The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-13 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 13, 1867.

The PA LYIERSTON Parliament is at this moment I
all but completed. Under 15 members yet re-i
main to be returned by the Irish County Consti-
tiler) cies. Already, out of the 654 representa-
tir, es who will take their seats in the new House
of Commons, 640 may be enumerated. An exa
ruination of this long list of 640 M.P.'s brings to
tight, among other things, the remarkable fact
that there are among them no less than 171 who
have never before enjoyed the privilege of being
units in the Legislature. Contrasting forcibly
with which circumstance is the no less remarkable
truth that already 175 Old Members—many of
them even whose names have been lorgg familiar
to the readers of Dod and Hansard—have NOT
been re-elected I Close upon a hundred of these
receiving their quietus from their constituents—
simply and point blank because of their having
voted in favour of Mr. COBDEN' s monstrous Chinese
-Resolution ! Suck a yengeance as it has been; to

be sure !—a vengeance so summary, so sweeping,
so comprehensive and overwhelming !
The difference observable between the list of
171 New Members elected for the first time, and
the other list of 175 Old Members not re-elected,
shows at a glance that only four out of the aggre-
gate of 654 representatives are Old Members re-
vived !—Members who have sat before, although
they had no seat in the last Parliament—four Old-
New Members (as we may term them), in regard
to whom the constituencies have been repentant.
Conspicuous among these four—par excellence—
" RETURNS " to the House are two well-tried and
proved Reformers, to whom we offer our very
cordial congratulations on their restoration
to the British Parliament General PER-
RONET THOMPSON, again M.P. for Bradford—
and Mr. JAMES WYLD, again M.P. for Badmin
Heartily glad are we to see them both " in" once
more—as they ought to have been, but were not,
in the defunct Parliament. They are again, as
the chosen representatives of their respective con-
stituencies, " right men in the right places."
Members we could ill spare in the last Parlia-
ment by reason of their strong common sense,
each evidenced after his own peculiar fashion.
The " General" Reformer, as we may appro-
priitely and with a double significance designate
the famous Author of the Corn-Law Catechism !
and the " Chart-ist" Reformer, as Punch face-
tiously termed the Royal Geographer I—being
just the very men one would have liked to select
from the list of Quondam Members to be restored
to their former posts in the popular branch of the
Imperial Legislature.

Fourteen more members (out of the 654 con-
stituting the British House of Commons), yet re-
maining to be returned—we may, nevertheless,
already calculate the probable balance of Parties
in the PALMERSTON Parliament. A careful ana-
lysis of it proves, beyond the shadow of a doubt,
that in it there will be a majority of more than
eighty Liberals over and above the aggregate of
the Conservatives. A glorious prospect for Re-
form—seeing that these Liberals are not simply
Palmerstonians. They are thorough and unmis-
takeable Palmerstonians, it is true, as far as regards
the foreign policy of the country ! They are
ardent and devoted supporters of the " English"
Minister ! They are enthusiastic admirers of his
daring and patriotic conduct in supporting a dis-
tinguished servant of the Crown many thousand
miles from home, 'vindicating, in a position of
great peril and responsibility, the rights of British
subjects, the honour of the British flag, the dig-
nity and authority of the British character ! But
beyond this—they are Palmerstonians only, so
far as the Prime Minister resolves upon declaring
himself to be a Reformer. Such is the promising
aspect of the New House—such is its agreeable
and propitious political complexion !

It is rather awkward when you are driving
tandem to have your leader turn round and look
you in the face. Whip and reins must be very
adroitly handled if you are t) be saved the morti-
fication of atoning for employment of superfluous
strength by asking your companion to descend
and put all straight. If we are to believe the
great organ, the Lord JOHN RUSSELL organ, the
PALMERSTON organ, and the organ of Mr.
DISRAELI, Lord PA MUMMY is to drive
tandem this session ; and the worst is that one
half of his House of Commons will have had no
training at all. He could have got on well enough
in horse and gig style, but the country
has set him up with a chaise and two, but
not a chaise and pair. It is much feared,
also, by all good Palmerstonians, that though his
steeds will travel well enough, while on the road
to China, that they will be very skittish where two
or three roads branch off in the direction of Re-
form. It is said, indeed, that he will try and
keep on the main road to Canton ; that if that
cannot be done ,for the whole session, he will
try one or two left-hand ways towards Ecclesiasti-
cal Courts and Joint-Stick Banks; but just then
it is that the danger is apprehended—it is
feared that some who drew right before will then
be a little restive ; and, in fact, that his leaders
will turn and look him in the face.

