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

SPIRIT OF TILE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Saturday Review says: No one can deny that, taken
as a whole, the Cabinet is a strong one—strong in debating
power and parliamentary position, and strong in adminis-
trative ability. To Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Lowe, and Mr.
Bright no one can be opposed for an instant on the other
side except Mr. Disraeli himself. In the Lords the Cabinet
is, of course, weaker, but still it comprises some of the
first men among the peers. There are people who are
bound to be disappointed with everything, and this class
of persons are disappointed at finding so many peers in
the Cabinet. It is painful, they say, in these democratic
days to think that out of fifteen members of the Cabinet
there are six peers and the Marquis of Hartington. Lord
Russell could not have been more exclusive, more Whig,
and more aristocratic than Mr. Gladstone has shewn him-
self, or more contemptuous of the leaders of the people.
The charge is in a way true, and if a Cabinet was to be

composed exclusively of the fifteen ablest men of the
party, the Cabinet would not have Leen rightly formed.

hevoluti-ns cannot he made with rose-water but it is a
very goed thing to sprinkle as much rose•wa er them
as possible. It will make things much smoother, both in
Ireland and England, that the destruction of the Irish
Church should:not seem the work of a new, wild, violent

party, but the natural consequence of Liberal principles,
whether held by men of one rank or another; and it may

be hoped that Lord Spencer, whose recommendations are

chiefly social, way Contribute, as Lord-Lieutenant, to

makelrelind as tranquil as possible. Besides, the peers,

with the one exception of Lord De Grey, are thoroughly

competent men. If Mr. Forster and Mr. Stansfeld had
been peers, they would certainly have had a better chance
of being in the Cabinet ; but, with these exceptions, it
cannot be said that any commoners have been kept out of
the Cabinet who had a fair right to be in it.

The Spectator thinks the new Government would be a

perfectly satisfactory one, were it not for a certain dimly
perceptible want of tone. Though not a Ministry of all
the Talents, and in one department decidedly weak, the
Cabinet as a body comprises an extraordinary range and
variety both of parliamentary and administrative ability.

The Government certainly will not fail, as able Govern-
ments have once or twice failed, from- inability to defend
its measures in either House, while in capacity to devise
them it will be without a rival among the Cabinets of this
generation. There is none of the Old-Whig sterility about
Mr. Gladstone, or Mr. Lowe, or Mr. Childers, or Mr.
Bruce, or Mr. Goschen, or the Duke of Argyll, and none,

we trust, of that disbelief in popular support, of that
absence of moral courage in taking an initiative, which
has been so perceptible in recent Administrations. Nor
can it be said that the new Government is a Govern-
ment wanting in Liberalism, as Liberalism has hitherto
been understood, in this country of legal precedents and
middle-class moderation. Nevertheless, all true Radicals,
the constructive Radicals, who wish to see new ideas in
power as well as new men, are conscious of a certain
latent dissatisfaction with the new Government, a hesita-
tion in giving it their full confidence, which had much
better be openly expressed. The aspect of the Cabinet
would have satisfied everyone had it been gathered
together by Earl Russell, but it does not fulfil the lofty
ideal which it was hoped Mr. Gladstone would strive to
realise. To the world at large the Government looks like
a Whig Government which has admitted Radicals to
certain minor posts. The traditional etiquette should
have been broken, and it is intact. It was, perhaps, wise
in Mr, Gladstone to divest his Cabinet of any " revolu-
tionary " air, to conciliate the great families in spite of
their decaying power, to recognise that a passion so
universal in England as flunkeyism is a political force ; but
there are degrees in prudence, and his selection has been
prudent indeed. The most Liberal among aristocrats have
been chosen, but the Cabinet is almost as aristocratic as
Mr. Disraeli's ; among Commoners the least "advanced"
have been carefully selected ; and the man who most openly
detests the popular power, who can scarcely believe that
two plus two are four because workmen also believe it, fills
the second place. In the event of a difference of opinion
within the sacred chamber itself, the least advanced
side can rely on a clear majority; while on all questions of
a social kind, education, labour, or State work, there are
not in the Cabinet more than four votes—Mr. Gladstone,
Mr. Bruce, Mr. Childers, and Mr. Goschen—whom the
public can trust. The Radicals have been employed as we
employ men who may be useful, but with the single excep-
tion of Mr. Bright, anyone. has been considered more
indispensable than a Radical representative. The tone of
the old-world Administrations, which " pacified " Radicals
by appointments like that of -Mr. Milner Gibson, instead
of accepting them frankly and cordially as equal allies, is
perceptible throughout the arrangements, and will, unless
Mr. Gladstone is careful to assert himself in his Cabinet,
to make his own burning popular sympathy felt as well as
known, ultimately produce, not, indeed, disloyalty—that
is impossible while Ireland is unreconciled—but a want of
cordiality in obedience which he will keenly feel. We do
not doubt that he will succeed, but it is folly to pretend
unmixed satisfaction with a Government appointed by
Mr. Gladstone, of which Lord Palmerston, with a jolly
wink at the benches opposite, would have heartily
approved.

