The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-31 00:00:00

CHANGES IN THE CABINET.

TIMES.—We are informed that we were premature
in announcing yesterday Mr. Cardwell's accession to the
office of Vice-President of the Board of Trad,?. Mr.
Cardwell will, however, take office under the present
Administration.

CHRONICLE.—It is impossible to look on Mr. Glad-
stone's retirement from office as an event without signi-
ficance and importance. The exact ground of his resig-
nation is not known ; but there is little doubt that it
proceeds from differences which have a long time existed
between him and Sir Robert Peel. Religious questions,
connected with the Irish policy of Government, aro
assigned as the immediate cause ; but this is likely to
have been complicated with others. Mr. Gladstone's
position must latterly have been rendered unpleasant by
questions connected with his own department ; and it
is probable that sugar had as much to do as religion
with rendering office untenable. It is difficult to under-
stand what could be the circumstances that gave so great
a weight to scruples which had so long been kept in sub-
ordination. In serving three years and a half with the
present Cabinet, Mr. Gladstone has certainly taken his
share of inconsistency enough to have taken off the first
sensitiveness of c snscience. We doubt whether con: cience
has as much to do with the resignation as pride. Some few
years ago Mr. Gladstone published a couple of very unwise
books on the subject lot the Church, the uoctrines of
which it was impossible fur him to act on, and yet '
mortifying to disavow. He has got sore on the subject
of his book, and the taunts every now and then thrown
on him for lending himself to measures inconsistent with
his published opinions. Probably he anticipated several
taunts in the event of his throwing over the cherished
distinction between slave-grown and free-labour sugar.
It was less grating to retire from office altogether, and
keep aloof from responsibility for a policy which was
everywhere running counter to his professions. At the
same time it would be unfair to suppose that a step so
contrary to Mr. Gladstone's interests can be dictated
by any selfish fueling. He must be well aware that he
retires into the falsest of all possible positions.
In quitting office he sacrifices importance and
power, without any chance of recovering either in an
indepeneent position. The grounds of his resignation
naturally bring him into a momentary junction with
the ultras of his parts ; but his free. trade profs s-
sions have rendered him the object of their especial
hatred. Nor has he, on the other hand, acquired the
goodwill of the free-traders. Never was there a man
who has done so much to further the views of a party
without having acquired one jot of their goodwill or
esteem. Even his Church views will get him but little
sympathy among the more religious of our politicians.
Exeter Hall, which will approve his intolerance to the
Irish, will suspect his ruse) ite leanings ; and Young
England, while approving his High Church views, is a
warm partizan of that very policy towards the Irish
which he leaves office rather than countenance. In quit-
ting the present Ministry, Mr. Gladstone leaves the only
body of public men with whom he can ever hope to act.
Personally his only course will be to get back to them as
soon as he can. But this can hardly be, with credit to
himself, while they remain in office : for there is
little chance of their measures doing anything but
widen the difference which his resignation has evidenced
to the world. His character has none of that pliancy
which will enable him to retrieve his position. He
is eminently deficient in the qualities which attract
either general popularity, or the warm attachment of
friends. He is neither the favourite nor the necessity of
a party, nor even of a clique. In fact, we know of no
instance in which a man of his vigour and talents, by
leaving office, has gone so far, to all appearance, to throw
himself out of public life. In discussing the consequences
of his retirement, we do not think it likely that he will
be inclined, like Lord Stanley in similar circumstances,
to become the opponent of those with whom he has
acted ; nor do we believe that, if ho were so inclined,
his opposition would have much effect. His resignation
on these particular grounds may add a little to the
bitterness of the No-Popery feeling. But it will for the
same reason conciliate the Liberal party ; and on other
grounds it will generally please both the country gentle-
men and the mercantile body. On the whole, it will
rather strengthen the Government in public opinion. On
the other hand, the loss of Mr. Gladstone's assistance
as a debater will be seriously felt by Sir Robert Peel.
He has recently been deprived of his main supports in
the House of Commons ; and there appears to be no
talent in his party coming on to supply the place of those
whom he has lost. The speaking force of the Minis-
terial bench is now reduced to Sir Robert Peel and Sir
James Graham, backed by hardly any one to whom the
House will listen. The changes in the Government are,
on the whole, very favourable to our views. Mr. Glad-
stone's resignation is a homage to the necessity of a
liberal policy, and the same policy is asserted by the
selection of the new members of the Government. Mr.
Sidney Herbert, on a memorable occasion during last
session, committed himself to the most liberal views on
the subject of Ireland ; and of the other two members
of the Cabinet we know no harm. All the three are
young men, and all may be regarded as likely to be con-
stant supporters of Sir Robert Peel's views. And while
he, with all his faults, is very much the best of his
party, the more we can see him surrounded by col-
leagues who will carry his views into execution, the
better for the country. Indeed, as we have before
said, his great difficulty consists in the necessity for
his having colleagues or party at all. We should
wish that the good results of getting rid of Mr.
Gladstone might tempt him to dispense with other col-
leagues, only that, were he to do this on a great scale,
he really might stay in fur ever. We must not omit this
occasion of expressing our approval of the choice of Sir
Thomas Fremantle as Secretary for Ireland. While
Sir Robett Peel is limited to selection from the Tory
party, he can find no one whose good sense, liberality,
and courtesy more fit him for the post. We shall, in-
deed, be disappoiuted if Sir Thomas Fremantle should
prove unworthy of our favourable auguries. The pro •
bsbility, however, is, that there are more changes in
store. Mr. Gladstone is not by any means the only
member of the Cabinet whom an improved policy towards
Ireland ought to drive out of office. We do not, of
course, attach any credit to the rumour that conscien-
tious scruples, and a sense of what is due to his own cha-
racter, have induced Sir Edward Knatchbull to resign.
Conscience and character will, indeed, assert a mighty
empire, when they;coerce Knatchbull into abandoning the
cup of political degradation, with 2,0001. a year remain-
ing at the bottom.

