The Sun. — 1864-03-24 (London, England)

HERALD.—The anxiety of Lord Palmerston to satisfy the Government of Louis Philippe in 1840, not only that he had not connived at the Boulogne expedition, but that neither he nor Lord Melbourne had for years set eyes upon " that madman" Louis Napoleon, is hardly reconcileable with the readiness with which the noble lord has vindicated and assumed the whole responsibility for Mr. Stansfeld's intimate connection with the plotters against the life of Louis Napoleon, the Emperor of the French. There we then nothing but an insinuation, which the noble load could have afforded to despise. Had he seen Louis Napoleon, who enjoyed a good social position in this county; a short time befoeethe expedition, there would have been nothing tit it to justify complaint from the French Government. But the canards of French newspapers were sufiicient cause to induce the noble lord to deny in the official newspaper that he had called upon the Prince, and send for the French Minister to give him the most emphatic and detailed denial that he had the slightest knowledge of the conspirators against France. We applaud the anxiety, worthy of an English Minister, to repudiate all part, even the remotest and most indirect, in conspiracies against a friendly Government. How is it that we find a Minister, then so extremely susceptible, now not only refusing to give the French Government an explanation in a much more serious matter, but wantonly and offensively assuming the responsibility of aiding and abetting conspiracies against the life of a friendly sovereign ? Upon prisoners arrested in Paris, in whose luggage were found weapons intended, as they confessed, for the murder of the Emperor Napoleon, were found papers implicating Me zzini as the organiser of the insurrection, and instructing his instruments to communicate with him at the house of Mr. Stansfeld. These facts are mentioned at the trial. The Procureur General expresses his surprise and regret that a member of the English Parliament should assist such scoundrels, but he observes that this member of Parliament had been mixed up in a previous conspiracy against the life of the Emperor. Now, iel.re was a case against Mr. Stansfeld, infinitely plainer end of far greater gravity than that which Lord Palmerston was so eager to explain away, and Mr. Stens. feld, to do him justice, seems to have felt that he had committed au indiscretion which made it impossible for him to remain a Minister of the Crown. He offered his resignation. Lord Palmerston, however, refused to accept it, and the result was that Mr. Stansfeld, emboldened by the support of his chief, refused to give any explanation, and pronounced a glowing eulogium upon the arch-revolutionist and apostle of the dagger. The House of Commons was not to be put off thus easily, and Mr. Stansfeld was compelled to explain ' • and the Government was only saved from defeat by the pathetic appeals not to spoil the young man's prospects with which the supporters of the Government accompanied their acknowledgments of his indiscretion. Lord Palmerston alone refused to express regret, and boldly, tauntingly,assumed the responsibility of Mr. Stansfeld's friendship with Mazzini, and his unintentional plots of the Italian revolutionist against the Emperor's life. It has been said that a man's body changes altogether in seven years, and that at the end 'of that period it contains not the smallest fraction of the substances with which it commenced the septenniad. Thrice seven years have passed since Lord Palmerston showed himself so anxious for his honour to these days in which he eagerly accepts the responsibility of harbouring and assisting assassins. Are we to suppose that his mind has been changed with his body, and as each set of framework has given place to a weaker and a worse, so the mind of the noble lord has in each change lost something of its eense of honour, until now it can accept without difficulty the scandalous part which the Premier has undertaken; orshell we ammo that Lord Palmerston was as indifferent