The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-03 00:00:00

LONDON, 111URSDAY, DEC. 3, 1868.

Mr. DISRAELI, no less than the Emperor NAPOLEON,
has bad his Second of December. As Prime Minister,
the course puriued by him, yesterday, was as start-
ling as any coup d'etat recorded in history. By ten-
dering the resignation of himself and his colleagues,
as he -has done, he has acted as best became
the dignity of his position as the Leader of a great
Constitutional Party. He has not been driven from
office. He withdraws from it. In so doing he has
had regard especially to the interests of the na-
tion, to the convenience of the Legislature, to
the preservation intact of his own high
Parliamentary reputation, to the honour and
consistency of all those, both in the House
and out of it, of whom he is the recognized
and responsible Leader, and, last:not least of all, to
that loyal self-abnegation which best became him, at
a crisis of this supreme importance, in his•capacity, as
chief Ministerial adviser of the Sovereign. Hitherto,
but more particularly of late, the meanest motives
have been imputed to him in that capacity by the
more virulent and unscrupulous of his assailants.
He has been described as a trickster who was
bent, above all things, upon clinging to
office at no matter what sacrifice of prin-
ciple—as a mere Parliamentary tactician, consum-
mate no doubt in his ability as such, but at the best
as a political adventurer. By the course pursued by
him yesterday, those flagrant and unjustifiable im•
putations have been altogether falsified. He has
acted with the strictest regard to honour. He has
preserved his consistency. He retires with dignity
from the.supreme position he has occupied as head
of her MAJESTY'S Government. And, in withdraw-
ing his forces and assuming his position anew
as Leader of the Opposition, he does so with his fol-
lowers not only not disorganised, but in the highest
state of efficiency and discipline—aud carrying with
him the prestige of having, during his tenure of office,
solved that great problem of Parliamentary Reform
which had so long been the stumbling-block of party,
and the des'raction and d:sgrac,, ono after another,
)f a series of Administrations.

By resigning as he has done, Mr. DISRAELI, as we
lave said, has preserved his cc)nsistency. He has carried
out his own programme. Opposing—mistakenly, as
ve conceive—the proposition brought forward in the
Eloise of Commons within a few days after his eleva-
tion to the Premiership—Mr. GLADSTONE'S no doubt
sudden and startling proposition—for the dis-

establishment and disendowment of the Irish
Church, Mr. DISRAELI declined to abide by the
adverse decision of that last Parliament: preferring,
as in his position he had a perfect right to do,
a direct appeal to the country upon the great and
momentous question thus abruptly ventilated ; urging
at the same time, and with equally good reason, that
the appeal then made to the country should be made,
not to the old and restricted, but to the new and en-
larged constituencies. In order to render this
appeal to the enlarged constituencies practic-
able, it became necessary that the incom-
plete measure of Parliamentary Reform upon
the broad basis of Household Suffrage should be
perfected as rapidly as possible—he and his colleagues
retaining office to that very end, namely, that they
should finish what they themselves had commenced.
By applying themselves to that most laborious task
with resolute industry and assiduous application, the
Great Reform Act, with which Mr. DISRAELI'S name
will henceforth always be associated, was with
really extraordinary rapidity, under the circum-
stances, brought to a satisfactory completion.
A. special statute was passed, the old Parliament was
dissolved, a new one was summoned to appear by the
mandate of the SOVEREIGN, the writs were issued,
the appeal was made to the country, and that appeal,
moreover, addressed to the greatly increased body of
electors, to the newly-enfranchised multitude, to the
enormously enlarged constituencies. And the answer
given by,the:country to that appeal has been given—
as the world knows by this time, as Mr. DISRAELI
is himself the first to:recognise—quite unmistakeably.
So unmistakeably that' the Premier does what no
Premier has ever done before him under kindred
circumstances—he frankly, manfully, honourably
resigns office into the hands of his Sovereign be-
fore the meeting of the new Parliament. By
a resignation like this he disarms criticism.
Away to the winds go at once all those
miserable imputations about clinging to office
—about systematic trickery—about paltering with
the name of his Sovereign for mere party purposes
and for the furtherance of a selfish ambition, no
matter how unscrupulously. Against the course that
has all along been pursued in this matter by Mr.
DISRAELI, no accusation whatever can now be directed.
The paltry gibes of partisan opponents must hence-
forth be hushed for very shame. Mr. DISRAELI has
acted not as a mere tactician, not as a political
trickster, not exclusively even as a party leader :
he has acted throughout—he proves by his resigna-
tion thus instantly at the close of the General Elec-
tion and before the meeting of Parliament that he
has acted throughout—in his high capacity as Prime
Minister of England, as a loyal servant of the Crown
and as a great constitutional statesman. Mistaken he
may be—mistaken we, as one, believed him to be—on
this question of the Irish Church, but we cannot at
the same time do otherwise than regard with respect,
and in one sense with admiration, the dignity of
the course he pursues in his manner of opposing it.

