The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
TIMES. Throughout Europe the effect
of the uuforseen vicissitudes which have
recently taken place in this country has
been extremely powerful, for by foreign nations,
as well as by foreign Governments, the resig-
nation of Lord Aberdeen, and the probability of
Lord Palmerston's return to the Foreign-office, was
regarded as an event of more immediate interest and
importance even than the prospect of a repeal of the
corn-laws. The true character of that measure, the
causes which have rendered it inevitable, and the more
remote consequences which it must produce on the
foreign relations of England with all other countries,
are very imperfectly understood abroad, and conti-
nental statesmen can hardly comprehend a sacrifice
of place and power; dictated by a principle of political
economy, which is still enveloped to them in all the
mists of prejudice, and seen through the medium of
false views of our national wealth and social condi-
tion. Experience will alone remove the film from
their political vision; and at present they are as-
tounded by the hardihood of conception and
frightened by the energy of execution which they
conceive to be the principal features of so vast and
unaccountable a revolution. The fact, therefore, to
;which political observation has been mainly directed
on the continent is the change of the Foreign Secre-
tary, and the possible, if not probable, alteration of
the foreign policy of England. The previous con-
duct of Lord Palmerston and his organ had done all
that it was possible to do to excite distrust and alarm
in every part of the world, and in every cabinet of
Europe. The very interests which the true policy
of this- country ought to be most eager to conciliate,
and the very men.)who 'are most anxious to co-operate
in the great public object of the maintenance of
peace, are those who were most shaken by the pro.:
spect of his return to office. We have often pointed
out and predicted the deplorable consequences to
England and to Europe of policy which was
distinguished by !the arrogance and impatience of
its tone, even more than by its reckless admi-
nistration of our foreign relations ; but not till now
were we fully aware of the lasting and fatal effect
of the policy of 1840, and of Lord Palmerston's subse-
quent invectives against his successor, upon his own
character as a statesman. A dispassionate observer
would acknowledge that the world is a little unjust to
him. The service§ which he at one time rendered to
the cause of peace, to the French alliance, and to
the real interests of England, are forgotten in the
terror and disgust which he inspired by a sudden
abandonnient of 'all the sound principles even of
his own policy, for the sake of a contemptible
triumph on the coast of Syria. For ourselves
we are ready to acknowledge, that in spite of
the enormous and 'unjustifiable errors which marked
the close of the Melbourne Administration, we
do not entertain so low an opinion of Lord Pal-
merston's capacity, and character, as to suppose that
he would have sought to aggravate the fatal conse-
quences of those 'errors, instead of mitigating and
allaying them. But it is natural that the minds of
foreign politicians, especially in France, should be
less accessible to reason and conviction on this head ;
it is still more natural that the public abroad should
judge him by his own acts and words; and that he
should stand at this moment condemned by the pub-
lic opinion of Eurbpe as a man unfit to direct the fo-
reign affairs of England, and pre-eminently dan-
gerous to the peace of the world. The fact is so ; and
even if these apprehensions be somewhat exaggerated, !
it is not the less certain that the very existence of
such an opinion deeply rooted in the highest political
and commercial circles of Europe might have
proved in itself aliowerful obstacle to the mainte-
nance of those amicable relations with other coun-
tries upon which '`the welfare of the world depends.
It is not fitting that the Foreign Minister of Eng-
land should be the object of universal suspicion and
alarm ; and we are by no means surprised that the
conviction that Lord Palmerston does stand in this
position should have been fatal to the formation of
Lord John Russell's Cabinet, and should have caused
the secession of some of his colleagues on this impor-
tant ground. The Whigs have acquiesed for the
most part against their own conscientious convictions
in the foreign policy of Lord Palmerston' and the
Whigs must bear the burden of reproach which is
attached to his name. At the same time we are per-
suaded that in France and elsewhere a laudable de-
sire existed to make the best of a calamity which at
one moment appeared to be inevitable ; and that the
present French Administration was likely to be
strengthened rather then weakened by the approach
of what was regarded as a great danger. M.