The Press confidently predicts that Lard PAL-
IsERSTON'S decline will date from the day of his
first triumphant entry into the House of Com-
mons. Similar fears appear in other quarters.
No one doubts that the vote which practically
reverses that of the memorable 3d of March, will
inter YEHISM by almost as large a majority as that
which buried Protection in 1862. But then the
real trial of skill must come. The new Members
are pledged to obey the Ministerial whip and
rein only in the Chinese affair. That settled,
they will consider the country to be on
the look out in regard to other matters. Just
after hon. members have quitted the hustings,
and just as they are expecting to reappear on
them, are the times when they think most of the
opinions of constituents. And new as Mr. SIDNEY
HERBERT has it, they have come back re-dipped in
a general election, and they must for a time feel
the renovating effects of the hydropathic treat-

men t.

All would be easy enough were Lord PALMER-
STON a spontaneous reformer, but Reform never
was any particular business of his. He is not indeed
the man, as his Conservative opponents openly
regret, to keep out of office a single diy
for any principle whatever ; impertinent
interference with his management he would
not submit to, but he probably sees
no principle whatever in any of the different
modes of extending the Suffrage. The Ballot, to
be sure, he would never concede, if possible, that
being obviously giving political independence to
the constituencies. Not a single advance would
Lord PALMERSTON volunteer. The LOCKE-KING
vote proved that plain enough. How, then,
will he keep his majority when the great domestic
questions are forced upon the House ? The first
diminished majority will be a diminution of his
power. It will show that to that extent the ma-
jority is not his majority ; and even though his
majorities may advance as well as recede,
yet if it be manifest that the ebb has commenced,
it will probably ebb rather fast. We understand
Mr. BERKELEY will soon test the House on the
Ballot. Now it must prove very damaging to
him if a large number of his supporters on foreign
questions desert him on this. The open question
policy is very damaging to the strength of a Go-
vernment. It reveals internal dissension ; and
we have high authority indeed for the fate of a
House divided against itself.
Then Mr. LOCKE KING will doubtless bring
forward his motion again, and there may be some
explanations very inconvenient to the Govern-
ment, touching what on the face of it looks like a
false statement on the part of Lord GRANVILLE,
It will be very inconvenient to have the Honour-
able Member for Bucks patronising the Cabinet
by a Conservative vote, and at the same time
bitterly taunting its members with clap-trap state-
ments, for electioneering purposes, on the subject
•f the vote.

But Lord JOAN RussEttr—what is to be done
with him ? He will be rather frisky after
beating " the young man from Northampton:,
go assuredly does not mean to bo a

political nobody during this Parliament, I
probably not during this half session. Ha
knows his advantage to be on domestic ques-
tions—he will avow entire concurrence in the
course to be adopted in China ; he will thus cut
away all ground for preference of PALMERSTON on
score ; he will not suffer the hustings' fervour of

the members to evaporate before he brings for-
ward his views, and if they be not adopted, his
own motion for a bill ; and, lucky for the coun-

try if he should be driven to do it in opposition.
It will be far more worth having as a bid for
power than as a Cabinet offering. Thoroughly
should we rejoice if Lord JOHN proposed a bill,
including the Ballot, got the famous Reform Bill
majority of one or two upon it, was sent for to
Buckingham Palace, dissolved Parliament, and,
gave the country an opportunity of pronouncing
on the franchise and free voting.
'What, however, we should much prefer
would be to let byegones be byegones ; to see
Lord JoIN coalesce with Lord PALMER-
STON, arrange the honour of the question
as they pleased, and both uniting to bring in a
bill which would rally the whole country round
them. A half measure will only damage all who
propose it. It will not arouse the people to
force it through the House of Lords. It would
fall an abortion, like Lord JoaN's Reform Bill
No. 11. Between the necessity, in any case, of
a Reform Bill for Lord JOHN, the certainty
that all Lord PA.LMERSTON does in that line
will be invit/ Minerva, and the extent

to which so many members are, in honour,
pledged to do something, there appear to be
elements of serious division among the PA.LMERS-
TON Liberals, unless the Premier's liberal domestic
policy unite them.
We wish his Lordship success, but no man
knows better than he the difficulty of succeeding
by half measures when power is in a Minister's
hand. He has seen the GREY and other Liberal
Ministers fall by disappointing the natural
expectations of the people ; and he knows that
it has been the unpardonable sin of Liberals.
Of Tories bold liberality is not expected, of
Liberals it is—nor can they keep their party
in spirits or keep them collected without
it. Let Lord PALMERSTON boldly take the road
to reform, and at full pace, and we will answer
for it that his steeds will need little guidance and

no whip, and that his leader will not turn round
and look him in the face.

