The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-25 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1845.

It cannot be denied that a very general feeling of
satisfaction is evinced throughout the country at the
return of Sir ROBERT PEEL to office, and it is a cu-
rious circumstance, among the many strange events
hich have occurred within the last fifteen days, that
this satisfaction is by no means so manifest among
the Conservatives and Tories, as among the different
sections which exerted themselves at the last election
to keep him still in the ranks of the Opposition. No
common observer can he surprised at the result. A
change of Ministry at the present time would have
been attended with vast inconvenience—nay.
it would have led to ruinous effects on trade
and commerce. Business, for many months,
would have been paralysed—no great commercial
enterprise could have been undertaken with security,
because the measures of a Whig Government were
uncertain, their power was untried, and the most de-
termined opposition to their policy, however honour-
able to themselves or beneficial to their country,
might have been expected from a certain portion of
the Commons and by the great majority of the Peers.
There success in carrying a repeal of the corn-laws
in the former assembly was at the very best doubtful
—in the latter it was considered impossible, without
a TIVW election, and even the effect of that would have
been inoperative without a general commotion, and
that " pressure from without" which triumphantly
carried the Reform Bill. But a social earthquake
like that (if we may be alloWed the expression)
cannot be got up every ten years, or
every fifty years, and indeed, for the good
of the country, should be avoided, except in extreme
cases, such as when the lay Peers as well as the
spiritual Peers forget their real position in society,
look only to their own selfish interests, despise the
great body of the people as serfs, fit only to obey
their commands and minister to their wants, and
obstinately refuse all just concessions till constrained
by terror and force. Such a general rising at the pre-
sent time very few men would consider desirable, and
all persons engaged in trade, all subscribers to rail-
ways, all who take an interest in our foreign rela-
tions, and indeed in the general welfare of the
country, at home and abroad, are infinitely better
pleased that the storm has blown over, and that Sir
ROBERT PEEL, who has already done wonders,
should be allowed to take the refractory Peers
under his management, and make the at-
tempt to carry out to the utmost those
principles of free trade of which he is the un-
doubted, and perhaps the most able, advocate. Lord
JOHN RUSSELL and his party have, to their honour,
for the last four years, rendered him invaluable
.assistance in this great work; they sacrificed their
own immediate interests, both personal and political,
in the cause of equal justice to men of all religious
persuasions ; they acted as a body like true patriots,
and their refusal to take office at this conjuncture,
with such doubtful prospects of success and such
certain derangement of vast commercial relations
and gigantic internal enterprises, only furnishes
another proof that they prefer the good of their
country to the ephemeral enjoyment of place and the
allurements of patronage and pensions. It is a matter of
regret, however, to many, that Sir PEEL has not re-
constructed his Cabinet in a different manner, and that
he still retains many colleagues with which both he
and the public could well dispense. Lord STANLEY,
it is true, is gone, but that is his own work. He and
the Premier never cordially coalesced in office:; he
was hardly allowed liberty of speech in the Commons,
and sending him to the Lords was only a gentle method
of laying him en the shelf. He possibly has been
offended at last by the treatment, and seized the pre-
Sent opportunity as the most appropriate for making
his secession. By this resolve the country is benefited ;
for the Government of the Colonies absolutely required
modification, and while that aristocratic stud obstinate
Minister ruled the Colonial Department any material
reform was utterly hopeless. Mr. GLABSTONE
will be more pliable. From his natural habits
and his peculiar education he can find excuses