IN placing their resignation in the hands of the
QUEEN, her MAJESTY'S Ministers have adopted the
most dignified and honourable course. There was
nothing to be gained by prolonging in the House of
Commons a contest which had been irrevocably
decided on the hustings. The battle is over, and the
victory won; the debate in Parliament after the
polling must have been as much a farce as the
nomination which preceded it. It would have
been worse than a waste of time to gather
together the 658 representatives who have
passed through the turmoil of a general elec-
tion for the mere sake of reproducing in the Legisla-
lature the fierce personal struggle which has just
ended in the country. Al " no-confidence " motion
may sometimes be an indispensable ceremony, but it
can never be deemed other than the most disagree-
able contingency of political warfare. It may some-
times be necessary to determine the, most
important questions of policy, but it never fails
to expose the worst side of political life. The
personality and recrimination which marked the
debate of 1859, when the last Conservative Govern-
ment was expelled _ from office, ought to be
amply sufficient to satisfy the country for a genera-
tion, much more for a decade. In 1864 Mr. DISRAELI'S
motion on the Danish question, which amounted to
a declaration of a want of confidence, was
the only mode of testing the strength of the two
parties, and of determining the policy of the country.
There had been no appeal to the nation because
there had been no previous defeat. The question
cline for the first time before Parliament. But in
the present instance there is not the slightest need
for the dismal formality of debating upon a Royal
speech which would confessedly represent the policy
of but three-sevenths of the House. The Ministry
appealed to the country upon a definite issue, and
the country has returned the most definite reply. It
has assured the present Government that it must
give place to another, and nothing remained for
the 'Ministry but retirement. In former times
when a choice of deaths was offered to the
condemned the option was rarely neglected, and
the easiest and simplest mode of demise was chosen.
The Ministry also have done wisely in selecting the
simplest form of an inevitable formality. The Minis-
terial crisis will now be got over before Christmas,
we shall enjoy our annual festivities undisturbed by
politics, and then--the first Radical Government
shall have its innings.

THE not unnatural curiosity which is felt in ascer-
taining the exact figures of the respective parties
in the House of Commons may now be gratified
with scarcely the smallest danger of error. A. diffe-
rence of two score in the original calculations would
not have affected the practical result; but it is satis-
factory to find that those estimates were in the main
correct, that the country has not belied the just
expectations that were formed of its decision. The
verdict on the side of justice has been favourable
almost beyond hope ; the majority against the Irish
Church is large almost to danger. In the Reformed
Parliament the Liberals will outnumber the Con-
servatives by 110. The seats yet to be assigned can-
not alter this verdict by a greater variation than that
of one or two on either side. Mr. GLADSTONE will
be supported by a party which, under most circum-
stances, would fall into that security which needs no
legislative successes to strengthen its position, that
inertia from which the country has already suffered
so much. The character of the Liberal leader is,
however, one guarantee against a reproduc-
tion of the Palmerstonian. era ; and the
character of the new House is another. Mr.
GLADSTONE is active or he is nothing; during the
reign of his late chief his greatness was merged into
one department of the State, simply because there
was no opportunity for action in any other. He was
a financier partly because his genius led him in that
direction, but also partly because the Budget was for
several sessions the most important item of the year.
The constitution of the new House, though not
wholly satisfactory, is an additional guarantee that
the Liberal host will not be idle in its
strength. Mr. GLADSTONE'S majority is simply
a deputation so far as regards the Irish Church
question, and is deeply pledged on other sub-
jects. One of the greatest reforms of our genera-
tion is virtually accomplished, and many others can
no longer be kept in the background. The great
attention which has of late been given to the topic
of economical administration, and particularly by the
Liberal leader himself, leaves it almost beyond doubt
that some change will be attempted in this direction,
either by the Legislature or the Executive. Then
comes the piece de resistance, education, the
liquor traffic, and others of the many social
reforms which political agitation has kept back
so long. The Liberal majority is more or less

MAILS.

