The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-02 00:00:00

Spirit of the Public Journals.

(From the Times.)
Governments never make- admissions ; at least
they never make them at the time. That seems
part of the necessary policy of Governments, past
of their code of honour. Whether a matter is true
or false is an irrelevant consideration which must
not be thought of; if it involves any serious fault
on their part, it must not be admitted. The ad-
mission would be a violation of the position of a
Government, and of the relation in which it pro-
fesses to stand to the country. It is hardly, in fact,
expected of a Government any more than a confes-
sion is expected from .a prisoner at the bar ' • the
practice of the law is to tell the latter that he is
not toconfess; the plea of " Not Guilty," whatever
be the real state of the case, is the constitutional
answer which is put into his mouth. In the same
way, in our political practice it is unconstitutional
for a Government to admit awkward facts. The
very speakers who rise in the House to hammer
these facts into it, who bring them out with all the
force of clear statement and vigorous rhetoric, and
place them in full daylight before the world, do not
expect that they will extort any admission from the
Government. They know the rules of the game,
and that an admission would be against those rules.
Nothing would astonish them more than an admis-
sion of the truth of what they have been saying
from that side of the House ; they would condemn
it themselves as a breach of etiquette • it would
make everybody feel awkward and confused, just
as a scene out of a book would if it occurred in real
life. They look upon a Government as a conve-
nient constitutional target into which they are
mercilessly to stick all their facts till they have emp-
tied their quiver. But they would be surprised, not
to say startled, if the target began literally to bleed
and to moan, Nam Pelydortts ego. And, if the Op-
position would object to Government admissions,
the Government must a fortioribe expected to doso;
though, after all, perhaps, Governments only for-
cibly represent the tendencies of human nature in
general with respect to the fact that it dislikes.
What a power there is in the human mind every-
where of ignoring facts that displease it ; how do
people shove them aside, refuse to see them, vote
them to be nothing at all ! If men of thought and
inquiry who unfold questions of science or history
and bring facts out of their hiding-places concerned
themselves much about the absolute and total de-
nials which meet them even from men of professed
sense and information, all inquiry and all thought
would soon cease in the world. The supreme con-
fidence with which a man will deny at first the
most certain facts is a wonderful phenomenon.
But wait a little, and you will find if your facts
are true the admission will come even from Go-
vernment itself, a little cloaked perhaps in cautious
terms, but still substantially there. Though po-
litical honour precluded it at the time, political
honour has its limits of time like our pecuniary
debts, after which it is free to speak. What greater
instance could we have of the necessity felt by
Governments of denying disadvantageous facts
than we had two years ago, when an Administra-
tion went out simply because it would not admit
the most palpable, evident, and notorious facts
with respect to our army in the Crimea ? The most
rigid Master of the Ceremonies in the political de-
partment must have been content with such a cor-
rect and complete obedience to Government eti-
quette and position. But wait, and the admission
comes. It comes from Lord Panmure at Ar-
broath. It is true the present Ministry is not
identical with the last, and it allowed the
Committee of Inquiry into the affairs of the
Crimea, which was an express departure from
the ground taken by the last Ministry ; still,
it has succeeded more or less to the delicacy,
tenderness, and reserve in the admission of any-
thing faulty in the management of that whole un-
dertaking which characterised the late Ministry.
But now Lord Panmure is ready to talk of " the
unfortunate state of the army in the Crimea,
which aroused the indignation and excited the
deepest sympathy of the British nation." It is
true he feels himself somewhat checked still by his
official position, gently deprecates the censure of
individuals, and apologises for the gross misman-
agement of the affair, as owing to our bad system
rather than to the carelessness of particular officials.
" The people of England," he says, " are not a
vindictive people ; they can make allowance for
difficulties ; they will not avenge on a single indi-
vidual that which was the result of a system."
Well ; but whether the mismanagement arose from
individuals or the system it arose from something
which could be mended, and which it was wrong
to leave exactly as it was. This was what we
urged at the time, but we were told that it was
neither an individual nor the system which was to
blame, but everything else whatever,—the sea, the
air, the sky, fate, the necessary inexperience of the
first entrance on a war ;—everything that waswrong
was unavoidable, and could not possibly have hap-
pened otherwise. We asked at the time "If the
system is wrong why not alter it ?" and we were
told that it was impossible to alter it while the war
was going on ; that the stiffness of new machinery
was worse than the awkwardness of old; that when
things were in a certain train it was hazardous to
put them out of it, even though the new arrange-
ment might be in itself an improvement ; and that,
on the whole, it was better to let things go on
as they were till peace was made, when of course
the great reason for change would have passed by.
We are glad to see Lord Pannaure now demolish-
ing these excuses, and appealing to his own line
as the contrary of this over cautious and stagnant
one. " I was accused of applying too stoutly to
reform during a period of existing war ; but the
fact was I found we could not carry on the war
without the reform, and I determined, whatever
the risk, to accomplish the change. . .
I confess that owing to the divided administration
delays had occurred which rendered the efficiency
of the service almost impossible." This is pretty
good for an official admission. To the gross awk-
wardness of the old machinery his Lordship calls
special attention, showing that it was not in minor
and subordinate points, but in its large and broad
outlines, that the system was in error ; and that it
was in error, therefore, in a way which appealed to
everybody's common sense and called aloud for
immediate change. " You will readily believe the
necessity for this when I tell you that till within a
year and a few months the Commander-in Chi-f
had only the cavalry and the infantry under his ,
charge. With the Artillery he had nothing to do,
and they were placed beside him on the field, or in
some camp adjoining." Such were the obvious
and gross mistakes of arrangement, which, when
we remonstrated, we were told must be let alone,
and could not be interfered with while the war was
going on.

