The Sun.
London, England, 1828-06-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

[1,11.631 THE TIMES.]

The members of the new Administrittion who have re.
ceived their.appointments have begun to work—they are in
their several offices or bureaux; so that if the Ministry
does not, yet go upon " all fours," like a metaphor, it goes
upon three legs, or upon two legs and a crutch, till its
other members shall be completed. We really look with
dismay, and almost hopelessness to the situation of the
country. This is the very crisis of our affairs with respect
to our finances; and these are in the hands of the Duke of
Itrellin4ton and Mr. Goulburn, as first Lord of the Tree-
nary and Cssancellor of the Exchequer. If they can con,
duet ns well through our difficulties, right glad shall we be
of such a reiult: but let not any man in future say that
appropriate genius and ability—that experience, discretion,
and practice-!--are necessary fur managing the fiscal con•
earns of a depressed nation and a bankrupt exchequer; fur
• unquestionably, no two men from any walk of life (hardly
any two geese from a comna.o.h) could have been selected,
the natural bent of whose talents (if one of than have any
talents)-:—whose previr,us pursuits and course of study
could render them less competent to the situations ; and
we whit] beriousiy recommend to them—if the forms of
the constitution allow of such a method—to pet-feria the
show-part of their offices in the respeetive Houses of
Parliament to which they belortg, and farm out
the business-part to Mr. Rothschild, or some clerk
of Mr. Baring's. If the Duke _of _Wellington and
Mr. Gotilburn succeed in their present uodethkiag,
let not auy roan herr:after talk of a Neckar, or a Price, or.
a Pitt, as able calculators, or great financiers. The
finances of a country, and finance-management, are all a
humbug ! But it may. be said that the same persons
would have had the acme offices and the same duties to
perform, if the late Administration had not been broken
up. It is trace they would have had the same offices, but
not the same duties along with them, if Mr. Huskisson
had remained in the Ministry ;. for every one knows upon
whoiss it was that the country relied, under the last Ad-
ministration, for the conducting of its financial concerns,
and for the arrangement, if not the exposition, of the
gadget. The gentleman just mentioned was the father of
our present commercial system, upon which the revenue,
so much depends. Though opposed to some of the mere
technical arrangements of one of the ;Corn Bills, he is
deeply versed in the whole question, and thonsually ac-
quainted with all its bearings upon our own domestic
policy, and that of other states. Ile is also imbuesLhy_
study and observation with the knowledge of .thi twin
question (" similima proles indiscrete suis".)-of the circu-
lating medium of paper and gold. Is his successor in the
Colonial Office the heir also to this knowledge ? If be is,
why then we may exclaim with rapture, " Inspiration
again !"

" To give a young gentleman tight education,
" The army's the-only good school in the nation."
. _