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 3, 1868.

pledged on all these points, whilst on the Irish
Church question it is characterised by the most
remarkable unanimity of the present century.
Nothing could be more decisive than the decision
of the country in this respect. Not only has
the Cave of Adullam again become matter
of history, but every species of crotchet and hobby,
as well as all shades of independence, have been
rejected. It is the one unsatisfactory nature of this
election, that in its haste to record its decision the
nation has swept away many a valuable member,
and has shut out from the national assembly
several of its greatest ornaments. To inhabit
the Cave has become but one offence amongst
many ; all singular or exceptional candidates have
met with defeat. It is to be regretted that the sum
total of intellect returned in 1868 falls below
that which formed the House of 1865 ; but
the result proves at least that the nation is
in earnest, and that much as it values its men, it
values its principles more. In the last days of the
polling, Haddingtonshire alone has lifted up her
voice against this "dreary uniformity." Whilst
most Adullamites have either recanted or
given up the struggle, Lord ELcno, the
most uncompromising of them all, has been
elected by a considerable majority. As every rule
must have its reverse, Lord ELCHO must be
received as the solitary protest against the great
peculiarity of this election. But the choice of an
exception has not been fortunate: The member for
Haddingtonshire has been elected to a House from
which many a better representative has been ex-
cluded. if political inconsistency be not a smaller
crime thanpolitical eccentricity, he ought to have been
rejected. To a Parliament which is more closely
pledged than any within the memory of man, the
addition of a member who is not pledged at all is
unwelcome. Lord ELcuo is not without ability, but
certainly he is not the best independent politician that
the nation could haveintroduced as a novelty. Itwotdd
not have been matter of regret if the stern rule had
been relaxed in favour of one or two whose superiority
of mind would have compensated for their
eccentricity of policy. But Haddingtonshire ought
to have made an miample of the politician who con-
structs his policy as he requires it. Lord Emil°,
however, will be a living monument in the House.
He will testify to the great decision of the country,
which at one stroke has destroyed a small but dan-
gerous party, and has reduced it from forty to the
one who now stands alone amid the general
wreck.

LATEST INTELL LUNGE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

INDIA, CHINA, AND AUSTRALIAN

GALLED Dec. 2.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer
Bombay, from Australia, arrived on the 29th of
November, and the Orissa, from China, yester-
day.

SPIRIT OF TUE P 013LIO JOURNALS

The Mooltan leaves for Suez to-day.
OUTWARD MAIL OF SEPT. 5-11.

The Geelong arrived at Melbourne on the 28th,
and at Sydney on the 31st October.
OUTWARD INDIA, CHINA, AND AUS-
TRALIAN MAILS OF OCT. 31 AND NOV. 6.
The Simla reached Galle on the 29th of Novem-
ber.

BOMBAY MAIL.

MESSINA, Dec. 2.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer
Pera passed Messina at 7.30 this morning en route
for Marseilles.

