The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-03 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1845.

Within the last few days rumours of Cabinet resigna

tions have been rife. Gossip has been especially busy
with the names of Lord STANLEY and Lord ABERDEEN,
who are both said to be about to resign. There is
clearly a stir in the Cabinet. In the present embroglio of
politics, past opinions may help us a little to conjecture
the course which any particular Member of the Cabinet
would take; but, a priori, we should have thought Lord
ABERDEEN the last person to desert the Premier, and
Lord STANLEY the last person to be dissatisfied with the
present do-nothing policy of the Cabinet. We do not
profess to understand the present position of the Govern-
ment, and shall be surpris,.td at nothing ; but, otherwise,
we are not disposed to give credit to the rumours about
Lords STANLEY and ABERDEEN.
If the Cabinet were nr,vv in a condition for mere tinker•

ing to be of any use, nothing would be more likely than
for Lord STANLEY to be shifted from► the Colonies, which
he has grossly misgoverned, to some office in which the
Government might have his name and party influence
without the damage of his administrative incapacity.
If the Cabinet were going to repeal the corn •laws,

nothing would he more likely than for my Lord TAM-
BOFF to r►sign; but the Cabinet cleaves to the corn-
laws. Lord STANLEY'S resignation now—even his
removal to a post where he would be less mischievous—
would be a sign of vitality and strength not to be looked
for from a Government that, to all appearance, is dying
by inches.

The question now is, can the Government survive this

crisis? If we saw them throwing out Lord STANLEY,
it would be like a sick man's throwing out the gout ;

and the doctors of the Carlton, who now shake their
heads alhday, and look glum, would begin to hope.
But the many meetings of the Cabinet—the many
visits of Cabinet Ministers to Sir ROBERT PEEL—Lord
STANLEY'S long consultations with Sir ROBERT—show
that there is a flutter among the Volscians. Lord JOHN
RUSSELL'S long shot from Edinburgh has been a stag-
gerer.

According to an extraet from a private letter received
from New York, and posted up in the underwriters' room
of the Liverpool Exchange yesterday, all the strong
and decided expressions respecting the Oregon that ap-
peared in the inaugural address of President POLK will be
repeated in the forthcoming Message ; he will claim
the whole of the disputed territory, and propose to the
Legislature that the joint occupancy shall cease, and
that the laws of lowa shall be extended over all the
western territory to the Pacific. It is said that the
Cabinet, with the exceptiou of Mr. BUCHANAN, is
unanimous on the subject. The annual ses-
sion commences usually on the first Monday
of December; the Message will consequently be deli-
vered in the course of the present week, and it may,
therefore, be expected in England about the 18th inst.
By persons tolerably well acquainted with the relations
between the two countries, and the prevalent feeling
towards England throughout the Western and Southern
States, this document is looked forward to with very
little interest. The sentiments of the members both of
the Senate and of the House of Representatives, in refe-
rence to this country, have been well ascertained during
the last and the present Presidency by their votes on
the annexation of Texas, and the measures for oc-
cupying the Oregon territory. Whether the Mes-
sage on these points may be modified or not,
ought to be to the English Government a matter of per-
fect indifference ; and whether POLK talks about latitude
54 or latitue 49, or the " whole Oregon or none," Eng-
land must not be led from her purpose, and allow the
settlement of a question which, intrinsically, is of little
importance, but which involves the whole policy of the
two nations, to be delayed for even one year. If America
claims what England is not prepared to grant, and
announces her resolution to put an end to the mutual
occupation within the specified time, our Government
must regard that as a preliminary to a declaration of
war, and act accordingly. Delay is out of the question.
These protracted disputes about territory have only
become more difficult of settlement by procrastination ;
and it is better at once to have a clear understanding,
not only on the Oregon dispute, but on many other
disputes of infinitely more importance. No English
statesman, of whatever party he may be, can have viewed
the encroachments of the American Republic, and the
projects which its rulers and people have announced
within a very brief period, without serious alarm for
the security of our possessions and the balance of power
in the New World. The voice of the American nation
leaves no doubt whatever about the occupation of the
Oregon territory and the expulsion of the Hudson's Bay
Company from the banks of the Columbia. Prepara-
tions are in progress for sending out squatters to Cali-
fornia ; Texas has been wrested in the mcst insidious
and unfair manner from Mexico, and that unfortunate
and incapable republic, in a very few years, will be so
completely hemmed in by its powerful and unscrupulous
neighbour, that it must fall an easy prey as soon as Pre-
sident POLK, or any future President may consider the fit
time for conquest has arrived. England cannot stand
by unconcerned and idle when such barefaced and un-
justifiable encroachments are made in the very neigh-
bourhood of her valuable colonies, when the annihilation
of her trade in that quarter is openly avowed, and in a
few years the riches of Mexico shall be swallowed up by
the overgrown republic. War, no doubt, is a horrid and
a dangerous game, but nations never escape from diffi-
culties by disgraceful concessions, nor is war ultimately
avoided by pusillanimous delay. The thirst for conquest
throughout the Union is too manifest to be mistaken ;
England has felt its effects in Canada, and only a few
years more are wanting to make her feel them in
other quarters of the most vital importance to her best
interests. It becomes her, therefore, to be pre-
pared for the worst, and meet the coming danger
in time. She never was is a better position,
nor ever had a more just cause for asserting her rights
America has rejected even an offer for accommodating
the differences ; she has departed from terms admitted
in all former negotiations on the subject ; she will not
hear of arbitration, but treats England with as much
contempt as Mexico, and is preparing to annex the
whole of the Oregon, somewhat in the style of the un-
principled occupation of Texas. Even hostile writers
in France now admit that her claims are not well-
founded; and though it is our affair, yet it is satisfactory
to know that her best wishers cannot justify the claims
of TYLER and POLK. Both nations would suffer
by having recourse to the last alternative—a
trial of strength but that is not the fault
of England. The first effects would be felt here se-
riously. Manchester, and Leeds, and Birmingham, and
some other manufacturing towns, would lose much of
their trade, though since the last war many new mar-
kets have been opened for them; privateers would in-
tercept merchant vessels without convoy, and other
casualties attendant on war would ensue ; but these
England has already experienced and met with unflinch-
ing fortitude, even when engaged in the dreadful contest
with NAPOLEON. Is she weaker now, after thirty
years repose, than she was, when in 1815 she
astonished the world by her renewed rigour
and exertions, and gained what General For
called the greatest victory of the age ? Is
her credit lowered ? Are the sinews of war
less strong, or the means of both offensive and defensive
warfare less within !her reach? It is admitted by all,
except perhaps the Americans themselves, that British
fleets could blockade every important harbour of the
Union, that the value of cotton and tobacco and other
productions of the slave-holding states would be lowered
by one-half, and that, even allowing the greatest bravery,
skill, and exertions on the part of the Americans, their
commerce would bo nearly destroyed. But she cannot
carry on a war without imposing heavy taxes or bor-
rowing money. The former would not be much
relished even by the warlike States of the west,'; and
the latter is impossible. The American Government
could not obtain credit for a hundred thousand pounds
on any Exchange in Europe. We do not mention these
facts as matters of boast, or as threats—we merely state
plain truths, in the hope that they may be listend tot
and that a calculation of consequences may induce the
American Government to act with moderation, and not
European
insist on claims which are rejected by-every