The Sun.
London, England, 1828-05-27 00:00:00

SPIRIT- OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It was not until yesterday that all hope of an ad- I
justment of the Ministerial difference could be said
to have expired; and we confess ourselves to have
been amongst those who felt enough for the Go-
vernment and for the country, to cherish to the very
last a prospect, the fulfilment of which would be of
• Ito much importance to them both. Let the matter
be glossed over as it will, the resignation of Mr.
Huskisson, and some of those colleagues who have
been considered as representing the Canning por-
tion of the Duke of Wellington's Ministry, is an
event most deplorable at the present crisis. There
is no denying, that except among the mere dregs of
the violent Tory faction, the existence of even a
small minority of the friends and confidants of Mr.
Canning,—the sharers of his councils—the approvers
and executive agents of his policy,—must have
been regarded as a peace-making circumstance be-
tween the Wellington Cabinet and the people at
large. Whatever credit—and much was juatly
given—might be due to the Prime Minister who
succeeded Lord Goderich, for firmness, rectitude,
singleness of purpose, and strength of judgment,
still the presumed bias of his Grace's senti-
ments on some great questions of policy, fo-
reign and domestic, required a counterpoise
in the eves of the nation; and that counter-
poise was perceived (or taken for granted) in the
accession of Mr. Huskisson and his friends to the
Government of which his Grace was to he the
chief. Mr. Huskisson, we admit, had suffered some-
what in the general estimation, by some unfortunate
attempts to explain on untenable grounds a course
of personal conduct, of which the true, and perhaps
sufficient, motives were not of a nature to be pro-
mulgated. But still, as a practical Minister, in-
trusted with financial, commercial, or colonial inte-
xests, who was equal to him, whether Whig or
Tory ? Who had organized and directed,---who
could unravel, discourse upon, and triumphantly
defend, but he, the bold improvements in our mari-
time and commercial policy, for which we are in-
debted for the salvation of whatever has been saved
to the merchants and shipowners of Great Britain ?
As a man of business in an empire of men of busi-
ness, Mr. Huskisson was invaluable to the Govern-
ment, and his loss very difficult to be repaired.
Lord Palmerston has been accused of favouring one
or two jobs in his own department of the War Of-
fice ; and with an impression of the justice of
such accusations on our minds, we were not
slow to censure him. But as a rigid accountant
for the public, in the general administration of
that unwieldy office, and as a judicious regu-
lator of complex and intricate transactions, his
Lordship has rendered good service to the
state, and ought not to be lightly appreciated. He,
too, was an efficient member of the liberal party in
a Cabinet predominantly Tory, and his value was
enhanced beyond all calculation by the position
which he thus kept hohi of. Of Mr. Grant, there
cart be nothing said but that his conduct has proved
him an enlightened auxiliary to the small force of
liberal Ministers in the Cabinet, and his resignation,
when consummated, will be an added subject of re-
gret. Lord Dudley, from high character for inde-
pendence and discernment, for sound sagacious views
avithcalt prejudice or passion,—from a political con-,
cutTence with Mr. Canning, on which no suspicion
has ever lighted, and from the eateem and reputation
-which, since Lis superintendence of our foreign af-
fairs, he has achieved for himself with the whole di-
plomatic world, withdraws (if, unfortunately, he
should withdraw) from the Ministry a greater vo-
iume of public usefulness then perhaps all the rest
who are seceding. And what is left behind ? The
Duke of Wellington, and he only, in whom the
country has the slightest confidence ; for who and
what are Messrs. Peet, 6-loulburn, and Herries ?
