage was revolting.
The woman Messenger denied all that was al-
leged against her, and said she saw the doctor lift
his foot to kick the boy and went to his assistance.
Mr. Selfe—You had no right there at all.
The woman said there was a mob assembled.
Mr. Selfe—That is the very reason you should
not be there., 'The boy, I see, lives at No. 2, Brick-
lane. He had no right there.
The boy expressed his sorry far having offended,
and was told to go about his business wad keep
away from mobs.
Dr. Godfrey confirmed the statement of Donovan,
the policeman, in every particular, and complained
that he was annoyed and insulted, not by his neigh-
bours, with whom he was on the best of terms, but
by low blackguards, thieves, and women of the
town, who came from a distance, and assembled
about his house and acted in a most disorderly
manner.

Mr. Selfe said the female prisoner had mixed
herself up in a most discreditable manner with a
disorderly mob, and had used most foul and offen-
sive language towards Dr. Godfrey. He would
advise her to reform her own manners and language
before she set up as a censor of others. He would
not have these disturbances. They were contrary
to law. People had better attend to their own
business than interfere with others. He gave
directions to the police to bring before him any
sons annoying Dr. Godfrey, and he would punish
them, and then called upon the woman to find bail
to keep the peace.
At the earnest intercession of the prisoner's hus-
band he was allowed to become her surety in the
sum of £4O.

Dr. Godfrey said he was apprehensive of further
annoyance and threats from the low characters who
assembled in, front of his house.
Mr. Selfe—l hope what I have just done will
operate as a caution to others. If there are any
further disturbances I will punish the offenders.
You have a right to be protected from insult and
annoyance.
Dr. Godfrey—lt has been going on now for four
months, ever since a verdict was recorded in my
favour in the Court -of Common Pleas. It is the
result of conspiracy against me.
Mr. Selfe—lt is very disgraceful. Speak to the
police-inspector, who will have a force of men to
prevent annoyance and breaches of the peace.
Inspector Hayes—I have a force of men there
now, and shall have extra police constables there
to-night.
Dr. Godfrey- I expect a riot to-night. The
people of Whitechapel will come into the road and
attack the blackguards with sticks if they assemble
near my door this evening.
Mr. Selfe- You can depend upon the police force
for protection. The police force is a most efficient
body.
Dr. Godfrey then retired.