The great topic of the day is the course talien by the
Government in anticipating the verdict of Parliament ;
and we give an epitome of the opinions of the daily papers
on the subject. The Times says : The cards are thrown
down. The Ministry have resolved, for the first time
since the days of Mr. Frederick Robinson—the late Lord
Ripon—not to meet Parliament ; and, indeed, their case
is more extraordinary than that of the sole precedent
which can be cited to excuse them, for the Parliament
which Mr. Disraeli has declined to face is one chosen
under the advice given by himself to the Crown.
There has never been anything like this volun-
tary surrender of the high function of advising
the Crown. Lord Ripon was afraid to face
Parliament ; but then Lord Ripon was called to the post
of Prime Minister after Parliament had been prorogued,
and his conduct has always been considered pusillanimous.
No one will accuse Mr. Disraeli of such fear as is said to
have influenced Lord Ripon. He has resigned simply
because he deemed it prudent to resign. The present
resignation must be regarded merely as a strategic move-
ment. When Mr. Disraeli and his colleagaes had con-
vinced themselves that to be in Opposition was their
inevitable fate, they discovered that to be in Opposition
as soon as possible was for their clear advantage. It is
much more easy to fight as a guerrilla chief than as
the leader of a disciplined host. The Times
acknowledges the advantages of Mr. Disraeli's new posi-
tion, but after all it is a mistake and a feeble supplement
of a gallant career. There are difficulties about the
business of Parliament. There is no precedent to govern
the advisers of the Crown in the present emergency ; and
it is clearly not essential that Parliament should be at once
called together; bat the Times believes it will be found that
the balance of convenience inclines strongly to a session
before Christmas. There is no necessity for the Queen's
Speech to do more than indicate the constitutional satis-
faction of the Crown on recurring once more to the advice
of the two Houses, and recommend to the Lords and Com-
mons the policy of ecclesiastical equality in Ireland, after
which Parliament might be prorogued, not adjourned, till
February, when a more detailed policy could be properly
expounded in a second speech.
The Post remarks that the course Mr. Disraeli has
adopted in view of the opinion which the country has
expressed in the elections on the question of the Irish
Church is convenient and dignified. It is manifestly con-
venient that whatever body of statesmen may have the
conduct of the national affairs, they should be able to take
them up with free hands at this time, when the business
of the governmental year is beginning, rather than at a
period when they would find themselves committed upon
various subjects by the preliminary arrangements of
their predecessors. If the course taken 'by Mr. Disraeli
is convenient for all sides, it is no less dignified as
regards the attitude it takes up for his own party.
He has generally been accused of an undue desire
to retain office, but it has certainly not been
shewn upon this occasion, for he might have retained
power for some time, perhaps for a considerable time, after
the meeting of Parliament, instead of which he has pre-
ferred rather to anticipate than to lag behind the actual
effect of the late elections. One thing worthy of remark
and of commendation in the conduct of the Ministry is,
that they have retired without that division of the last
spoils of office which has come to be considered almost the
legitimate concluding act of any Government. The
peerage conferred on Mrs. Disraeli was the gracious and
spontaneous act of her Majesty.

The Herald thinks that, apart from the personal feelings
of the Administration, there are obvious reasons why two
addresses from the Throne, breathing exactly opposite
sentiments, should not follow each other in the course of a
few days or weeks. And hardly less clear is it that a pro-
mulgation of measures intended to be passed by a Conser-
vative Administration during the session of 1869, in the
teeth of a hostile majority headed by Mr. Gladstone,
would be a somewhat meaningless proceeding. Under the
circumstances the Ministry have taken the only prudent
course. There may be some ardent spirits who would have
preferred to see the Ministry remain in office and fight it
out. But a compact minority of 280 in opposition is a
great power in the State, and a weak Government can
give but little effect to its principles.
The Daily .News is lenient with the Premier. Mr.
Disraeli cannot be severely blamed for acting upon cer-
tainties as if they were certain ; and it is sufficient to note,
without insisting as a matter of reproach, that the course
which he has adopted somewhat strains the forms, if not
the spirit, of the Constitution. It might be urged that
the House of Commons is the only authorised exponent of
its own views. The declarations of politicians on the hust-
ings, the classification of partisans, and the computations
and analyses of newspapers, howsoever accurate, are not
known to the law. The adverse opinion to which Mr.
Disraeli bows is that of a Parliament which does not yet exist.
Though to constitutional precisiaus the course which Mr.
Disraeli and his colleagues have taken may seem,of doubt-
ful propriety, public convenience may be pleaded in its
behalf. In the avoidance of any explicit declaration of
policy other than that of saying " No " to Mr. Gladstone,
the retiring Ministers gain something. They get rid of all
complicity in that monument of wasted labour, the Report
of the Irish Church Commission. As on the question
of Free Trade and Larliamentary Reform, so on
that of the Irish Church, the Conservative party
has displayed its utter inability to understand
the mind of the nation. Mr. Disraeli renews the
old prophecies of disaster which have preceded
every great national boon, and the threats of uncompro-
mising Conservative resistance which are the pledge of a
great Liberal victory. If men did not hear this familiar
language, they might begin to doubt of the justice and
approaching triumph of Mr. Gladstone's policy. It is
probable, therefore, that the present month will be
devoted to the Ministerial arrangements and re-elections,
and to the steps necessary for formally constituting the
House of Commons. When these preliminaries are over,
Parliament will be most likely adjourned until the usual
period in February ; then to meet for the despatch of
public business.
The Standard is quite prepared to see Mr. Disraeli
assailed with invective and imputation for doing the exact
reverse of that which he was reviled for intending to do.
He will be told that he has treated Parliament with dis-
respect ; that he had no right to anticipate its judgment on
issues not yet fairly before it, or to assume the absolute subser-
vience of the majority to the will of their leader ; and possibly
even that he shrank from the ordeal of a debate on the general
merits of his Administration. There are Liberals, we verily
believe, silly enough to impute parliamentary cowardice to
the most daring, resolute, and skilful of parliamentary
combatants. But it matters little what such men may
say. If Mr. Disraeli has departed from formal rule and
precedent in anticipating the judgment of the new House
of Commons, he has had sufficient reason for his course.
There was, then, no reason why the Ministry should have
awaited the formality of a parliamentary vote of want of
confidence ; and there were grave resons why they should
not. The most important motive for a voluntary and im-
mediate resignation was the consideration due to the Queen.
It was understood that Mr. Gladstone's impatience would
brook not a day's delay, and that an amendment on the
Address would at once have challenged the policy and the
position of the Ministry. It was desirable, therefore, that
that policy should not he propounded by the lips of the
sovereign. It is more in accordance, at least, with the
dignity and neutrality of the sovereign, and with the
authority still, though in reserve, belonging to the Crown,
that the Queen should not present herself before a new
Parliament as the mistress, and in form the patroness, of
servants whom the constituencies have condemned, and
whom Parliament is about to ask her to dismiss.