The Imperial Review notices that the new Ministry has
been formed in an unprecedentedly short time. But as it
bad been, as far as its leading features were concerned,
cut and dried ever since Mr. Disraeli committed the
unpardonable sin of becoming Prime Minister before his
rival, it is by no means surprising that Mr. Gladstone
should have succeeded in shuffling the cards which
were already in ' his band Without any long dealing
or insurmountable difficulty. Mr. Gladstone would
not only have offended the allies whose support was
absolutely indispensable to a Revolutionary. Minister, but
he would have violated all the traditions of the party
which he leads, bad he composed his Cabinet as the
Radical press apparently believed he would, of the
Forsters and Stansfelds, and all the " general utility "
politicians who have been returned to support him
by the second-rate manufacturing towns. The
parallel which naturally suggests itself between
the daring Minister who bas taken in hand the
demolition of the ancient fabric of Church and State,
and the enterprising " promoter " of some grand financial
scheme, should not be without instruction for those who
have observed the modus operandi of recent speculators.
The prospectus, with its alluring prognostications and
business-like detail, has it not been advertised on every
hustings in the kingdom ? There is no doubt as to
the course of our new ruler. Mr. Bright has taken office,
and if anybody thinks that six or sixty amiable noble-
men, of Liberal tendencies, will counterbalance Mr. Bright,
they are quite welcome to a delusion which will not last
very long. To do our new Minister justice, he has never
deceived us. We know him, and we know his policy. We
know his policy must be the policy of those who act with
him ; and we also know that, however Mr. Gladstone
may seek to disguise it by putting forward his noble col-
leagues and keeping back his real master, the nation will
not be long in detecting Mr. Bright's policy, and a Liberal
Cabinet will be his creature.
The ,London Review remarks that it is a gOod Ministry,
and there is no Whig Mentor in it. Only one member of
the Cabinet, except Lord Chancellor Hatherley, is Mr.
Gladstime's senior in years or official standing ; and Lord
Clarendon is no mentor, but Foreign Minister with a new
paraphe. He is too pliable a man to be inconvenient to
any of his colleagues, and will probably find vent in the
grumbling and free sarcasm to which he is said to be
prone for any vexation he may feel at the new associations
and new obligations amongst which he will ply his accus-
tomed diplomatic craft. Unlike Lord Palmerston, the
Earl of Clarendon has never bad views or designs, or has
never cared to press them. The acceptance of office by
Mr. Bright is a subject for the heartiest public satisfaction.
There would have been something exceedingly depressing
in a refusal on his part to bear a buiden the character of
which his public conduct is so certain to affect. It would
have established a hiatus between the governing and the
executive forces in public affairs. Mr. Milner Gibson's
appointment was simply an empty compliment to the
extreme party, for when in office be is not at all to be
distinguished from Ministers of the orlinary official
type, except by what Thackeray called a don't-
eare-a-danmativeness of manner. What is it that
distinguishes Mr. Bright's accession to office? This :
that his resignation would vitally endanger the
Ministry; that he would unquestionably resign if
certain things were done which have been clone in our
time by quasi Liberal Ministries ; and that there is little
reason to fear the having to resign, because the Prime
Minister has more sympathy with him than with any
other member of the Cabinet, and values his support on
principle more than that of any othects er cof olleagu. The
Ministry starts with the best' prosp realising its
high thoughts in high •deeds, and we regard the dangers
of di vision.with which idle tongues threaten it as chimerical
in the last degree. It is not likely such a Ministry could
have been biought together at all had there been any pro-
bable points of differende in sight.

The Joltn Dull says that whatever may be the merits or
demerits of the new Ministry,. no one can deny that it has
been rapidly formed. Within a week of being summoned
by th. queen. Mr. Gladstone was able to see the seals of
office confided to his colleagues by the sovereign. The
reason that the Government has so soon assumed a
she pe is not far to seek. "So far a.; the Cabinet
is concerne4l," the old gamelas been played pretty n.uch
over 'flip Radicals lvti-e won the fortress ; and the
Whi..;s coolly takc pi,session. At is not for us to comp'ain
that six of the new Al inisters are lords ; and that Mr.
Itright is 'almost the only repro.:entative of more ad-
vane,-,l I:attic:distil in the where, muzzled, as he
will l-t!, he: will l,u. far less dangerous to his Whig friends
than in an. independent position below the gangway.
Vie mintain, then, that in the Cabinet itself the Whigs
still reign supreme, and, as we gather from the Times., the
smiling earl has undertaken to'keep the Colonies in good
humour, has already taken the Quaker Right Honourable
under his special tutorship—so that for the present the
%Vhigs have the best of it. Altogether we cannot con-
gratulate our Radical friends on their treatment by. Mr.
Gladstone. But their time is to come. The team will not
pull together. The Whigs will not long work with Mr. Glad.
stone and Mr. bright, and then they may, if they cannot
attain power themselves, once more relegate those who
have duped them to the cool shade of Opposition.