The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-08 00:00:00

lr Suit
11,00 • ;

LOA'DON, TUESDAY, DEC. 8, 1868.

It was the cynical remark of one of the shrewdest
of the world's social philosophers that until a man's
death one should refrain from attempting to estimate
at its just value either his career or his character !
That the critic should remain dumb until the play
was played out and the curtain had descended! The
remark is equally judicious when applied to the career
or character of a First Minister of the Crown with re-
ference to the actual close of his Government. And
seeing that Mr. DISRAELI'S tenure of office my be
even now regarded at this present writing as
virtually, or it might rather be said absolutely
brought already to its conclusion, we may be per-
mitted at length to weigh quite dispassionately in
the balance of our judgment, his career as the bead
of an Administration, and his character as First
Lord of the Treasury. Whatever may be thought
of him by his own party, but more especially with
reference to his latest and crowning act as
Leader of the Government, meaning, of course, his
precipitate, unprecedented, and almost, one might
say unconstitutional resignation before the meeting
of the Parliament he himself had summoned into
existence—whatever may be thought of him or of that
last act of his in his capacity as Prime Minister by
the members of his own party, the fact, we
take it, must still remain undeniable even by them
that to him they owe the possession of office (by them
as a party) for nearly three years, and of all that
is i*volved or implied by the duration so long of a
Conservative, or Tory, or Constitutional Govern-
ment. That fact, at any rate, is patent to the a p-
prehension of us all. Viewed from whatever side
it may be, from the side of the Liberals or from the
side of the Conservatives, there it still remains--that
to Mr. DISRAELI indivividually the latter owe, that is
the Conservatives, or Tories, or Constitutionalists, or
however else you may call them, ewe the now historical
circumstance, that for so long, fur a period of from two
to three years, they have continued in existence as a
Government. During the third and last Premiership
of Lord DERBY, Mr. DI3RAELI, asLeader of the House
of Commons, bore the heat and burden of the fight
quite as much as he has done more recently, and, in
an official sense only, more conspicuously during the
lifetime of h:s own Cabinet. He has done more for
his own party, however, than simply secure to them
the possession of office for three years. Ile has
afforded them during that interval a very
signal and, as it has happenei, a perfectly suffi-
cient opportunity for demonstrating their ca-
pacity as able and patriotic administrators.
Besides this he has secured to them as a party the
prestige, he has secured to himself personally the dis-
tinction—and it is a distinction that can never be