Guizot never seethed to be more indispensable than
at the moment wiren the genius of peace was sup-
posed to have given way in the English Cabinet to
the genius of discord ; and the real desire for peace
;which lies at the bottom of the more honourable por-
tion even of the French Opposition, in spite of their
imprudent conduct and their declamatory speeches,
grew in strength its proportion as they imagined that
the world was exposed to more serious chances of
war. The storm• has blown over ; but for the reason
we have just given, amongst others, the French Go-
vernment will in a few days re-open the session of
the Chambers, under very favourable auspicies. At
this moment, happily, no question of foreign policy
affords a pretext dr an occasion for the customary de-
clamation of the French Opposition ; and, in spite of
their talent for mixing up the most heterogeneous
and irrelevant topics in the debate on the Ad-
dress, they will not find it easy on the present
occasion to excite the prejudices of the Cham-
ber or to appeal to the passions of the coun-
try. Their first' trial of strength will take place
on the election of the President of the Chamber of
Deputies, and all the sections of the Opposition will
unite in supporting M. Dufaure for the chair in oppo-
sition to M. Sauzet, the Ministerial candidate. M.
Sauzet will probably carry his election by a majority
of from 30 to 40 votes ; and soon afterwards the dis-
cussion of the address will commence. The two sub-
jects which will be made the principal ground of
attack by the Opposition are the state of Algeria and
the conduct of the Government towards the railway
companies. It is true that the position of Marshal
Bugeaud in Africa, powerless at the head of 100,000
men, and circum'iented by an enemy whom he has
always affected to despise, is a fact affording ample
materials for political discussion, and deeply affecting
the interests and honour of France. But the dis-
asters and difficulties arising out of the oc-
cupation of Northern Africa cannot, with any
degree of fairness be imputed to this Administra-
tion, or to any pdrticular party in the State. They
are the natural • and inevitable results of a pre-
posterous enterprise and a monstrous system of war-
fare, to which every successive Minister of France for
the last 15 years,
.has been a party. It is impossible
that they should nut have been foreseen ; but it is
equally impossible that they should have been avoided,
as long as the misguided opinion of the nation pe-
remptorily insists on the unrestricted maintenance
and extension of the conquest. To impute these con-
sequences to the conduct of any one man or set of
men, or to ascribe them to any one incident like the
treaty of Tangiers, is the height of injustice and ab-
surdity. They arise out of the whole conduct of the ,
French nation to the Arab tribes ; they are the
fruits of arbitrary invasion on one side and fa-
natical resistance on the other; and as long as
these two elements are engaged in a vast and active
conflict, the influence of Abd-el-Kader and the con-
duct of Marshal tugeaud, the defection of certain tribes
or the loss of certain positions, are mere incidents which
might be counted in a campaign, but which shrink
into insignificance in comparison with the horrors of
interminable war. Out of the extreme of evil, how-
ever, we can alone anticipate a change for the better;
and we cannot doubt that ere long some_voices will
be raised in the Legislature of France to trace these
misfortunes to their true source. It is impossible to
blink at facts which are passing before the eyes of all
Europe; and the true policy of France is to take up
such a position in Africa as she can successfully and
permanently maintain—if, indeed, any such position
be possible. Tile attempt to mix up the old bug-bear
of the influence of England in this purely national
question is so absurd that -we can hardly suppose it
will be resorted to, and the arrival of the Embassy
from the Court of Morocco, which is daily expected
in Paris, will give eclat to the ceremony of opening
the Chamber, and furnish an additional proof of the
sincere desire of the Emperor of Morroco to observe
his engagements with France and to keep clear of the
dangers of the war now raging on his frontiers.
• CIIRONICLE.—Whether we consider the imme-
diate or more remote consequences, we are induced to
regard that part of the President's Message which re-
' fern to an alteration in the tariff, and the principles on
which he proposes to base the change, as the most im-
p rtant part of that voluminous document; and more
particularly so, when we view it in relation to the
changes, which in this country have now become in-
evitable, with respect to our corn and provision-laws.
Without treaties, or negotiations, or even as far as is
known, without immediate concert, the great and
material necessities which false commercial legisla-
tion brings upon:A people, are of themselves about to
force upon the Legislatures of the United States and
Great Britain an entire revision of those laws of pro-
tection, made for the benefit of the privileged few at
the cost of the many. What Mr. Polk proposes
•to Congress, purely from a regard to American