The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-05 00:00:00

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) :.ON, TEM RSDAY, ECII 5, 7

The venue has been elianged 1 The eor,tst
must now take place in a broader arena than that
of the Impend. Palace at Westtninqar. It win
be fiercely contested on every hustings throughout
the length and breadth of the land. There is 11,,
longer a place for petty intrigues, for. party Le•
tics, or splenetic votes. The waiters on pßovi_
DENQE are extinguished for the time being.
Their influence has passed away. The People
are now masters of the position. The arbit.r,
between contending poli'icians and their decision
must be final and conclusive. They have only t
avail themselves of the golden opportunity before
them to vindicate their own claim t) be the true
source of political power, and to insure the future
welfare and prosperity of the country, and the
happiness and prosperity of the people. But
there must be no apathy or indifference,
no sordid or contemptible conduct. The
elective franchise is a sacred trust confided
to their charge, and they must faithfully
and honourably fulfil the all-important duty 1

The man who is careless or indifferent at the pre-

sent crisis is unworthy of the suffrage. The man
who yields to any corrupt influence, to bribery or
intimidation, is a traitor to his country—a vile
and infamous traitor. He will be guilty of the
highest political offence, and should for ever be
disgraced in the estimation of his countrymen—
become what the Ancient Greeks termed "aripoe,"
and our Saxon ancestors a wretch, who merits
not the birthright which he is willing to barter
for a mess of pottage. Let the electors afflicted
with itching palms remember that thoSe who pur-
chase their venal support will be prepared to sell
them whenever the occasion may arise. Let the
supple politician, who is afraid of offending land-
lord, employer, or customer, remember that he
himself must set the example of manliness and in-
dependence to his would-be representative ; that
a mean and cringing constituency will find a mem-
ber possessing similar attributes.
There must now be an appeal to the country,
and the sooner it takes place the better ! We
believe that nothing more auspicious could have
happened to Lord PALMERSTON than the defeat
which be has just sust tined. It may be regarded
as a salutary warning that he must further
strengthen himself in the good opinion of the com-
munity at large, and that ho must not permit his
subordinates to exhibit such fantastic tricks as
those in which Sir G. C. LEWIS has recently been
indulging. He well knows that he is not a Court
favourite—that " the shadow behind the Throne"
obscures his position and neutralises his legitimate
influence. His bold and manly declaration that
" England has no cousins" made the professors of
Germanism his inveterate foes. His straightfor-
ward English policy arrayed under the opposite
standard those who wished to make Euvland a
party to foreign intrigues, and t make her
truckle to the representatives of despotism in all
parts of the world. The result has been that the
Chinese difficulty has been the stalking-horse to
get rid of the t)o sturdy Minister, who regarded
the honour and interests of Grett Brittin as of
greater conNequence than the wishes and intrigues
of In.perial and Royal conspirators against the
free], ina of mankind. We have net spared Lord
PALMERSTON when we found him in the wrong—
when he suffered his subordinates to become the
t ols of Vie moneyocracy, to put forward uesound
views of finance, t) unduly tfoc the industrious
classes, we fearltsily and unflinchingly denounc,zd
the grave mist ike. But when he has been made
the sport of faction, when he has been assailed for
vindicating the honour of his country and compelling
a treacherous and barbarous people t,) observe the
treaties which Viey had deliberatdy concluded,
and to respect the British name, we render him
the independent support, as well as the tribute of
respect and admiration to which he is so justly
entitled.

As we have stated, it is truly fortunate for
Lord PALMERSTON that he goes to the country on
the Chinese question. He could not by a possi-
bility have selected a more favourable champ de
battaille. It is notorious that he was not respon-
sible for the original complication. None of the
parties who represented England on the occasion,
and who acted with thorough English pluck, com-
bined with extraordinary forbearance, owed their
appointments t 3 himself or to his Administration.
He only heard of what had taken place at the
same t'me with the rest of the community. He
had no hand in framing the issue—no priority of
information. If ever a Statesman was perfectly
innocent he was sr,, in reference to every
connected with the demands for redress, and the
just and necessary measures adopted to enforce it
when refused by Commissioner YEE. But he boldly
sustained the servants of England in the difficult
circumstances in which they were placed. lie
notly accepted the responsibility, and risked the
stability of his Government, rather than desert
one who had been the bosom friend, and for
many years the efficient and energetic collabora-
' tear of those who were willing to dischf.rge a
missile oven through his bosom, against the
Administration whom they had a factious desire
to injure. On this point the people will un-
flinchingly support him. Th( yhave not that mor-
bid sentimentality for the innocent and harm-
less (!) poisoning inhabitants of the flowery land !
They resent the arrogance and insolence which, if
p, rmitted, would treat the British as an inferior
race not to be associated with on 'equal terms,
but merely tolerated for the sake of the advan-
tages they bring, and to be regarded as barba-
rians, whose rights and privileges might be
trampled on with impunity. They aro determined
that solemn treaties Elvin not be regarded as waste
paper, t lee.set aside at the mere will and pleasure
of Mr. Commissioner YEa and his subordinat .s ;
but above all they detest the infamous and cowardly
atrocities that would carry on war by means of
druged and poisoned articles of food—that
wou!cl cut off in such a manner not merely fighting
men, but helpless women and innocent children.
The heartless miscreants who could conceive
and attempt t execute so diabolical a scheme
as the poisoning the bread of the colony of
Hong Kong deserve no sympathy or forbearance,
and the nation will sustain the Government in
bringing the sanguinary assassins to a complete
reckoning.

