LORD PALMERSTON A CO-RESPONDENT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXI, Issue 1188, 26 January 1864, Page 2

LORD PALMERSTON A CO-RESPONDENT.

The ears of London society have, for many days back, been tingling with an extraordinary scandal. It would be the feeblest affectation for any one mixing with the world of our metropolis, to assume the aspect of ignorance on the subject. Wherever men meet together the story is talked of. Although it has been noticed, and in brief and vague terms, by only one London newspaper, it has been blazoned all over the country, and whoever now opens a provincial newspaper is sure to find the story alluded to in its columns. At first the rumour appeared so extravagant and absurd, that people took it for a mere jest, or for the wildest of canards. We must say, for our own part, as we were the first to allude to it, that 110 mention of such a scandal should have appeared in these columns, if our information on the subject were no better than that which current gossip supplies. We had, however, reason to believe that the story, true or false, rested upon quite a different foundation from the basis of guess and figment on which so many scandals of a season are elevated into notoriety. It is hardly necessary to say that the story is of an action for divorce about to be tried before long, and in which the name of the co-re-spondent is one of the most renowned in England. A statesmen venerable for his years, and distinguished all over the world for his long and active career in the highest departments of politics, is thus charged with one of the gravest oiftnces against the moral code which all sects profess to hold in common. This, surely, was surprise enough for even the most insatiable of gossips. Yet even this was not all. For in a day or two it was confidently asserted that the eminent personage alluded to had acknowledged the substantial truth of the charge by effecting a compromise. We ourselves noticed this rumour publicly, having heard it on what we conceived to be reliable authority ; but at the same time taking care not to pledge ourselves in any way for the truth of the statement. We are now authoritatively informed that no compromise has taken place. The solicitor for the petitioner has addressed a letter to us, in which he explicitly denies that there is any foundation whatever for the rumor of a compromise. So far, then, current report led the public astray. The action, which at first seemed utterly incredible to almost every one, is apparently in progress, and has not been compromised. Painful as the whole affair is, we cannot help being glad that the latest part of the scandal proves untrue. Indeed, it would be hard to believe that a great public man, whose career has attracted the eyes of more than one generation, and whose repute is now part of the historical property of England, could have condescended to give consistency to such a charge by paying to compromise it. We have often disapproved of portions of the policy of the statesman in question, but he has always seemed to us one of the last men in the world likely thus to submit to a brand upon his reputation. However the gossip of clubs and the scandal of the streets may anatomise the private reputation of a great public man, yet tlje healthy opinion of the country never pronounces its decisions upon heresay evidence or ex parte statements. No man in England, were he the most sensitive recluse, lias any reason to shrink from a public inquiry into his conduct, if he is conscious that it cannot be impugned. These are not the days when party spirit runs so high that political enemies would trump up false charges against a statesman, or delight in endorsing a scandal simply because it breathed upon the pureness of his name. No prominent politician living has political enemies so bitter that they would not rejoice to see him cleared of any scandalous accusation. The statesman whose private character rumor now deals with has public antagonists and unflinching critics, indeed, but he has few, if any, personal enemies, and he has certainly 110 enemy who would not. regret to see a stain imprinted on his reputation. Therefore, there could be no ligitimate excuse for such a man's escaping from the publicity of an unjust accusation by stooping to buy off the accuser. Compromise in such a case would simply mean confession. We do not exaggerate when we say that such a confession would be felt as a humiliation all over the country. Since the report exists, since the story is told, since nothing can remove the fact that the charge has been actually made, the sincere wish of every ra-r tional and impartial man must be that the question shall be fairly and formally tried out, and that the truth may fully appear. Concealment of any kind, even the most honest and well-intentioned, can do no good. The best that can now be hoped for is full aud thorough publicity. If, then, this great scandal, so sudden so utterly unexpected, so incredible to all reasonable appearance, has to be tried out, we see no use affecting to ignore the matter. There are, of course, many questions concerning the private lives of public men into which it is not decorous to enter. But if, in a few days, or weeks, Ave are to have a cause tried, in which one of the most influential and prominent of living statesmen is to be implicated—if all the provincial and all the foreign journals are to teem meanwhile with daily paragraphs relating to the coming cause celebre and setting forth names and dates at full length, we can really see no earthly advantage to be gained by London journals pretending ignorance of what all the world talks about. Already we are aware that exaggeration and gossip have been at their work, and have dragged into the case the names of parties who have nothing whatever to do with it. If the cause really comes for trial it will possess no mere private interest—it will be no mere scrap of scandal for club-room gossip and chuckling commentary. It will involve considerations of deep political and national interest. It will be an event which, if it does not result in such an issue as we must all desire, cannot but affect the political situation of the country. It will in any case involve the reputation of the closing years of a career which is identified all over the world with the most important

events of Groat Britain's polity in the present century. Such a subject as this cannot possibly }, G hidden away in a quiet corncr until the formal mo. ment. arrives when it becomes the theme of judicial question. It is because we deprecate reckless comment and conjecture and unscrupulous exaggeration —bccause we have seen how many innocent and unaccused names have already been hawked wantonly about in connexion with this case, that we deem it entirely unsuited for the blundering efforts at concealment which a false delicacy would employ. It i s something to have at least obtained a public denial of the report that such a cause had been disposed of by a compromise. We trust that a full investigation may prove that no possible need of compromise ever existed on the part of the eminent man whose conduct has been so strangely and suddenly impugned. Morning Star, Nov. 3.