The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-11 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1845.

RESIGNATION

THE MINISTRY.

FURTHER

PROROGATION

OF
PARLIAM ENT.

The Ministry of Sir ROBERT PEEL has resigned !
The cointry at large may be startled by a circum-
stance so unexpected, but such is the fact. Yester-
day morning the majority of the Cabinet, compris•
ingtbe Duke of WELLINGTON, the Duke of Bucc Lunen,
Sir Roncar PEEL, Sir J. GRAHAM, the Earl of
ABERDEEN, Lord STANLEY, Mr. GOULBURN, the Earl
of LINCOLN, and Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT—in all, nine
out of twelve or thirteen composing the entire Cabinet,
proceeded by special train to Southampton, and
were convaye 1 by the royal steamer Fairy to the
Isle of Wight. At a Court held at Osborne
House they tendered their resignation to her
MAJESTY, which was graciously accepted! Here is
a sudden and abrupt termination of the Conservative
Cabinet ! and that, too, at the very moment they
were supposed, and even demi-officially announced,
to have become the converted organs of free-trade
policy in all its ramified bearings !
It wece idle to speculate on the cause of this un-
looked for disruption of a Cabinet whose whole
career has been that of fighting under false
or assumed colours. But one circumstance
is rather significant. It might have been ob-
served that the Duke of WELLINGTON did not at-
tend the Cabinet Council held on Monday, after the
return of Sir ROBERT PEEL from Osborne
Howse on that day. The DUKE had made up
his mind for better for worse, and left
t,e Cabinet to take its course. It sat only an hour,
an 1 during that eventful hour had decided on re-
sign_ll4 the Government. That decision was, of
gouts', C ),.Nrs'y,d to the Duke of WELLINGTON;
who, prampt to his duty, accompanied the
doleful train to Osborne House to resign,
what he had often asserted he did not possess,
his Ministerial office. The Duke held no direct Mi.:
nisterial office, but shared responsibility with his col-
leagues. As Commander-in-Chief the Field-Marshal
is no Minister, but only.commands the army, respon-
bible to the Crown arid the Parliament. But,
in his ministerial capacity as a Cabinet Minister, he
wielded more negative power perhaps than Sir R,
PEEL himself, from the fact that he held the majo-
rity of the House of Lords in his pocket ! This cir-
cumstance alone was quite enough, without the
doubtful aid of hesitating friends, to have 2ecided Sir
R. PEEL on resigning an office which had become
as thankless as it was irksome. But he has re-
signed in a good and a righteous cause, and his re-
ward will be in accordance with his merits.

The Pzet Cabinet, then, has come to Its end. It
has evidently died hard. It was imagined last week
that the disease, Which has proved fatal, had yielded to

skilful treatment, and that the patient would make a
new start with greater vigour than ever. But the dis-
ease is said to have returned with increased strength
and we have now to record the decease of the old lady,
of whom, wishing, at so melancholy a moment, to say
all the good that can be said of her, we are free to
confess that if her course has been tricky and tortuous,
her tricks have been tricks to the few and benefits to
the many, and that in her last moments her better
feelings are supposed to have been strenuously directed
to a trick greater than any of her tricks, which would
more than ever have exasperated her immediate
friends, but for which all honest men would have
blessed her.

Scme say that the Duke of WELLINGTON had
yielded to Sir ROBERT PEEL'S desire to settle the
corn-law question, and has since revoked his consent.;
others that he had never yielded. Be this as it may,
it is understood that the Duke of WELLING'TON'S op-
position has caused the resignation of Sir R. PEEL and
the break-up of the Cabinet.

We like to take a favourable view of men's con-
duct, and would fain hope that the Duke of WEL-
LINGTON has been resisting, not the repeal of the
corn-laws, but the repeal of the corn-laws by the
Cabinet which set itself up to stand by them. Well-
authenticated rumour has asclibrd to the Duke
the expression of opinions which would show him
to be quite aware that the corn-laws cannot longer
stand ; but his high honour may shrink from being
himself the man to do the deed. He may feel that
the great influence which he wields in the House of
Lords may be even more powerfully used, in support
of others proposing the measure, than if it could be
said that he has apostatized and abused the trust re-
posed in him to preserve political power. A change,
within so short a period as four years, from the high
protection doctrines, which gained the implicit confi-
dence of farmers' friends in 1841, to the measures of
the Anti-Corn-law League is a change, the sincerity
of which cannot be warranted by less than the sacri-
fice of Downing-street.

As to the steps which may be taken by her MA-
JESTY, in consequence of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S resigna-
tion, a short time will disclose them, and in the mean-
while we might safely leave it to our readers to con-
jecture Sir ROBERT'S successor. The nation, of
course, looks to the statesman who has lately come
forth with a boldness suited to the crisis, renouncing
all personal, party, and class considerations, and man-
fully avowing past errors—who, if he had been the
man to come forward at this or any other time to suit
a purpose of his own would not have so long held out
against the dissatisfaction—against even risk of
estrangement, of his party, and whom opponents and
friends alike concur in pronouncing worthy of the
name of RUSSELL. Of his two otherwise likely oom-
petitors, the advance of years has probably rendered
Lord MELBOURNE unequal to the toils and cares of
Premiership, and death has robbed us of Lord
SPENCER. But, whoever may be the Minister, it is
enough for us to feel assured that the corn-laws are
doomed.