Mr, Peel's- —leadership, shoat as it has been, has
ruiaeathim as a leader, and he kr.ows it. The others
;axe :Unworthy of the slightest notice. For the first
flne, then, since the days of Mr.Percevab we have
thorough-going Tory Cabinet, With deeper
Toryism and Less talent, not redeemed by even
a speck of any quality, so far as the House of Corn-
in ona i caancerned, to command, persuade, control, or
authorize. With a Cabinet more Tory, we have, on
the other hand, n nation far tee: so. The last 18
months, it they have unsettled the (.-,'Foverninent,
have broken the conthmity of the Tory doinVttion,
and set public spirit free. This discordance between
the people of England and tilt a Ministry, as left by
the departure of the Canning ourahere, may, it is
true, work for final good ; but 1! mio2 prev.iously
ipair the force of the British Government /n the
eyes of Foreign Powers ; the first effect therefore, I
will be positive evil,—the benefit contingent or re- •
mote. We throw out these opinions without favour
or affiectiou, or hostility to any party. It seems to
us, however, that if the Duke of Wellington left a
single effort untried to re-establish the Cabinet on
that footing from which the 'Trent quarrel had dis•
placed it ; or if his Grace, in declining to make such
efforts, was influenced by even a shadow of personal
pique towards Mr. Huskisson and his friend:., he was
guilty of a grave offence against the interests of the
throne, of England, and of Lampe. We trust that
the fault has not been his. %'e trust and believe
thqt the interests of the nation have not been sacri-
ficed to a consideration of mere peraonat airpiette.
—Timev.

We have, in the preceding atviole, commented ra-
ther on the supposed than the actual state of the
ease. All that is absolutely certain is, that besides
Mr. Huskisson, whose resignation we mentioriA on
Saturday, Lord Palmerston and Mr. W. Lamb have
resigned. Whether the other meaihers of the Ca-
binet who are popularly supposed to represent the
canning interest will follow their example, is not
at this moment known. It is a point on which their
decision, whatever it. may be, cannot be taken with-
out pain and anxiety. It is somewhat curious that
Sir George Murray, who has
`been observed lately
to put himseif forward as a supporter of the pension
for Mr. Canninv family, is appointed to the (Alice
which Mr. Husiclaaon (the oldest friend of Mr.
Canning) vacates. ge uccessor has been appointed
to Lord Palmerston.—/b a,
The Ministerial differences have at last termi-
nated in the resignation of the initial part of the
Cabinet. The Court Newsman, in his 'Report, men-
tions that the Duke of Welling and Mr. 'JIB.
ton
had at,
audience of the h. ng yesterday when
the latter resigneA his Seals of Office. But Earl
Dudley, Lord Palmeistoni
and, \lr.o
?iii,
have
resigned ; and so hat,we Believe, William
Lamb, the Irish Secretary. The chau,?.es win "-„.x.. ,
departments.
tend to several individuals in ii;ferior
The affair of East Retford is,ncr ikzuht, the imme-
diate cause of the breaking up of the lignistry ; but
the two divisions of the Cabinet must have teen in
a disposition which enabled them to make the ,r.4i.:“; t
of such an event as the transfer GC 3 rotten borough,
when so apparently unimportant a cause gduld lead
to such consequences. There is an adage, that it is
ithe last feather that breaks the horse's back. Whe,4
there is war among the Irish in St. Criles's, no one
thinks of inquiring into the immediate ewe of hos-
tilities., A foundation is always laid for a rupture,
for %Pelt one cause will do just as %veil as another.
The pre,ent Ministry was newly broken up as S
as formed, The speech of Mr. Huskisson at Liver;
produced that effect ; and though
pool had iaarly P
that affair was h
ushed up, yet on all the questions
which have since igitated the country, t.v.,0 distinct
Onaiies Grant did not hesi-
sets of views have been advocated
by different divi-
sions of the Cabinet.
tate to deelar, that the Corn Bail was not such as
he could have wished it to be; while in the House
of Lords, the Duke of Wellington seemed to regiwt
Ault it did not go far enough to promote the interests
of the aristocracy. The p:rant of a Committee ,of
Inquiry respecting Wool, by the Duke of Welling-
`on, indicated a feeling towards the aristooraei whjtit
was only repressed by the necessity of a compromise
with the ether party, that the inquiry should have
am result. The declaration of Mr. Huskisson, that
we were indebted for the continuance of peace to
the continuance of Lord Dudley in office, amounted,
a all events, to a proof that the sentiments of Lord

Dudley with respect to- foreign affairs, differed ma-
terially from those of the majority of the Cabinet.
