Sir R. Peel made one of his political freebooting raids
against Lord Lyons yesterday week in a rather thin house, which is getting a little tired even of Sir R. Peel's rather brassy vivacity. He accused Lord Lyons of showing the white feather in leaving Paris so soon, at least he called his conduct "unmanly -and ungenerous ;" he also referred to his own splendid and very -different conduct when at Berne during the Sonderbund war, when he was the only foreign minister who staid on at Berne, and received the emphatic thanks both of the Swiss Government and -of Lord Palmerston for his gallantry ; and he attacked Lord Lyons also for withdrawing the British Consul, and leaving the English in Paris after the bombardment commenced wholly 'without any English Minister to attend to their interests. Lord Lyons has himself replied to these charges in a despatch which is pretty nearly complete on the first head,—though we think he committed an error of judgment in not staying in Paris
after the Ferrieres negotiation was closed. The support of his presence might have had, or at least been supposed by the French .Government to have, a certain moral effect ; and, of course, he would have received a special permit to depart from Count Bismarck whenever he chose. Lord Lyons says that M. Jules Fevre recom- =ended him to withdraw, but he does not say in what language this recommendation was given, and the correspondence would seem to show that M. Jules Favre's recommendation was given for the sake of the British Embassy, and against his own inclinations. Doubtless, he would have been glad if Lord Lyons had stayed up to the end of the negotiations. Of course, however, Lord Lyons TM right in not remaining in Paris, shut up and useless, during the whole siege, instead of communicating freely with London, -and with the Delegate Government of France first at Tours and then at Bordeaux. Imputations on Lord Lyons' courage are .absurd.
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