Star.
London, England, 1830-08-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE JOURNALS.

Tin s.—The French papers of Sunday have arrived. Thar,
be found in them a letter from Prince Polignac ; and, iroiu what We have
heard of the man, we see no reason to doubt its genuineness. It has
been always esteemed a peculiar degradation, when any severe calamity
is the result—not of any great effort to attain a glorious or even an tin.
portant object, but—of sheer ignorance and folly. Can any one read
the letter of the ex-Minister of France, and not allow that eves the
hatred of his atrocious guilt is merged in contempt for the childish in:.
becility of the criminal ? The man who has occasioned the slaughter
of several thousands of his fellow-citizens, and the deditonement
of an ancient family, speaks of these tremendous everts tri:ll
the indifference of one who might read them a century a:ler.
wards In a book of annals ; and is principally occupied with pro.
curing a retreat in " some spacious and convenient citadel," most fa-
vourable to hls bad state of health. A child who has set a house 44
fire, and looks on the blase as a fine sight—a madman who throws tie.
brands about, and asks if it he not sport—could not exhibit a more stu-
pid ignorance, a more wanton carelessness as to the causes and con,
quences of their conduct, than this infatuated fool, to whom were it:.
trusted the destinies of so powerful and intelligent a nation as France.
It appears in one paper, that Polignac, under the influence of tame no
doubt, inspired by the violence of the mob at St. Lo, declared that he had
opposed the obnoxious ordinances, and had signed them by compulsion.
ThvCourier contains the following paragraph, which may be considered
the recriminatory statement of the Royal Family, if not of the King:—
" Chaska X. does not upbraid his Ministers, nor have his Ministers
any just ground of upbraiding him. There arc others, however, of the
exiled family who do not hesitate to speak freely, and among them nate
so freely as the Duchess of Angouleme. We know from an authen.ir
source, that th is pet 'crowd lady, whose life, almost from the cradle, hes
Isom a drama of calamitous vicissitudes, in vain urged the Prices de Po.
lignac to refrain from the career which he was pursuing, and since hi'
tall she has attributed the misfortunes of the Royal Family to the teed
ignorance of the King's advisers. It is no ground of apology in the es.
King's Ministers to say that they were urged on by the command of
their master. They knew very well that under the charter thcv
were r.sitonsible to the country for the acts of the King ; and when it
became a point with them, either to carry into execution the uneor.
stitu tonal mandates of the Sovereign, or to resign office, they ought
not to have hesitated for one moment as to their course" If this be
intended as an exculpation of Charles X. it must be confessed to be a
very feeble one. That the King was less responsible for his acts than
his Minister is to a certain degree true: the principle, however, hardly
applies to extreme cases: but even admitting the nanary doctriwe (if
responsibility, still the question must always he asked—what was
the i• tAlectual—what the moral character of a Sovereign who ceeld
mai port such a Minister, at the certain risk of civil massacre, and the
not Improbable risk of forfeiting his crown ? The result alone is not
always the best criterion, for sotte uncertainty always attaches
to human affairs: but we ask if one man of even average sagacity
and common-place integrity, out of the body of the Ministry or even
in it, with the exception of its miserable Premier, could have been
found to minden the ordinances of the 25th of July, or the massacres
of the three subsequent days ? Dr. Johnson, a man of no ordinary
knowledge, and of very extraordinary powers of observation and re.
flection, has recorded an anecdote relative to James 11. which is per.
fectly applicable, as showing how little able an obstinate and
foolish King is to appreciate the worth of a wise and enlightened Ministry.
" The King (James 1 L) taking Waller one day into his closet, asked hint
how he liked one of the pictures ? My eyes,' said Wailer, are
slim, and Ido not know it.' The King said, it was the
Princess of Orange. She is,' said Waller, like the greatest woman
in the world.' The King asked, who was that ? and was answered,
Queen Elizabeth. ' I wonder,' said the King, you should think so,
but I must confess she had a wise council.' • And, Sir,' said Waller,
did you ever know a fod chose a wise one St" If James IL had
possessed sense to choose, as his advisers, such men as Shrewsbury and
Comers, instead of Sunderland and Jefferys.—if Charles X. had been
able to discriminate between Polignac and Mole, between Peyronnet and
de Broglie,—the Stuarts might still have been on the British throne,
and the Bourbons on the throne of France.

