The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-12 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

Tins DAY,—Morning, 12h. 46m.—Afternoon, 3h. Om.
To-monnow.-Morning, 3h. 26m.—Afternoon, 3h. 46m.

THE WEATHER.—SUN OFFICE, JAN. 12, 1561,
THEBNOMETEB., IN T 1133 SHADB.
36—highest since noon yesterday.
31—lowest this morning and during the night.
38—this day at noon.

_
BAROMETER-30.15.
Wrifn--South-Westerly—light ; with mild weather and
gentle thaw.

THE SUN.
LONDON, SATURDAY, JAN. 12, 1881

It was only as recently as Wednesday that
Lord PALMERSTON had occasion to address the
country at large through the medium of an audience
composed of brother Hampshiremen. It was Sir
CHARLES WOOD'S privilege upon the very day
after, namely, on Thursday, to promulgate his
views also, as a Cabinet Minister, upon the general
situation at home and abroad, through the medium
of a speech addressed, in his turn, to his neighbours
down in Yorkshire. Convivial and complimentary
harangues of this kind, whether delivered before
the promoters of a scientific and literary institu-
tion, or to the guests of the Lord Mayor of the
ancient capital of the North of England, can only
afford us, it is true, the merest glimpses of the
inner thoughts and motives of ministers,the thoughts
and motives guiding the policy of an Administra-
tion. Yet vague and momentary though these
purely incidental glimpses are in themselves, they
are for that reason none the less welcome or the
less worthy of observation. And acceptable though
they are at all times as expressive, however
fragmentarily, of the sentiments of our leading
administrators, they are, never at any period of the
political year so peculiarly opportune or so emi-
nently deserving of remark, as they are immediately
before the close of the long Parliamentary recess or
vacation—or, in other words, directly prior to the
reassembling of the two Houses of our Imperial
Legislature. Even straws tossed into the air,
the proverb tell us, show which way the
wind blows. And when the companions of
COLUMBUS were all but driven to despair
towards the termination of his first
exploration of the Atlantic, they were heartened
on to the discovery of the New World, we
are told, by the tangles of seaweed, and
the branches covered with leaves and berries
floating upon the surface of the ocean from that
unknown continent. Trivial though the reply
of a Minister of the Crown may be in respond-
ing to an after dinner tribute in the shape of a
toast to himself individually (as was the case on
Wednesday with regard to Lord PALmmtsToN)
or to his colleagues collectively (as was
the case with reference to Sir CHARLES
WOOD down at York on Thursday)—from
the words thus uttered with apparent care-
lessness, upon an indifferent occasion, very much
in respect to the coming session, may at these times,
and without much exercise of sagacity, be pretty
confidently predicated. We may draw our conclu-
sions there and then, moreover, not only from what
is said but also from what is not said by an admi-
nistrator.

Regarding in this light the speech delivered
on Thursday at YoTk by the right honour-
able baronet the Secretary of State for India,
it is impossible not to be impressed at once by the
significance of the fact, that rot an allusion was
made by him in this speech, either to any hopes
for the future, in reference to Parliamentary

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