1-IAUFAx, Dec. 2.
The Inman 11 val mail steamer City of New
York arrived here to-day. All well.

The Telegraph says Mr. Disraeli has again taken the
country by surprise. He has done the right thing in a
new style. If we travel back to ascertain why English
Ministries have resigned, we find that the causes have, in
almost every case, been such circumstances as hostile votes
in Parliament, internal dissension, the death of a Prime
Minister, the removal of a distinguished leader from the
Lower House, or the loss of the King's favour. Mr.
Disraeli would have followed the routine course had he
continued to fulfil tha functions of his office as if nothing
had occurred ; to await in his place in the House the issue
of some great debate and division ; to take train the next
day for Windsor or Osborne ; to return, and make a long
speech announcing what everybody would know before-
hand, and to declare that he held office only until his suc-
cessor should be appointed. But he has taken a short cut
to the right end, He has committed the exceedingly unoffi-
cial offence of discovering in the newspapers the fate of his
Cabinet ; he has " accepted service " in the most uncere-
monious way.

The Star commends the action of the Premier. Mr.
Disraeli has not followed precedents, either in resigning
between a general election and the meeting of the new
Parliament, or in explaining the motives of his resignation
to his supporters in the hearing of the public on the very
first day of a Ministerial crisis. But on reflection it will
probably appear highly convenient that the resignation of
the Government should take place without the delay and
turmoil of any angry and iterative party debate ;
and the unusual suddenness and informality of his commu-
nication to the country, though a departure from usage,
has the merit of gentlemanly frankness, and will raise the
Premier in the estimation of the public. Whatever hereto-
fore has been admired in him, his character did not stand
high for directness. The course lie has now taken is
nothing if not straightforward. The Star has reason to be-
lieve that the Ministry could hardly havebeen kept together
till the great party division, if even it could have been
brought undivided as far as the meeting of Parliament. It
was essential, therefore, that something very startling
should be done to veil from the world the dissensions which
could hardly fail to be developed as the time of crisis

arrived in a Ministry comprising such diverse spirits, as
Lord Stanley, Mr. Hardy, and Mr. Disraeli. ;E en had
the imminent peril of falling to pieces not presented itself,
it was most important for Mr. Disraeli to avoid the
necessity of showing his cards at the opening of Parliament,
especially as in reality he had not a card to show.
The Advertiser is satisfied with the course of the Ministry.
A principal characteristic of the present day is the vast
progress which is made, and which is making, in plans
and devices for the saving of time. Now a more obvious
or more rational plan for such saving could not easily be
pointed out, than by doing away with these useless
gatherings and orations in Parliament, when the end is
perfectly foreseen from the beginning. Both the members
of the two Houses, and also the persons who expect to
form the new Administration, will be indebted to Mr.
Disraeli for sparing them all this useless trouble.