Prom, the Dail y ews )
It is written that a prophet lath no honour in his
own country. The recent gathering at Arbroath
shows that there are exceptions to the rule, and
that Lord Panmure is one of them. When we say
this, we refer not merely to the number of persons
present at the banquet—though for what was es-
sentially a provincial demonstration it was extra-
ordinary—but to the position and characters of
individuals. It is no exaggeration to say that al-
most the whole population of the district were
present by their representatives. The borough
and county constituencies were represented by their
provosts, sheriffs, and members of Parliament ;
and many of the leading noblemen, gentlemen,
and burgesses appeared in person to express the
respect they entertain for Lord Panmure, and their
confidence in him as a man and a politician.
Such a tribute, from such a district, might make
any man proud. It must be borne in mind that
even in the darkest of Scotland's political days__
at the time of the trials of Mere and Gerard—a
staunch phalanx of the friends of freedom rallied
there around Lord Panmure's father. It must
be borne in mind that the Arbroath Burghs sent
Joseph Hurne to Parliament, and were his unflinch-
ing supporters through the whole of his public career.
It must be borne in mind that Douglas Kinnaird
—a name honourably and dearly remembered by the
old Liberals of Westminster--was a native of the dis-
trict, and that he and his family were indefatigable
in their championships of Liberal principles there
as here. It must be borne in mind that under the
Castlereagh-Sid mouth administration the Dundee
Advertiser was—with the exception of the Edin-
burgh Scotsman and the Glasgow ,Chronicle—the
only liberal and independent newspapers in Scot-
land. Forfarshire, with its adjoining districts, has
been for long years a fortress and city of refuge for
liberal opinions in Scotland. Nor is this its only
distinction ; it is the seat of an energetic and en-
terprising manufacturing and commercial industry,
and is one of the richest agricultural districts in
Scotland. Situated midway between the Univer-
sities of St. Andrew's and Aberdeen, it has derived
light and refinement from both ; and the Burgh
schools of Dundee were models of excellence long
before the cause of education had received the im-
pulse it has of late years. Our more intimate
knowledge of " the braes of Angus" is " a tale of
the days of other years ;" but the names of Bread-
albane, Panmure, Duncan, Baxter, and Kinnaird,
are sufficient guarantees that the true blood of the
patriots of the last generation still pulses purely
and healthily in the veins of their descendants.
And it cannot be denied that Fox Maule—we
like to call him by the name most familiar and
endeared to Scottish ears—is a worthy and charac-
teristic representative of his country, and of that
particular district of his country to which he be-
longs. singularly unostentatious, there is sound
Principle and reliability in all his actions. Born,
as it Were, to inherit the principles of Charles
James Fox—as they were understood by that

most loveable of statesmen at the period when
he, the Abdiel of the Whig party, remained un-
shaken by the desertion of so many whom the
fervid eloquence of Burke had seduced—Fox
Maule has never for a moment wavered in, or
departed from, his political creed. Ecclesiastical
politics are of great moment in the estimation of
Scotsmen ; but it is enough for our purpose to say
that in this field of public exertion Fox Maule has
been the honoured and trusted associate of the late
Dr. Chalmers and of the living Dr. Guthrie, upon
whom—more than upon any other of that great
man's disciple--the mantle of Chalmer's genial
piety and benevolence has descended. The prac-
tical sagacity of Lord Panmure has been approved
by the measures he has adopted to initiate the
great work of the re-organisation of our army, and
the perspicacity and comprehensiveness of his views
as a statesman may be inferred from his admirable
remarks upon education and penal discipline at a
late public meeting in Dundee. Lord Panmure is
not one of those who seek to curry favour by flat-
tery and lavish promises. Perhaps we should not
err widely if we described him as one of those who
seek to cloak a peculiarly tender and tensitive dis-
position uuder an affected brusqueness of manner
and language. In private life, he is remarkable
for the sincerity, warmth, and delicacy of his
attachment ; and in public, as in private life, he is
admitted by all who know him to be one of those
who do more than they promise.

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