POST.—A more curious fabric of folly and impertinence has seldom
been reared on an unsubstantial foundation, and out of flimsy mated.
als, than that which the opponents of the British ministry have con.
trived to construct upon the simple fact of the French Chamber of De-
puties having hesitated to grant unusual and illegal powers to the coin-
nmittee appointed to conduct the impeachment against the late Ministers
of Charles the Tenth. Overlooking altogether, as we admit it is but
natural for the professors of Liberalism to overlook, the inconvenience
and mischief of straining the law, or creating a new one to suit the par-
past of the moment, these enemies of the British and other governments
insist that the reluctance of a considerable proportion of the chamber of de-
puties to adopt this irregular course, m the present occasion, is only to
be eXplained by the supposition that among time papers which have been
found in the offices of the late Ministers, and which the powers claimed
by the Committee of the Chamber will enable it to bring to light, there
are some which will shew several of the other European Governments to
have been parties to the projects of the French Administration, and to have
pledged themselves to support it, and which ate therefore calculated to
produce those feelings of jealousy and between the French and
other nations which it is the interest of all parties sedulously to avoid.
This ingenious speculation presents a remarkable example ut the pains
some people delight to take, for no other purpose apparently than that
of losing their way. There may be many ways of accounting for the
strenuous opposition which the demand of new and extraotdinary.
powers on the part of the Committee experienced in the Chamber of
Deputies; but it is plain that the mode actually resorted to by the
Liberals can only have been preferred because it seems to cast a suspi-
cion upon Governments, since it in no respect applies to the citcum-
stances of the case, and does not in fact afford any reasonable or even
plausible explanation of the conduct of the Chamber.

HERALD —A Radical orator, at the late dinner of some of the inha-
bitants of Farringdon Ward, is stated to have made a notabl: disco% cry
—viz. that " the lower order of people in this country are so enslawl
by priestcraft and drunkenness, that they are not in a state to enjoy the
constitutional freedom obtained by the French." The "orator" we be-
lieve to be equally in error both in his facts and his inference. It h
fallacious to judge of national character by the conduct of either the
highest or lower ranks. It is the middle class in every state shore
conduct affords the criterion by which the moral character of a
nation is estimated ; and without giving way to any unnecessary
stretch of national vanity, may we not ask, where is the commu-
nity which has ever surpassed the middle classes of England, either
in the qualities which constitute private worth or public virtue ? We
admit that a profligate community are unlit for the enjoyment of public
liberty ; but how does the Radical calumniator of his counor.enten
prove the superiority of that of the French over outs'? Why, by re-
presenting them as equally exempt front religion and drunkenness—
while here he represents the churches and the ale-houses as equally
crowded. Observing, by the way, that there is no small degree of cock-
neyism In taking the conduct of the capital in either country as the role
standard of national character; yet we believe that, taking up the orator
upon his own showing, he is mistaken in the very strong contrast
which he draws between the drunkenness even of the lower Wets
in the one metropolis, and their excessive sobriety in the other.
The truth, we believe, is, that, in proportion to the relative amount of
the two populations, there is as much drunkenness without the sail; of
Paris as there is tedhin the cities of London and Westminster: the
great sale of intoxicating liquors to the inhabitants of the French capital
taking place in wine-houses without the barriers, in consequence of
liquors passing the barriers being subject to an impost, which is thus
avoided. But of all the strange accusations brought against the people
of this country is that of their being the slaves of " priesteratt." t
Protestant community the tools of priestcraft, from which a Roman
Catholic community is exempt ! If the orator means by priesteraft the
influence of religion upon the mind and conduct, the inference which he
would draw from it, as prejudicial to the capacity for the enjoyment of
public freedom, is the melancholy error of shallow and conceited
infidelity. Despotism finds no support in the doctrines of our
Reformed Church. With these doctrines the spirit of civil liberty
first arose in modern Europe, and triumphed over ignorance and
superstition. Even abstractedly considered, were we asked where s:11
the best-regulated principles of the social compact, and, consequently.
the true elements of rational freedom, be found, we should mow.
" Search the Scriptures"—the living sources of the noblest civilizatioa-
In making these remarks we are far from being insensible to the virtue
and the heroism displayed by the French people on the late conservation
of their liberties from an iron grasp which would have held them in
perpetual bondage—in a bondage, too, let the orator remember, for
which " priestcraft," as contradistinguished front religion, had
helped to forge the chains. The occasion was one which was emi-
nently calculated to call into action all the best and highest argils
of the human mind. It has done so ; and we trust the French people
will show as much virtue in preserving, as they have displayed.courags
and moderation in obtaining, their freedom. But in England, letit
be remembered, freedom of a still higher character was know° long
before France had ever header dreamtalmost of its existence anal
is rather too much to bear the counttj which still enjoys, and which
has led the way in other nations to the attainment of constitutional
Xrittedepaded below those who are only just beginning to follow her
and inspiring example.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

FRANCE.
(From the Moniteur of Sunday. Aug. 22.)
(OFFICIAL PART.)
REPORT TO THE KING.