lIERALD.—It is in the management of newspapers as
it is in theconduct of life generally, the most serious sa-
crifices are sacrifices of forbearance. To act is easy,
but to abstain from acting when interest and the wish to
please urge to action—this is painful and difficult. The
sacrifice is, however, one which honest men will offer
when a sense of public duty calls for it. At this par-
ticular moment we are required to offer such a sacri-
fice. The necessary retirement of the Earl St. Ger-
mans from the office of Chief Secretary for Ireland has
required some modification, though a slight one, of the
official arrangements of the Ministry. It is certain, or,
at least, nearly certain, that the Noble Earl will be suc-
ceeded by Sir Thomas Fremantle, and all admit that
a better appointment than that of Sir Thomas could
not be made. So far we have had no difficulty ; but a
new Secretary at War must be found, and the oppor-
tunity of one change leads to other modifications ;
but as to the successor of Sir Thomas Fremantle,
and as to the other modifications, nothing, we can posi-
tively affirm, has as yet been finally arranged. How,
then, are we to act ? We have the means of knowing
various propositions and suggestions, and the means of
guessing, with a reasonable approach to certainty, at the
propositions and suggestions that will be adopted; and
if we consulted only our own interest and the gratifica •
tion of public curiosity, we might hazard a list of new
appointments, with as good a chance of bitting the mark
as others. But then comes the question, would our pub •
fishing our guesses ha fair to the Ministers, to the par-
ties chiefly interested, and to the public ? Is it just to
the Ministers to embarrass their free selection by an an-
ticipation of their choice ? Is it just to gentlemen
who may, without any fault on their part, be passed
over, to advertise them, as it were, for offices which
they are never to obtain ? Is it just to others to exhibit
them in the light of men who hereafter may perhaps ob-
tain offices of which no one ever thought them so far
worthy as to name them among the candidates for the3e
offices? Is it just to the public to throw so many difficul-
ties in the way of arrangements in the proper determination
of which the public has a deep interest? And for ss hat
are we to da all this ? In order to be considered a
Treasury organ forsooth—a character which we have
ever as anxiously disclaimed as others, with certainly no
higher pretensions, have schemed and laboured for it.
In one respect, indeed, we have qualified ourselves for
the coveted distinction—we have tried so to act as not
to make a connexion with the Herald disgraceful, cr
likely to involve an Administration in suspicion, either
at home or abroad. But this is all. We wish well to
the Government, because we wish well to the country,
which can have no better Government—none other,
indeed, so good; but we neither are, nor desire to be,
the servants of any Administration, or to pass for its
servants. To come back, however, to the expected
modification in some of the less prominent departments
of Government. There will be, we believe, a change in
the Presidency of the Board of Trade, and Lord Dal-
housie is unquestionably the fittest man in the
empire to
preside at that Board should Mr. Gladstone retire from it;
also in the Vice-Presidency of the Board. Lord Dal-
housie is not as well known as he ought to be, and as ho
soon will be; he is like the Premier, a statesman of the
bold, vigorous, and decisive temper, and what Minister
was ever more strongly characterised by boldness,
vigour, and decision, than Sir Robert Peel? It is a