LORD PALMERSTON A CO-RESPONDENT.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 32, 20 January 1864, Page 5 (Supplement)

LORD PALME RSTON A CO- RESPONDENT.

(From the Morning Star.) The ears of London society have — for many days back — been tingling with an extraordinary scandal. Jt 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 term , by only one London newspaper, it has been blazoned all over the country, and whoever opens a provincial newspaper will 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 no 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-respondent is one of the most renowned in England. A statesman Venerable for his years, and distinguished all over the world for his

long and active career in the highest department of •_. politics, is thus charged with one of the;gray«st offences against the moral code "which all sects profess to hold in commony This, surely, was surprise enough for even the most insatiable of gossips: Yet. even 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 rumor publicly, having j 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 explicity 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 iv 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 «ive consistency to such a charge of paying money 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 the healthy opinion of the country never pronounces its decisions upon hearsay evidence or ex parte statements. No man iv England, were he the most sensitive recluse, has 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 agains 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 vow deals with has public antagonists and unflinching critics, indeed, but he has few, if any, personal enemies, and he has certainly no enemy who would not regret to see a stain imprinted on his reputat on. Therefore, there could be no legitimate 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 exagtjerale when, we say th it such a confession would be felt as a humiliation all over the country. Since the report exists, since the story is told, since nothing cau remove the fact that the charge has been actually made, t!>e sincere wi h of every rational and impartial rnarr must be thai the question shall be fairly and formally tried out, and that the truth m;iy fully appear. Concealment of any kind, even the most honest aud well intentioned, can do no good. The best that can now be hoped for is full and thorough publicit}'. If, indeed, this great scandal, so sudden, so utterly unexpected, so incredible to all reasonable appearance, has to be tried out, we see no use in affecting to ignore the matter. There are, of course, many questions concerning the private lives of public men into which it is not decorus to enter. But if, in a few days, or weeks, we 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 celehre, and setting forth names and dates at full length, we can really see no earthly advantage to be gai>. Ed I by London journals pretending ignorj ance of what all the world talks about. Already we are aware that exaggeration and gossip have been at th^ir work, and hiive 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 aud 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 au 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 Great Britain's policy in the present century. Such a subject as this cannot possibly be hidden away in a quiet corner untij the formal moment arrives when it becomes the theme of judical question. It is because we deprecate reckless comment and conjecrure, and unscrupulous exaggeration — because we have seen how many innocent and unaccused names have already been hawked wantonly about in connection with this case, that we deem it entirely unsuited for the blundering efforts at concealment which a false delicacy would employ. It is something to have at least obtained a public denial of th* 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 men whose conduct has been so suddenly and strangely impU4»ned,