Of Lerd Aberdeen we have spoken with that considera-
tion witli which a person of untarnished private character
deserves to be mentioned its these vicious times ; het the
nation has not forgotten, and cannot overlook, the incapa-
city which he showed as a negociator at Vienna ; and it is
probably owing to that very circumstance that Prince
Metternich has since adhered to him with such unbroken
friendship, .because he knows be is but a baby in his
bands. 13ut let it be considered with whom the Earl of
Abertleen`will now have
,to treat. We do not speak of
Russians only, with whom, however, it is not impro-
bable but that the recent change of Administration may
draw us into a war. At this very moment the most
important 441 our fitreire concerns remain to be settled
wit)) the Americans. A . pretty negociator his Lord-
ship's frigid dignity will render him, to deal with,
thisse cunning, selfish, riff willed, obstinate republicans,
whom Air. Canning, in his corresynndence, with a
feliw.ty almost fearful (for hie superiority must have been
balling to his antagonists), always contrived to plat* and
exh:hit "in the wrong." .To supply all the-e deficiencies,
the Duke of Wellington .js continually, and perhaps not
vrry improperly, brought forward. But had not the last
AdMinistration, we ask; the benefit of his Grace' "dents
and supremacy, as well as the present? And snot no
consequence by what colleagues the Premier is supported ?
Now, the truth is this,--and though all know it very well,
and feel it very sensibly, yet probably we are the first who
have ventured to state it openly,—his Grace has not the
art or ability to express himself very
,forcibly, or even
dearly, in the "Ifonse of Parliament to which his great
deeds and unremitted labours as a warrior have justly raised
anti still less is he competent to explain and justify the
policy of those acts, which, a." A servant of the Crown, it is his
dutrtovropose to his Ilnyal Master. For though there be a
Duke uf Wellington Prime Minister, there is a King still,
we presume : we live under a limited monarchy, with ap
hereditary Prince ; 'and it is surely of the essence of such
a Governtnent as ours, that his Majesty's Prime Minister
should be a person capable of elucidating, arid rendering
palatable to his subjects, those measures which, by bearing
hard upon their domestic comforts, might otherwise tend
to crush . their loyalty also, their personal affection; ant/
constitutional obedience. Of the More eminent and lofty
et those two personages, we - shall venture most respect-
fully to observe, that though irresponsible by his station,
in the present enlightened state of society, he cannot but
be responsible to the public opinion ; and this frankness,
perhaps even offensive, by sheeting that we are not afraid
to avow our opinions, of whatever kind they may be, will,
we trust, bespeak the public ronVence in those which we
sin avow. r The nation, therefore; May rest firm in the con-
viction and belief, that his Maksty has, throughout the
late occurrences, dealt like a most honourable and honest
English gentleman. But, has he been so dealt by ?
The proceedings of Friday last in the House of Com-
'DOM furnish a specimen of the esprit de corps by which
military men are on most occasions actuated, and of which,
it is to be presinned, this nation is likely to obtain some edi-
fying experience before his Grace the Duke of Wellington
has loug held: the reins of power. When Mr. Hume, in
the discharge of his duty as a : Member of Parliament,
thought proper to deprecate the substitution of soldiers for
statesmen in the recent appointment to high political offices
under the Crown, and to protest, as every reflecting Eng-
lishman in his heart must- do, against the introduction of
" a military Government into Great Britain," tip gets a
• gallant officer named Lindsay to attack Mr. Hume for his
opposition to this new mode of recruiting the skeleton
Treasury bench, as "Aingenerous.,,in spirit, and unjust in
Was the gallant officer's having borne
arms against the -enemies of the State, a reason (asked .
the Honourable Colonel) for his being refused promotion
to civil office?" Now this is all very time talking, but
exceedingly vague and inconclusive. It is not because a
Ytkina has borne arms against the public enemy that lie is to
be qualified for political office ; but because that,—first,
a ioldier by profession is not brought up in the habit
either of exercising free will himself or of tolerating it in
others, which would enable him to sympathize, so much as
those may who are not professional soldiers, with the habits
or even prejudices of a free community. The professional
soldier receives from his superiors, not opinions to be con-
sidered, but commands to be obeyed. He issues in his, turn
to those under him, orders which admit of no dispute or
hesitation. They must be executed without a murmur.
liecundly,—The professional soldier looks to the Crown
and to -the Coursj, fnr every advance in his profession :
his worldly fortunes are in the breath of the Royal
or tlinisterial nostrils., lb has no bond of dependence
or alliance with any part of the State, but with the
Court alone. Ile acknowledges a King, but not a country.
The mental biasses, therefore, of a niditary can must be
taken into consideration, when we estia,ate his fitness
for civil office; nor is it possible that if he has
given his heart to hie profession, he should be free from a
tendency to impatience. and disgust on perceiving any at-
tcmpt at opposition among the Teople to that supremacy
et Revel pleasure which is to every loyal soldier the law',
and almost the religion, ,of his life. Thirdly,----It seems
to he quite out of the.qoestion that a military man, if he
has extol had a good early education, should enjoy sufficient
time and opportunity for acquiring political knowledge.
_Nu active soldier cannot read on subjects net connected
with his professiun,—at least he cannot study them atten-
tively,--aud an idle soldier will not. Hesitating, there-
fere, to pronounce that a military man ought to be sys-
tematically, and under all possible circumstances, debarred
trona all civil office, we certainly are trot of opinion that
there are many cases in which lie ought to be selected for it,
to the exclusion of candidates drawn from civil life. After
Colonel Lindsay, Sir Alexander Hope gut up, and in ra-
ther an angry Strain pursued the
Lord Nortnauby's, as if same course of observa-
tion, catching at an expression of
the Gallant Officer had felt that a general animadversion
should be construed into personal offence. We regret that
such circumstances have arisen. Altre are sincerely con-
cerned to see the military character and pretensions placed,
by the partiality of a Ministeilor his own dependant; in
a light where it cannot fail tote looked at unfavourably and
invidiously by the nation. To the individuals tkus elevated
to power it is impossible for us to object. There is no Mae
who bears a more honourable name in the military records
of the empire. than Sir George Murray ; and Sir Henry
Harditige is known to be a moat industrious and efficient
officer. But the spirit of the thing is bail ; we may in-
deed hate ' in one sense a " United .Government,"--the
union of the camp, not the Council Chamber, where an
" eAler ofahe day" will cut short all needles e deliberation ;

'~