The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-19 00:00:00

events. If his Majesty's Government, from motives easily
comprehended, should desire to put a stop to the French
occupation of the Roman States after a delay of greater or
less duration, it would be better at once to abandon the
sluices to the impulse of the torrent than to open them
by dealing, either by means of advice openly given, or by
forced combinations, the coup de grace to the temporal
power of the Popes.
In the presence of the existing agitation of mind in Italy,
and of the very lively emotion caused by the publication of
the protocols, it is impossible to keep down a profound
feeling of anxiety as to the future destiny of the Papacy. If
care is not taken Europe will see the most terrible of prob-
lems present itself—terrible; in fact, because it is con-
nected with the deepest and the most ardent passions of
the human heart.
The words pronounced by your Excellency in the Con-
ference, the assurance you have given of the interest which
the Emperor's Government wili not cease to take in the
safety of the Pontifical power, are certain proofs that the
true interests of the church are in no danger in the present
crisis. With such a programme, the most imminent dan-
gers may be removed, and the catastrophe delayed. This
is all that can be accomplished at the present moment by
human wisdom. Let us continue to give the Papacy the
benefit of our protection. Let us decide deliberately only,
and after successive diminutions, on complete evacuation,
and only after being well assured that it is possible. Calm
will come by degrees. Finally, if the political and reli-
gious tranquillity of Italy, perhaps even of Europe, should
appear to depend solely on the presence at Civita Vecchia
and Ancona of a few hundred men, giving a moral, rather
than a material, support to the Pontifical flag and esta-
blishment, but still a support which is sufficient, is it not
a hundred times better to have recourse to this certain
remedy than to attempt to obtain similar ends by ways
full of peril? If in such circumstances the temporal power
of the Papacy should be menaced anew, and if, in spite of
our efforts, grave complications should arise, the responsi-
bility would then at least rest wholly and entirely on events
which are often stronger than man, and we should not
have to reproach ourselves with -having contributed to so
fatal a result.

I thought that I was performing a duty in submitting
to the high appreciation of your Excellency the results of
a tolerably long experience and connected study. The
kindness and encouragement with which you have met my
proposal to explain my opinions, have emboldened me to
do so without reserve.

I appeal to the indulgence of your Excellency in reviow-
ing my labours, and beg you to accept the reiterated
assurance of my high consideration (55).

AT a GENERAL COURT of PROPRIETORS,
held at the BANK of ENGLAND, on
Thursday, the 19th March, 1857—Resolved : That the thanks
of this Court be given to the Governors, Deputy Governors,
and Court of Directors of the Bank of England, for their able
management of the affairs of this Corporation during the last
half-yeah.

Ordered—That the said Resolution be advertised in all the
daily morning and evening papers.

present instance it must be allowed, to say the
least of it, that he has spoken most adroitly and
judiciously. As an electioneering demonstration
we take this pithy and sententious Address of his I
to be, in its way, a political masterpiece. Mr.
DISRAELI says just the right thing—and leaves
the wrong thing unsaid. He slurs, with a dex-
terous and glossing ingenuity, over the Majority
of the Combination—and fixes upon the Cabinet
defeated by that Majority, the responsibility of
" wasting a year" by resorting to a dissolution.
Ho leaves altogether unassailed what is really
strong and impenetrable in the mail of his anta-
gonist. He essays a home-thrust only where that
opponent appears to be most vulnerable. His lunge
is at the chink in the armour. He cares not to
strike fire from the helmet or the breastplate—his
deadly aim is at the Heel of the ACHILLES. How
is it, for example, that Mr. DISRAELI describes
Lord PALMERSTON ? Not in that particnlar cha-
racter in which the Noble Viscount stands before
the country and before the world at large, as the
object of almost unanimous admiration Not as
the chivalrous upholder of the dignity and honour
of his native land, in its supreme capacity as
one of the most puissant among the great Powers
of Christendom ! Mr. DISRAELI is too sagacious
a politician to direct popular attention thus un•
wisely to the character of his antagonist, lit
up by the glory of his Foreign Policy, and by the
prestige of the more undeniable evidences of his
Patriotism—a light in which the Noble Viscount
has been increasingly admired during now very
nearly half-a-century by men of all parties indis-
criminately. No—witty as well as wise in his gene-
ration—Mr. DISRAELI epigrammatically defines the
position of Lord PALMERSTON at the present
junAure—How ? Why, pointedlyand stingingly
-e thus as—" A Tory Chief at the Head of a Radical
JOHN BENTLEY, Secretary. Cabinet !"

