The Sun.
London, England, 1844-06-18 00:00:00

844

SPIRIT. of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM TUE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.

GLOBE.—Of all the funny things we ever read or
heard of, we think the most lugubriously funny was yes-
terday's meeting of creditors of the great East and West
India house, whose Calcutta branch failed lately, and
whose sudden dissolution of its Jamaica partnership brings
its affairs to a final crisis. Whether the connexions of
the firm, who consider they have cause to complain of
it, shall support its credit, or whether they shall whistle
it down the wind, and leave Peel and Gladstone un-
certificated bankrupts, without one signature of confi:-
deuce to break- their fall, rests, it would seem by this
morning's Times, in the breasts of the not too unani-
mous gentlemen who met yesterday (being Sunday) in
the drawing room of the Carlton, and who mean, it ap-
peats, to meet again to day in that " cradle, temple, and
tomb,' of the great Conservative party, " built up' since
1835. In the meantime, Ministers also have been holding
their councils, and it is bruited forth as their result—
first, that they won't resign; and, secondly, that they
will retract their own proposition for altering the sugar
duties. Oh, most lame and impatent conclusion ! Was
it for this that the Premier sat biting his thumb all
Friday evening ? Was this the only resolution his re-
verse could suggest to his magnanimity ? What, that
high-minded statesman, who was so fond of assuming
indifference to office without power, and of insinuating
others to be less indifferent to it. That heaven-born
Minister who, in 1841, declared "No consideration of
mere political support should induce me to bold such
an office as that which I fill by a servile tenure,—a
tenure which would compel me to be the instrument of
carrying other men's opinions into effect"—who ex-
claimed, " Free as the wind, I reserve to myself the
power of retiring from the discharge of onerous and
harassing duties, which, under such circumstances, could
no longer be discharged with satisfaction to myself or
advantage to my country." Free as the wind, Sir
Robert? Didn't you mean, free as the weathercock?
Turning from the ludicrous aspects of this crisis—
which really are those which first suggest themselves—
it becomes us to examine the source of these successive
variances between Ministers and their friends—now re-
sulting to the discredit of the latter—now again of the
former—but recurring continually. Each has alternate
occasion, in Eabtern phrase, to ejaculate dolefully to
the other, "I am your sacrifice !" Such an internecine
war of Ministers with their party, and a party with its
Ministers—as regards character and consistency—surely
was never witnessed. The Ministerialists have now their
revenge before them for the humble pie theyhad to eat on
the Factory Bill. But what is the perennial source of
these flowing waters of bitterness ? We have repeatedly
pointed to that source in the previous over-issues of false
pretences. In the present instance, it is tolerably plain
what is the source of difficulty. Ministers thought them-
sel% os obligod to do something to relieve the market from
its darved condition. They thought themselves-oh!iged to
do something ; but the ground they had previously
taken precluded them from doing anything large and
lasting. They wished to appear to 'alleviate a present
want, without appearing to espouse the policy they had
Professed to eschew so righteously. They wished too
to avail themselves of whatever weight still belongs to
the Anti-Slavery party, and whatever odium that
party could aid them to visit upon their opponents.
All this temporising temporary policy was vastly re-
finedi; but of too much transparency, as well as tenuity,
to prosper with either party. The Liberals see that
little is proposed by it—the West Indians that every-
thing is threatened. The former could scarcely be ex-
pected to vote on credit—on the credit of probable next
year's measures. The latter distinctly. foresee such
measures ; and act on the maxim, Principals obsta.. Thus,
by seeking to trim his bark between all parties, the
Minister's policy is taken aback, and swamped.
STANDARD.—Yesterday the town, and especially
the Clubs, were agitated by a rumour that Ministers had
on Saturday
.resolved to resign, in consequence of the
adverse division upon Mr. Miles's motion ; end it was
even asserted that Sir Robert Peel had carried the resig-
nation of the Cabinet to her Majesty, who had accepted
it, and " sent for" the Duke of Richmond. The members
of Brookes's were prominently active in promulgating
this (to them) joyful intelligence ; and we regret to have
seen members of the Carlton zealously, and, as it seem-
ed, with equal pleasure, assisting the men of Brookes's in
propagating the delusion. The Whigs, however, said
nothing of the message to the Duke of Richmond,
although they did not dare to pretend that any one of
their own party had been summoned to the Palace.
The truth is, that the Ministers never once contemplated
a resignation. The step was not, we are sure, once
canvassed either at the Cabinet Council on Satur-
day, or at the meeting at Lord Aberdeen's yester-
day. The Ministers owe much to their party, but they
owe more to the Queen, to the country, and to their
own character, and as long as their party permit
them to carry on the Government with honour, they
will persevere, to the completion of the restoration
of Ireland to peace—the perfect tranquillisation and
security of India—the consolidation of the peace of
Europe, of which we have lately had such flattering
proofs in the visits of so many sovereigns, and of which
we anticipate the most gratifying proof of all in the
visit of Louis Philippe, the wise and the good—the work
of restoring commerce and finance. These are net duties
to be capriciously abandoned in anger at a momentary fit
of petulance on the part of some of those who placed
them in office ; not, it is to be presumed,
for the purpose of protecting particular interests,
but to promote the honour of the Queen's Govern-
ment, and the happiness and prosperity of all her Ma-
jesty's subjects. The Conservatives who, on Friday
night, voted in the majority, are not by themselves suf-
ficient to displace Sir Robert Peel's Government ; but
let them be so, and let them persevere in a course which
renders it impossible for Sir Robert Peel to administer
the affairs of the country with honour to himself, and
there is little reason to doubt that the Right Honourable
Baronet will cheerfully retire to the private station,
which Must have so many more attractions for him, than
for any other man who ever burdened himself with the
toils and vexations of public life. Let these consistent
Conservatives ally themselves permanently with Lord
John Russell and Sir Thomas Wilde, who insist that
the Irish incendiary has not been fairly tried,
and must therefore turn him loose .to repeat his mon-

ster meetings—with Sir John Hobhouse to project new
Afghan wars, as brilliant as that of 1841—with Lord
Palmerston to replace our foreign relations in the posi-
tion in which they stood in 1840—with Mr. Hume and
,Mr. Roebuck to remove.the Church and reform the co-
lonies—with Mr. Baring to reverse Sir R. Peel's finan-
vial measures, and substitute -deficit for surplus—above
all with Mr. Patrick Maxwell Stewart, free-trader, who
organised the disgraceful intrigue that resulted in the
late division ; let, we say, the discontented Conserva-
tives, if they are sufficiently numerous, perpetuate their
alliance with those persons and those parties whose prin-
ciples they represent, and they may dismiss Sir Robert
Peel to that private station which he is so eminently
qualified to adorn and to enjoy ; but when they
shall have done so, they will have to render an account
to the country for condemning it once more to a Whig-
Radical Administration, and, as the inevitable conse-
quence, to rebellion in Ireland, disastrous war in India
—war of enormous cost, whether successful or unsuc•
cessful—in Europe, a paralysis of commerce and a defi-
cient revenue, with constant, and probably fatal, assaults
upon the Church.