denied to him, and one with Which his name must
always henceforth be associated—of solving at last,
for good and all, and of thenceforth sweeping out of
view altogether as an obstruction in the broad on-
ward path of good and wise legislation, the hitherto
destructive and for long seemingly insoluble problem of
Parliamentaryßeform. Simply regarding laiM as aParty
Leader, these are incontestably among Mr. DISRAELI'S
achievements. But it is not as a Party Leader
merely that we are here desirous of estimating at its
just value the worth of his career as a Minister of
the Crown—now that his career as such, for the time
being, has closed, but more especially during these
last nine months as the First Minister of the Crown,
as Prime Minister of England. Comparatively
brief though the interval has been, it has
been in many respects very momentous. It is
not in every Premiership that a Primate has to be
appointed. It is not in every Premiership that a
Viceroy of Hindostan has to be entrusted with that
vast and awful responsibility. It is not in every
Premiership that an integral part of the United
Kingdom has to be pacified after the imminent
threatenings of an insurrectionary movement. Yet
these and other kindred anxieties have been concen-
trated within the space of theae nine months last past,
during which Mr. DISRAELI has been at the head of
affairs as First Lord of the Treasury. Having at-
tained that lofty pre-eminence, without any adventi-
tious aid whatever, by the- sheer force of his own
genius and of his own indomitable determination, he
has,within these last few months during which he has
been installed in office as Prime Minister, tasted to the
full of the intoxicating draughts of power as head of
the Government. Starting in life as a man of letters and
the son of a man of letters, he has won his way to
supreme power, and has during his possession of it,
during the best part of a twelvemonth, had abundant
opportunity of exercising it. He has created a
Duke. He has created a Chancellor. He has
created an Archbishop, and more than simply an
Archbishop—he has created a Primate. He has
created a Governor-General of India, ruler, vice-
regally, of from 150,000,000 to 200,000,000 Asiatics.
And invested with all the responsibilities of
a First Minister of the Crown upon whom devolves
the trust of disposing wisely of such enormous pa-
tronage, we believe that men of all parties will
allow that Mr. DISRAELI has throughout made his
selections with temperate discretion in the distribu-
tion of honours and offices as high and august as any
that are in the gift of the SOVEREIGN. And
even now in his very manner of withdrawing
from office, in his abrupt and unprecedented
resignation of power by himself and his colleagues
into the hands of the QUEEN, whatever may be
thought of it, just possibly (as a needless and pre-
cipitate and almost insensate begging of the ques-
tion) by the members of his own party—his antago-
nists, at least, have no cause for complaint against
him. lie has thereby demonstrated, in the most
signal manner possible, his determination, coute qui
collie, to abide by his word. Appealing to the
country upon the question of the Irish Churcb,
he recognizes before the meeting of Parliament that
in his anticipations he has been altogether disap-
pointed, that the decision of the country has been
given against him overwhelmingly. immediately
thereupon—directly the General Elections are draw-
ing so nearly to a close that those who run can
read in the signs of the times the glaring fact that
the Leader of the Opposition has at his
back a clear majority over him of upwards
of one hundred—he shrinks from the delay of one
unnecessary day, and upon the instant and unhesitat-
ingly places in the bands of her MAJESTY his resigna-
tion. The interpretation put upon his so doing by
the Times is characteristically enough that he has
thrown up the cards. According to the humorous in-
terpretation of the Saturday lieriew, the act is
nothing more than the Coming down of the Coon.
According to the same cynical nple of vidwing it by
one or another, Belts Life might just as sagaciously
and as appropriately compare the resignation of office
by Mr. DISRAELI to the throwing up of the spo
before what was felt must be the last round, the
round that would accord to him, as the vanquished
champion, the coup de grace, could even be
commenced. A contemporary journalist has even
somewhere taken occasion to remark with a
snigger of self-sufficient depreciation—and speaking
in the language of, the police courts —" That's his
little game!" when commenting upon a resignation that
is nevertheless at one and the same time so very sig-
nally for the convenience of the country, of the Liberal
party, of the Crown, and of the Parliament. Now
that he has actually resigned office, let us at least have
the satisfaction of saying, as we are happily enabled
to say as truthfully as dispassionately, that this
man of letters turned politician, winning his way
first of all to the position of a Parliamentary
notability, and afterwards to that of Leader of a
great constitutional party, and eventually to the
supreme post of all, that of Prime Minister of
England, has in that last mentioned capacity acquitted
himself with dignity of his high personal responsi-
bilities, and has now with Irawn with no derogation
from that dignity, but rather with an enhancement of
it, to the only less eminent position of Leader of her
MAJESTY'S Opposition. '

THE new Ministry is in one respect very like the
new House of Commons ; it resembles its prede-
cessors. A Cabinet in which five of the principal
seats have been assigned to peers, in addition to those
ornamental places which are always • assigned to
members of the Upper House, does not look very
much like the progress of democracy. Mr.
GLAWTONE does not, indeed, summon around him a
bodyguard of dukes, as Mr. DISRAELI did ; but he has
distributed sufficient posts among titled politicians to
prevent any revolt on the part of the ruling families.
Nor will a House of Commons so eminently respect-
able and moderate as the present find fault with
the new Cabinet on that account. Englishmen
like to be governed by lords, and it must
always be remembered that, their abilities
being equal, a lord is likely to make a
better administrator than a commoner, simply
because the first has more time for administration
than the second. The one danger to be guarded
against on the part of the peer is the want of popular
sympathy. But no one will Condemn Lord GRAN-
VILLE or the Duke of ARGYLL on that account.
Few noblemen have kept themselves so well abreast
of the age, or have so completely acquired the confi-
dence of the most liberal of politicians. There are
other Whig noblemen of whom the same could not
be said. But Mr. GLADSTONE has had the wisdom
not to include them in his Administration.

Taking the new Ministers seriatim, there is much to
nspire confidence. Nevertheless, there are one or
two appointments which do not
,satisfy us. That
Mr. GLADSTONE should be Premier was a matter of
course. He has directed the policy of the country
for the past three years, whether in office
or out of office, and the vigour with which his oppo-
nents created difficulties out of their fertile imagina-
tion only shows how secure he was of the leadership,
and how jealous they were of his influence. The new
LODD CHANCELLOR is an able, upright, high-minded
man, but, unfortunately he is no debater, and will
make a very inadequate opponent to the eloquent
Lord CAIRNS. Possibly Mr. GLADSTONE remembered
a former occupant of the woolsack, and his melancholy
downfall thirty months ago, and came to the conclu-
sion that character was, after all, worth more than
brilliancy. At all events, in Sir WILLIAM PAGE
WOOD the new PRE3IIEIL has a Chancellor who
should quiet the fears of zealous Churchmen, The