The explanations of Mr. Huskisson, at Liverpool,
implied the consciousness of the existence of a suspi-
cion, on the part of the public, that the Cabinet into
which lie had entered would not second his views.

It is obvious that Mr. Huskisson must have felt an
uneasiness on this subject, and that, whether he had
demanded pledges or guarantees, or not, explana-
tions must have taken place respecting the extent to
which the Duke would support his principles. (We
are not now speaking of the wisdom of the experi-
ment made by Mr. Huskisson, but of the views with
which he consented to make it.) It is equally ob-
vious, that if a regard for his reputation as a States-
man led Mr. Huskisson to endeavour to capitulate
with the High Tories in the Cabinet, when he saw
that the terms of that capitulation were not ob-
served, and that he was every day dragged deeper
and deeper into the mire, and sinking in the public
estimation, he must have been eager for an oppor-
tunity of retreating in time. Instead of asking on
what subject Ministers differed, we should be glad
to know what subject they were agreed on. They
differed with respect to foreign affairs, as is proved
by Mr. Huskisson's speech, and the expressions,
characteristic of one party, which found their way
into the King's Speech. They differed on the Ca-
tholic Question so much, that the speech of Mr. ,
• Charles Grant may be considered as amounting al-
most to a sentence of incapacity pronounced against
Mr. Peel. They differed as to the repeal of the Test
and Corporation Acts, and the Duke of Welling-
ton was said by some of his colleagues to have
materially injured the Bill in the House of Lords.
They differed as to the torn Bill; and probably,
also, as to the Inquiry into the Laws regarding the
Importation of Wool. And lastly, they have differed
as to the sop to be thrown to the Duke of New-
castle to obtain a more cordial support from the
High Tories. So far then from wondering, that a
Cabinet so discordantly formed should separate, the
wonder is how it has rubbed on so long. It is un-
derstood that the Duke of Wellington, before the
affair of East Retford, would have been glad to
supply the place of Lord Palmerston by Sir Henry
Ilardinge. Lord Wallace and Lord Goderich are
talked of as likely to supply the place of some of
the others, but on this subject we are not possessed
of any positive information. The High Tories are
quite in erstacy. The expectations of the country
give them very little concern. The public, indeed,
very naturally ask how elo these people mean to go
on in the present embarrassing posture of affairs,
without a single man among them known to the
country by reputation as a Statesman, with Mr.
Peel in the House of Commons, now tried and found
unpalateable even to those whom his hypocrisy pre-
possessed in his favour. But these considerations by
no means disconcert our High Tories for a moment.
In their joy they give expression to the most ex-
travagant language—language which implies their
utter ignorance of the changes which time and
events have wrought in this country. One subject
of exultation with them is, the change of policy
which they conclude will be adopted towards Ireland.
The Duke of Wellington is known, they say, to
have given way in the Cabinet to men of less
decided views than he himself entertains with regard
to Ireland, and now he will he enabled to give effect
to his own views. The Duke, they say, has always
been of opinion that Ireland ought not to remain in
its present state ; but that the best and most lasting
security would be derived from completing the con-
quest of the country. These are the hallucinations
of an idiotcy approaching to insanity. It may be
very true that there is no middle course to be
adopted towards Ireland—that the Catholics must
be emancipated or coerced ; but we apprehend that
the sentiments of the people of England must form
a very material element in estimating the practicabi-
lity of a measure. If there are men so quixotic as
to believe that, in the present state of affairs, foreign
and domestic, the people will be brought to acquiesce
in such a course of policy as that which we have
alluded to, they will soon be undeceived to their cost.
We cannot bring ourselves to think so meanly of the
Duke of Wellington as that he can believe this
nation can be governed on High Tory principles.
And yet we do not well see how, after losing the
liberal part of his Cabinet, he can patch up an Ad-
ministration which shall not be a High Tory-one.
It is obvious that the late separation in the Cabinet
will instantly be felt in Parliament, and throughout
the country. We shall have now fierce extremes
opposed to each other. The resignation of Mr.
Huskisson has raised him in the general estimation.
He erred in taking office with men with whom he
could not act with cordiality ; but his resignation
has atoned for that error.—Morning Chronicle.