As so many were beginning to hope at the close
of last week, Lord Palmerston has returned to his country through the Cabinet. The mistake of his separation from his colleagues has been re- vised. Several hints, and even bold assertions, have been hazard- ed, that Lord Palmerston must have obtained "his own terms" as the price of his resumption. It has been said that the energetic policy in the East is one concession, and that a mutilation or postponement of the Reform Bill is to be another. We do not ob- serve, however, that any of these statements have the aspect either of authority or of vraisemblance. As to the Reform Bill, it is a fact patent to the public that it had not been discussed at all in the Cabinet Council; and it is, we imagine, impossible that the Cabinet can have resolved upon any course regarding a measure which has yet to receive the consideration of that body. When Lord Palmerston manifested his severance from the Cabinet, it was authoritatively affirmed that the course in the East would remain as energetic as if there had been no change in the constitu- tion of the Cabinet ; and it is not to be supposed that the course, unaltered by his retirement, is likely to be altered by his con- tinuance. In the nature of things, therefore, it is improbable that there were any such "terms" to offer Lord Palmerston as those which have been pretended. At the first it was declared, still on authority, that the difference between the seceder and his col- leagues was very slight, and that the most friendly feeling pre- vailed on both sides ; an averment fully confirmed by the result. Substantially, there appears to be really no difference of any kind and now Lord Palmerston's temporary resort to a lodging away from his proper home must be regarded as an event " non avenu."