The poisoned shaft will stick and rankle in the
Heel of ACHILLES—unless it be at once plucked
out by his own hand, and tossed to the winds
disdainfully,
The country looks to Lord PALMERSTON for
some categorical declaration of his opinions and
principles, now that he has resolved upon appeal-
ing to the constituencies for a verdict for or
against his Government. The country has
anxiously awaited the appearance of some formal
Political Manifesto of this kind from Lord PAL-
MERSTON, ever since the Noble Viscount intimated
his intention to bring about a dissolution of the
present Parliament. It requires at length more
urgently than ever the issue of this Ministerial
Pronunciamento—now that the Prime Minister
is being goaded' into Candour by the taunting in-
fluence of Mr. DISRAELI'S scarcely resistible Provo-
cation. Wilt Lord PALMERSTON remain any longer
silent—can Lord PALMERSTON, by any possibi-
lity, remain any longer silent ?—Held up as he is
now to general scorn and ridicule as that most
Epicene of Statesmen, as that most Hybrid of
Politicians, as that most Amphibious of Adminis-
trators—" A Tory Chief of a Radical Cabi-
net !" His own high and historical character,
the honour of the Crown, and the good of the
Country—alike demand from the Primo Minister
that he should so speak at the present mo-
ment, that there should no longer be any
doubt whatever as to the Future Polley
or the Guiding Principles of his Government.
" Strike, but hear me !" were the memorable
words of THEMISTOCLES. Let them now illustrate
anew the chivalrous and candid bearing of the
Premier. Ho is struck, and struck vigorously and
piercingly by the chief among his Parliamentary
antagonists. Let us now " Hear him." The
Leader of her MAJESTY'S Opposition has already
spoken to the Country at large—spoken plainly,
honestly, and frankly, through the customary me-
dium of an Address to his own constituents—the
Electors of the county of Buckingham. Let Lord
PALMERSTON hesitate no longer—through an Ad-
dress to his constituents, the Electors of the borough
of Tiverton---to speak, in his turn, plainly, honestly,
aed frankly, to the possessors of the Elective
Franchise in the Three Kingdoms. We have
waited long enough already. We must have the
truth out at last, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth. Of that we may be quite certain.
Of that the Premier may be perfectly well satis-
, fled. And he may be equally well satisfied,
let him rest assured of it, that No Minist3r,
however great the prestige may be of his political
career, however wide-spread his popularity in
what exclusively affects our foreign relations,
however wholly unrivalled to all appearance by
personal competitors for the Preniiership—can at
any time, by any possibility, under any conjunc-
ture of circumstances, oppose himself with im-
punity, even for a comparatively brief period, to
the steady advance of the broad flood of Reform,
the strong and irresistible current of political
change, of social amelioration, of progressively
graduated, and constitutional development.
Mr. DISRAELI (again we remind the Premier)
has spoken—let the country now accord a hearing
to Lord PALMERSTON. Mr. DISRAELI has spoken
frankly, re repeat, distinctly and explicitly—and
to what purport ? Why, to this—that he has
candidly epitomised his political Future by de-
claring "The general policy which I would
enforce at this juncture may be contained in these
words—Honourable peace, reduced taxation, and
social improvement." Let the Chief of the Cabinet
—we ask now no more—emulate, without any
more ado, the Candour, at least, of the Leader of
the Opposition. The period has gone by for
vague generalities. We must have a distinct
Political Profession of Faith. Electors must know
precisely what it is they are voting for—not,
simply, who it is they are voting for ! They
must now, more than ever, subordinate the Mon
to the Measures—of which latter the former ought
to he regarded as merely the Guarantees or Repre-
sentatives ! Mr. DISRAELI (yet again we remind
the Prime Minister) has spoken already clearly
and unmistakeably, as becomes the Leader of her
MAJESTY'S Opposition in the popular branch of
the Legislature. Let Lord PALMERSTON speak et
last in his turn to the Country, as clearly and
as unmistakeably—as it assuredly befits the Noble
Viscount to do, in his still more responsible posi-
tion as the Leader of her MAJESTY'S Government.

The strong point of the PALMERSTON Govern-
ment is unquestionably its foreign policy. The
nation confides in " the English Minister" who
enunciated the manly statement that " England
had no cousins"—and who was and is believed to
eschew the doctrines of Germanism • and of des-
potism, and to act solely with a view to the safety,
honour, and welfare of our Sovereign Lady the
QuEEN, and her dominions in all climes beneath
the " neer setting sun."
Lord PALMERSTON has,
however,
a difficult game to play. He is subjected
anidistwithuitetehna/
to sinister and unco
h
must bo resisted, imperatively influences,
demandwhie
that his hands should be strengthened by the
unequivocal expression of public opinion, and the
certainty that he will be sustained and supported
in the manly and straightforward course which his
and sound *
great experience judgment may suggest,
by a good working majority. He requires that as-
sistance, not merely against avowed enemies, but
far more against professing friends, who would, if
possible, lead him from the proper path, into de,.