The Sun.
London, England, 1845-02-01 00:00:00

1
in number, are healthy, useful, well-disposed, and wii;
know as much as we are able to tQach them ; so that,
altogether, I consider myself a happy and fortunate man
and mean to continue in that belief as long as possible.

CHANGES IN THE CABINET.

CHRONICLE.—We hear there is yet " a hitch" in
the Ministerial arrangements. As usual, Sir Robert
Peel's first "difficulty" is with Ireland. The chief se-
cretaryship appears to have been a-begging. First, it
was refused by Mr. Sidney Herbert; then it was refused
by Lord Sandon, who cannot risk a contest fer Liver-
pool; and now its acceptance by Sir Thomas Fremantle
depends upon--the Duke of Buckingham. Negotiations
have been going on for the last two or three days, with
a view to secure Sir Thomas Fremantle's re-election, in
the event of his going to Ireland. Without a distinct
pledge from Sir Robert Peel, that he is determined nut
to carry his commercial reforms any farther, it will be
impossible for the Duke of Buckingham again to place
the family borough at the service of the Ministry. Sir
Thomas Fremantle's re-election fur Buckingham must
be taken to mean—no change in either the corn-laws or
the tariff. The Treasury newspaper thinks it is " highly
probatee" that this pledge will be given; that is, that
Sir Thomas Fremantle will go to Ireland, although it is
yet "premature" to announce it as an arrangement con-
cluded. Nor is it yet settled what they are to do with
Mr. Cardwell. Indeed, nothing can be settled until the
l)uke of Buckingham's pleasure is know.. Sir George
Clerk, we are told, is to go to the Board of Customs as
Chairman.
TIMES.—Mr. Gladstone's retirement from the Pre-
sidency of the Board of Trade appears to have caused a
great variety of speculation.among our Contemporaries.
It would of course be both premature and unfair, before
receiving the explanation of Mr. Gladstone himself, to
assume as a certainty the motives which appearances
may suggest as having prompted his retirement, or to
build upon conjecture in judging what in one sense is
certainly quite a personal question. But it cannot he
denied that the probable policy of Ministers, and there-
fore the policy which is to prevail over and govern the
country at large, is also connected with what seems at
first sight but the act of an individual. Mr. Gladstone's
retirement has undoubtedly been the result of importrnt
political ditferenees with his colleagues ; and to deter-
mine also the question of the course about to be taken
by the Ministry on the matters involved in them. With-
out assuming, therefore, that no other cause what-
ever will turn out to have existed to lead to the
present sacrifice of office by Mr. Gladstone, we way
be permitted to refer to the two points which common
rumour, we believe not without reason, has assigned as
the matters of difference between the ex-President of the
Board of Trade and his late colleagues. The first of
these points is said to be an intended variation of the
Ministerial policy of last session on the subject of the
sugar duties ; the second, the quasi recognition of the
state of the Romish Church in Ireland, which may be
thought to be involved in the contemplated measures for
the amelioration of that body. If we are doing Mr.
Gladstone injustice in assurn:ly
that these are all the
reasons that have led to his rei :srement, we can only
say, that the opportunity for explainu.Z., and,
sary,of contradicting, the assumption me:, ver if neces-
y shortly
be afforded him. In the meanwhile, we must under-
stood only to pronounce upon the state of facts
which we find at present before the public, withou:
in the least prejudging the general and final view of
the whole case which further disclosures may sug-
gest. On the sugar question our views are well
known. We have always dissented from the Minis-
terial policy of last session. What is the precise nature
of the alterations or modifications in contemplation is,
of course, at present matter of uncertainty. But any
relaxation in favour of our own colonial interests,
though accompanied by extension in other directions
also, would, in our opinion, be a valuable concession.
Whether Mr. Gladstone he so pledged to the policy of
last session as to render his proposing any change im-
possible, or whether the change contemplated is itself
such and so wide as utterly to preclude his in any way
adopting it, must, of course, be for himself to explain.
It certainly does not appear to us, as at present advised,
that anything in this question need have led to a rupture.
The Irish question is certainly a most important one,
The series of measures in contemplation, which are sup-
posed to have incurred Mr. Gladstone's objection—sup-
posing the Irish policy to be the point in dispute—has
already been preceded by some of a kindred nature, and by
which, as we believe, the nature and character of the rest
may fairly be judged. The Bequests Act, which has already
thrown disorder into the camp of repeal, and which, in
our opinion, by liberating the Burnish Church in Ireland
from the domination of the mob, promises more both for
the purity of that Church and the prosperity of the
country than any other Irish measure of the present Ad-
ministration, will, it is said, probably be followed up by
one or two other measures or a kindred sort, having for
their object the greater independence and better educa-
tion of the Irish Roman Catholic clergy. Two Roman
Catholic seminaries, upon a more liberal and purified
scale than that at Maynooth, are said to be in contem-
plation, the one at Belfast, and the other at Cork ; but
believe that nothing which in principle will involve
anything more than this is in contemplation.
Now, we confess that to our minds these mea-

sures are not of that objectionable character
that can altogether account for Mr. Gladstone's se-
cession. They do not put the Romish Church in the
seat of St. Patrick ; they do nut confer on her the
throne of the national episcopate ; they 'do not instal
her in the national churches, or place her in the na-
tional seat. They simply recognise her as a branch
of the Catholic. Church. They do not surely interfere
with the national recognition of the Anglican Church
its Ireland. At the time when the Anglican Church
reformed herself from the corruptions in practice and
doctrine of the Roman system, a large body refused to
concur in such reformation. Of this body the present
Roman Catholics are the representatives. Yet the
Reformed Church has ever, recognised that stationary
body as still a part of the Church universal—has ad-
mitted their orders, and received their sacraments.
But, if the national Church has done this, .ychy not the
State also ? or how can it be a violation of the duty of
the State towards the national Church to follow in pre•
cisely the same recognition, tied no more, in which she
herself has ever led the way ? We cannot altogether
believe that this is the full account of Mr. Gladstone's
secession. It may indeed turn out that the circum-
stances and accessories of the case--the manner and ex-
pression—may have produced a conflict of feeling or
opinion which rendered the separation inevitable ; but
certainly the substantial merits of the question as dis-
closed—if it be disclosed, which we have no reason to
disbelieve, by the above facts pointed to by common
rumour—do not appear altogether to bear out the re-
sults which we have seen follow on them.
POST.—Nothinc, decisive has officially transpired
since we last alluded to the rumoured alterations in the
personal construction of the Queen's Government. The
general beliLf still is that Lord Dalhousie will be Presi-
dent of the Board of Trade in the place of Mr. Glad-
stone ; Sir Thomas Fremantle, Secretary for Ireland
vice the present Earl of St. Germans ; Mr. Sydney Her-
bert, having refused the Irish Secretaryship, isto become
Secretary at War, to replace Sir T. Fremantle, and have
a seat in the Cabinet ; and the Earl of Lincoln, retain-
ing his office of First Commissioner of Woods and
Forests, also to hold a seat in the Cabinet. But, having
mentioned the appointments that it is understood have
been accepted, we believe we may state that, among those
that have not, the Earl of Lonsdale declines a seat in the
Cabinet, as Vi►count Sandon also did, when the Presi-
dency of the Board of Trade (as a Cabinet Minister)
was offered to him. And here for the present terminates
our resume of the rumoured changes, of which we be-
lieve the public would not have he and until some time
after the meeting of Parliament if the unexpected death
of the late Earl of St. Germans had not hastened the
Ministerial movements.