Star.
London, England, 1830-08-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE JOURNALS.

Tim es.—The olehwe in the Chamber of Deputies on that part
of the French Charter which relates to religion, has not been so well
reported as is importance seems to require. From the Paris papers
which contain the most detailed accounts of what passed, it appears
that after the Chamber adopted the sth article, which is thus ex-
presseil,—., Every individual professes his religion with equal
liberty, and obtains the same protection for his worship,"—
the President stated that the Committee had proposed the
•atppression of the 6th article. The words of this article
are,—" However, the Catholic Apostolic and Roman reli-
gion is the heligior of the State." The proposition of
the committee, with regard to this article, appears to have been
agreed to without much debate, though it is stated that when the
question was put, about thirty deputies, who composed the whole of
the right and part of the centre right, voted against it. Article 7,
v:hich created a warm discussion, the committee proposed toexpress
thus The ministers of the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman re-
ligion, professed by the majority of Frenchmen, and those of the
other Christian sects only receive salaries from the royal treasury."
The whole of this article was opposed, but the words in italics were
particularly objected to. It was observed that there was no neceasityfor
pronouncing solemnly that the Catholic religion is professed by the
majority of the people of France. To declare in the Charter a
fact—and a fact, too, which is in its nature variable, which might,
in a certain number of years, be altered—was, in the opinion of se.
veral of the speakers, extremely absurd. The justice of this opinion
was not disputed, but it was contended that the whole article ought to
be retained, on the ground merely of expediency, because there was
reason to believe that its rejection would enable the enemies of the
new order of things to mislead the ignorant population of some of
the departments,—the Chamber would be represented as intending
to suppress religion altogether. 111. Keratry stated, that in tact the
Committee had been influenced by this consideration in making
their report. They felt it their duty to expunge the ankle which
declared the Catholic religion the religion of the state ; but having
done that, it was considered necessary to retain the next article. He
was convinced it ought to be retained, on account of the western
departments, where the Chamber had many enemies, who would
like nothing better than to have the opportunity of representing the
deputies as hostile to morality and religion. After several amend-
ments had been proposed and rejected, the discussion terminated by
the article being retained with two amendments. The word only
was left out, and the words Royal Treasury were changed to Public
Treasury.

CHRONICLE.—The paramount interest and importance of the
triumphant progress of freedom in France, has in some measure,
diverted public attention from scenes at home, which otherwise could
not have failed to arrest it. But we must not suffer ourselves to lose
sight of the elating prospect which so many of the late elections have
opened to the friends of liberty in this country, and its our Colo.
nice. The return of Mr.Brougliam for the first county in the empire,
is in Itself a guarantee for the moral influence which will be
given in the new Parliament to the cause of general Liberty,
and eminently and avowedly to that of Negro Emancipation.
The success of Mr. Robert Grant at Norwich, and of numerous other
liberal candidates elsewhere, is a further earnest of that triumph
which freedom and humanity must ere long wrest from selfishness,
bigotry, and tyranny. In one quarter only can the Anti-Abolitionists
pretend to a seeming and slim-lived victory. hit. Protheroe has
been defeated at BristoL But how defeated ? In that emporium
of the West Indian interest, after an outlay in direct pecuniary
means of influence, not falling short, as we are credibly in-
formed, of 20,0001.--after recourse, on the part of the great
merchants, to an almost universal system of coercion and in-
timidation, wherever their power of patronage and dicta-
tion could make itself' felt—a small majority only has been obtained
against the cause of humanity, and 31r. Protheroe has retired from
a victorious defeat, after polling 2,843 votes—" a number never be.
fore approached by an unsuccessful candidate." We cannot but re-
gard this as an omen of final ►uccess, scarcely less animating than
minor victories. Our only regret is, that a gentleman who, whilst
he was in Parliament, so undeviatingly pursued the course of liberal
politics, whose name is found in nearly every minority with that of
BIN flume and the other advocates of freedom, retrenchment, and
reform, should, even for a time, be excluded by a faction, whose
only argument is their purse, from continuing his useful and meri-
torious labours.

