THE FALL OF THE RUSSELL CABINET.

Otago Witness, Issue 75, 23 October 1852, Page 4

THE FALL OF THE RUSSELL CABINET.

(From the Edinburgh Witness.) When Lord John Russell indited his famous Durham letter, he struck a chord to which the best and deepest sympathies of the nation responded. Had he continued animated by the spirit which that letter evinced, he might have governed the country for many years to come, and won for himself a higher place as a Pro- j testant statesman and a true patriot than any ! public man for a century back. Had he acted out the high-toned and high-principled policy I which that letter embodied, he would have i shown himself the worthy heir of the virtues j and the renown of his illustrious house, and \ would have taken rank as the champion of the j Protestant liberties, only one degree below William of Orange or the great Cromwell. He ; might have placed himself at the head of the | Protestant world, and shared in its triumphs, i if it be triumph that awaits it, or died gloriously amid its ruins, if it is destined to fall. But, j alas ! Lord John knew not the greatness of the crisis, nor the dazzling opportunities of service and of honour to which it invited him. lie miserably underrated the strength of the Protestant element, and the grandeur of the Protestant conflict. He became scared at the sounds himself had made, — abashed before the mitre and scarlet hat of Cardinal Wiseman ; and, from being the head of the Protestant world, he shrunk into the puny figure of the head of a family Cabinet, and died inglorious!}' fighting for a militia bill. They are not always great spirits that govern kingdoms. Had Lord John Russell appealed to the sound, enlightened, and deep Protestant feeling of the empire, — and he may be assured that the strength, as well as the loyalty and intelligence, of the country lies there,— had he said, your liberties, your national independence, jour religion, all that is valuable and dear to you, is menaced by an insolent and infamous coalition of despots and priests ; I am willing to lead you to the field ; dare you follow ? Had he acted the great part which Elizabeth acted when her kingdom was threatened by Spain, of which Sir James Mackintosh writes :—": — " Her only effectual ally was the spirit of her people, and her policy flowed from that magnanimous nature which in the hour of peril teaches better lessons than thoso of cold reason. Her great heart inspired her with a higher and a nobler wisdom, which disdained to appeal to the low and sordid passions of her people even for the protection of their low and sordid interests; because she knew, or rather she fplt, that these are effeminate, creeping, cowardly, short-sighted passions, which shrink from conflict even in defence of their own mean objects. In a righteous cause she roused those generous affections of her people which alone teaches boldness, constancy, and foresight, and which are therefore the only srsfe guardians of the lowest as well as the highest interests of a nation. In her memorable address to her army, when the invasion of the kingdom wms threatened by Spain, this woman of heroic spirit disdained to speak to them of their ease and their commerce, and their wealth and their safety. No ! she touched another chord ; — she spoke of their national honour, of their dignity as Englishmen, of ' the foul scorn that Parma or Spain should dare to invade the borders of her realms !' She breathed into them those grand and powerful sentiments which exalt vulgar men into heroes, — which lead them into the battle of their country armed with holy and irresistible enthusiasm, — w hich even cover with their shield all the ignoble interests that b\se calculation and cowardly vselSshness tremble to hazard, but shrink from defending." Had Lord John Russell acted this truly great part, how different might have been the position of the empire at this hour, and how different might his own position have been ! But, alas ! the age of Elizabeth is past ; the heroic minds which adorned it have passed away with it; and the heroic policy of that age, it would seem, is beyond the reach of modern statesmen. It is exactly twelvemonths since Lord John Russell resigned. When, after rather more than a week's interregnum, it was seen that no other man was able to form an Administration, and Lord John returned to power, we hoped that he had brought back with him an increased confidence in himself, and a proportionally increased vigour and breadth in his public measures. But to our astonishment it wa^ quite the reverse. The little man who had left the Government returned to it a less man even than he had left it. We know not from what quarter came the withering blight which shrivelled up Lord John ; but ever since that memorable resignation and recall, the Premier has been a dwarfed and stunted man, and all his measures have borne the paternal impress, and have been the most diminutive and liliputian affairs which mortals ever set eyes upon. It has been the homoeopathic principle introduced into Government. Instead of sending Cardinal Wiseman back to his own plare, as every man of sense proposed, — for what right had a foreign prince to exercise jurisdiction in' this country ? — he permitted him to flaunt his dignity in the face of Queun and Parliament. He pared down the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, till nothing remained but the merest rim ; and even after it was passed, he lacked courage to put it in force, and has allowed it to be openly broken month after month with impunity. The power, to retain which this course of compromise and expediency was adopted, is now lost ; and so the fate of Lord John Russell affords a warning to his successor, were it not that that experience •which teaches fools appears to be thrown away upon Cabinets. The Earl of Derby succeeds to the helm "which Lord John Russell has abandoned. It ■were useless to speculate upon the probable policy of the new Cabinet; but it is not easy to discover in the new Administration the con-

ditions of a lengthened official existence. That Administration must necessarily be placed in the unhappy position of being false to its principles as Protectionist ; or, if it is true to these principles, it must expect to find ranged against it a powerful party in the country. The friends of the new Cabinet are making high professions in' its behalf as regards the great question of the day — the maintenance of our Protestant liberties. We shall be delighted to find that their professions are realized ; but we have too lively a recollection of the part which th« Earl of Derby acted on the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, to lay much stress on these professions. 11l as Lord John Russell supported the Protestant character of the countrj', we are not without our fears that Protestantism in the State will not be a gainer by his fall. Should the new Ministry act upon their principles, and restore protection, the country will come to he engaged in a scramble for cheap bread, the great question of Protestantism will be shelved for a while, and the Romanists will find the field clear for the successful prosecution of their designs.