The PEEL Ministry being now extinct, a few re-
marks respecting their character may not be unin-
teresting to the public on the solemn occasion, and
certainly a body, with a few exceptions we admit, less
distinguished for ability, either as statesmen or ora-
tors, could hardly be selected, without ridicule, for
the government of a great country. Sir ROBERT
PEEL has been the life and soul of the Cabinet from
its birth to its death ; he has maintained throughout
a civic despotism of the most decided character,
discharging refractory members, shutting the mouths
of the indiscreet and pass ionate, assuming the work
of others unfit for their peculiar depart-
ments, and in all respects acting, not as
the nominal head of a Cabinet, like Lords LIVER.
Poor, and MELBOURNE, but as the prime mover
and the principal agent in every change that has
taken place during the four years that the motley
crew have existed. The new tariff was his, so was
the Maynooth Bill, and the Irish Colleges Bill, and
the abolition of Customs duty on four hundred arti-
cles of foreign production ;—every measure, in fact,
was his, and he made no scruple of assuming the
whole merit or demerit of any Bill carried
through Parliament. Of the Duke of WELLINGTON
little need be said. His character for firmness, or
rather obstinacy, is known to all. He is justly ce-
lebrated for his military deeds, and has thereby
raised himself to the very first rank among
the great commanders of the age, but, as a
politician, he has never acquired any honour
whatever except by carrying measures which he long
obstinately opposed, and by one remarkably short,
pithy speech, which decided every waverer on the
great question of Parliamentary Reform. If we ex-
cept Sir JAMES GRAHAM, and Lord STANLEY, and
Lord LYNDHURST, there is not another member of the
Cabinet who approaches even to mediocrity. LYND.•
HURST is pliable and fit for any purpose; Lord
STANLEY is as obstinate as WELLINGTON, and possesses
great abilities, but they are of a kind not fitted for
active service. lle disdains to yield to remonstrance
or listen to advice ; he is confident of his power, and
will make it felt even at the risk of endan-
gering his usefulness, and bringing reproach
on any Cabinet of which he happens to be a member.
He has turned out a complete failure in every depart.
ment allotted to him, and, whether as Secretary for
Ireland or Secretary for the Colonies, has done incal-
culable mischief to his colleagues. His obstinacy, and
possibly selfishness, also in supporting the enormities
of the Irish Church, broke up one Cabinet, and after-
wards rendered him the most unpopular member of
the PEEL Government in the estimation of seven
millions of Catholics. His dismissal from office will
be received as "glorious news" by the whole of the
British Colonies. Sir ROBERT PEEL evidently placed
confidence in the Home Secretary, and not without
reason, for according to all accounts no Minister was
ever more indefatigable and earnest in his duty, or more
desirous to act in unison with his colleagues. As
first Lord of the Admiralty under the GREY
Adminis-
tration, he acquired the praise of all parties, and
perhaps on no former occasion was that department
conducted with such impartiality and vigour. But
what can be said of the rest ?—of the seven or eight
lords (there not being fewer than ten altogether of
that order in the Cabinet), and of the one commoner
known only for his wealth ? Should a war take
place with America, neither ABERDEEN nor HAD.
DINGTON could have carried it on with the spirit and
skill suited to such a serious contest. The
downfal of this heterogeneous Cabinet will be
the worst news for PoLK that he has received
since his instalment into office. The Syrian affair
made an impression in America, which established
the character of PALMERSTON for decision and national
spirit, and POLK would rather see any man in the
Foreign-office than a nobleman who, since the days
of CANNING, is the only Minister that has
asserted the honour of the country in all
her foreign relations. The character of the
remainder may be summed up in a few words. Since
the Earl of RIPON was Prime Minister, and by his
pusillanimity excited the ridicule of the Sovereign
that called him to office, he has been utterly useless.
GOULBURN was only the shadow of a Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and but for the timely aid and tutoring of
his principal would have involved the finances of the
country in inextricable confusion. He never could
either speak or act, and may be said to have ended
his political life in a more honourable way than he or
any human being ever could have anticipated. In
short, with the exception of Sir R. PEEL and Sir J.
GRAHAM, the country is well rid of the "strong
Ministry." Its demise will give additional impulse
to the principles of free-trade and salutary reform,
and rouse a spirit of resistance to Tory principles
which bids fair to establish a new era in the govern-
ment of this vast empire.

The announcement of the Speaker's intention to
authorise payment of railway deposits to the Ac-
count-General by instalments, has considerably al-
-I?yed, as might have been expected, the anxiety
about the transfer of the whole large sum which will
have to be deposited by the applicants for Bills in
the next session. We take for granted that the
Bank Directors, and leading bankers of railway
companies, who by concert may do much, will do their
utmost to carry out beneficially this mode of payment
by instalments. One instalment paid into the Bank,
will be available to assist the bankers for payment of
another instalment ; or the investment in Government
securities of sums already paid to the credit of the
Accountant General, will tend to prevent depreia..