But while Lord PALMERSTON has a powerful
claim on national support lie also owes something
to the nation. He has at present " his duties as
well as his rights," and he is bound to declare
clearly, explicitly, and unequivocally the policy
*high be intends to pursue in reference to ques-
tions that have too ling been kept in abeyance.
A large and comprehensive measure of Parliamen-
tary Reform is due t, the nation. It has long
been proMised, and too long deferred ; and the
recent division on Mr. LOCKS KING'S motion has
occasioned well-founded apprehensions tint the
sulject whl, if possitle, be shelved. Every can-
didate will be required to speak clearly and
intelligibly on this interesting suliject. But
the Premier is hound to Fitt the example of can-
dour and plain speaking. He must make a clean
breast of it, and abandon the reserve and naptetv
which has done more to damage his administra-
tion than any other mat ter that can be indicated.

One woi4 more. Parliament is in extremes.
L-.rd PALMERSTON has himself pronounced its
doom, and no questiol of any impoitatice can be
decided during its morbid condition. The Times
hints Ora " the remission of the War 9d., and it
presutne3 the other parts of tie Budget, will be pro-
ceeded with ; and if the House of Commons,
uudet its new inspiration, should think fit t
recede from its present decision on those points,
it wilt have the oppoit9n;ty of doing so." We
earnestly and emphatically protest against such a
coure. If the deeiAion is good on one point, It
inint be so on the other. Tne Minister
cannot blow hot and cold with impu-
nity.
Nothing can fairly or justly be
brought forward under existing circurnstanceq,
which can possibly be dispensed with. The fiscal
and financial policy of the Government is looked
forward to with the utmost anxiety. It may
suit the -views of the Times to snap a decision,
but the attempt will irretrievably damage 11.)
Government. We are not afraid of the new
Parliament, even on the question of the Income

Tax. No Minister can attempt to avail himself of
tbie "pettifogging quibb!e." Not merely the War
9d., but the War lid., must be surrendered, and
the tea and sugar duties must remain in state
quo—or, in other words, there must be no attempt
to continue duties condemned by the existing law,
and which are to expire from and after the
sth of April next. Everything of import-
ance must be submitted to the judgment
of the nation, and that judgment will
be recorded in favour of those who put for-
ward the best claims. It is with Lord PALMER-
STON on the Chinese question. Ltt him, above
all things!, avoid weakening his position, by com-
ing forward as the supporter of a retrograde fiscal
policy, the advocate of indirect dutieP, and of an
unmodified and inequitable Incom'e Tax. Even
should the Exchequer Bonds falling due in May
require renewal it will be a matter of compara-
tively trivial importance, as they are altogether
vested in the Commissioners of Savings Barka,
and the Trustees of the Patriotic Fund, and, as
repeatedly pointed out, only represent a small
portion of the sum drawn out of the Exchequer,
in consequence of the GLADSTONE abortion. An
immediate dissolution is indispensable, and if
Lord PALMERSTON be wise, he will not throw
any difficulty in the way thereof.

We wish the Manchester gentlemen joy of their
long list of Tory colleagues, and the Tories joy
of their new leaders, and the extreme Radicals
joy of the other two, and the Peelites we will
wish joy of them all. A happy family, no doubt,
they made in the same lobby, and should the stirs
ever bless them with matrimony—in politics a
quadruple union being by some thought lawful—
we will wish them as happy as they can hope to be.
Political Mormonism will pot, however, do in
England. Coalitions and conspiracies are regarded
as synonymous. North and south may rush to-
gether and unite in magnetism, positive and
negative in electricity, acid and alkali in chemis-
try ; but in politics like must unite with like, and
the honourable antagonism of the onward and the
retrograde or stand-still parties must he preserver],
or political life ceases. The country, in fact,
never feels itself in sound political health unless
there be some good points of reform, some desir-
able measures of progress before it, and unless the
patty which should do so unites to press them on,
and the other to obstruct them. We cannot
away with Tories and Liberals, or Liberals and
Tories, combining to onsi each other.