slag,— rhe Council of State, of which your Majesty has been
~leased to make me President, may be considered in two points of view :
:14 a Council of the Government, and as a Jurisdiction. As a Council of
government its existence has never been attacked, its utility is acknow-
ledged ; but it is a great question whether the Council of State ought
to enter as a jurisdiction into our constitutional order. Supposing this
question to be decided in the affirmative, another question equally impor-
tant would be how this jurisdiction should be regulated, and whatguaran.
tees it should offer to the citizens. I have the honour to propose to
your Majesty to submit these two questions to the examination of a
Special Commission, which should be directed to prepare a project of
law on this important point. The organization of the Council of State,
Is Council of Government, has been regulated by divers ordinances;
and lastly, by that of Nov. 3, 1828. This organisation seems defec-
tive in many respects. The balllC commission might inquire into the
alterations required by the public interest, and good of the service. But
the immediate resumption of the labours of the Council of State, is
indispensable. On the one hand the course of justice cannot be inter.
ruptcd, the affairs in dispute accumulate in the tribunals, the Advocates
complain, the parties call for judgment ; it is no more possible to sus-
pend the action of the Committee of disputed affairs than that of any
other tribunal. The Council of State alone dispatches more affairs than
the Court of Cassation and the Koyal Court of Paris together. On the
other hand, it is no less necessary that the Committees of the Council of
State attached to the several ministerial departments, should be immedi-
ately placed again at the disposal of the Ministers. These committees by
their labour have a division in each department of the Ministry ; they pre.
pare the regulations :of public administration and the royal ordi.
nances ; are permitted to work mines, territories, insurances, drain.
lug of marshes, anonymous societies, legacies, and donations; the
establishment of manufactories, roads, bridges, canals, water-courses,
the budgets of the communes, bargains, exchanges, licences to carry
on insalubrious manufactures, and a great multitude of analogous
matters. By their verification and controul they secure the Government
against the errors of the bureaux, and the divers influences that might af-
fect them, and they strengthen the responsibility of themselves, which,
like the Charter, will henceforth be a truth : they revise the liquidation
of pensions; they resolve (stating their reasons) the difficulties that
have arisen, either between Ministers, or mixed questions which affect
their respective departments ; or on all the incidents which, in such a
vast empire, and with such a prodigious multitude of affairs, suspend
every moment the action of the authorities; they prepare the decision
of Ministers on legitimate questions ; they study, discuss, and draw up
the projects of laws, and regulations in civil and administrative sub-
jects, which the Ministers think proper to submit to their con-
sideration. Your Majesty will be sensible that any interrup-
tion of labours so multifarious, so important, and serious,
would suddenly arrest the movement of the whole Admi-
nistration, and would do irreparable injury:* to the most ur-
gent interests of society and to the citizens. I have, consequently, the
honour to propose to your Majesty-1. To determine without delay the
changes in the composition of the Council of State, which the public
wish and the good of the service render indispensable. 2. To order
that the Council of bate be immediately assembled to take the oath
and to resume its labours. I have the honour, &c. &c.

"DUX Di: BROGLIE."
ORDINANCE OF THE KING.

" I. In consequence of the above report,. appoints a special commis.
sion as therein recommended, of which M. Benjamin Constant is Pre.
sident. The number of the other members is eight.
" 11. This Ordinance, in conformity with the proposal of the report,
modifies the Council of State :

" 1. Accepting the resignation of two Councillors of State, and of
three Maitres de Requetes.-2. Allowing to state their claims to retreat'
13 Councillors of Slate, and 14 Maitre& de Requetes.-3. Declaring
that the persons named shall cease to be inscribed on the list of the
Members of the Council or extraordinary service, viz. twenty-four
Councillors of State, and twelve Maitres de Requetes.-4. Re-
voking the 'several ordinances which authorize certain individuals
to be present at the deliberations of the Council of State, viz. twelve'
Councillors of State and two Maitre. de Requetes.-5 and 6. Appoint-
ing eleven new Councillors of State, and eight new Maitre& de Requetes.
—7. Authorising three persons to take part in the deliberations.-8 and
J. Appointing eighteen Councillors of State on extraordinary service,-
10. Appointing four Maitre. de Requetes on extraordinary service.
The Minister of Public Instruction is to divide the Members among
the several Committees, the expenses to be defrayed from the fund al-
lowed to the Council of State in the budget of the Department of Jus-
tice within the limits fixed by the law of finance of the 2d of August,
1829. The Members to take the oath of fidelity to the King, obedience
to the Constitutional Charter, and to the laws of the kingdom. Seven
ether ordinances announce various promotions and appointments.
BERLIN, Auo. 10.
Several persons affirm that the King of Prussia intends to send a
confidential envoy to Paris, as soon as it shall be known that 04 Duke
of Orleans is definitively installed as Ring of the French. This mission,
it is said, will be given to a celebrated traveller, who has long lived at
Paris, and is well acquainted with the state of things and public spirit
in Prance. I send you this news without being able to answer for its
authenticity, but It is certainly current in the higher circles in this capital