The future government of the Danubian
Principalities must speedily be decided. The
commissioners from the contracting Powers are
now assembled at Bucharest. They will have
ample opportunities of judging for themselves re-
specting the real feelings of the people, which
should be respected, and so far as practicable acted
on, in any arrangements that may be definitively
entered into. But the question is of vast
importance not only to the inhabitants,
but to Europe generally. On the de-
cision that may be arrived at depends not
only the welfare and prosperity of the Principali-
ties, but the peace and tranquillity of the world.
Although it was a fundamental article of the
Treaty of Paris that these important provinces
should continue to be subject to the Sublime
Porte, and that the exclusive interference of Rus
sia—or quasi " protectorate"—should for ever ter-
minate, it is now attempted to carry out by in-
direct means that which was expressly and unequi-
vocally prohibited. Russia endeavours to effect
the union of Wallachia, Moldavia, and
to place at the head of the Government a Ger-
man Prince, who would be her tool and instru-
ment, willing to carry her behests into execution,
and to act on her suggestions as fully as if he
were the representative and nominee of the
AUTOCRAT. If this project should be accepted
it would be a second edition of the Greek
farce. The nominal Sovereign would be a Mus-
covite satrap, and all that has already been
accomplished in opposition to the Russian de-
signs would be completely neutralised and
thrown away. The sacrifice of 76,000,0001. of
English money and of 50,000 gallant Englishmen,
and of an equal amount of French money and
nearly double the number of Frenchmen would be
absolutely wasted. It is by no means an over-esti-
mate to state that the late war cost the Allies
150,000,000/. and 150,000 soldiers, and it would
be too bad that the legitimate results should be
forfeited, or even endangered, by diplomatic
blunders. ,

Great Britain, Turkey, and even Austria,
clearly pereei re the enormous evils that must
necessarily follow the contemplated union, and
the selection of "a Prince of one of the reigning
families of Europe," as desired by the Cabinet of
Sf. Petersburg. France, at one time, participated
in these sentiments, but, we regret to say, that
no great confidence can now be reposed in her
co-operation. There are too many indications of
the EMPEROR'S intention to play "the Russian
game," and to connive at this union, which would
render the Principalities, although nominally un-
der the suzerainete of the Porte, to all in-
tents and purposes an appanage of Russia.
The angel of Peace will, of course, take part with
his nephew, and thus parties will be nearly
equally balanced, and the utmost vigilance will be
required to guard against the impending danger.
On this point England is perfectly disinterested.
Her only objects are to promote the happiness of
the inhabit int;, and to retain a barrier against
Russian aggression on the Ottoman dominions.
There is a fertile soil abundantly sufficient to pro-
vide for its inhabitants, even if quadrupled ; and
also to export cereals largely to other countries.
The deplorable system, so long in operation, has,
however, not only retarded, but absolutely pro-
hibited the development of its natural capabilities.
The " talent has been buried," so far as the Mol-
davians and Waliachians are concerned, and we
cannot feel surprised that those who are living in
a constant state of alarm—who are exposed to re-
peated invasions, or "occupations," as they are
termed in diplomatic language—should be con-
tented to abandon all attempt at improvement,
and to snatch a scanty subsistence from what
under more auspicious circumstances might be
sources of wealth and abundance. Matters have
remained in statu quo for the last century and a
half, and a Moldavian RIP VAN WINKLE might
be puzzled to notice any change or amelioration
since the time when the STUAATS reigned in
England. -

The anxiety of Russia for the union is to ren-
der the new State too powerful for Turkish
coercion. But the danger does not lie in that
direction. The SULTAN is not of an aggressive
disposition. His sole anxiety is to retain his own,
not to trespass on his neighbours. Europe no
longer quails at Moslem power. Russia is now
the aggressor, and her arguments are as specious
as those of the wolf when seeking protection
against the sheep. Fortunately, we have
Lard PALMERSTON at the head of affairs
in this country, and it is to be hoped that
he will not allow himself either to be bullied or
cajoled—that he will not yield either to dictation
or persuasion. England has not any " poor little "
German ,Prinoo whose fortunes she desires to ad-