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

THE NEW MINISTRY.

(From the _Morning 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 ime 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
xis 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 froth
;the accession to power of the Ministry whose names
we publish to-day in our columns.
"Th"ellio-st 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 footine• 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 countrysto
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. Its creed is
fatalism ; and it may be said that, so far, he has
' been justified by success ; but he may find that he
:has rased a'storm which, 'strong as he is, he will
be--unable to calm. In such a case where would
El/gland be, with Lord Palmerston, as Premier and
Lord. John Thissell as Foreign Secretary.
Fortunately, however, the new Cabinet can
-scarcely hope to hold together for any lengthened
period. Individual abiliiy isnot the only—not even
the; chief element to be desired in the cornposition
: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' e 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 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 Woods
who *as lately, censigned by a Palmerstonian
organ to political oblivion, but who, after
notablehis success in half ruining our navy, As
sent to exercise his facultieS for nial-adminig-
, tration in the post vacated by Lord Stanley. The
juxtaposition of these two names is all 'the comment
that need bestowed on this singularly ill-aclVised.
appointment, unless, indeed, we add, for•the benefit
of all who think it a national.and paramount duty
to keep up the,British iiavy, that the Admiralty, is
now banded-over to-that- " conipicuous -novelty, as
his friends call him, the Duke of Somerset, and to
'thatiliScreet nobleman, Lord Clarence Paget, who
1 oug cer ain yt o thank his stars for thelate oppor-
tune dissolution of Parliaments- It would be too
long to go through the whole list of the new Cabinet.
We shaWnierely congratulate the Colonies on their
new Tractisian Minister; whose -opinions on colonial
subjects, as on most. other subjects, are so reinark-
ably in accord With those of his colleague, Mr.
Cobden. Thiss 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,
unitedt 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 atom's" can have no per-
maneritekistence, 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 eirdle of IVillis's Rooms than their' doom was
ine that critical occasion all was made
.• •
sOth' and easy for them, extravagant prothises
were given, the olive branch was tendered by
knowingskand 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 constitned the real strength of the
Liberal party, as they have always exhibited the
greatest-honesty of purpose. Wous -mons 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 dekres, 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 theon
Ministers are pledged, but imagine a discussion
wn
_
the reform question between Mr. Gladstone, h
o
cleaves to small boroughs,- and Mr. Cobden,itha who
would probably sweep them all down as w
scythe. The difficulty is not •to discover subjects on
which they are likely to disagree, b.
And it is
ut those on
which they might be supposed to agree
imagined that the Liberal party:
mere
be satisfied by
'e mockery of a
so miserable a concession—a ss
concession.' No wonder that dissatisfaction is ex-
pressed by the Liberal organs. No wonder that
the praise of Palmerstoman journals is strongly
tempered with indignationethaetrs. theef atphpeoionitdmlevnth.of
Sir Charles Wood and
g
school. No 'worsder that speculations are already
rife even in Liberal circles as to whether the Cabi-
net can 'hold together till the close of the session.

THE -FI.L.,AtA-mATIC COiOLEGE.—We are glad to le'arA
that, at a meeting of ,the executive committee of the Royal
Dramatic College,
the charter of incorporation was presenteo.
by virtua,of whilch the present, executive committee becOmb
the council until the 'first annual meeting, which, will 1*
held in 14ay, AVP understand that the council will
at once take immediate steps foi determining the site Of the
college, and Mak,itirrangenients for laying the foundation
stone, &c.—Era.