fixitat.n.—The Prime Minister must, by this time, we should
think, have. discovered, what his " parasites" appear hitherto to
have been but too successful in concealing from him, that the prin-
ciples of his government are not those which accord with the wants
or the notions of the country at large. The country has been ap-
pealed to, and, wherever its true sentiments have been fairly put to
the test, the result has been unequivocally expressed in the rejection
of every candidate who has ventured to ground his pretensions upon
a thick and thin adherence to the ministry. Even the just and unex-
ampled popularity of their new master has not in the least aided the
Duke of Wellington and his colleagues upon the occasion : but the
people, though proud and anxious to pay every due homage to the
King,seem notless determined to convince both the King and his Mi-
nisters that the measures of the latter have not hitherto been such as
to render them or their satellites the men of their choice. The ablest
man upon earth cannot long attempt to wield the sceptre of a popu-
lar government in opposition to public opinion. His Grace has
made the attempt, perhaps unknowingly.—at any rate, he and his
colleagues can plead ignorance no longer. Public opinion is now
speaking " trumpet-tongued " a language which cannot be mis-
understood ; and we trust that, even before the assembling of the
New Parliament, the Government will have given such an earnest
of its intentions to meet the wishes of the people as will spare the
Legislature the apparently ungracious task of placing the unpopu-
larity of the Ministers in still stronger contrast with the just popu-
larity of the King.

PosT.—The King of the French has accepted the conditions upon
which the Crown was offered him, and has sworn faithfully to ob-
serve the Constitutional Charter, with the changes and modifica-
tions expressed in the Declaration of the Chamber of Deputies.
What then is that Declaration ? What support does it offer to the
Throne ? What guarantee, or rather, we ought to ask, what gleam
of hope of its stability ? It can scarcely be pretended that the Char.
ter of Louis the Eighteenth left in the hands of the Kings of France
any great excess of legal power or constitutional influence,after we have
seen the last of these Monarchs, unable, by all the means they
afforded him, to assert with effect a Royal prerogative common to
every Crown. But by the Declaration to which Phillip the First
has sworn, much of the constitutional power which Charles the
Tenth enjoyed and exercised is taken away, while new and
very formidable powers are given to other bodies in the
State, between whom and the Sovereign diversity of objects
and opinions may arise any day, and are morally certain
ro arise at no distant day, some of these bodies being
expressly designed to superintend and overawe the Throne.
We cannot therefore disguise our apprehension that this di.
minution of the independent powers of the Crown, combined as it is
with an increase to that of several rivet and antagonist bodies in the
State, will be fatal to Monarchy in France. The means and temp-
tations to attack it are carefully prepared. The power of resistance
is wholly taken away. By the mention of a few of the more impor-
tant alterations of the Charter, we shall amply vindicate ourselves
from the imputation of indulging in vain or chimerical apprehen-
sions. The Crown is in the first place to be deprived of what.
ever support it could derive from the connexion of the
Church with the State. Then, the initiative of laws is no
longs to be exclusively a function of the Crown. In the
third place, the King is no longer to possess the power
of restraining the members of his own family from attending
the Chamber of Peers, and making themselves, if they
please, the leaders of factions in that assembly, although every
Prince of the Blood is to be a Peer by right of birth, without any
grant of that dignity by the reigning Monarch. But these altera-
tions are trivial, compared with some others which are not yet
sufficiently matured for actual adoption, but to which the
Bing has, nevertheless, been required to pledge himself, and
has pledged himself. An immense military force, the National
Guard, is to be constantly kept up in the country, the corn.
mend of which is not to be placed in the hands of the King,
as the men are to choose their own officers. In the command of the
regular troops of France the authority of the King is to be circum.
!cubed to some indefinite extent, by a new military code, establish.
tug in a legal manner the condition of officers of all ranks ; and
finally, a new mode of electing the Deputies of France is to be
adopted,to render the constitution and character of the Chamber of De.
puties somewhat more democratic than it has hitherto shewn
The effect of each of these changes is to weaken In some degree the
power of the Executive Government ; the united operation of the
whole of them can scarcely fail to cripple it altogether, or to render
it incapable of a vigorous or salutary adminLstralion of public af.
tairs—to draw down upon it by degrees the contempt and hatred
of the nation—to prepare its final overthrow—to produce a new
penes of civil convulsions.