We have frankly enough censured our Govern-
ment for all its delinquencies, and we can, there-
fore, have credit for honestly supporting it when
it acts worthily of its country. We did not fad
to expose freely every unworthy concession to
Russia, Austria, and even to France, during the
War; and, above all, to blame as it deserved the
discreditable and costly peace. We can now with
pleasure stand by it against the vote of such a
mongrel majority of the House of Commons, and
feel proud of it as standing by its duty to the
country in the presence of party and faction. We
have already expressed our hope that Lord
PALMERSTON will ask permission of the country, if
driven to do so, before be sells his country—
especially before be eel's it to Commissioner YEH,
and to the Brother of the Sun, the EMPEROR of
the flowing land. However the ex-Ministers and
the Opposition benches may feel, Englishmen ge-
nerally feel as Englishmen resident at Canton do.
The country at large puts much more faith in its
fellow-countrymen now resident in China, or its
countrymen who have resided there, than in I.ll.P's.
who want t) embarrass a Ministry, but who
know nothing whatever by actual observation of
what they vote about. All Eugl and feels that her
sons in the Rtst and their connexions here, whose
past and probab;e losses of property give pledge
for their integrity, are the most reliable of judges
when they pronounce on what they well under-
stand, and pronounce tic) on their own pecuniary
injury. Lord PALMERSTON certainly need not
fear the country.

The Lords have unquestionably raised them-
selves in popular estimation. Appealed to with
extraordinary tloquence by the Earl of DERBY,
and INgal arguments being pretty well balanced
iu their H ,use, they yet took a broad and consti-
tutional view of the question, forgot technicalities
and voted for England and her. honour. What the
Peers really v(tecl was—not that the law of the
case was on this side or that—not that this or
that official abroad was in everything right or
wrong—not that the home Government ought or
ought nct to have approved all the acts of their
agents, but, that if England would bare
lonies and fleets fifteen thousand miles off, she
must appoint the fittest persons to represent her,
give them large discretion, and offer them a firm
public support if they appear to have honestly used
their best judgment at the time ; yes, and that,
too, even though, being mortals like ourselves,
they might have erred in their judgment. Is,
indeed, every representative abroad and at such
a distance to live in dread of official rebukes and
party divisions in the House of Commons ? It
Was not thus that CLIVE and HASTINGS, CORN-
WALLIS and ARTHUR WELLESLEY made the Bri-
tish name what it is.

We have no doubt that Mr. COBDEN, and per-
haps a few pugnacious Peace Society men, were
sincere enough in their crotchet, but we do blame
the great Conservative body for putting themselves
to school again at Manchester. We wish to re-
spect our political antagonists as high-minded
combatants. Can we do so when they march with
Messra. COBDEN and MILNER GIBSON as their still-
dard-bearers t These gentlemen might indeed well
suspect their cause and position when they see
themselves leading the famous FIFTY-TIIREE who
voted to the last for protection, and all the up-
holders of every abuse, and obstructors of every
reform, following in their train. Nothing, kow-
e ver,
will now impart to Mr. COBDEN that large-
ness of view, that want of capacity to look beyond
the trade and navigation returns, that inability
to merge the manufacturer in the Statesman,
which has kept him in the background ever since
the repeal of the Corn-law..

If ever there was a question which ought t) be
dealt with on broad principles—oa the ground of
what course might be expected to produce the
best final results, and not on the ground of pleas
arid replies suitable to au Admiralty Court, it is
the present question. All the better speakers,
even though beguiled into the legal argument,
yet felt and said that it was below the importance
of the case. Here we were at Canton with a
Treaty in our hands, ever since 1842, which
g tve us free admission to the city, but
that admission refused ever since ! Not
only that, but a fresh agreement that a few
years ago the Treaty should be carried out ; but it
was not yet carried out ! Not only that, but
Europeans were murdered, insults innumerable
ciffer:ed, vessels seized, and a constant assumption
of superiority kept up by the Viceroys, which ism-
boldened the native rabble against all foreigners.
Hen ce it became settled, no doubt, in the minds
of f.ll residents there that the next outrage must
be the laid. Parties quarrelling face to face un-
derstan d what each other's acts mean ; and the
BritislA authorities and all Europeans at Canton